Chicken Babies!

Ok, I am way behind on keeping you up to date on the chickens. We hatched again this spring. I just found the pictures of them. So, here you go. Cute baby chickens!

I don't know if you remember or not, but Atta Girl, the Mama hatched. She loved her yellow fluffy chicks!

She didn't like the black ones or the red ones! They came to live inside for awhile with us.

 I mean, how can resist that face?

More chicken pictures to come!

The Fight to Keep Backyard Chickens Hits Close to Home

Well, the fight to keep chickens in your own backyard has finally reached my county. And you better believe that I am going to support the Pond family in this fight! I am asking you, my friends and readers to help out. Please take a minute to read the article in the MDJ. I encourage you to leave a positive comment about owning pet chickens. You have read my blog. You can go back on my blog and read again( or for the first time) about my journey into having pet chickens. I love my girls and I can't imagine not having them. We have to educate people about chickens as pets. Get ready for lots of posts about chickens coming soon!!!

Now, click below and start reading!!


East Cobb man campaigns to keep his backyard chickens

Going to Get Back in the Saddle

I have to get back to blogging! I miss my blog friends and keeping a record of what is going on. First an update:

As my grandmother would say, I have been feeing lazy lately. Just starting to feel rested. Not interested in the go, go, go. I want to take it a little easy. I am learning to say no to things that will wear me out or aren't necessary. I am learning to manage my energy.


My Postpartum Doula website is up and running. I am sure that there will be some changes to come, but you will get the idea. You can find me at www.karasutton.com I am so excited about this new venture. A new baby was born today! I can't wait to meet her and to support her family as they welcome her a whole month early. She just had to come! I am looking forward to meeting families and their new little ones. I was born to do this!

The baby chicks are growing. They are still a bit on the small side. I promise to work on some photos of them soon. They are almost out of their ugly stage. I am so glad! They are starting to show a bit of personality and what their colors are going to look like. I can't wait until fall. I am hoping for lots of eggs to sell. I mean share. Of course, share.

I got to spend some amazing time with some of my best friends in the whole wide world this month. They feed my soul. We will all be together again in September for a wedding and I can hardly wait! In the meantime though, a few of us might go see Dolly Parton on tour. Eeeeeeekkkkk! I think it will be a blast and we'll make more memories together. Yes, I am jumping up and down in my mind.

Ok, I am just rambling now. Here are some thoughts for posts to come.

my morning smoothie recipe
raising chickens
what's in my pantry
my search for water
the Marietta Farmer's Market
how to make applesauce
gluten free brownie recipes and mixes
natural household cleaners
why I switched to stainless steel pots and pans
throwing out the plastic
budgeting
homemade coconut milk ice cream
how to make an amazing salad

What do you want to read about?

And Then There Were Four

We lost our baby chicken, Little Jerry last week. It looked like she just fell asleep. We think that she was egg bound. This is when an egg doesn't pass and can cause many complications. She didn't show any symptoms ahead of time. Poor girl. We will miss her.

The last photo I took of Little Jerry. She had gotten taller and her feathers had filled out a lot after this.

Her spots were lovely....

We decided to set her aflame. Don't judge. We didn't know if she had a disease or not and didn't want such a large bird buried after Jemima got carried off.  I really didn't want to deal with a bird being dug up. Dave prepared the fire.

We held watch until there was nothing left of her.

This is how I will remember you Little Jerry!!! I miss your funny little spiky feathers and your skittish ways!

Houston, We Have an Egg!

Our first egg! Excuse the fuzziness, I stuck my arm in the coop to take it. I found it Wednesdayafternoon when I let the girls out. I did the usual, " I guess that I should take a look." Surprise! An egg. I did a happy dance all of the way back into the house to get the camera.

Later in the afternoon I decided that I should take a look around to see if there were eggs anywhere else around the yard. Sure enough, I found a clutch of eggs in the claw foot tub. The claw foot tub also happened to be Lydia's new favorite spot.

Here are all five of the her pretty eggs. We are so proud of Lydia. Five eggs means that she had been laying for five days or so. I checked the eggs to make sure that they were good. To test an egg you can put it in a glass of water. If it floats, it is bad. The sinkers win. Every egg sunk. Ya-hoo! Normally I don't know that I will wash the eggs. If you don't wash the eggs they can stay unrefrigerated for 7-10 days. They have a natural coating called a bloom that keeps bacteria out.

I am so excited to have fresh eggs of our own. Did you know that by the time eggs arrive at your local grocery store that they are an average of one month old? Just think about how long we let them sit in our own fridges after we buy them. I am so happy for my fresh eggs.

And look how pretty fresh eggs are. Here is another fuzzy picture. It is hard to take a photo of an egg yolk. I wanted you to see how rich and almost orange it is. That is a free range egg! A deep color is a good sign of good nutrition. Let me tell you, it was yummy! It will still take awhile to get used to getting breakfast from our pets. It's not something that we are used to.

Thank you Lydia for the delicious eggs! She laid anther one today in the nesting box in the hen house! Go Lydia. What a smart girl you are. Thanks to my sister for this amazing photo of Lydia. Isn't she stunning?

And not to be left out ~ Atta Girl sitting on the handrail of our back steps. They like to sit there and look into the house. Atta Girl, will you be our next egg layer?