August 12th

We had a visitor yesterday.

Thankfully he's smaller than our girls.

This guy visits often and just perches himself

on the fence at that same spot.

He is a red tailed hawk, and a beautiful

specimen at that.

Well, as you can guess....

the girls went crazy!

Their "alert" clucks were shrill and loud.

He made no attempt to swoop in and they

made no attempt to back off.

They've displayed this behavior before,

that "don't mess with us" behavior.

I heard the clamor and went to investigate.

Since they've acted this way with 

hawks as well as owls in the past, I figured

they were alerting me that something was afoot.

As I stood on the patio, I kept inching closer

to get a good picture.

Oddly, he never even glanced my way.

He only had eyes on the 5 hens,

who now had fluffed their feathers, making 

them appear even bigger.

It was a classic western standoff!

The girls were waiting for him to make the first move.

It was tense.

He finally decided to fly off, 

but the girls continued with their incessant

clucking to make sure he didn't swoop back in.

I'm proud of my girls!

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The veggie garden is feeling the heat.

The cantaloupe vine died as well as 

the cucumber and lettuce.

We were lucky enough to harvest 8 cantaloupes.

Most were smaller than the usual ones

you see in the grocery, but they were

just as sweet,

and

we grew them!

Zucchini flowers.

Hope they grow well because

our last foray with squash

ended up with blossom end rot.

That means the blossoms fell off 

before the flower could germinate.

We don't use pesticides, so it's all organic.

We're hoping for the best.

Bell Peppers.

These will turn red-orange.

I've harvested several already.

We need to pick them fast because

the hens love them!

They eat good in this neighborhood!

This is called "Icebox Watermelon"

It'll remain round and small.

We should be able to harvest it when

the area around the stem starts to

yellow and wither.

************************************

The gardenias are still looking so beautiful.

False Garlic flower.

It's just ornamental, but

so very pretty.

Lantana.

I attempted to cut a few and bring them into

the house, but they literally shed pollen.

There was a yellow "dust" on the table

under the vase.

Nope.

Won't do that again.

************************************

Our prism arrived!

It shines wonderfully beautiful colors

all through the kitchen.

Seems that it's working,

because we've had no kamikaze

bird crashes since we've hung it.

Before the prism, there was even dragonfly 

window crashers!

Whoda thunk??

**************************

The girls wanted to say hi.

This is Lucy.

Her facial feathers are turning white.

So, apparently, as some chickens age, their

feathers lose color similar to 

mammals hair going gray.
(Like me!)

I think it makes her distinguished.

Don't you?

This is Pepper.

The picture is blurred because she

can't sit still!

Hazel.

She is usually up for getting her picture taken,

but these pictures were shortly after

the red tailed hawk incident.

I guess they were all still a bit jumpy.

Nugget.

She is so curious!

She likes to get close to us.

She'll also run next to us like a puppy or jump

up to see what we are doing.

Ethel.

She's our shy girl.

She usually will avoid us if she can,

unless we have treats, then 

all bets are off.

It's a melee to get to the hand outs!

(P.S. that's not chicken poop behind her,

it's part of a nut, seed, grain cube

for chickens)

Speaking of chicken poop....

we try to keep it at bay,

but there are times we step in it.

Thankfully it's relatively

easy to de-poop our shoes.

Much easier than dog poop

and doesn't stink as bad!

But...

Ya know, I really can't dance,

no inherited rhythm,

but

I can Moonwalk better

than Michael Jackson

when I step in chicken crap!

***********************************

An observation...

Just wondering what on God's green earth

were these women thinking.

"Gee, that sounds like a great idea to swim

with an animal that can essentially fit 100

humans inside its' mouth!"

or 

"I wonder if this greater than 50,000 pound

animal, would like me to pet it?"

These women should be awarded the

Darwin award for selecting 

themselves out of the gene pool.

One can only hope

they don't procreate!

😂

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Remember...

If you stumble,

make it

part of your dance.

💗