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.
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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!)
(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.
💗
