The Awkward Stage...

The Dixie Chicks are now 3 weeks old, and have left the cute a fuzzy stage behind. They are now sporting the "dinosaur" look as I call it. Their feathers are really coming in, you can certainly tell in the picture above the Black Barred Rocks and Rhode Island Reds are just that. Black and red. They have huge feet compared to their bodies, and they like to stretch their necks and peer at you with a quizzical eye...

The black one here is Blanche. She's my favorite (for now). She is the one that is the most demonstrative and the one that is always the first to try a new treat. The two in the back are Ida Mae and Goldie.


Here are the girls eating their plain yogurt. I originally recycled a cup of strawberry Greek yogurt Pyper didn't finish, and they LOVED it, but with it having artificial sweeteners, I figured it may not be good for my ladies. So, I decided to go with plain yogurt for them. I also figured if I wasn't going to give artificial sweeteners to my chicks, I shouldn't/wouldn't feed it to my human chick either. Sorry, Pyper, you're going to get plain yogurt with fresh fruit in it from now on...





This RIR that is facing the camera is Myrle. She is a hoot. She's always on Blanche's heels and is her right wing gal.





You may be wondering where I'm coming up with these names. A while back, I started naming my animals after family members whose names were quite....antiquated. That's PC, right? Knowing I'd never name one of my children Mable, or Elmer, or Nelly, I've decided to honor my relatives by naming my much loved pets after them. The Dixie Chicks will all be named after my Grannie Iney's sisters and then other female relatives.





My Appendix mare, Iney, is named after my Grannie Iney, and her signature color was purple. So, my horse Iney's signature color is purple as well.

Last week we bought 4 goldfish for our water troughs. These two are the only 2 that have survived. Gold Member and Goldie. Willie and Willamina died. Gold Member and Goldie are thriving, and we realized it's because the horses were using their watering trough the last few weeks, so we were adding water, thus Oxygen, to the tank. The others up top didn't have any additional water, or shade, so they essentially cooked. Lesson's learned. We will add water to the troughs whether or not we are using them.

This is Smelly Nelly. She was named after one of my Grannie's sisters, Nelly. I added the Smelly part because she used to have a problem with gas...that's all I'll say about that.

This is Hammish, or Shannon's cat. He named him. He wanted to name our future son (if we ever have one, Hammish). I was horrified by this name, and decided when we adopted this kitty HE could be named Hammish instead. Whew! Dodged that bullet. Anyways, Hammish is our garden kitty. He lays in the garden for hours waiting, and watching for any movement. He normally takes care of any pests that venture out there. Here on the back deck, he likes to perch, because he have a perfect view of the garden below.