... and then there were 3

About a week ago and the morning after their second night outside, one of our girls disappeared. There was no evidence whatsoever of what happened to our chicken. At first we assumed it was taken by a spiteful neighbor and we set up our computer's webcam to take surveillance of the coop while we were away from our house. But then it was mentioned that a snake could have gotten it. Even though we weren't sure how a snake that had just eaten a chicken could get out of the coop, we decided that was probably what happened. So we were down to 4. I was sad, but Bryan reminded me that all of our calculations were based on 4 chickens and that it would be alright.
Two days ago we lowered the chicken ladder to the coop, filled the coop with pine shavings, and decided it was time that the girls learned how to climb the ladder to the top of the coop/nesting area. We thought for sure that they were big enough that they couldn't fit through the lattice we put on the coop to keep it cooler during the summer months. The first night the girls stayed in the run area. Last night right at dusk, as I was watering the garden, all four of our girls walked up the ladder and huddled together in the coop. I was so proud. Seth and I wished them goodnight and headed inside.
This morning at 6 am I peeked outside and didn't see the girls. I assumed they were still up in the coop and carried on about my business. At 7 am, right as Bryan was heading off to work, we looked outside and we could see two of the chickens in our yard, but not in their coop. Bryan rode his bike around the neighborhood looking for the other two before going on to work. I was left with the lucky job of wrangling up the two in the backyard. They were constantly going in and out of the chain link fence and I am sure I looked like a crazy person chasing these two chickens. With two in the coop, Seth spotted another one coming from the side of our yard. This girl was sneaky. She managed to find her way under a bush and kept moving just out of reach. Finally I caught her, and we continued our search for the last girl. We searched for almost thirty minutes with no luck. All day I have been peeking outside just hoping that our chicken might find her way back to our yard. But she hasn't yet, and I am doubtful now that we will ever see her again. There are too many cats in this neighborhood. We're adding chicken wire to the lattice before we let the girls into the coop again. Hopefully, no other mishaps will happen, because we aren't off to a very good start with this whole chicken raising thing.

Community Farmers' Market Poster Contest

 The Community Farmers' Market is having a kid's poster contest tomorrow. So we have been working on a poster to submit all week. We took a few vegetables like a slice or two of a green pepper, a piece of broccoli, half an eggplant, a piece of okra, and an ear of corn (although we don't eat corn I thought it would make a fun design and it was donated by Crooked Creek Farm). We took all of our vegetables and paint to the front porch and got started.

We obviously do a lot of learning around here, because before Seth decided it was time to paint he had to name all the paint colors and the vegetables. It made the teacher in me very proud.

  

Seth rolled the corn.

 He stamped the broccoli...

 and all the other vegetables. I think the okra was his favorite. 

He spent a long time stamping it.

 We let our poster dry completely and then we got to work with some stamps. I spelled out Community Farmers' Market (although the apostrophe is in the wrong place on the paper) and we hunted for all the letters first.

 Once we had all of our letters, Seth pressed each letter in the stamp pad and then I would show him where to put it. We had to take three breaks before all the letters were completed and explaining an apostrophe to a two year old was interesting. But we had a great time making our poster!

 Here's the completed poster:

We can't wait to turn it in tomorrow morning!

Here's a fun video of what Seth had to say about the Farmers' Market:

Happy Birthday, America!

Tillery Tot School- Letter X

Last week we learned about the letter X! Here's a look at our Tot School board: 

We stamped our letters with an "x" stamp. Seth loves stamps so this was a big hit!

 Recently one of my friends offered to give us a Little People Animal Alphabet set. We gladly accepted it and it has been a great addition to our learning. The "X" animal was an x-ray fish. We added it to our board.

 We made a xylophone 

(even though I think this word is very confusing when 

studying the letter X since it make a "z" sound).

 But it turned out cute. 

We also played on a xylophone I picked up at a local consignment store before Seth was born.

 We made an x-ray using the outline of Seth's hand and some q-tips.

 Then we practiced writing the letter x. I helped Seth write all the x's and when I let him try on his own he made one gigantic X and then decided he liked writing the letter O better. That's how it goes with toddlers sometimes.

 We have one more letter! We already studied the letter "Y" so

 this week we will learn about the letter "Z"!

Summer Celebration 2012

Last Thursday was the first day of Summer. Because we really love celebrating with our friends and their schedules were already full last week, we decided to wait until today to have a Summer celebration. We didn't have any crafts, but we did have lots of fun.

There was chalk which kept Seth busy until our friends arrived 

(later he decided to throw it in the kiddie pool). 

 

 We had the sprinkler going...

 and the kiddie pool to help us cool off.

 The swing set was a big hit.

 

 Spencer and Kate cracked me up with their love of the truck.

 It wouldn't be summer without watermelon. So we had watermelon!

 Why are little boys so cute eating watermelon?

 

Silas even enjoyed some pool time after all the big kids left.

 We had a fun morning celebrating Summer with all our friends!

Moving Into the Coop

Last night our chickens spent their first night outside. We saw chickens younger than ours outside at River Cottage Farm last week, so we thought it would be okay to move the girls outside. Before they moved into their new home we had to do some modifications to the coop. We wanted to make the coop mobile so that we can move it around in the yard every couple of days or so.

 

 So we added 4 wheels...

 and some string so that we could pull it.

 

 Bryan attached the ladder using hinges,

 and tied a string to the other end so that it can be raised and lowered from outside of the coop.

 

We laid the cheapest linoleum that we could find on the inside of the coop, so that we could wipe it clean every time we change the pine shavings, which will cover the entire floor. We also reinforced the floor with 2X4's.

 

 Our coop arrived with screws as handles so we replaced all of them with real handles and spray painted some of the wood that was not painted white.

During the cooler months, our coop will have two removable plywood doors on each end. 

 

But during the warm months we thought it would be a little cooler for our girls if we replaced the wooden doors with lattice. Right now the girls can fit through the lattice (even though I am not sure they could figure out how because it is a tight squeeze), but at the rate they're growing, they won't in a few days. They are just staying in the run area with the ladder raised until they grow a little bit bigger, plus they don't need the nest boxes just yet.

 Our lattice and doors (during the fall, winter, and early spring) are secured with a latch, 

so the doors can't fall off.

 We still have to cut a small hinged door in the plywood board so that we can access the nest boxes without taking the entire door off of the coop, but that can wait until closer to the fall season. We are also probably going to change the roosting pole, since it's just an old shutter. You can see parts of the roosting pole in these next two pictures.

 

When I went to check on the girls this morning they all 

seemed happy and content in the their new home...

and we hope to keep it that way.

Tillery Tot School- Letter W

This week we learned about the letter "W." Some weeks are easier than others when coming up with ideas for Tot School. This week was definitely one of the easier ones.

 This week's Tot School board:

We stamped w's onto our letters this week. 

 We read Peter Spit a Seed at Sue by Jackie French Koller and then we made our own watermelon. (Sidenote: Jackie French Koller won the 2010 Kentucky Bluegrass Award. I got to meet her when she accepted her award at the KBA Luncheon at the Kentucky Reading Association Conference. This is an autographed copy of her book.)

After reading about watermelons, we had to eat some too.

 

One day we hunted for walnuts in our backyard. We found quite a few.

 One day we played with our makeshift water table.

 Seth also loves getting water out of our rain barrel

 (which we got for free from the Community Farmer's Market).

 One evening we packed a picnic and had dinner by the Circus Square fountains. While Seth is perfectly content just watching the water, we couldn't leave without playing in the water for a little bit.

 We made a whale using construction paper...

 and one using a plastic cup and some foam.

 We made a wheelbarrow using a laundry detergent scoop and some foam.

 Of course, we had to play in the water. 

This was Silas' first time in a kiddie pool and he loved it!

 We had waffles for breakfast. I found this recipe for Salt and Pepper Paleo waffles. 

I have tried several different waffle recipes and this one is probably my favorite.

 We made a windmill. 

Unfortunately I couldn't find my box of brass fasteners, so we just had to glue the blades to the windmill instead of allowing them to spin.

At the end of the week, we made a walrus. 

 

 We didn't get to the worm activities I had planned, but I'm sure we'll get around to them eventually. Next week we move on to Letter "X."