The Culprit is Found!

I believe the country life is one of the best lifestyles compared to those of the city. Things are much more peaceful, more basic, very natural (at least at our home), and nature is appreciated. People who live in the country see and deal with things totally different then those who live in the busy, modern city. (But of course, this is my own personal opinion.)

I love seeing our chickens peck around the shed looking for insects to eat, making their eggs taste that much better! They are so pretty when they roost in our "snake proof" chicken coop, right after we have gathered up all the eggs. Sometimes we will get up to 10 a day!

But lately there has been a change. Our little chicks (that the hens lay on and hatch naturally) have been dying or simply gone missing. We have not been getting as many eggs either and thought it was very strange when we found all of our "mama" hen's eggs missing.

But don't be alarmed! We have found the culprit! The mystery is solved! Today when Phillip went outside to let the chickens loose for their usual time of freedom around our yard, he found a long snake lurking around the chicken's nest, sniffing for some freshly laid "delights". Phillip quickly got rid of the nuisance which we later found out was a "chicken snake" that measured 5 feet 7 inches! After researching it, we found out that oak snakes also eat eggs! This is very good to know because we always see oak snakes, but don't think nothing of it since we thought they were harmless. I guess we were wrong!

Hopefully this ugly thing doesn't have any cousins living around here. Maybe now we can have all our eggs to our self!

Here is the brave hero with his catch.

When I took this picture I didn't get the 5 foot mark in it, but it really was 5' 7''.

Animal Names

For the past 8 years I have lived with my family on a small farm that consists of 5 acres, and plenty of excitment. But even before we moved out to the country we always had animals . . . even in our small yard in a little ol' neighborhood. That means we have had to come up with a lot of animal names. Of course we had to have a pig named Wilbor, a dog named Shylo, and a rabbit named Thumper. But we also came up with some unique names of our own . . . and some not so practical. For instance, someone had to great idea to name one of our pigs Rosie. Just because she was named after a flower doesn't mean she smelt like one or looked like one!

Last week Daddy and Ryan bought two cows. Before we bought them, Bethany and Phillip went with them to look at the animals. They came home and excitedly told us all about them. Bethany wanted to name the male cow Yankee, but they could not agree on a name for the female. After going through several names I exclamed, "What about Dixie!" They all loved it!

So now we have a cow named Yankee, and a cow named Dixie. Hopefully they will get along with each other despite their controversal names. You can see them at my sister's blog. (Sorry, I didn't feel like taking the time to upload them to my computer. I have other things to do!)

New Baby Animals!

We have a new addition to our little farm! Last Monday five little chicks were born to a very protective mother. It is so sweet to watch the mama hen keep her baby's warm underneath her and try to protect them from our cow! Can you picture that?!

The little chicks have been following her around from the first day! But one day they will grow independent and wander away from their mother hen. Just like we do. When we are first born again, we stay close to our heavenly Father. But after a while we start to think we don't need Him as much as we use to so we start to wander away. What a shame. If we stay close to our Lord, He will keep us warm and safe, just like our hen does to her chicks.

Aren't they adorable?

Home Sweet Home

Out in the country, where animals and trees are plentiful, and gardens fill many yards, there lies five beautiful acres we call home. When we bought the land it was nothing but thick woods and briers with a thin creek running through the brush. Over the past 6 years we have cleared a lot of it, with only a few corners that need cleaning up. It has been so neat to see how much we have accomplished. Because we put so much hard work into it, we feel like we are a part of this place.
Out here “in the woods” we have been able to see God’s beauty and amazing things about nature that we never took time to noticed before. It was so much fun the first time the guys built a blue bird house for the beautiful creatures to live in right in our front yard. Year after year we would watch them come and go along with their new little ones. The humming birds were always a sight to behold as well. We found out what kind of flowers they like so that they would have a source of food right at our front porch where we could watch them hover over the plants. We all marveled at how fast they would move their wings!

All around our double-wide trailer are fields (as we like to call them) with animals roaming about in them. Our little farm is complete with goats, a cow, two cats and two kittens, dogs, chickens, and a pig. As you can guess, there is always excitement in every corner! Our animals are always finding ways to escape their pens only to be chased right back in. Having animals is very educational as well. We have seen all our animals bring forth offspring except for our cow and chickens. So it is not an uncommon thing to have little piglets or kids (baby goats) running after their mama on our farm. Baby animals are always fun to watch!

But overall, our little place in this world is very peaceful. Being away from the noise of the city, leaves our part of town pretty quiet with only an occasional noise from tractors or the hungry animals at feeding time. To me, it is the most wonderful place on earth! A place where I plan on staying . . . until I get married of course!