February in Bellingham

I love our property. At the far north end we have an active deer rub. We see countless birds every day. A family of raccoons hangs out in the fir tree east of the house. The old shed outback is weathered, slowly being covered by moss and lichen and lets be honest, it looks perfect in our backyard. The apple trees have low branches that are perfect for sitting and while your there why not check out the lichen and moss covering the branches. Add to it that the yard is crazy beautiful right now! The forsythia, quince and plums are blooming. Indian plums are beginning to leaf out. The grass is a brilliant green. Bulbs are pushing their way out of the ground.

And sitting here wondering, how did we get so lucky and am I really going to be able to wait until April to start planting?

Chicks!

We finally ordered chicks! We've been talking about it for months. They are set to arrive March 1st, in the mail! We ordered them from McMurray Hatchery in Oregon. We weren't sure exactly which kind of chicks we wanted, we just knew we wanted to try heritage breeds, so we got the assorted variety! The Rainbow layers to be exact. Sounds like they will be a mix of white egg layers, rare/heritage varieties, heavy breeds and araucanas. Sounds like a great way to figure out what kinds of chickens we like.

I'm pretty excited to have 25 chicks running around, all different shapes, sizes and colors. We aren't sure what the cats will think of them, especially since they need to be inside for at least 5 weeks! I'm sure we'll find the cats perched beside the box with the chicks in it more than once.

Yeah for chickens!