Deer & Cats & Chickens & Turkeys ~ oh my!

Thank you to all who sent well wishes ~ I'm feeling much better today.

And to the ladies that tagged me ~ I will try to get my 7 random things posted by Tuesday afternoon.

Yesterday morning the chicks began to hatch! As of today we have 7 doodies just cheep-cheep-cheeping constantly.

The mamas are all pouffed up and clucking to their young, showing them how to scratch around for food. If you've never seen a chick hatch, I hope you have the opportunity someday. Do you know that a few days before they hatch, if you hold the egg close to your ear, you can hear the baby chick chirping inside the egg? And that is before they even start to peck their way out! It's the neatest thing ever to hear.

We also acquired a cat yesterday. She's in our bathroom for now, till she gets used to being around our family. I haven't named her yet... just waiting for a name to pop in my head. She loves to sit near the open window and watch and listen. I think she's listening to the chickens in the back yard.

The beautiful rooster is Jaques, an Araucana/Americana.

Buffy, the gold hen, is a Buff Orpington and Henny Penny, the black hen, is a Black Australorp.

Buffy and Henny Penny are two of my best hens. Henny Penny will often fly up on my outstretched arm, then snuggle against me and cluck in my ear. She's such a sweetie! I've raised all of the chickens from when they were babies.

And the turkey.... a few years ago my husband was bushogging a field and accidentally mowed over a nest of turkey eggs. Knowing it was destroyed and they wouldn't make it, he brought the remaining eggs home and I put them under one of my other Black Australorp hens that had gone broody. Believe it or not, her name was Turkey Lurkey! Well, she hatched the chicks, and clucked and clucked to those babies just like they were her own. We kept two of them and gave the others to a family member. After a few weeks, they no longer wanted to go in the coop at night with the chickens, so I let them roost in the bushes and later the trees near the edge of the woods. They have never been confined since, but continue to fly down to the coop every morning, roam with the chickens all day long, and they go back into the nearby woods at night. They have continued this for three years now. How can you tell a big ole turkey that he's not really a chicken? I don't think he'd believe me now after all this time...

This morning when I took the cat outside for a little while, she kept looking across the yard toward the field, meowing... when I looked... this is what I saw.... 3 deer! There were two does and a little one, though it had no spots, so it must have been born last year. They often graze in the field, even while I walk down toward them to the edge of the yard to the chicken coop. As long as I'm talking softly to them, they don't startle, just look up at me and then go back to feeding.

I really enjoy living out in the country... enjoying all of God's creations... it's just a wonderful feeling. I hope you enjoyed a few more of my Simple Joys ~*~