A Very Special Day and a Turtle

 My youngest brother got married today, and it was an awesome, incredibly special day. They're an adorable couple, and it was very clear that God worked to bring them together. 💖 

I personally don't have pictures of them to share, but when they get them back from the photographer, I can ask if they would like me to post a few on my Facebook page for those who know my brother.

So instead, here are some pictures of a snapping turtle who was crossing my property today, presumably on her way to lay eggs. She came by at almost the same time last year too - I can tell she's the same one because the top of her shell has old damage. Her shell is probably 8-10 inches across and 12-14" long. I've been told they can live up to 50 years.

I hope everyone had a great Friday! Congratulations to Timothy and Karlie!! 💗

Busy Busy!!

 Things have been busy on the homestead the past few weeks! Lots of cleanup... lots of fence building... lots of walking the goats daily because their fence isn't finished... 😂

One thing, besides the goat fence, that I really need to work on is my well. My current pitcher pump seems particularly inefficient, and it takes me around an hour to pump enough water for all the animals. I have a new type of pump that should be faster... I just need to figure out how to install it. If that one isn't significantly more efficient, I may have to investigate something battery or solar powered. 

Here are some pictures from the past few days.

This is an onion that sprouted in the house because I forgot about it. I put it in the ground a couple weeks ago and so far it's still alive. 😂

A wildflower. I've been trying to learn more of their names this year. I believe this is a Canada Mayflower.

A little butterfly... not sure what kind. It had periwinkle-blue wings as it flew.

Just pretty droplets on leaves.

These are my Dominique chicks. There are 21 of them! Lol, they've hit the ugly-cute stage. 😂😂😂 They follow their adoptive mothers in and out through the door into the run quite nicely and are well past the most stressful baby chick stage. 

This picture below might not look like much, but I find it very exciting. I have had a couple big bags of seed kicking around for a while. One was meant to be seed for a goat pasture. I just remembered that I had it recently, and it's just old enough that I figured I didn't have much to lose by spreading it around and seeing if some of it would still germinate. I tried to get it all out before we had a rainy, damp week, and looks like it's working - lots of tiny seedlings!! ❤️

Here's Hazel just being cute. I set her up on Thane's rock, and she struck a nice pose. She's been shedding up a storm lately... it'll be nice for her to have less fur when the full summer heat hits!

Wild strawberries I found today...they were very tasty. 🥰

A load of tools I got from a very nice lady for a bargain! I had snapped the handle on my rounded-tip shovel recently, and even though it can be fixed, it occurred to me it'd be good to have a couple duplicate tools around. The pry bar apparently is named Big Bertha. 😂

Another wildflower. I think this may be Northern Bedstraw.

Lol, while I was out picking up my hand tools, I swung by a local garden center because I know they carry chicken feed and I was low. But I made the mistake of wandering through the plants for a minute. And the further mistake of smelling the herby leaves of a bee balm. That did it. 😂 I managed to escape with only the bee balm and this Yarrow plant. Used one of my new shovels to plant them. Only trouble is now that I've worked on my perennial bed, I can see that it needs attention... and more plants. 😝

Lol, if you've ever heard the term "chicken math," you'll laugh at these next couple pictures. So I've got 2 Icelandic chicks that Buffy hatched. And 21 Dominique chicks that Speedy and Snow White adopted. But in the other half of the coop, one of my girls has been faithfully staying broody for WEEKS, even though I kept taking away the eggs everyone was laying in her nesting box. I thought about giving her eggs to hatch, but she had parked herself in the most popular box, and broodies don't like to change boxes. I knew chances of her hatching something successfully in a popular nesting box were very low - plus that would mean she'd be sitting another 21 days, which is pretty hard on the bird. So yesterday afternoon I stopped in at the local feed store to see what they had for chicks. I had thought to maybe grab just a couple....but they were on sale for 50 cents apiece...so I ended up with 10. 😂 They're an assortment of breeds, so it'll be really fun to see how they mature. I know I've got a few Buckeyes, a couple Cuckoo Marans, I think a couple Golden Laced Wyandottes. And then I think there was one more breed, but I can't remember what. 😂😂😂 Anyway, after a little finagling, they are bonded now, and Mama is SO proud and protective of her clutch of chicks. ❤️

I hope everyone had a great Monday... and if anyone needs started chickens this fall, you know who will have plenty to spare!! 😂😂😂