Backyard fun!

On the 3rd day, I was still quite exahausted and wondering what the heck I had gotten myself into. I was still hand feeding Lexi, and I had birds that were becoming more and more active...loud, and MESSY..OMG the mess in my living room. Goofy was still being a pain in the rear with them. Sleep at night was challenging.  Thank goodness we have overcome most of these problems.

We let them out in the backyard for the firs time. I knew that it was going to be challenging because that's where the dogs are. I didn't know what would happen back there, but we were up for the challenge.

I love love love this picture of Raelee. She looks so grown up in it.   She's standing there with the 'bad dog' spray. They hate this thing and all you have to do is aim it at them and they are going the other way.

Buster was curious about the chicks...he never tried to eat them.

We are going to turn this playhouse into a coop.  Nobody plays in it anymore. Todd is working on the design now while he is offshore..when he gets home, he'll build it for us. :) Raelee wants to help him of course. She is complaining she doesn't get to use her tools often enough.

See the dogs guarding the chicks?  They are under the rock climbing wall.

 Now this next one....this is about 3 minutes before Goofy decided to find out how one tasted. He had it in his mouth and was GONE before I could blink an eye. Raelee was SHRIEKING his name over and over and was sobbing. It was terrible. I didn't see the chick anywhere close to him so I figured he had swallowed it whole.  I just held Raelee and comforted her and explained that sometimes things happen like that and it's ok to be sad. While I was consoling her, I counted the chicks trying to figure out which one was missing. 3 reds, 2 blacks, 2 buffs. (Lexi was inside resting..not out with us.) 3 reds, 2 blacks, 2 buffs. 3 reds, 2 blacks, 2 buffs.  "Raelee, they are all here...we have them all."  She's still sobbing big sloppy tears.  I counted them again. Yes, we had them all. Somehow, it came out of the ordeal ok and not Goofy's snack.  Raelee was scared to look and was still crying. I made her turn around and look at them and count them with me.  She finally calmed down and went to her chicks. I dealt with Goofy in my own way and let's just say that it'll be a long time before he thinks of doing that again.  The next day out there was much more peaceful.

They spent a good bit of time huddled in this corning eating something (never did figure out what) off of the brick. It was funny to watch.

I have no idea what Raelee was laughing at here but I like this picture.

My evenings are so much different now. We sit outside for hours tinkering in the garden, playing with chicks, and reading up on chickens. I'm loving this life.

At this point, they are quite easy to gather up to put back into the cage. If only it stayed that way.......