Blessed with new life!

I'm absolutely giddy with excitement. I couldn't hold back anymore, so I finally did it. I ordered chicks from my neighbour. WOOHOO! They should be ready by June 1st. I ordered 4 different breeds, 7 females of each. I ordered Rhode Island Reds and Barred Rocks because they are part of the pastoral scene I have in my head. I also ordered Ameraucanas because they lay green/blue eggs and Chantecler because they are Canadian and so am I. I can't tell you how hard it was for me to narrow it down to 4 breeds! I wasn't sure that I didn't want Buff Orpingtons, or maybe some Silver-laced Wyandottes. Or a handsome Brahma. I was doubting myself as I emailed my order and even told the hatchery that I'm a newbie, so feel free to change my order if they want! I'm sure I'll be happy with whatever they send me, and if not, I'll order different ones next spring.

"Hey, it smells like a grow-op in here!" Every southern facing window in our house has a shelving unit in it filled up with seedlings. We have hundreds of tomato plants 4 varieties), peppers (7 varieties), eggplant, squash (3 varieties), cucumber, watermelon, pumpkins, and several flowers. I've planted a perennial garden with perennial onions, garlic, rhubarb and some gladiolas. I will be adding some herbs to it once it gets warmer out. We have lots of seeds, potatoes, and strawberry plants to plant, but we are waiting for our garden to be dry enough to be ploughed. For now, as one of the kids once said, all of the seagulls in our field must mean that we are seagull farmers.

In other news, our family is growing in another way,...

...drumroll please...

...we are...

getting a PUPPY!!!!!! Hee hee. She will be coming home in mid-June! We had hoped to adopt an adult German Shorthaired Pointer, but because we have young children, there are not as many available that are suitable for a family like ours. So instead the kids have been collecting money to donate to the local shelter and we are doing a foster program where we get a puppy from the breeder that Puck came from. Let's take a moment to remember how adorable Puck was when we first brought him home.

The breeder will borrow her for a few weeks every year to show her to her championship and breed her once or twice. During this time, we are welcome to come to her shows and even handle her if we are interested. Once that is finished ownership will be signed over to us. I would love to show my dogs, but with 5 kids, that's not going to happen for a few years, so in the meantime, this can be my introduction. On her website, the breeder writes "It's an interesting way to become involved in dog shows and gives the family a chance to own a show dog and experience puppies without all the work involved. And it means that the dog gets all the benefits of being an only dog rather than one of many here."