Chicken Coop Construction

Well, as our chickies have gotten bigger and the weather slowly reminding us that winter is on the way, we got into action into building a bigger chicken coop for our flock. Our new coop will be 10'x 10'. It will have a full roof on it to cover the chickies even on rainy days and within the covered coop there will be a 4'x 8' fully enclosed coop for protection, with a heat lamp for warmth, roosting perches for sleeping, and 8 nest boxes for egg laying. Unfortunately the rain has slowed down our building progress a little, so we'll utilize that time to go get more supplies we need so when the weather improves we can get it up and completed as soon as possible.







Jewel with the our dogs Patch and Falcor and baby chicks with one of the older welsummer chicks Que


Jewel with one of the little welsummer chicks

My hobby... Photography

Photography has always been a hobby I've enjoyed. Thought I would show some photos I've taken. I'll post some more another day.

Lunar Moth


"Little Girl Blue"


"Fire Creature"


World War II Memorial, Washington D.C.


Victims of Tropical Storm Ernesto


"The Devil's Doorman"


Teskinas Creek, York River State Park


"Quacker"


"Old Man of the Marsh"


Mt. Vernon's Servant Kitchen


Mt. Vernon from Vault looking at Main House


Mt. Vernon Baking Oven


"Lost My Way..."


George Washington's Stables


Crape Myrtle Blossom


"Bread Line"


"Blowing in the Wind"


"Beauty & the Brick"


"Angel of Mercy," Vietnam Nurses Memorial, Washington D.C.


"After the Rain"


"Like Father, Like Daughter"


"Yellow Blossom Cafe"


All photos are property of Blogger Rachel D. Spivey and cannot be used without permission.

Jewel's Birthday Campout!

Jewel had her 13th Birthday on September 7th! Can you believe it? Our Jewel is 13! Well, this years birthday wish was a fun one. Jewel wanted to go camping with some close friends overnight. It was a lot of fun and thankfully there were no microburst storms this time! What made it even better is that we had the entire area all to ourselves! Just one of the perks of homeschooling and having a birthday the night of the first day of the traditional school year!


Jewel Receiving those special calls from long distance relatives that she misses so much!!


Mmmmm.... Pork ribs marinating in a homemade sauce!


Our new tent courtesty of the storm from our last campout!


Our campsite! It's huge! And check out the waterfront view too!






Ken cooking (his favorite part of the campout I think) dinner and breakfast!






Setting the table for breakfast!


Campfire Stories


Canoeing






We brought our (Jewel's) little dog Patch with us. He was loved and loved every minute of being adored, and fed those tasty rib bones after we had consumed all that we could consume! After Patch could no longer eat anymore ribs, he buried the remaining bones, of course being the little hoarder he is. Unfortunately upon waking in the morning and searching for his bones, Patch found that his bones were all gone. The local wildlife had dug them all up in the evening and taken them away. It was a pitiful sight to see.








Patchy - All tired out after a vigilant night of protecting his people from those noisy woodland critters & being the wonderful poseable puppy.

Mmmm... Blue Crab!

This post is a bit delayed at this actually occured August 24th of 2010.

So we went fishing on the 24th briefly after working in our garden and before Ken had to go to work. We cast out or lines in the Warwick from the pier at Ft. Eustis when Jewel felt a tug. This crab (we found out when she realed him in) did not want to let go of those chicken gizzards we had for bait!

The blue crab Jewel caught in the Warwick River


The crab getting cleaned up & ready to be cooked. Jewel was not going home empty handed this time and this little crab begged to be eaten - especially with his "crabby" attitude!


So no mercy here from Jewel. She put the crabby little guy head first in the pot of boiling water to cook!


Oh yeah... blue crab! Tasty little morsel - little being the operative word.


Good eats! So Jewel being adventurous (always willing to try something new), having listened to some of Ken's interesting food stories from his travels & having watched Andrew Zimmern of the Food Network's Bizzare Foods tried more of the inside of the crab than just the delectable little morsels of meat. Unfortunately for Jewel, she didn't care for them.