The Fruits of Our Labors

I love to eat fruit. The first spring here in our house we decided to start a fruit orchard. We planted apples, pears, plums, peaches and figs. These last two years were very hot and dry and then this winter was very wet but cold. (The lowest measured was 7 degrees F). Long story short some of our trees did not make it. So we replaced them and added a few more. Now we have two appples (Gala and Mollies Delicious), one pear (kieffer) , two plums (Methly and Morris), two peaches (Flordaking and Harvester) and two figs (Texas Ever-bearing). I had some practice pruning them yesterday which turned out well for my first time. I hope to keep the trees tall enough so the deer don't get them and short enough so I can. Future trees on our list are: Paw Paw, Persimmon, Pomegranate and Apricots. We are also trying our luck with thornless blackberries and grapes.

One little, two little, three little chickies...

While running some errands a couple of Saturdays ago, we picked up these three, new little chicks. Two of them are Americanas (Jared is hoping for blue eggs this time around) and the black one is a Jersey Giant. We thought she was pretty but we shall see how she fairs in the hot weather this summer. They all seem to be the latest "hot item" to watch in the house with two curious cats.
It is amazing to see how fast they grow up too. A lot of their striped-like feathers are coming in on their wings. The black one has not changed much however.
We hope when they are big enough that the other four will adapt well to them.