All A's

Today was the Last day of second grade for Isaiah. And we are happy to report a perfect report card.

And with that Isaiah goes to Plant City for six weeks.

Have fun on your vacation Isaiah... We all will miss you and be happily waiting for your return!

Love,

Loosh, Mom, Bella, Disco Cat, Easter, Jerk, Sweet and Sour.

SECRET DOUBLE LIFE OF CHICKEN FARMER REVEALED

At first you may say to yourself....Tina Turner is looking great these days. But after careful examination strange things may start to materialize. Why is Tina in a friendly embrace with wonder woman.....is wonder woman real? Did Tina have her lips done? She looks strangly familiar.........Hmmmm.........



























Noooooooooooooooooooooooo. Your suspicions about Lucien are true. And this is all the proof that you need. How far did he go to fleece us all? Is he still living a double life that none of us know about.....Could there be an Ike to this Tina? Or has Lucien redirected all his miguided energy into becoming the chicken farming, vegetable growing, fun loving, much smaller, family man we have all come to know and love? Or could it be that he still longs to play private dancer but knows that without the vivacious backside he once had , all is lost.



Should there be a support group for his loved ones?



So many questions and yet so few answers.

Cheerios BEWARE

SOOOON MY PRETTYS........SOON

The bananas over the pond are about to ripen and we have cheerios and milk waiting close by.

Jealous? I would be. Not everyone has bananas. Some of us are bananas. Local laws don't allow us to keep monkeys but I still think it would make the whole experience of growing your own bananas more authentic. So for now Isaiah will fill in for said monkeys.

BEARDED MAN AND GUINEA FOWL...UNLIKELY PAIR

As my beard grows, so does the bond between sweet and I. As head chicken in "Looshland" it is my responsibility to serve and protect all inhabitants within. After several major altercations between Easter and Sweet were broken up by the head chicken (me), management at Loosland have decided to seperate the guineas and the americaunas for at least several weeks until the guineas work on thier pecking skills. Construction plans are complete for a second roosting house. There will be a shared run and supervised "meet and greets" with the head chicken. Constuction will begin Thursday after I return from the Isle of Misfit Toys also known as "work". Paint schemes are still being discussed amoung the guineas who are happy to be moving out of thier temporary tomato box.

COMING SOON: Bananas are almost ready.....Cheerios beware!

Summer........TBD

"The dog days of summer. I remember it like it was last summer. Spending long days cooking pork butts on an open fire and cool nights in the "Olympic Cottage" with 3 million of our closest bug friends. Good times indeed."

Summer is coming soon. Well summer has been here for some time. This year we will not spend the entire summer in Maine. Hayley is in school and she does not believe me that the chickens and dog will keep her company like I do. I will be coming up for ten days on the 7th. And as we get a little closer we may all come for a few weeks at the end of July into August.

Bella is an official dog in Sarasota county and she can't give rabies to anyone as of today. She recieved her last round of shots today and got her shiny new tag. Her microchip was tested and off she went. She is getting bigger and is still a good dog 90% of the time. Which I see as a really good percentage. She started a antihistamine treatment today for her itchy skin. She insists it is the "mangy cat" that causes her to itch. And since the cat causes me to wake up at five in the morning, I am inclined to agree with her. Two strikes Orange Cat.............

Isaiah is in the home stretch nearing the end of 2nd grade. With no homework to haggle over and the end in arms reach, we have gone about our days this week with a little more Wii time and a few more episodes of i-carley. I don't see the big deal but I was sweet on Punky Brewster back in the day......so we'll let it ride. Which brings me to another interesting thought. Nickelodeon in my point of view has some less than stellar programs for kids. There is making out and relationships and dating and on and on. I don't want to answer these questions until 4th grade.....maybe 5th. I don't feel like thats going to work out that well for me. But I was remembering how the world had become a bad place when Ren and Stimpy were around. I guess that was a really long time ago.

Hayley is at work making the bacon so to speak. I was at work today actually making the bacon, for sandwiches that is. Interesting when you think about it. I love bacon...all bacon. No discrimination here. EOBE (equil opportunity bacon employer)

Hello Friend!

We have chosen for you to recieve an email when we post to our family blog. What a lucky egg you are! If you don't wish to recieve pesky emails like this then let me know. I won't be mad forever........just a week or so. Click on the blue link at the bottom of this email that says "lucienhayleyisaiah" and you will be transported to a special place!

Coop upgrades complete

Just days after the addition of "Sweet and Sour" chickens to our flock nessasary upgrades have been completed! The new addition of the "sky bar " are complete. The Sky bar is a state of the art eating and drinking establishment. It is connected to the chicky hut with a sleek new sky walk. Other features include a new rope swing and real branch roosts fashioned from local trees for a home like feel. The final and most exciting addition was a new dust bath area for the girls. Easter and Jerk need the theraputic bath to help them regrow the feathers they lost before they were adopted. They were the bottom of the pecking order in a flock of 50. Which means that you have 48 other chicks plucking your tail feathers all day long. They have managed to grow a little fluff on thier backsides so far. However, their egg production is up despite thier less than stellar appearance.

Other interesting things:

Isaiah will have his last day of school and leave for Plant City on Friday to spend six weeks with his Daddy.

Lucien leaves for a 10 day trip to Maine and New hampshire on Sunday the 7th.

Hayley, Bella, Easter, Jerk, Sweet, Sour and Orange cat will enjoy peace and quiet for a few days.

The water inside a green coconut is completly sterile and can be used as IV fluid.

The Annual Snail war has begun as a result of a rainy week. Thousands of snails devistate our yard each year. With the help of modern tools such as kosher salt and cheap beer traps we are able to keep the damage to a minimum. Bella also helps by eating snails. Losses so far this year are as follows: 1 Lemon basil plant, 1 complete bed of mini sunflowers, Lillys are all filled with holes, 6-8 Strawberries. Some succulents. I am still yet to understand why they don't care for weeds. If they did we would get along well. I wish that I could get thru to them, but I am no snail whisperer.

Until next time....Enjoy!

WELCOME "Sweet and Sour" Chickens

I would like to introduce the newest members of our "urban homestead" as I like to call it. These are some kind of guinea fowl that are brown egg layers. They kind of look like velociraptors to me. Isaiah and I ganged up on Hayley and the next thing you know we have four chickens. Our current flock of two (Easter-a cranky old girl that lays light blue eggs and Jerk-a Rhode Island red with no tailfeathers that lays brown eggs) are not as happy about the new addition. But they are not happy about anything but bugs and chicken scratch.

We get about a dozen eggs a week from the two old girls. Sweet and Sour should start laying in about ten weeks.

These chickens have been a good fit for us. I clean them and feed them and Hayley and Isaiah eat fresh eggs! I think they get the better deal. They contribute in their own special way to our compost bin and help to grow the vegetables and herbs all around the yard. They also help by eating kitchen scrap.

Welcome Friends,

We have been threatening to keep in touch for years now. Here is our very own blog. I still don't know what BLOG really stands for! But I hear it is all the rage in developed countries these days.

I figured in my first post I would include a simple photo taken on Boca Grande. That is the Island that I work on for those of you who have been off the christmas card list for a little too long.

This also represents why I have chosen to Live here. Some of you may wonder why looking at this every day never gets old.......I cannot begin to explain to you the overwhelming joy I take in not having to see snow unless I'm on vacation. There will be a steady flow of information to get you all caught up. Stay tuned!