Pauley Farm

I have very little time for blogging lately because of all of the craziness going on in our lives.  Will just finished soccer but he had his first baseball game on Saturday and has shooting sports once a week.  Reina's tap recital was Saturday and is on a break from piano lessons until later in June.  She still has swimming lessons twice a week.  I ran a race last weekend that had taken up some time training.  Glenn and I are embarking on a painting/remodeling project for our den and Glenn's also been busy building a chicken coop.  More on that later.  I'm between trips out of town for work and did I mention the last day of school is in 4 1/2 days? It's a wee bit CRAAAAZY around here.  But honestly, most of my evening free time is taken up with this:  

Who can resist that face?  

Coco loves to play hide and seek and when I see her face peeking out from around the corner, I must drop whatever chore I'm doing and play.  So I hide, she sneaks up on me, I jump out at her, she runs away, and the game starts all over again.  Sorry blog, I'm busy playing with the cat.

I tried taking pictures of her sneaking down the stairs while I hid around the corner but I was giggling too much to hold the camera steady.  Look at those eyes - those are some serious I'm-sneaking-up-on-you-eyes.  

A few weeks ago, I had a short trip up to Jackson for work.  One of my 'jobs' was to take a bunch of out-of-staters on an early morning drive to look for wildlife.  We saw these big boys chilling in the early morning sun.  

The Tetons, not a bad view.

So the big news in the Pauley household is that we bought four little, fluffy, cheeping baby chicks home last weekend.

Meet (Kylo) Ren 

and Rey 

Say hi to Dolly 

And Lolly 

When we were talking about getting chickens, Glenn announced that we were naming them Dolly, Holly, Polly and Molly.  So Dolly Pauley.  Cute, right?  And also a little, "Oh Glenn."  When we actually picked up the chicks, the kids prevailed in naming two of them after Star Wars characters and Glenn got his two "olly" names.  So far they live in the hunting and fishing room in a customized pen that Glenn has spent many hours on.  In a few weeks when they are older and it's warmer, they'll move outside.  Coco and Trigger and Tootsie are super interested in their every move but so far, we've kept their interactions on the nonviolent side.  I'm amazed at how much personality the little chicks seem to have.  We picked breeds that were hardy enough for our cold winters but also sociable since they will be more than just barnyard animals.  So far, I think we've chosen well.  Lolly is an Australorp and she's very relaxed.  Dolly is a few weeks older than the rest of the group and she was initially a little more scared of us.  She's an Orpington Buff.  Rey is a Rhode Island Red and Ren is a Barred Rock.  Ren, although she's named after a bad GUY, is the bravest and might be the boss of the group.  She runs up to the side of the cage to see if you have anything interesting and she even stuck her head through the wire to get a closer look at Coco.  Braaaave chicken.

Last month, I helped my sister in getting our city council to pass an ordinance allowing backyard chickens.  It was a great learning experience, I hadn't participated in local government like that before.  After attending five meetings, listening to debates and testifying a few times, we were delighted when the ordinance passed. If all goes according to plan, we'll have fresh eggs in the fall.  Until then, we have some cute new roommates.