Home improvement projects...and chickens.

I absolutely love having chickens.  They are a little bit of work but they're just funny.  They make great family members.  They are getting big, as you will notice below.  Lately we've had the problem at bedtime of counting 6 in the coop:

....and then wondering where the 7th is.  Well, Dandelo has decided she likes to perch on the step in their door into the coop.  Every night we have to grab her and throw her in:

We have beds all around the back of our house.  They are mulched with bark, which looked really nice until the last couple of years.  It's decomposed into mostly dirt and it looks bad!  So, this week I've been working on digging out all the old stuff, digging out all of the sod that has made its way under the cement divider, and putting down new bark.  Here's a bed I have not done yet:

And here's what it looks like once it's done.  Much better!

We have this big corner under the kitchen window.  I've had plants there in years' past but the dogs always tear it up trying to get bird seed that falls from the feeder below (I like having the birds right outside my kitchen window).  I planted some new tiny little phlox you can see towards the back, but I'm not sure what to do here.  I could plant something and then just put big boulders around so the dogs can't make a mess... or some garden art?  Any suggestions?

I just came in from playing with the chickies.  They are always excited about a snack!

This is Dandelo.  She seems to be the loner of the pack.  She isn't really best friends with anyone:

This one in the middle with the gray head is Sam.  She prefers to hang out with the other Aeracana, PJ, and Nugget (these three are a tad dysfunctional in that they act like their own little family).  However, I will say that Sam is becoming happier being friends with us.  Can you see her gray fluffy cheek feathers sticking out the side of her face?  Aeracanas really do look ridiculous.

For some reason I also decided I had to stencil my bedroom, right when we got back from Disney.  It was a complicated pattern.  It took awhile, but I think it looks good.

It makes our bedroom look much less boring!  Now, to hang up the curtains....
But first, we are going to my parents' tonight.  Jason and I are going out for our anniversary, and then we're all staying the night there b/c tomorrow morning Jas has a board meeting at our church camp that's pretty much right across the street.  Should be a fun time!