Monday, September 30, 2013

Animal Totems...Animal Spirit Guides

I have been inspired by Sarah Cross and her great Sunday Interview blog feature of my shop on etsy,here, to listen to the Animal Spirits.

Sometimes I hear their voices, sometimes they are in my dreams, sometimes they visit me in a physical body.
This time, sister spider decided to build a web across our sliding glass door.
She did this for several weeks...spinning at night, taking it up and retiring to the gutter during the day.  Her web increased in size as so did she!
At first I mostly watched with fascination at the building each night...it was awesome.  She started to move her web toward the South end of the house as she reappeared each night.
After a few weeks, she disappeared, I thought she was gone forever.
Last night (3 weeks later)...she reappeared and started all over.
I new she had messages for me woven into her web.

This is the beginning of a series on our Animal Spirit Guides or Animal Totems.  I'll choose an animal (or it will choose me) each month. We'll share stories, lore, different cultures ideas and see if any of you have been chosen by these animals.  If there is one that you would like to "check out", let me know!
I'll also be working on a painting of each totem throughout the month and will list it on my etsy shop when finished.  Perhaps you will be interested in your own original of your Spirit Guide, or a print of the "Spirit Totem of the Month".

I'll start with Sister Spider because she chose me and October is filled with magic as it leads us into Autumn, Harvest, and my favorite Holiday...Hallo'een!

Let's have some FUN!


click here to view

Thursday, September 26, 2013

The Journey of our Chickens!

It all began for us in early April, when I went to the feed store to pick up horse feed and our new chicks.  I had ordered 5 Light Brahma pullets and 5 Polish Standard pullets.  For those of you new to chickens...pullets are very young hens that haven't started laying yet.  The people that raise the chicks for sale also sex them so you don't have to buy any roosters if you don't want them.  We already have a rooster...a beauty that regularly gifts me with feathers for my art.
The yellow are the Brahmas & the colors are Polish
 Their first day outside
 
When we received them, they were hatched just a day before.  They lived in the box with a heat lamp to keep them warm.  As they grew they were moved to a bigger box and when they didn't need heat anymore,  to their bigger chicken house. 
 

                                      A close up of a Polish chick

At first we let them Free Range during the day and locked them up at night.  Until one day sister Fox came to visit and we were minus a chicken in broad daylight!  We live very close to woods on 2 sides and the wild ones just thought we brought them lunch!
             The next day we enclosed their house and yard with a fence.
They were growing very fast...some faster than others!  Then the roosters started to crow!!!  I did not order any roosters!!  We ended up with 4 out of the 5 Polish Standards being roosters!  As we all know...roosters do not lay eggs and make a lot of noise crowing ALL...DAY...LONG!!
I took the 4 roosters back to the feed store and gave them to the nice people that run the store.  I do believe they fed their young family with the hapless cocks.

Now we fast forward to September.  It is getting close to time for the hens to start laying their eggs.  A grandson came to visit for a few weeks and we enlisted his help in building the nest boxes for our girls.
Dillon did a great job using recycled wood!
                   Here is Lil' Sis our Polish hen inspecting the new "digs"!
Well it didn't take long for those dear girls to do what they are with us for.
Bear in mind that when hens start laying, their eggs are very, very small and increase in size as the hens age.  This is very exciting for us to have fresh eggs from our own hens again!
 
 

Please visit again soon and I'll show what I make out of the shells of the eggs of our wonderful hens!

Thank you for taking a look...I hope you have enjoyed!!

Diane