Once summer finally arrives (it snowed last weekend but we think thats all done now) its go go go time in Alaska. We have planted our seeds and will have to move them outside soon. With all the sun, the garden grows fast and needs lots of tending. We are building raised beds and a greenhouse this year too. So far we have: Winter Squash, Butternut Squash, four kinds of potatoes, onions, tomatoes, artichokes, strawberries, tomatoes, cucumber, watermelon, cantaloupe, beets, rutabagas, parsnips, carrots and lettuce. Um yeah I think thats it….

Another favorite summer activity is hiking. With all the sunshine we can even go late at night. Mostly Baily and Mesa partake because 7 mile hikes are too much for Tori and Big Carl (though BC protests being left out). We go in groups with other friends that have dogs or just as a family. The beauty of Alaska still amazes me.

We also have a very active social life at our new house. With all the land its a popular spot for bonfires. We also have people over to help us work on the upgrades and end up having many BBQs. This past weekend one of our friends graduated from college so she had a celebratory bash at our house that included groups of friends playing music inside and out. The music ranged from blues to folk to bluegrass. We had 3 people bring accordians, a sitar and many other cool instuments . The dogs loved all the attention and have yet to wake up from all the partying. Mesa even broke down pit bull barriers by making friends with people who had never met a pit before but thought they were scary thanks to the media. Mesa convinced them to snuggle with her all night and love pit bulls. Good girl Mesa.

So needless to say I may be in and out all summer. When I do get down time, I like to use it to sleep!

The hubs and I have been talking about doing this for years and now that we are back home we thought it was finally time. So we are happy to announce…

WE GOT CHICKENS!!!!!

Oh what, you thought I might say something about having a baby? Nope, not for us. This weekend we went and picked up our 13 new additions. We had planned to build a new chicken coop this summer (the one at the house is OLD and GROSS) and getting some chickens in a few months. Well I went to a birthday party and met a lady who had just hatched some chicks. It was her first time and she was told to not expect more than a handful of her 40 eggs to produce. To her surprise 26 chicks were born. She asked if anyone wanted any. I texted the hubs and we agreed we could make it work.

So this weekend we build a brood box (the chicks are only 3 weeks old and can’t go to their coop till about 8 weeks). We are now starting on building a coop and will need to crank it out! We went with intentions of picking up 10 chicks but there were three more she didn’t have room for so we added them.

Now when it comes to the pups I knew that Tori and Baily wouldn’t care. I figured Mesa would be intense and Big Carl was my wild card. Well I was spot on with Tori, Baily and Mesa. Big Carl has decided the chickens are HIS. If any of the other pups get too close he growls at them and makes them leave the chicks alone. It makes me giggle! We brought them home in a dog crate and set it up for a couple hours in the living room with their heat light while putting the finishing touches on their brood box. Mesa found it very entertaining.

Mesa intense? Never….

Hopefully most of the chicks turn out to be hens since we got them to be egg layers. Eventually they will go to freezer camp when they stop laying but we aren’t at that point yet. If we have one rooster in the bunch that will be fine. More than one would be a problem! Here are the little ones.