More Chickens, More Painting, More Hay, Our First Tornado

The nine remaining hens enjoyed their days of leisure, pecking and scratching around the yard:

The fantail pigeons have freedom too but seldom take advantage of it. But one day I got a call that the baby chicks were in at the Post Office. I'd made a brooder out of a plastic bin, a light bulb and reflector - so I turned it on and picked up my chicks. Their first few weeks will be spent in the pigeons' room:

 This time I ordered bantam (miniature) Easter Eggers, the chickens who lay blue and green eggs:

 They were cute little things and arrived thirsty, hungry and raring to go:

Like their eggs, their feathers come in all colors. One can't tell what color they will be from the chick color except that I felt sure the yellow chicks would be white adults:

 I had nine yellow, four chipmunk colored, three black and two slate gray chicks:

The local teen finished painting the trim on my barn and it made a big difference. Here, you can see that the right three windows and door are finished but the windows on the left are not:

The day after the chicks arrived was warm, so I opened the pigeons' window. But it soon began to rain off and on. I took a nap in the afternoon and awoke to find we were having a torrential downpour - sideways because the wind was so strong, and it was blowing the rain through the pigeons' window, across the room and onto the chicks' brooder. I ran out into the storm to close the window. Later, the wind and rain stopped and I captured this rainbow over the south field. I later learned that a tornado had passed through only a mile north of me, taking down trees and flattening part of a big corn field:

But our beautiful summer returned and things went back to normal. The chickens enjoyed basking in the sun:

 And searching for bugs beneath the apple trees:

At four days old, the baby chicks were already developing wing feathers and the yellow chicks' wing feathers were black. So now their final coloration is a mystery:

And as if things weren't busy enough, the neighbor showed up to hay my southernmost field. He'd just purchased a haybine and wanted to cut and bale my hay. He'll take half of it and help me get my half into the barn so I'll have it this winter. I'm already looking forward to winter as a time of rest: