Let me rephrase for a second. That’s actually two Americaunas who find their way up there.

But by the time I made it down the stairs to grab photos (see, we knew they were doing this but up until now there has not been photographic evidence)…there was one.

What ensued was rather surprising given how flighty and uninterested in human affection this little lady happens to be despite my repeated pleas to “JUST LOVE ME AND CUDDLE WITH ME AND SNUGGLE IT WOULD BE SO FUN.”

A loooooooooooot of frontin.

Chicken attitude all over the place. Left and right, up in my face, and most definitely not concerned at the camera capturing every minute of it.

Scott really needs to finish the rest of that enclosed run.

Finally, Miss Kokanee decided on her own terms it was time for grab a last minute snack, sip of water and then head off to bed.

I had no idea there would be this much personality housed in such a small chicken coop.

Right, yeah that’s the story we’ll tell one of these days.

You can’t quite see him, but here’s Louie, checking out what’s new and exciting over in the yellow house behind us. His sauntering around the place lasted for, oh about…ten minutes. I was on the phone at the time and had to quickly end the call with “OH GOD MY CAT JUST-I HAVE TO GO-CAT-GONE-HOUSE-NEIGHBOUR-BYE“.

The photo and angle isn’t the greatest because I’m squeezed up between trees and fence trying to stop laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation.

Meanwhile, Scott had already run down the street and around the block to get to their place. Right about the time I could see his cap and plaid shirt through their glass filled front door (thank you, Bowen homestead’ers for all of your windows)…

A cat emerged.

Still laughing, I tried to call over the fence…and house…to Scott who was still trying to figure out a way to nab the cat without actually entering their home. He did catch a glimpse of that barking dog though – terrier.

While Louie settled back in, I continued to try to get Scott’s attention through a house, all the while wishing that in his haste to retrieve my dopey cat he’d grabbed his phone. Eventually, he returned…and when he did, Louie was there to say howdy and hello.

Maybe it’s a good thing the house is being sold…I’m not sure our snoop of a cat would have done much to help us get to know the neighbours at this rate.

I don’t have a favourite.

That you would even suggest there’s a favourite hen in this coop. Well…

That’s just crazy.

Naturally I love all the little chickens equally. How could I even think of picking a bestest from the rest…est?

It’s just simply not true. Though…if pressed…and I absolutely had to make a choice…well…

Alright, it wouldn’t be a tough choice.

I heart you, Stella.

Don’t get me wrong: they are adorable. We love them dearly and have had a lot of laughs and fun with them cozied up in the house. I already miss the little late night purring you can hear as they’re settling in for a snooze.

But it was time. The weather is just about warm enough (maybe still a little chilly at night, but Scott installed a special door for them to keep the hutch extra secure and toasty) and the shavings well…yeah, it was time.

Everyone settled in pretty quickly once the house was situated securely next to the garden toward the back of they backyard. Even though it was getting a little late to install the entire chicken run to go with the coop, we did fashion a makeshift run so they could scamper about a bit.

Yes, chickens scamper.

Beans and Harley made sure the place was secure (sidenote: the chickens are rather curious/not at all worried about our raccoon sized pets) and I proceeded to take a gabillion photos of their happy little faces prancing about the new abode. Yes, chickens prance too.

In between scampering and prancing, there was much cheeping and snoozing to be done. We hope you like the new digs, ladies.

More photos:

Of course, such a view came after a lot of trekking and trudging up hills. Lots of hills. And more hills.

Not that I complained about the hills at all during this nature walk.

Right, so I complained a little bit. And may have become a little blame-y and sulky along the way. But as soon as it turned into this…that melted away pretty quickly. The delicious still warm Cornish pasties helped too.

All in, a great walk that transitioned into picnic-ing, starfish searching and mountain gazing. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday. Harley mostly agreed, although I think there were a few moments where he started dreaming about us getting a lab for this so he could go back to sleeping on the couch.

SO PRETTY.

Ok, the hair move is likely still a bit far fetched at the moment (I’ve quite enjoyed not having to think about roots and colour upkeep over the past couple of years) but in the meantime I want this scarf in every shade.

Beautiful scenery and calming everything aside, that’s the one thing we really don’t have on Bowen. People. As two outgoing folks who thrive in social settings, the island can make for a tough balance that ends up skewing more toward isolation than conversation.

So, what’s next? The next few weeks should give us a better idea. And in the meantime, it’s almost time to get the chickens set up in the backyard and plant some zucchini.

Harley keeps an eye on them and in typical little fluffy dog fashion is not in the least interested in nibbling on their legs but would probably be open to jumping in their temporary bin home and snuggling for the night.

Out of all the little muffins there’s only one that seems semi-interested in humans and hanging out.

Stella will jump up onto the edge and chill on your hand or shoulder depending on what you’re offering. Here’s hoping the others start to come around and accept our cooing and petting…otherwise Stella’s going to have a lot of coddling to look forward to.

Meet the girls.

Because we like beer, not because we intend to have beer can chicken (well, with these chickens. Sorry, guys.) they are named from left to right and then below Guinness, Kokanee, Stella and Chimay.

Let the backyard chicken keeping adventure begin.