Love the quails Celia! I posted about our visitors in my ATP blog recently. http://garden.org/blogs/entry/...
I have a second set of quail chicks visiting daily now, itty bitty tiny babies. My dogs startled them when I let the out this morning, the male did a fake injury across the lawn to lure the dogs away from the babies who scattered everywhere. I hope the scare won't keep them from coming back again.

The little ones my hubby lifted over the curb to their home in the shrubs came back to our yard a few years ago. Didn't seem to bother them.

Quail are so pretty. I only wish we had them around here.

Awwww...I wish you did, too. So much fun to watch. They make some cool sounds. Clicks were the most surprising.

Look what came out of hiding today!

You might have to expand the pictures to see them.
She has 7 of the little tykes.

Awwwww, cute!

Cute!

Lil chicks!!! Awwww................

tveguy3 said:Look what came out of hiding today!

You might have to expand the pictures to see them.
She has 7 of the little tykes.

She has been a good momma to hatch 7 little happy chicks.

Now that really makes me miss raising chickens! LOVE!

Your next batch of guard chickens have arrived for training!! They are so cute.

They report for duty so early!

Does anyone on here know anything about rocks? There is an area where I find rocks that have a hard outer box with a core of clay. Here is a photo of one I am cleaning up



These rocks are usually blocks and not round rocks. The outer shell is about an inch thick and thicker. If the rock has been broken and is lying in the woods the center will look the same color as the outer rock. The center is some type of red/gold colored clay. It is very hard but is dissolves in water. I collect these rocks, clean them out and use them as planters. Can anyone tell me how this type of rock formed? I am curious how the outer shell can be a stone and the inner substance can be clay.

Cute chicks Tom, I got 3 a week ago, in my family room in their brooder and it's so fun to watch them grow, which is amazing how fast that is!
http://garden.org/blogs/entry/...

I'd say your "rocks' are man made, Bonnie......looks like the "shell" is something that was fired in a kiln, and they have since filled with the raw clay.......just a guess, but maybe the shells were made as "forms" , either for molten metal to be cast in, or, to shape lumps of clay, for firing into some kind of brick ?

Interesting, Bonnie. Maybe they are some sort of form made out of rocks to make clay fired building blocks?

I finially got my beans planted today. Usually I grow beans every year in my veggie garden but I had no room earlier. Then I finially weeded this patch by the garage and now had room. But instead of planting right away I tried to think of some fancy support system for the pole beans. Well, didn't think of anything so finially just did a very simple thing of some tepees made of bamboo poles. It will work at least.

Planted bush beans next to the pole beans.

The rocks range from small to very large and can be dug out of the old mountains where no road or town has ever been. And there are lots of them scattered about as the earth washes off of them. Most have not been broken and look like a squarish or rectangular blocks of stone two feet square. Here is another one that has a smaller opening. I have soaked most of the clay out.


Definitely not man made. definitely rock. The best ones I find have one entire side open. The clay is as fine as baby powder but soaks to complete liquid. I would like to get the bigger ones but it is all I can do to collect some of the smaller ones and trek them out of the hills. Besides I do not know how to break the stones open anyway.

Need a geologist to explain. Not sure with past history of Arkansas, but were there ancient lava flows in the area? Those could be lava flow tubes or some other kind of flow tubes for water/minerals.

Man that is super interesting Bonnie! Makes me want to take a road trip!