October 2011

Thought I should take a moment and review.
1. the kitchen redo project is proceeding in fits and starts. I really need a kitchen designer person to make decisions and it would go a lot faster...I seem to spend a lot of time going to Lowes.
2. Larry, Seb, and Haley went on a hike and Larry hurt his back and lost his phone. So I'm phone shopping online for the second time in a month.
3. Larry and I did a "come see a time share weekend" for the first time. Went to Myrtle Beach. Larry thought it was a good information gathering trip, but we didn't buy into the time share.
4. Larry and I are working outside on projects: he's building a "run in shed" for the tillers, I am working on a pen for chickens (with help from him on the sawing..he doesn't trust me with his big saw :)
5. Della is stressed about school. Esther is doing fine.
I hope one day to be able to blog like I used to journal; I love the way my daughters put photos on their blogs but I'm not there yet!

Virginia: I love it.

This is my prize ear of Hickory King corn. It was being raised for seed, and then the deer got it. If this were Old Yeller, we'd all be starving next year. The deer in Virginia, by the way, are currently being struck down by hemorrhagic fever, which comes around every two or three years. But MY deer are alive and well. Too bad. This is the third year they have wiped out my beans!

The Spring Hatching

 These are Salmon Favarolle chicks on their way to the brooder. Out of 69 eggs, I got 63 chicks-an outstanding hatch! (Now six weeks old, the chicks can be sexed by feather color, and I have 32 males and 31 females. A perfect example of the male/female birth ratio.)

These a blue eggs from Americanas. I put the brown Rhode Island egg in the middle to give you a contrast.

I had some problems with this hatch and only 18 chicks survived, but they are doing very well at the 3 week mark.

Meanwhile, I have all the favarolles moved to outside pens, and the Americanas are in my new brooder that Larry built. I also have one more batch of chicks (the last hatch of the spring) in the garage; these are layers/meat roosters that I will sell.

Cold but Sunny

Just spent two hours in the bright but frigid outdoors, rearranging chickens (as hens go broody, I must give each one a quiet spot where they can sit on their eggs undisturbed), making a stand for a chicken waterer (or the chickens kick shavings into the water), fastening water cups to cages so the chickens waiting for new owners don't knock over their water AGAIN, that sort of thing. Now I'm ready to come in and think about dinner. I have to pick Della up (Dad is in St. Louis) so it will be a simple meal. Or a DQ meal. Hmmm...

Saying No To Chickens- in March

I have 38 young chickens in the garage. I have 62 very young chicks in the house, and one more incubator load to go. Somehow all these chickens will have to find a place to stay. Meanwhile, all the older chickens are laying famously and I had another 150 eggs that could have been hatched in a friends large incubator, but I sighed and instead washed them so they could be sold. There are just never enough cages for the spring rush.
Larry leaves for St. Louis tomorrow and so he was rushing to finish a cage for my newest chickens. These are small birds called Seramas, or "Malaysian House Chickens". I'm raising these for pets rather than practical use.
It's a lot of fun right now, raising the new chickens and starting new plants. The weather turned back to winter last week and now the house is full of seed trays, birds, and oh yes, fish babies. The molly in the beta tank had babies that had to be rescued from their mother. So that's one more aquarium on the crowded window shelf.
Out in the garden, we have put in some lettuce and radishes, but I haven't even checked to see if they are up. I also planted onion sets in a raised bed, and started cleaning out last years old stalks so I can till (whenever it dries out enough).
This winter I acquired a chain saw and now I can cut up the big branches that are laying around after all the winds in February. I tried cutting up the big tree that fell partway into the pond. Mistake; it was too big around and I got my saw trapped. So after that, I tackled smaller diameter wood. One big branch just missed our two pick-ups and I reduced it to a neat pile of logs yesterday. Very satisfying! I just wish the saw wouldn't die every time I set it down, since starting it is hard on my shoulder. Larry said that may be a problem with the idle setting.
All for now!

The "I Heart Chickens" Necklace; Owl Sunset Necklace

The necklace above is for a friend of mine who likes chickens as much as I do. The chicken bead was given to me years ago; the blue beads are (I think) dyed stone, leftover from another project. The amber glass lentils were $8 (but I still have half a strand left) and the white/silver glass beads were $2 (!) at a bead show. The silver heart was 30 cents. Clasp $2. Total cost: $9 approximate.

Owl Sunset is for sale. Amber glass beads, purple coin pearls, mookaite owl pendant, aged bronze findings.
24 inches long, with matching earrings. I just have to work out where/how to sell these pieces. Some arrangement where I don't actually have to do the selling :) I've already decided that as long as my materials cost is covered, I'm happy, so I'm going to sell this for $30.

Edwin Hubble Quote

Edwin Hubble wrote a paper in 1929 which became the basis for the Big Bang theory  (which is controversial in some circles). This month's Discover magazine commented that there has been an incredible increase of data in astronomy since Hubble's day, and yet Hubble's accomplishment was not just collecting data, but finding the pattern in it. Listen to the scientist speak:

"Eventually we reach the dim boundary-the utmost limits of our telescopes. There we measure shadows, and we search among ghostly errors of measurement for landmarks that are scarcely more substantial. The search will continue. Not until the empirical resources are exhausted need we pass on to the dreamy realms of speculation."

So many Christians are afraid of science, and so many scientists are afraid of faith. In an ideal world, both would search for truth and let it show them the patterns of reality.

Spring, 2011

Even though we may still get some more cold weather, it's still spring around here, practically speaking. I have 38 chicks hatched and the incubator is running with another batch. I'm seriously working on clearing part of the garage to start seeds. Between seeds and chicks, winter doesn't stand a chance!
Della took some good chick pictures and I hope she'll post one for me. Meanwhile, check out Mochi watching the chicks in the previous post...

Thou shalt not

These chicks are mine, O Cat.
Thou shalt not put thy paw upon them.
Thou shalt not touch them with claw or with tooth.
Lo, not even with the smallest claw may you touch them.
For they are the birds of my flock and the chicks of my raising.
Remember this when you lay down upon the brooder top.
Remember when you sleep, and when you arise and stretch.
Thus do I say.