Weekend Update

The chickens have been doing great. They have already grown so much. Feathers are starting to show up on their wings, and they have all gotten bigger and taller. I have been amazed at the amount of food and water they consume. I am equally amazed at the amount of fertilizer that exits the chickens.

Rose has become a real pet. I placed my hand in the box this evening, and she ran over and jumped on it so she could get her petting time. The other chicks are still hesitant to jump on and go to the big world. That's ok, their jobs are to keep us in eggs. I think that will be a doable task since we used 0 eggs this weekend. I'm trying to keep up with consumed eggs so I know how many more chickens the coop needs to house.

All 4 girls had their first outside experience this weekend. They attended a picture shoot in Lucy's fence. They knew better than to stand around in the wide open so I had a difficult time taking pictures when they weren't underneath the grill. You can see close up shots of each chicken on the flickr site. For Drew, Lettie placed a description of each chicken so you can begin to learn their personality. I don't expect you to be experts on our 4 chickens just yet, their personalities are very complex and deep seeded.

Before they went to bed tonight, I adjusted the heat lamp for night time temperatures and I heard some commotion. Sophia was chirping and running around the box at break neck speeds. She had captured a moth. The other chicks didn't care, but Sophia knew she had a real treat. She just didn't know what to do with it. That Sophia, always the first.

Pop, Jackson, and I went to the airshow today. I missed Saturday's show as I waited on Jackson to wake up from his nap. He didn't wake up until after the Blue Angels started flying. Today I took him to the show before his nap and figured we would stay as long as he wanted. Jackson did fine thanks to Lettie packing lots of food. He had a picnic and vroomed his hand all over the sky with the airplanes. He got tired about the time the rain showed up. It was very unfortunate what happened when the tents blew over in the wind. The three of us were very close to the tents when they blew over as we ran to our car in the sideways rain. We knew something bad could have happened with all that pipe being flung around while the tents flipped like dominoes, but what did happen is heartbreaking.

CHICKENS !!

They're here. YAY

Their names are:
Dorothy
Rose
Sophia
Blanche

Case of the Mondays

I didn't see this coming. Our chickens didn't show up today. I have everything ready for the little girls, but no one showed up. I called the chicken factory, and the United States Postal Service but I didn't get any answers. I'm working at a gov't building now days, so I fully understand our government's efficiency challenges. I have a few majorly ridiculous stories which have occured this week, but I'll put that on my Sharepoint blog at work (does anyone actually do that...Just because Sharepoint has it, doesn't mean we should use it IT guys). I should not have been surprised that they didn't come through for me.

USPS says they will call me at 5:30AM if the chickens get off their next truck. I might be there before they call to help unload the truck and look for my little darlings. Here's a picture of the Bob proof brooder with it's heat lamp. I doubled it's size after I saw how much space the food and water bowls take.

In other news, we got a fence quote today and we have 2 more coming tomorrow. It looks like we'll have to keep looking until we find a vendor that doesn't mix Si clarity diamonds into their chain link. And, there is a much greater chance that everyone will be invited to our house for a fence building party. Stay tuned.

Toddler Emotions

I had a draft written that was all complainy about how Patrick is not sleeping anymore and the grumpy, bleary-eyed Lettie was back, but I guess our little angel baby decided to return because he slept peacefully all night last night. Yay!


I really wanted to get a post in before our blog becomes overridden with chicken information and pictures, so I thought I could talk about what the boys have been doing and learning lately.


Patrick's 6-month birthday was yesterday. He's been super cute lately. He's started giving sloppy kisses on the cheek and saying "ma-ma". He's still the best baby! He is trying desperately to be mobile. He kind of swims in the floor and tries so hard to crawl, but he can't get his arms and legs moving together. He also constantly bounces and moves his feet when he is being held. He loves his big brother more than anything. All it takes is a look from Jackson to entice a belly laugh.


Jackson has been learning about emotions. He's understood "happy" and "sad" for a couple of months now and just recently introduced "bored" one day while shopping at the mall. Not only is it cute and neat that he understands these complex concepts, but it has come in handy as a parenting tool. It always gets his attention when I declare "Mommy is sad" after, for example, he drops a bottle of apple juice on his little brother in the shopping cart, or scribbles a multi-colored work of art on the laundry room wall. The "mommy is sad" announcement always gets his attention and he is usually on his best behavior until he can get happy mommy back. And now that mommy is sleeping, she is definitely happier!



Oh yeah...the chicks shipped today, so they will be here soon... Prepare yourselves!

Chicken Readiness Review

It's close to chicken time. I'm expecting chickens to ship on Monday June 23rd, and arrive on Tuesday. Jackson is super pumped just like me. I get lots of cockadoodledoos from him while I work on the brooder.

My brooder is a cardboard box purchased from Target during a huge tantrum thrown by the 2 year old. The tantrum was based somehow on Thomas the train and how we're terrible parents for not buying the entire collection of track, trains, and buildings. I wish the store would cover up all the Thomas boxes so they didn't look so bloody exciting.

The brooder should be 1/2 square foot per chicken, provide access to food and water, and not let the chicks make a huge mess out of it. The chicks need to be kept at about 95 degrees for the first week, and a few degrees less each week after that so I'll have a light bulb in the box. It shouldn't be drafty, but they need air. Of course, Bob shouldn't be allowed in the brooder. The chicks can leave the nest at 3-4 weeks and stay outside full time in their coop, which right now is rotting in the yard. I have the water and food dispensers, and the pine shredding for the floor ready to go.

Here's a picture of my brooder:

Scattered

Does life just get more and more scattered when you have kids, or is it just me? Today is our first day back from vacation. When I checked my planner, I realized that Jackson was supposed to start his summer Mother's Day Out schedule last week and he has now missed 3 days of "school." The people at that program must think I'm the biggest idiot. I am the biggest idiot.

So, we just left this:

And today I am facing this:

Yuck. Back to the real world.

p.s. We are currently getting quotes for a fence for the backyard and the little chicks are scheduled to arrive in 5 days. Prepare yourselves for some more scattered blog posts!

Next Project ??

I've gotten antsy and need a new project to keep me from doing anything crazy like go get a pilot license. Here are my suggested projects:

1. Enclose the deck, and make a new living room. Our living room is too small, so it could now become a study. The study could become the dining room. The dining room could be the expanded kitchen. This project would keep me busy for a little while.

2. Put granite down. I don't want other people to do all the work, so I would consider purchasing a quarry and digging my own granite. After that, I would need to cut and polish it somehow. I'm not sure how to polish it. For some reason, Lettie doesn't want granite countertops in the kitchen.

3. Build a fence in the backyard. This is my parent's vote because they have a tendency to let the traffic on the road in the front do all the babysitting. We would fence the whole backyard, for equal hatred between the 4 neighboring yards.

4. Build a detached garage. Aww. That would be nice. We would move the driveway, and then the current garage could become the new living room.

5. Sprinkler system. Brian inspired me, but I'm afraid since last time we went days without water due to my plumbing inabilities. I could run the whole neighborhood out of water this time.

6. Build a full-size chicken house to fulfill my dreams.

7. Create an in-wall salt water aquarium using the space beneath the steps.

8. Bring in enough dirt to fill the front of the 1st floor of the house, and then call it the basement. Take the roof off, and build a 3rd floor which we would call the 2nd floor.

I have other ideas too, but they can be later.

What's your vote?