We're finally home again!

We took a week off and travelled to Wisconsin and Winnipeg, Manitoba. Our dog went to the kennel, our guinea pig went to grandma and grandpa's and our chickens were visited daily by some wonderful friends (who want some fresh eggs this fall! ;-) Picking up and going somewhere isn't as easy as it used to be! We spent a day in Wisconsin with Bret's brother Mark. We enjoyed BBQ chicken and a hike on his 40 acres. We spent an enjoyable week with Stephen and Heidi (and Benjamin) in Winnipeg and visited with all of Angela's family while there. On the way home we were surprised by a flat tire and ended up buying two new tires in Fargo, N.D.. Surprise! Although our return was delayed, we did stop in Janesville on the way back to check out our old house there. They put a pool where I had my garden and built a deck on the back of the house. Oh, well. I'm still quite glad we moved, although it was nice at the park by the highway. We stopped there for a while to let the kids stretch their legs. It was a nice trip down memory lane.

Other summer fun...

We also enjoyed time with Mom and Otto when they came our way in May. We made our pilgrimmage to the Wildlife Prairie Park (rehabilitation facility for wild animals) and to Starved Rock State Park (a lovely park with natural caves and springs). We enjoyed the trip and the time together with Mom, Otto and Steven (Otto's son).

I promised you ballet pictures...

Greetings all! I did promise ballet pictures and that was some time ago. The ballet recital was at the end of May! Katie is in the back row on the far left. She had a lot of fun doing this. We have taken the summer off, but will be back in fall, I'm sure. I cried during the performance! I'm such a wimp. :-)

The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

Okay, the sky is not falling. And the "chickens little" are really not that little anymore. They are three weeks old. The chicks are growing and eating and pooping! They are trying really hard to fly (with little success--they can get on top of the waterer) and have gotten used to my frequent visits with food and water. Bret gets his entertainment by dropping one small shaving of paper or cardboard into the "coop." The chicks respond by grabbing the slip of paper and running off, then stealing it from each other. They snatch the paper from each other and try to get it all to themselves! It is very funny to watch--you'll have to take my word for it until I can figure out how to get a video on my blog. It was surprising to me how time can fly as I sit and watch the chickens interacting. They are generally quite active. Even when they are all sleeping they nudge each other and ruffle their feathers. We've lost two, but I think the 24 that remain are healthy and will survive.

More pictures will follow soon!

No Links Please

Just thought I'd put a request to all you lovely readers. Please do not put a link to this blog on your own webpage or blog. If you have already done so, could you please remove it? This blog is only for family and friends and we would prefer to avoid random access to our pictures and information. Thank you all for your help in this! Sincerely, Angela.

Happy Father's Day etc.

After church this morning we spent the afternoon with Bret's parents. For lunch we grilled pork chops (Bret's favorite). Then we went bowling. It was a nice day. Bret got two stepping stones which the kids made and decorated with sparkles, tile, beads and some sea glass we collected in Ontario and Florida. He also got some new t-shirts. No ties!

Later it was time to clean the chicken "coop" (fancy word for dog cage with special features) and to give the chickens their first roost (after all they are almost one week old). I had Katie help me move the chicks one by one into a large cardboard box. We took out the yucky newspaper and pine bedding and put in nice clean newspaper and pine bedding--smells really good! Then we put them back in one at a time. All 26 of them. They were not very pleased about the disruption to their eat/sleep/poop cycle. When they got back in they took a minute to adjust to the new environment (and poop a little to make it smell more familiar). Then they ate as though I had deprived them for hours instead of only about 10 minutes.

I read in my chicken book that a roost should be about 1/2 inch to 1 inch off the ground and a stick will do. So, I taped some cardboard around the ends of a stick from the yard. It looks like a mini barbell. It looks really weird. The chickens thought so too. They totally freaked out and bunched up at one end of the coop. I'm not sure what they were thinking. After a minute of loud peeping, they responded to the stress in different ways. Some fell asleep, some ate, and some pecked at spots on the wall or newspaper. Several continued to stare at the odd-looking roost. One brave soul actually jumped over it and ran away. I didn't know what excellent entertainment a stick could be to a chicken!

BIG NEWS!

Big News! Our chickens have arrived! This morning at 6:00 am the post office called to let us know that our chickens were here. We have 26 little chicks and they are cute as can be. 1/2 of them are black and yellow (Plymouth Barred Rock) and the others are brownish (Rhode Island Red) They are drinking (fortified water) and eating (mashed, boiled egg yolks). They are already pecking at everything. Katie has named two of them (Lily and Brownie), but we have warned her that we are only keeping 10 of them to lay eggs for us. They are fun to watch. They fall asleep under the light and slowly their heads dip down and they lay down. Then another chick comes and tried to step on or over the sleeping chick and it quickly awakes and gets up to find another spot to lay down. Occasionally they fall or roll over without apparent cause. At first they kept climbing into the water bowl to take a drink. Now they've figured out that they'll get wet. This is serious entertainment!

The other pictures were also taken this morning. Our new piano arrived last night thanks to the help of some of Bret's friends from work. Would you believe that the guy who gave us this piano (yes, free) told us that he was so anxious to get rid of it, if we didn't pick it up this week, he'd take his sawzall (sp?) and cut it up to put it in the garbage! We are delighted with our new piano, although we'll be arranging for someone to come and tune it soon!