a free day

So, I'd like to blame my lack of follow up around here on my schedule, and it has been somewhat influential this past month, but I glanced backward over this year and I've only been posting twice a month on average anyway. I keep meaning to post, and then I realize I don't really have anything to say. Imagine that - me without an opinion, at least one that is healthy for me to share. 

Therefore, today's the day to write something. Partially because tonight's double header softball game was cancelled due to the heat!! We've had one day off of baseball and/or softball (June 20th) this entire month, so today makes two!! Yay! Well, that's not completely accurate as we did skip a weekend to take a quick trip to the Wisconsin Dells, but that doesn't mean games weren't scheduled! We celebrated Sis's 12th birthday there... inadvertently creating a family tradition. You see, we went to Minnesota for Wy's 12th birthday, taking him to a Vikings game. Now, Beebs, wants to know where HE gets to go for his 12th birthday. Thankfully I have over 4 years to plan that one! Right now he's really pushing for an RV vacation to see the Grand Canyon next year. I'm all for it!

What I really feel like writing down are things that have happened this year that remind me of how blessed I am and other things that just generally make me happy:

• 3 healthy kids who have needed no serious medical intervention (those who know us, know that this is rarity in our household) 
• 3 kids who are all maintaining straight A's and a love of books
• chickens - I love this new adventure, although I don't love all the work! :)
• spending some time with my brother while he was in Illinois for several weeks - this hasn't happened since he enlisted and left the state over 5 years ago
• a husband who showed major dedication and commitment, completing his MBA
• a fun, albiet sometimes stressful, job that granted me a promotion a year after I started
• becoming a Mac convert
• a green wall in my family room and an orange kitchen/dining area
• new bedroom furniture
• being physically able to exercise and make a dietary lifestyle change for my family - I've lost 13 lbs. as a by-product of this!
• living close to my parents - never thought I'd say this, but both Todd and I are thoroughly enjoying and taking comfort in this
• donating my hair for a 3rd time - especially when we know two families currently in the throes of childhood cancer 

Now, that feels better.
What are you blessed by and happy about this year?

Chicken Math

I've always liked math. I can add, subtract, multiply, and divide. Algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus... pretty much everything except the accounting classes I had to take in college were all okay with me. Chicken math, however, is an entirely different thing and it has apparently taken over at my house. 

I had read during my incessant research that they were kind of like potato chips - you can't have just one... or in our case, just 4. We started in March with 4 black Australorps. When they were just days old, I was hooked and ordered more eggs. This time I ordered Lemon Cuckoo Orpingtons! Orpingtons had been my second choice for breeds when I was starting this venture so I decided to split the flock.

When they arrived, they had been badly damaged by the postal carrier. The farmer packed them well, but the box had been through the ringer. Only 3 of 8 eggs were intact and knowing that they had obviously been sloshed around pretty hard, I wasn't very positive that any would hatch. I set the 3 eggs anyway, cause you never know, right? I contacted the shipper, just to let her know about the issue. She felt terrible and said she'd send more eggs at no cost to me. I mean, really, how could I refuse?!?

Fast forward 20 days and we had another hatch on April 25! One of the 3 sloshed eggs actually formed and hatched! We named the chick Uno. It was lonely and cheeped a lot, so I gave it a stuffed chick to hang out with. 

Two days after that hatch, the 5 free eggs arrived. So, we went right back to incubating! May 19th, 4 of the 5 set eggs hatched. This clutch included two Lemon Cuckoos and two Lavender Orpingtons. So, chicken math has caused me to double my flock in an 8 week time frame! I have 8 chickens!

I'm nearly certain that we have 2 males in our original 4, but the littles are still too young to tell males from females. Welcome to chicken raising... the only animal that you can't really know 100% for certain the gender until they crow or lay an egg, around 20 weeks old! That's waiting another 11 weeks or so! Ay yi yi! 

Since we're not keeping the males, we may only end up with a handful of chickens out of this first go round, but the intermediate problem is that my coop houses 4-6 chickens. Uh oh. Time for a bigger coop, no? So we've spent our "free time" over the past 3 days building a 6x6 coop with a 14 foot run that will house up to 16 chickens. Yay! 

Remind me some time to fill you in on the chicken sanity line I crossed within the first 6 weeks of owning these dang birds... it involved an injury, wound care, hand feeding, and a chicken who's now completely content to sit on my lap and watch tv with me...