No need for the butcher after all - an update.

My birds FINALLY got the memo......I heard that glorious, glorious song this morning and when I went out to set the girls free for the day, there it was! The first, and long anticipated, egg of the year!

It looks kind of lonely in the basket............

But, that lonely little egg is FERTILE!!!!!

Can you see the lighter yellow "dot" to the left of the shiny spot? That dear reader is the very begining of a baby chicken. And, if I hadn't cracked this egg open, I could have put it in the incubator. Then, a short 21 days later and a baby chick would have pecked it's way out of the shell.  Here is another view..................

Do you see it? In this photo it looks more like a "bullseye" with a slightly lighter outer ring than center. That's how you know your rooster is "doing his job". Now, I'll collect some eggs and fill the incubator. Hatching season has arrived!

Waiting for Spring

It's March. It's actually the middle of March, but my chickens don't know it. Every morning I get up wondering if today will be the day that they realize it's Spring, but they haven't. Day after day, nothing. The Geese have figured it out. Flocks and flocks of Canadian Geese by the dozens fly over head. They have been migrating north for two weeks now. They know it's Spring. Not my chickens.

My chickens have been on vaccation from laying eggs since our first big snow fall in December. They eat, drink, cluck around, but no eggs. I figured it's winter no big deal. There's tons of snow on the ground, I wouldn't lay either. So I haven't complained. I haven't threatened or begged or bribed them to make my breakfast not once for the last three months. But now, now it's warmer. Now, the snow has all melted away. Now, the clocks have been moved forward an hour.  Yet nary an egg to be found.
 
Last week I decided they needed a little encouragement. I made a large outdoor run for them. I figured if they could go outside and dig around in the wet earth, eat bugs and grass shoots that would remind them it's Spring. Nothing. Then I figured, it must be the ducks disturbing them. So, I built a small pen for the ducks and moved them out of the chicken coop. Nothing. Oyster shell! That had to be it. If the chickens had a fresh supply of oyster shell THEN they would realize it's spring and start laying. Nope.
 
So here I am, typing on the keyboard. As I glance outside at my chickens scratching in the dirt, lounging away under the trees, fully enjoying the day outside in their big chicken run, I wonder, where did I put the number for the butcher?

The World's Most Horrible Blogger.

I am the World's Most Horrible Blogger. I am so bad at this whole "blog" thing, I actually had to have someone remind me I even had a blog. That, my friends, is the pathetic truth. How can I ever possibly plan on leaving my mark in this world when not only can't I remember to write it down, I can't remember where I was writing it down!?!

It's not just the computer though, I was horrible at diaries and journals as a child. I have four incomplete books in my "hope chest" from my youth. I think I am just bad at taking the time daily to write. I think it's because I don't feel I have anything exciting worth remembering in life, much less to imortilize it in print. Who would want to read my boring life's story? It's not like my life couldn't be fit into a Cliff's Notes version anyway. Who needs the long drawn out boring stuff? It's a waste of trees and ink.

Aha!, you say. But the computer cuts down no trees. It drains no pen's life. So why not write it all down now? Well, I'm going to try. I promise, I will make a better effort to bore those of you who have nothing better to do than open these pages. I will put a note on the computer - Write It Down! Then, when you kind readers have run out of Ambien and there are no more sheep to count, you can visit me and I will lull you to sleep with tales of my life.

Mongo - year 1

Last year I gave my husband a puppy for his birthday. Mongo is a Neopolitan Mastiff x Cane Corso. Here is his first 9 months in photos.......................

FYI: as of his last vet visit in Feb 2010. Mongo is well over 135 lbs!