We love visitors. Greg, Julia, AnneMarie, and Charlie came by for a couple days on their way back from visiting Charleston. We are really glad they stopped by! We went out for dinner, and went to church together on Easter morning, and Julia and I even got a chance to run 3 miles. (I think Julia will be looking for some hills in the future.)
It was a really good visit. Looking forward to that visit from Steph and Mauro and fam…
🙂
I also think that Charlie should get some Chickens. Those birds got a lot of attention (and food) from Charlie. It’s almost like (my) Melinda was back in town! Oh, and I think the waffle in charlies hand in the picture got licked by gigi about .5 seconds after this picture was taken!
OK, actually chickens… The last few days I have found feathers in the yard from Rockwell’s chicken. Nothing special.. but then this morning I go out to the coop and let the chickens out, and look at Rockwell’s chicken… Omygoodness… did the chickens have a knockdown drag out fight or something ? Rockwell’s chicken is half naked!
OK, wait.. its half naked on its belly too… whats going on.
Turns out She is molting. And if you have not seen this before, you would probably want to kill it and put it out of its misery.. because a molting chicken is UUUGLY. Ill have to get a picture before the day is through just to show you an ugly chicken.
OK, here is a molting chicken.. This picture does not do the ugly justice.. you cant see the missing feathers on her belly and under her wings. Holding her is as much fun as holding a brillo pad instead of the “normal” of a nice downy pillow!
Recently, I got another chicken from Arthur. Its a long story, but the picture you are about to see is a study in nutrition.
What happened was, Arthur made a deal with one of his tenants. Arthur had a building on one of his rental properties that made the perfect chicken house. It was about 16×20 feet, with a yard out the side that the chickens could run in. So Arthur purchased 100 chickens mail order, and this guy was going to keep them and share some of the profits of the eggs or the chickens themselves when they where grown. Arthur even sprang for the feed. Well, I went to check on his chickens the other day, and there where non around! the place was barren. the fence in the yard had a knocked down section, and there was not a chicken in sight. It looked like it had been that way for a couple weeks. Anyway, I went and reported this sad news to Arthur, and he contacted his tenant and asked what happened. The guys said,” Oh, they are around, they are ranging in the woods and around the house”. and he asked Arthur if he wanted him to bring a couple over. So a couple days later, a lone chicken shows up.
And that is how I adopted one more chicken
The Chicken on the right is the sister to the chicken on the left. they both came from the exact same brood. They where born on the same day.
Isn’t that interesting? The only difference is the chicken on the left is truly free-range, and the one on the right (Melinda’s Chicken) is well fed. Even their colors are different. Melinda’s chicken is a deeper gold. That said, the skinny chicken still seems healthy, and I sure she will catch up to her sister quick enough.
In other Chicken news, since we have a new chicken, I have to keep the new chicken in the coop to keep her from running away. This needs to last a couple weeks give or take. so, when I let the chickens out in the morning, I close the coop back up, so the new one does not run away.
Well, since then, around noon, when I go in the yard to walk the dogs, and check up on the chickens, the black one (Rockwell’s chicken) sees me and stands near me wherever I go and makes chicken noises. (“buuk bucUUUK”). She even leaves the other ones to stand near me. (Unusual).
I figured it out! She likes to lay around the middle of the day, and she wants back into the coop so she can lay her egg!
Nothing major, just simple things.
#5, I figured if I gave the chickens enough room (A big yard) they would not do any damage to the grass.
Wrong.
They concentrate on on area until they are “done” with it.
That means, they might have a half acre to roam, but they like 5 square feet that no longer has grass.
I don’t mind, I was just surprised they did not roam more.
#6 Umm, duh. Eggs are warm when they are fresh! OK, this would be obvious if I gave 500 milliseconds of thought to it before I picked up my gift from one of the girls this morning.
But I didn’t.
I let the chickens out, saw an egg in their little makeshift nest, and picked it up.. it must have been laid in the previous 5 minutes, because it was warm..
First thought was.. Ok, to this urban store egg buying guy, fresh eggs are supposed to be cold!.
Wrong!
Too funny. Chickens; everyone should have a couple!
Actually, we have two of them. They are two different colors, so I’m pretty confident that they are from two different birds.
I was in the coop yesterday, and did not see this little nesting area they dug out. It would be a coincidence that two girls decided to start laying on the same day no?
Here they are, happy as can be. I love picking them up. they are so fluffy and soft and smell good. Its like holding a warm pillow. 🙂
A couple of the neighbor kids came over to see the chickens, and the wanted to pose with the eggs.
I have been working hard on finishing the Spiral staircase to the upstairs of the house. I have made it completely from scratch. The stringers are made out of 1/4 inch plate steel, and the treads are made out of heart pine.
I cut these out freehand using a plasma cutter.
Drywall steps.
It was a complete coincidence that the wall upstairs was parallel to the wall downstairs. I am thankful for that. I’m beginning to enjoy doing drywall work!
I have half the treads made. Ill load pictures of the stairs with treads soon. the next major step is making the balusters. That will be enjoyable, as I will make them at my forge. The hardest part by far is going to be the handrail. I have not even figured out how I’m going to do that.
Today was the awards ceremony at the BMX track.
Rockwells name is called at 52 seconds if you want to jump to it.
Rockwell got his jersey and nameplate with his name on it. How cool is that? I wish I had one of those when I was his age.
Aaand one last thing.. Chicken video. I like my chickens. I’m still waiting for them to start laying though. Here is a video of my morning ritual.
