Our poor puppy princess, Kismet, is totally freaked out by the chicks. She gets curious about the bizarre peeping noise and sticks her head in the brooder to investigate. The chicks make baby sized squawks and Kismet flinches and runs away. This happens pretty much every time we go into the garage. I think the babies know what they're doing and intentionally make funny noises when the door opens, and I swear I saw a few of the bigger gals chuckling after one of the incidents. Poor puppy, if its not the cats, its the chickens that pick on her.
The Gals are growing like crazy, if you blink you might miss it. The pictures are from last weekend. Most of them are almost fully feathered and ready to go outside for brief spirts. The neighbor kids think they're great fun and constantly want to come over and play with our "peepers". Peepers is one of two code names we've established to keep our sour puss neighbor from knowing that we've got chickens. (Really he lives across the street, our actual neighbors think its grand. And he's really a nice guy, he's just one of those people who doesn't understand our projects. Oh, and he's a Republican.) The other name we use for our gals: Mexican Ground Parrots. Unfortunately, we can't take full credit for this brilliant nomenclature. Ryan came across a similar name out on the web.
The gardens are thriving and we have even started getting a few tasty treats (spring onions, sage, and an occasional strawberry) from them. The 3-year-old girl who lives next door has been developing her gourmand instincts and asking for "tours" of the gardens. The "tours" consist of her pointing to a plant and asking, "Can you eat that?" I still haven't convinced her to try some mint, but the strawberries and stivia are a big hit. Perhaps I can change her mind this weekend after we make mint chocolate chip ice cream from scratch, with real cream. What budding foodie wouldn't go gushy over that?
Yesterday the postwoman brought us a 7 inch hand loom from Hazel Rose Looms. It is a wonderful piece of craftsmanship, and Ryan really liked the customer service. (He ordered the loom.) We both made some squares last night while watching TV, and since we're still getting the hang of the loom, our squares are a bit wonky. We've decided to keep making them anyway and use them to create a new blanket for Kismet. Perhaps this will make up (a little bit) for all the merciless teasing she gets from the rest of the kids.
- Gretchen
The Gals are growing like crazy, if you blink you might miss it. The pictures are from last weekend. Most of them are almost fully feathered and ready to go outside for brief spirts. The neighbor kids think they're great fun and constantly want to come over and play with our "peepers". Peepers is one of two code names we've established to keep our sour puss neighbor from knowing that we've got chickens. (Really he lives across the street, our actual neighbors think its grand. And he's really a nice guy, he's just one of those people who doesn't understand our projects. Oh, and he's a Republican.) The other name we use for our gals: Mexican Ground Parrots. Unfortunately, we can't take full credit for this brilliant nomenclature. Ryan came across a similar name out on the web.
The gardens are thriving and we have even started getting a few tasty treats (spring onions, sage, and an occasional strawberry) from them. The 3-year-old girl who lives next door has been developing her gourmand instincts and asking for "tours" of the gardens. The "tours" consist of her pointing to a plant and asking, "Can you eat that?" I still haven't convinced her to try some mint, but the strawberries and stivia are a big hit. Perhaps I can change her mind this weekend after we make mint chocolate chip ice cream from scratch, with real cream. What budding foodie wouldn't go gushy over that?
Yesterday the postwoman brought us a 7 inch hand loom from Hazel Rose Looms. It is a wonderful piece of craftsmanship, and Ryan really liked the customer service. (He ordered the loom.) We both made some squares last night while watching TV, and since we're still getting the hang of the loom, our squares are a bit wonky. We've decided to keep making them anyway and use them to create a new blanket for Kismet. Perhaps this will make up (a little bit) for all the merciless teasing she gets from the rest of the kids.- Gretchen
