Belated Mother's Day

Since everyone in my immediate family was either working, sleeping, or moved out on Mother's Day, I spent most of the day alone.  I did go to the hospital and visit my own mother, who was admitted to our local hospital with significant breathing difficulties the day I posted last.  She was transferred north of here, to a larger hospital 3 days later, where she was seen by the lung specialist.  A week later, she was discharged and was supposed to be sent to a nursing home locally for rehab for a few days.  She was actually sent to one further North of here, but after MANY phone calls, I was able to facilitate a transfer to the local one.  She has been there ever since, and still on supplemental O2.

We decided to celebrate Mother's Day on the following weekend.  J was able to come home from the city, and we had a couple of delicious meals, and made our annual trek to the local nursery to buy plants for my planters, as well as herbs and a few veggies for the garden.  This place is like a little wonderland...besides the beautiful flowers and trees, and greenhouse after greenhouse full of tiny green plants, they have some fauna roaming around.

I have finally managed to get all my flowers and the herbs planted out, along with nursing home visits to see my mother, L's appointments and work.

That same weekend, the eggs that I have been incubating began to hatch!  I woke up to see little pips on a couple of eggs, but the first chick didn't fully hatch until early evening.  The incubator instructions said to leave the chicks inside until they are fully dry and fluffy, and by the time I went to bed, there were 5 peeps in various states of dryness.  I woke around 4 AM to find 11 chicks crowding the remaining eggs, so I took 6 dry ones out to the heat lamp in the barn.

The first egg pips

The first chick to hatch

Second chick on the way out

Starting to get fluffy!

By Monday evening, all the eggs but one had hatched and 15 peeps were all out in the barn.  We left the remaining egg for an additional day, before L did an autopsy.  From its development, it appears that it died about 3 days before the others hatched.  We have 15 very healthy and active chicks of a variety of colors:  black, black with light tummies/butts, yellow, orange, and brown.  This one is the most colorful - it is black with orange on its face, some white on its wings and a light underside.

Today, at a week of age, they are already getting tiny feathers in their wings!

We got these little guys just in time.  JP and I found one of our hens deceased yesterday when we were working in the chicken house.

Meanwhile, my flowers are blooming, including the peonies (and now the rose bush!) and the strawberries are ready in the garden.  I have managed to avoid working in the garden for the most part because I am overwhelmed by all the grass growing in there.  The straw that we use for fertilizer actually seeded the garden. 😢

So cheers to all you hardworking mothers (better late than never!)

Egg-citing Egg-periments

It has been an eventful few weeks!  After all of the theater stuff was over and done, L and I went to an Alice in Wonderland themed Murder Mystery Tea.  Our character was the Mad Hatter, so we dressed the part.

We made a big Easter dinner and had my parents over.  JP smoked a ham, and I tried a new recipe for Melting Potatoes, which DEFINITELY warrants being made again.

My hens are now 2 years old, and although putting a light on in the hen house in the evenings all winter did increase their productivity, we don't usually keep them longer than this.  I am having a hard time finding peeps this spring, so we decided to try to hatch some eggs.  JP brought a rooster that was in need of a new home back from work with him about 2 or 3 weeks ago.  He immediately started doing his thing, and I put 18 eggs in the incubator on April 27th.

J's graduation from Bowling Green was on Saturday.  We found out last spring that all of the hotel rooms and Air BNBs in the area were already booked a year ahead, so we ended up staying just over an hour away with JP's brother.  We drove up from home last Wednesday, stopping first to change a flat on the OH turnpike, and then to have lunch with J at her apartment.

The following day we drove the hour + back to BG and got most of J's stuff in her apartment packed in the truck.  We then drove over an hour West to spend the evening with one of JP's college buddies and his family, before driving back to his brother's place for the night.  We made the trip again Friday to do some more packing and take J out for dinner, then early Sat AM took off for the grad ceremony.

We got a later start than intended and barely made it there in time.  Over 700 students graduated and there were 2 more ceremonies slated for Saturday!!

Today I have been working on laundry, but I also took the time to "candle" the eggs in the incubator.  17 out of 18 of them appear to be growing babies!

The dark spot is the embryo.

It was late and raining when we returned to PA, so even though we still have a truck full of J's stuff that needs to go up to her apartment in Pittsburgh, we didn't take the time to do it last night.  We may be taking it up today, although the Pittsburgh Marathon, a Pirate's game, and University of Pitt graduation are currently jamming up the roads.

SIGH.

The good news is new peeps in about 2 weeks, other than that, life is CRAZY!