Mama Hen Update #5 - Still Waiting

Mama Hen is still sitting on her nest, and nothing seems to be happening with the eggs yet.  Today is 21 days from when she first started sitting.  Some more eggs were laid in the nest the following day, so perhaps we will have to wait until 21 days from the last egg.

I wonder if she feels like I did before both of my girls were born, when my "due date" came and went and no baby came?

First Garden Harvest of 2013

L and I went down to the garden this morning before breakfast and we picked about 1 gallon of luscious strawberries!

Mama Hen Update #4 - The Blob

Mama remains quite contented in her new Baby Hotel.  She panicked a bit this morning when I threw corn to the rest of the flock...she ran around flapping and pecking and trying desperately to get out.  I have been pouring a little bit of corn just outside of her nest box where she can reach it without getting up, but that didn't seem to satisfy her this morning.

I candled the eggs again tonight.  We finally had a warm night so I didn't have to worry about leaving the eggs out for a few minutes.  All of the eggs (with the exception of the same one that I questioned last time) were entirely filled with a dark blob, leaving a tiny sliver of light through at one end.  Since it is now day 18 of incubation, I'm assuming that blob is the chick.

Friday is day 21, so by this weekend we should have some new peeps!

Tuesday Night Circus

A few weeks ago, L told me that the circus was coming to town this week.  The word "circus" usually brings to mind this:

I was able to slip out of work a bit early this evening, and the girls and I rushed to the early show under the Big Top.  It was not very crowded, and quite enjoyable - clowns, trapeze artists, jugglers, fire eaters, animal acts, expensive peanuts and popcorn - the works!

We ran into our friends there, this being Small Town, America.  Uncle J allowed the girls to ride an elephant during intermission.

Forgot my camera, so it was terrible
cell phone pic or nothing!

The elephants made me think of Water for Elephants, which if you haven't read it yet, consider doing so this summer, it is quite entertaining.

We met up with JP afterwards and ate dinner together at Bob Evans (Tuesday nights kids eat free!)  Then rushed home to wash up, read a chapter of Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, and tuck the girls into bed just a few minutes late.

All in all, we had a pretty fun Tuesday evening!

Rock-A-Bye Baby, In the Treetop...

I think this is the third year that we've had a Cook Out on the Hill for Memorial Day with all of our friends.  Our crowd was a bit smaller this year, than years past, but we had a good time anyway.

JP found a giant 2 man sling shot, capable of shooting water balloons up to 200 yards.  We managed to dent the side of the barn a few times in the process.

Afterward, the girls invited 2 of their girlfriends for the FIRST EVER INAUGURAL TREE HOUSE SLEEP OVER.  We packed them in like sardines, and despite over night temperatures that hovered down around 35 degrees, they stayed snuggly warm up there.

They had a walkie talkie in their possession, should they need to contact us.  We heard from them only once, at about 10:15 PM.  "Daddy!  Help!  It's an emergency!  There's a giant cockroach on the ceiling!  S.O.S.!  S.O.S.!" 

By the time he made it up the tree to rescue the damsels in distress, the vermin had scurried back into a crack.  Cute.

It has been a long week.  The power was out overnight twice, necessitating L and I to start school at McDonalds on their free Wi-Fi on one morning.  J had SO MANY field trips and fun things and very little school last week.  L had her last Speech Therapy session and her first Piano Recital.  So...it has been nice to be a bit lazy today!

We have 4 more days of school, no more piano lessons, speech therapy, or swim lessons this week.  It's do-able.  I think I can...

Mama Hen Update #3 - Carnage

You know those nature experiments that you get all excited about doing with your kids, but they go terribly wrong?  Like raising Monarch Butterflies, except the chrysalis gets dropped accidentally, completely annihilating the growing butterfly in the process.

I found a Praying Mantis egg case last Fall, when I was cleaning out my flower bed, so I stuck it in the nifty little clear plastic "creature case"  (it has had fish, tadpoles, Praying Mantises and caterpillars inside over its long history.)  Then I stuck it on a window sill in the garage, where it stayed all winter long.  This morning, JP noticed what he thought were ants all over the window sill.  The Praying Mantises apparently hatched yesterday, when it was close to 90 degrees outside, and were in the plastic case in the sun.  It looks like all of them perished.  I felt terrible when I saw the carnage...it's all my fault they met their doom in our garage!

I'm feeling a bit that way about Mama Hen these days too!  When I checked on her this afternoon, I realized that she only had 9 eggs under her...9!  I looked quickly around for the missing egg, but didn't find any signs of it until tonight.  There was a wet spot in the wood shavings in front of her nest.  Apparently another egg was pushed out, probably broke in the process, and was eaten.

I decided that in order to allow her to raise even a couple of chicks, it was in Mama Hen's best interest to move to quieter quarters.  Under cover of darkness, I moved the old Egg Cart'n down next to the Chicken Barge, filled only one nest box with clean, fluffy shavings, and carefully moved the remaining 9 eggs in.  I put Mama on top, and she muttered to herself while she rearranged them, but was peacefully sitting there when I left her.  She has her own food and water, a small run to scratch in during her coffee breaks, and blissful privacy.

Let's hope the rest of these babies actually make it...I'm extremely vested in their well being by now!

More May Flowers

Some more things are blooming in my flower bed, some of them for the first time!

Lupine and Peonies

I dug the plant with blue flowers from my friend's garden before she moved.  Can anyone tell me what it is?  I love the cornflower blue.  It made me realize that I didn't have enough blue in my garden, so I added a blue Columbine and a blue Balloon Flower...both Mother's Day gifts from JP and the girls.

Blue Balloon Flower -
photo courtesy of Wikipedia