Table and Chairs

We finally got a proper table and chairs. No more eating off the coffee table. Emily and Elsie love it!

New chickens

A lot has been going on that we haven't really posted about, but we either forgot, or didn't have the camera with us. Hopefully we will get posts up, although they will be all out of order chronologically. Oh well.

Anyway... this past weekend we drove to Half Moon Bay to check out the Fall 2009 chick collection down at the farm store. We were hoping to get some gold chickens, or generally anything different looking than the chicken we already have. We ended up with two golden sex-linked chicks and two Ameraucana chicks. I think the lighter ones are the Ameraucanas and the darker ones are the golden sex linked (a cross between a rhode island red rooster and a rhode island white hen, or white rock hen). I think the golden sex link is also called a Golden Comet. Chicken breeding is confusing. I am worried that one of these is male since they look so different in color (see below), but according to the internet, the males should be totally white, while the females are redder. Maybe the two chickens we have are both golden sex linked, but actually produced from different crosses. It's confusing. Here they are climbing onto their little nest:

Here's a shot of all four together. The two on the right are Ameraucanas. They will lay funny colored eggs one day.
Here's another group shot:

Here's a close-up chicken shot:
They like to run around and cheep like crazy and then they all fall over asleep as if they died on the spot. In this picture you can see one asleep with her (hopefully) face still in the food. Pretty cute.

They are only two weeks old so they are supposed to be under a heat lamp for another two weeks and then at room temperature for another month after that, until they are fully feathered. Hopefully we can still put them out in the barn before that point if it doesn't get too cold. At about 8 weeks old we start slowly introducing them to the Sullys. It's kind of a long process.

It's hard not to call them Sullys, but they are supposed to all have a different name than the original three chickens. We haven't come up with anything chicken appropriate just yet.

trip to Montreal

Casey and I took a week off work last month and headed back to the heartland for a few days. I spent some time in Madison, which was great. I saw a lot of people, returned to the beautiful Wisconsin river, played with kittens and puppies and babies (well, just one, and he was actually sleeping), went to Noah's Ark (finally!), ate at the Weary Traveler and The Old Fashioned (in the same day!), and rocked the trivia (wearing my Gloria Vanderbuilt jeans right now! symbol=swan. We didn't actually win at trivia because of some grave underestimations in the worth of the Snapple company (apparently a lot more than $15 million). Turns out the ol' Reed College liberal arts education has a few cracks in it.) Unfortunately, I was having so much fun, I didn't return home with any pictures!

We were a little more diligent with pictures in Montreal, where we went to Annia's wedding.

It was great seeing all sorts of high school friends I hadn't seen in years. Casey and I also had the chance to explore Montreal some, and we had a great time. I recommend Montreal for vacationing, it's really easy to get around (there are even bikes as part of the public transportation) and there is plenty to do.

The first day we were there, it was raining, so we headed up to the world famous biodome. It was originally part of an Olympic building, and like many cities, Montreal has to figure out what to do with the crappy Olympic buildings dotting the landscape). Some of the olympic buildings are still actually used for athletics. Here's me in front of one of them:

The biodome had 5 ecosystems, some of them related to Canada and Montreal. Here is the St. Lawrence ecosystem. This beaver made a beeline right towards me and Casey.

Then flipped around and swam away.
This little guy was cute!

This bobcat just sat there and looked mad.
Here's Casey in his natural habitat.
We then went to the botanical gardens next door. They were huge and really nice. They even had a huge decorative produce garden that Casey liked. Here we are in the Chinese gardens.
Finishing the Borscht course at Annia's polish wedding.

We actually left the wedding before midnight to take the Metro home. The band was still there. It was shameful, but I was drunk and tired and we had to fly home early the next morning (which was miserable, as always).

All in all though, Montreal was a great time!

Yosemite Backpacking!

For the 4th of July, we went backbacking near Lake Nelson in Yosemite National Park. We did some off trail hiking. It was a lot of work, but we had an awesome time. Thanks Molly and Jared!

Starting out.

Emily and stream. There were lots of streams (and mosquitos) but just one emily!

This is the path we decided to take over the mountain. It turned out to be a lot more difficult than it looks. The top was about 10,600 ft above sea level, according to Molly's altimeter.

The snowy pass was no problem for Emily.

Casey and the brown trout he caught.

Jared with all the fish. We wanted to catch more fish but this was about the limit that we could carry on the stringer.

Cock's Comb at dusk from camp at 9500 ft.

Casey cooking fish hobo style.

Visit from ma and pa

Mom and I enjoying a day at the ball park for the Cardinals-Giants game.

Dad's favorite spot in California.

Casey and grapes!

Emily pushing away the paparrazzi in Napa.

Group photo at Mondavi.

My folks came to visit for a few days a few weeks ago, and we had some great times. The best was perhaps our visit to the old faithful geyser of california, which is one of only 3 old faithful geysers in the world. I have seen two of them now.

Eggs!

A week or so ago we got our first egg! How exciting! Here is the tiny treat:

Casey and I cooked up a tiny fried egg for dinner.  The yolks are so orange they are almost red.  

After the first egg, there was a few days without eggs.  Then we got a few more.   Now we are steadily getting a couple eggs a day!  These chickens are really starting to pay off. It's very exciting for us.

By the way, isn't it super cute when animals cover their eyes while sleeping?

recent activities

We haven't had a lot going on. Mostly working. But the weather is getting nicer and we are making an attempt to get out at least every other weekend. A few weeks ago we went strawberry picking.  It was the beginning of the season and it was incredibly muddy.  The upside is that we were the only people there! We picked about 10 pounds of strawberries that were so ripe that they only lasted a few hours before turningto  mush. So we (Casey) whipped up a big batch of freezer jam.  We are set for the rest of the year,  I think.

One unseasonably hot weekend we went to Santa Cruz for some R&R. Casey went surfing (we didn't get our act together early enough for me to take lessons).  I read a whole book on the beach and got sunburned! Good times.

Chicken Tragedies

All of what I am about to relate happened a long time ago, over a month ago now. It's just been too depressing to talk about on what I planned to be a fun, lighthearted blog.

This all started one morning when Casey came down and found an area dug out under the fenced-in area outside with a lot of black feathers around it. We thought our landlord was supposed to close the sliding door to their outside area at night, and I guess he thought we were going to do it. Anyway, Big Sully (the big, black hen) was not moving much, but was still alive. She had been attacked through the chicken wire and had at least one toe ripped off. I couldn't tell what other injuries she had, but her refusal to move much or respond made me very worried. It was a very hard time. Casey and I spent the next two weeks hand feeding her oatmeal and eggs with pain killers and antibiotics. Casey also sprayed her foot religiously with BlueKote antibiotic spray. After a week or so, she at least started getting up and moving around so we knew at least that she didn't have any serious injuries.  Here is a picture of Casey's lab visiting the chickens while Big Sully is convalescing.

Then, about a week after this animal attack, we came home to find Red Sully missing.  According to Bob, there was a commotion in the yard around 3 pm. When he got there, Red Sully was gone and the barn looked totally untampered with. Either Red Sully was able to fly out of the barn during the day, or Casey accidently left her out in the morning.  It was very sad as Red Sully was everyone's favorite chicken.  She was the prettiest and the nicest.  She will be missed.

Several weeks after Big Sully's animal attack she is really doing very well. She still has a little bit of a limp, and favors her bad foot, but she is really getting along pretty well. What a good chicken!

Now we are very cautious of wild animals and Casey faithfully closes up the barn at night and keeps a close eye on the chickens during outside time.  He is very diligent.  What lucky chickens!

multi-purpose kitty

Unlike Jack and Roxanne, who have three pets AND a baby, or Laurel and Demian with their 5 pets, Casey and I only have one pet (chickens don't count, although I have grown very attached to them). Therefore, Elsie is forced to fulfill many roles around the house.

Here is Elsie in a very popular role (with Casey more than Elsie) as a hat. Looking good, Casey!

Good save. It's a long fall for a kitty hat.

Casey also likes to get out his aggression with a round of kitty boxing. Here Casey is showing off his mean one-two punch:

That round went to Casey, although Elsie can be a formidable opponent.

Round 2:
Elsie is definitely doing some damage and gaining a lead on Casey.
until a DQ for biting:
Whew. All that boxing is tiring. Good thing Elsie makes a perfect pillow.