Thank you very much, HenCrazyMom! That makes me blush. Garsch!
The last two chicks (which were badly shrink-wrapped) are now in the brooder and one of them has got quite a set of lungs! Whoa! Hush, little baby! I keep putting my hand in there to cup it and it will settle down. I don't think I can do that all night... or call in sick any more this month unless I'm really, really sick. Please, baby, it's going to be okay, I promise.
I put it back into the incubator. I think it still needs to be kept VERY warm. It doesn't want to stand up straight, which is probably due to having been curled up, shrink-wrapped, so long in the egg.
Ahhhh... silence. Sort of. There's a lot of happy chipping coming from the brooder. But Lungs has stopped screaming.
I moved one of the smaller kit coops today (from where it was "staged" after HH and FL brought it up from the rental last Thursday). Also found 3 eggs in it... not pullet eggs, either. So 3 hens found it good in its temporary spot. It's always been a good coop for a couple of ducks, as it's not raised. It's been placed on the same terrace as the apple tree, where the ducks like to nap. Hopefully the duck ladies will find it handy when they are ready to lay.
John had submitted his latest invoice yesterday but I couldn't find my checkbook then. Found it about 10 minutes after he left and called him to say so. He came by today to pick it up and check out the waterer he repaired and set up. Had I hooked up the security cameras yet? No, not yet. I have chicks to adore, right now.
He was ruminating on how easy it will be to replace the roof on my house, given the placement of one half of my driveway and the side of the house. After all, he measured the roof yesterday and provided a rough estimate of the cost to do it.
As nice as the weather has been, that major project still needs to be put off for a while just in case Wet Winter Weather decides to show up soon. I decided to redirect his interest to the Side Deck Project, which can be handled any time of the year.
Oh, he LIKES building decks and putting in doors very much. "Those are fun to build," he said, quite obviously perked up about it. We discussed dimensions, type of railing, kind of door into the guest bedroom/office/Incubator & Nursery Room, and other aspects of such a project.
The deck will be 8 X 12 feet, and finished pretty much the same as the grape holder,
but I haven't quite decided if I want a covering over it yet. Whatever covering will be open, similar to that of the pergola but NOT just like it, as I don't want to take the interest away from that structure.
Because the land is sloped, the steps up to the deck will be on the "high" side, out of sight from visitors approaching the house. I was informed "Nobody uses the front doors around here, they all come to side or kitchen doors first." Well, I don't want visitors to approach the house from the deck. So the steps will be obscured by the deck itself. The old crappy guest room window on that side of the house will be removed and a single French door will replace it. I'll have to re-organize the furniture inside the room....
We discussed methods of hanging my pretties (hummingbird feeders, wind chimes) from the new board he used for the gutter replacement project along the front of the house, because I said I was resistant to screening in the porch. But I might "allow" it if I had a deck where the chickens could visit me. Then I wouldn't feel so bad about excluding the flock from the porch. (Yes, I am insane. I
LIKE their presence there. )
He's going shopping for the materials this week.
Yesterday I offered him a chick-holding opportunity but he declined it.
Humph. I guess he had plenty of chick-holding experiences when he was growing up on a chicken farm in the Santa Cruz Mountains. However, every visit, he casually attempts to pick up a chicken as they mill about us. He was successful in picking up Bertha yesterday, cuddling her until she calmed down. Today, he sidled up to Carl, who was perched on the porch railing. Carl gave him a look of disbelief and launched himself off the railing onto the front driveway. John remarked on the number of chickens dust-bathing in the concrete planter along the front of the porch; he agreed with me there would be no use attempting to plant anything there. It's simply the Chicken Dust Bathing Spa.
And another week begins during which I will have little or no flock interaction. I can hardly wait for the days to lengthen!
