Last night I was putting Fiona to bed when she commented on the rhythmic shrill cheeping coming from the basement. At first she thought it was some sort of electronic alarm. “Oh, it’s just a chick,” she said, after listening
The new little family
For now they’re either named 10, 12, 13, 17, 19, 20 and 22 or else Pip, Peep, Poop, Chip, Cheep, Choop and Lamarr. That’s Lamarr/22 in the bottom right. He’s the smallest, having just hatched out last night, while Pip/10
Today’s Uglee
The Chick Formerly Known as Egg 13 hatched just as we headed off to the regional Suzuki Celebration Concert this morning. We were able to watch him emerge from his shell and snap a photo of him in a state
Another hatching
Yesterday just before the choir concert we noticed that Egg 12 was moving about and peeping. By bedtime it had a small crack and pip hole. We were pretty sure that we’d have another chick by morning. And indeed …
I’m a grandma!
I was at work this morning when the ‘back door’ phone rang in my office. I excused myself, explaining to my patient that my younger kids were home alone and that I needed to answer the phone which they knew
Incubator update
We made a very primitive egg-candler out of an office lamp, some duct tape and a piece of cardboard. It doesn’t give a very good light seal, but we’re using it as best we can. There is a stark difference
Rooster masculinity update
We’d been questioning our rooster’s masculinity. He isn’t exactly overtly assertive with the ladies and while we are optimistically incubating eggs that we hope are fertile we haven’t actually witnessed mating activity. Andrea told us that when she was raising
Egg incubator
Last fall we acquired a lovely Ameraucana rooster from some friends of ours, a quiet complacent guy named “Peepee” (or “pp” as in musical “pianissimo” since he has a quiet and infrequent crow). We’d had bad luck with roosters —
Roll over!
Limpet is turning out to be a really good learner. She walks beautifully on-leash now, will sit, lie down, stay, leave it (restrain herself from eating a treat or similar enticement placed on the floor) and come. We’re now trying
Family trait
In this family we have a tendency to get locked into one thing to the exclusion of almost everything else. Sometimes it’s stuff like practicing, math, touch-typing or reading, the sort of stuff that as a parent makes you say
Kong seek
We have a very popular game here these days. We throw the Kong dog toy somewhere out the front door. Limpet, who has a great nose but isn’t very clever yet about following aerial trajectories with her eyes, then goes
Working out okay
I’d have to say that Limpet is working out okay in our family. Ya think?
Making her bed
At least there’s one of us in this family who makes her bed. The rest of us — well, our bedrooms are small, cold and uninhabited during the day, so we figure what’s the point? But our dog has better
My five children
… four of them cheering on the fifth who is enthusiastically dismembering an ancient carnival stuffie. Beneath the baby grand piano, of all places. “Get his head off! Oh yeah, his head!” “Oooh… disemboweling…” At 11:15 pm. Just yer average
Playdate
I’m glad this isn’t how it goes when the kids have playdates.