Happenings at Home

Today is a grand day. We had our first official carrot harvest (Ben’s impromptu pulling of several rows doesn’t count) and our baby juncos have hatched. 

Last night only three had hatched but this morning there were four tiny little guys. Their eyes are still closed. Here is the nest, back when it was in the egg stage. 

Best of all? It’s supposed to cool down and RAIN this week. Hallelujah.


xo,

Sonja

Our Little Girls (+ 1 Guy?) Are Growing Bigger

It's about time this blog finally got some decent photos

A few weeks ago we bit the bullet and bought a real camera. We've been looking at digital SLR cameras for about eight months and decided we'd better hurry up and make the purchase else we'd end up in Africa with a fancy new camera and no clue as to how it worked. We've yet to wade our way through the massively thick user's manual but so far we're fairly pleased with the few test shots we took this weekend. It's nothing like the old film SLRs, that for darn sure. Thanks to the many folks out there that provided advice and opinions on camera purchasing.
Bailey was a trouper this weekend and strolled his way up the mountain on the way to Heather Lake. He was even kind enough to carry some of my stuff in his backpack. What a considerate pup.

Canadian Dogwood (Cornus canadensis )A wee young tree

Clearly, the chickies are going through an awkward stage. Please don't hate them 'cause they're ugly.

Chicken Update

We're wondering if the chicken formerly known as Olivia should really have been named Oliver.

The Chicken Chronicles: 1 Month

A brief update on our little ladies:Growing Pains: They don't fit in their carry case anymore. To think, that they fit with miles of extra space when we first brought them home.Disjointed Growing Pains: Their heads haven't caught up with the rest of their bodies, size-wise. Or with their feet. Their dogs are GIANT.




Here are the portraits from their 1-month photo shoot.

As you probably noticed, we're still trying to decide on a name for the Chicken-Formerly-Known-As-Olivia. Perhaps we should should just call her Prince. Or change her name to a symbol. I was liking the name Greta but Chris is partial to Ollie. Or maybe it's because he dislikes Greta. We'll let you know as to our final decision in a few days.

So I'm thinking that I might change Olivia's name to Ollie. Or Greta. Maybe.
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In other chicky news, the girls turn 1 month old tomorrow.

House (and Chickens)

So a few people have kindly requested more photos of the house. As someone said the other day: The chickens are nice BUT we'd really like to see the casa! That's a reasonable request. I'll post more house photos this week, but in the meantime, check out how big the girls are getting! The fluffy feathers are being replaced with adult feathers and they're growing like crazy.

Photo O' the Day: Sleepy Chicks

We had another photo shoot with the girls yesterday. Things were going well...Until the girls fell asleep. They bedded down right in the middle of the light box. Guess its toasty temperature was perfect for snoozing.

I don't know about you....but I find chicken eyelids to be rather strange looking. First of all, the go from the bottom up. Second of all, they're fuzzy. Fuzzy, up-folding eyelids. Crazy, eh?

Mama Bailey

Bails was snoozing on the lawn the other day while I had the chicks out about 10 feet away. Things were peachy until Winnie decided she needed to inspect the dog. Um. Winnie? BIG! Black! Potential chick-EATING predator! I would leave him alone. But no, our Winnie, she's a brave/foolish little cookie. She marched right over, hopped onto the Beast's foot and let out a proud 'cheep, cheep!!'.

And he actually reacted fairly calmly. He woke up and peered at Winnie. Gave her vicinity a sniff. And then went back to sleep.

What a great dog.

Photo O' the Day: Chicken Soup

Dear, sweet Phoebe. If you end up as an angry chicken, rebelling against your parents for the heartless and cruel situations that they subjected you to as a chick...well, I wouldn't blame you.

Chicken + Moniker = Part of the Family

We would like to formally introduce:

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Visit with the Fam

Huh. I realized we went through the entire weekend without taking many actual pictures of family members. I did get lots of chicken pictures, though. Cherie, please send me your photos!!!

Here is Phoebe, looking sleepy (or comatose) while hanging out with Megan and Cherie

Bob and Cherie stayed with us for a few days this weekend as their lovely Alaska cruise deposited them in our close proximity. I hope they had as much fun staying with us as we did having them. We went for a nice jaunt over to St. Edward's State Park, toured the Redhook Brewery in Redmond, and celebrated Chris' birthday. Bob and Chris talked home repair while Cherie, Megan, and I enjoyed the sun and took the chicks for some outdoor play time.

We miss you. Please come back soon!

Update: Thanks for catching that typo, Chris. Earlier I had stated that we went over to St. Matthew's State Park. Clearly, I'm getting my saints confused. Here is a neat (and rather glum) article about the current state of the former St. Edward Seminary.

Lights! Camera! Action!

Oh dear Internets, I have discovered the awsomeness that is the lightbox. Thank you Eric and Strobist.

The entire creation/setup of the lightbox took about 15 minutes and didn't cost a penny. I took one large box (we have plenty, thanks to the move [and the incredibly rad people of the Waterstone admin. team]):Reinforced the bottom:Cut out the sides:Taped tissue paper into the cutouts:And stuck a roll of wrapping paper (turned inside out) into the bottom/remaining side. Voila! Lightbox! (Oh, you have to add a light. I added a regular lamp on the top and adjusted my camera light type accordingly)Then add chicks!It's really something to crow about. [ok, that was super cheesy. I'm sorry]

Chicken Names

Last night, after a lot of hard thinking, Chris came up with: Thigh, Breast, and Wing.

So, NOT cool.


On a related note: The chicks survived their first night in the Casa de J. But when I went down to check on them at 6:30 this morning, it first appeared as if they were all dead. Well, they're not dead, but they're either sick or just plain lazy. I'm hoping for lazy. Since I've never done this before, I don't know what 'normal' looks like. How much are they supposed to sleep? How much should they be eating? Do most chicks fall asleep in their food dishes? Are mine just weird? I know it's quite common for small chicks to expire without much warning but I'd really like mine to pull through. I checked for pasty butt this morning but all appeared to have clean-looking vents and no eye discharge. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Cha Cha Cha CHICKENS!

Our little girls have arrived and are safely installed in the chickery. We have three: A Rhode Island Red, a Buff Orpington, and a Barred Rock. They're very easy to differentiate between: the Barred Rock is the dark brownish/black one (she'll have striking white stripes later on in life), the Buff Orpington is a lovely cream color, and the Rhode Island Red, not surprisingly, is a very dashing reddish/brown. All three will lay brown eggs. Our girls hatched two days ago, on 5-18-2009.

So far, the Rhode Island Red is the most confident. She will walk right up to the camera and give it a peck. Which is why I have so many pictures of her. The Buff Orpington is the smallest, the shyest, and the one that I'm a little bit worried about. She was the last one to discover the food and water dishes. And, being the underdog, she was my immediate favorite. I don't have any good pictures of her yet.

Bailey is having a bad day. First of all, there was the stray dog that ended up in our yard yesterday evening and ended up spending the night (long story, I'll give you the details later). She was a whiner and Bailey hates to share our attention. He definitely lives up to his reputation as an ONLY dog. Spoiled, doesn't like to share. Then, once that pesky dog got picked up by her [very negligent] owner this morning, I come home with tasty chick treats and refuse to share. Bailey has a history with baby birds. He will not be allowed, unsupervised, anywhere near the chicks until we teach him the ground rules. He has already snuck down into the basement twice in an attempt to 'go check on the girls'. So, while I was fussing over the chicks, he pouted in his dog carrier.

You can just make out a black snout, feeling sorry for himself in the doggie den.


UPDATE: I forgot! We need name suggestions! I'm thinking something sweet, feminine, lovely. Like: Ophelia, Ellie, Pollyanna. Ugh. Not pollyanna. Not lovely. And NO, names such as Chicken Pot Pie, Chicken Noodle Soup, and BBQ chicken will NOT be accepted. I'm looking at you, Chris and Everett.