New Chicks and Nieces to Help!

 

We ordered 40 more Cornish Cross meat chicks to arrive yesterday so I enlisted some helpers to pick them up and install them into their new home with me. Here are my nieces, Emma and Elle, at the post office with our new shipment of chicks. The girls were still stymied as to why on earth we got our chicks from the post office. 

 

Emma, in pink, really wanted to touch them but ultimately lost her nerve. Next thing I heard was "you touch them Elle. I think you'll like them."

 

We unloaded them while counting how many we got this time. Last time we conveniently forgot to count for extras during the unloading phase. Much harder to count them when they are running around. 43 was our total, the hatchery sent two packing peanuts.

 

One forgets just how tiny they are when they arrive as two day old chicks. Hard to believe our last batch yielded some 8.75 pounders. The girls wondered why we got more so I told them we would eat them when they  got bigger. Elle said "That's GROSS!" I promised not to eat them until they weren't cute anymore. Neither girl understands they concept that the grocery store stocks chicken that used to look like this too. How wonderful it would be to be three again.

Garden Helpers

This is Emma, my niece. She and her identical twin Elle, helped me in the yard and garden all day yesterday. They are three years old and so fun to be around. When they were born they weighed in at 2 lb 12 oz., and 1 lb 15 oz., but you would never know that now! They have never experienced delays or holdbacks that some children experience after such prematurity. They were true miracles and I love them dearly. I decided to show their pictures today as my daughter is 13 years old and rolls her eyes whenever the camera angles her direction. These two are easier to capture with a smile. Emma watered for a solid hour with only minimal interference from me about raising the hose higher so she didn't bore holes around new seedlings. She did a fabulous job!

 

This is Elle, and she seemed more interested in helping with chicken house construction. She got too cold watering and wanted another job. She got to help me stuff straw mulch around the already growing plants in the raised be veggie garden. She is equally helpful just with different interests. These two work tirelessly. I hope they will have a love of the dirt and gardens too! We are going to try watering less this year and I believe the key to that lies squarely with mulch. We will see.

  

And finally, a little progress on the chicken house. So far no one has turned us into the building inspector. I figure my excuse will be to remind him I still pay taxes for the last several years on the chicken house that used to be here. Can you really need a permit for a chicken coop? Surely not. I am hoping that today we can get the roof up over the chicken house. The framing is almost complete, and we had help. Yeah for progress! (And for good friends who will help you out with building projects!)

Facebook Addict

Well, I must admit, I swore I would never be a myspace or facebook kind of girl. When friends would ask me why I didn't have an account on either site, I had a biting remark about how old we were or how only the single and lonely were on. I am a jerk. I finally "get" why people do it. My best friend convinced me to get a Facebook account over the Christmas holiday and I have not regretted it yet. Ok, maybe for a while when I got hooked on some stupid game on there called Mobwars, that was a serious time sucker. But I love it. I have reconnected with so many friends from the past that I now can't imagine not having that site as a tool to keep in touch. It makes it simple and enjoyable. I am addicted like I never thought possible. I admit that I run home on my lunch hour to check it, although I tell everyone that I work with that I have to stoke the fire. Don't want my colleagues to know I am a junkie. I even babysit my nieces and they think facebook is Auntie Heather's special game. Here they are in front of my desk, I quickly moved them down to draw while I facebooked. You can even join a group that believes in Bigfoot. I kind of believe in Bigfoot so that's pretty cool if you ask me. I know, crazy huh? So if you ever have spare time (you will need it), and a desire to reconnect with those you may have lost touch with, this is it. It's even great to send a quick note off to Grandma if you can get her on here. And remember, don't be quick to judge us for our problem. Not all of us are in facebook rehab yet but I am sure the day is coming. At least it's fun in the meantime.