The chickens have hit maturity!

Yes, the girls are really growing up. One laid a first egg on Labor Day, Sept. 1 and we've had one a day since. I think they are each laying once every other day, because the first and third eggs look the same, dark brown with speckles, and the other is just plain dark brown. They are such lovely eggs and we have eaten the first one...yum! It is so fun to have laying hens. I enjoy looking in the nest box for eggs each day. They have managed to lay the eggs in the right place despite not being able to keep the golf ball nest egg in the nest box.

In other news, the kids started up school again last week. Both seem to really like their teachers. The young one is in a combined K-1 class with 12 kids and took to it like a fish to water. He's already bossing the other kindergarteners around. :) My 2nd grader says he liked his class this year. I think the school is probably a better fit for him than the last, though the other had higher test scores and more prestige in the community. Test scores aren't everything.

Mr. R is now 7 years old too. We celebrated his birthday with a ice cream sundae party on Saturday and a trip to San Francisco on his "real" birthday so we could take the ferry from Alameda to SF. It's a great ride, though too short for my liking. The Embarcadero area was VERY crowded and crazy so we didn't stay as long as we planned, but it was still fun. The weather was quite warm as well.

I've posted a few new pics of the "girls", well, just Corsair actually (Ginger wouldn't cooperate) and their handiwork.

It's been eons- and Roo is 5

We've been really busy moving, celebrating Andy's 5th birthday, visiting with grandparents, and fixing up our new home. It's also been HOT, and the computer is in the hottest room upstairs. I hope to post again a little more regularly as we settle in.

The Roo is 5. He loved his cow party this year. HIs friend from school couldn't make it this year, but all of the relatives came. He eagerly ripped paper off his gifts (this is only the second year he has been interested in gifts). ON his actual birthday, he started summer school and stood sadly at the gate watching us leave, crying. That about tore my heart out. I circled back around 15 minutes later and he was still standing there in the same place. I had to fight the urge to run over and hug him and take him home with me, nobody should be so sad on their birthday. The second day he was fine and has been each day since. We only have one more week of summer school and then it's time for a month with no school, which will make the transition to kindergarten in the fall all the more challenging. He doesn't do as well when not in school for extended periods of time.

After the rough first day of school, I took the boys out for lunch at Carlos Ginger (aka Carl's Jr.) I love how Andy calls it Carlos Ginger; Carlos from the Magic School Bus and Ginger from Chicken Run (and the name of our favorite pullet). Andy had his fave chicken stars and "chips" and root beer. Man, I never let the kids eat so much junk generally!

We are liking our new home but regretting the purchase of a 2 story house for many reasons. The stairs are not one of the reasons. It's so hard to cool the air up there and is frequently over 90 up there, even with AC running. Needless to say, I have problems sleeping because it's so hot and stay up way too late and then am sleep deprived during the day. I can't WAIT until summer is over. I say this every year, but this year it's worse. It's been around 110 multiple days this week. UGH!!

I will post more soon, I hope!

I'm adding some pictures that Uncle Jon took at the party.

Life on an urban farm

Our chicks and veggies have really grown! As you can see from the pics, our squash have grown a lot in the few weeks since the last pic was taken. We have been having lots of of squash and cukes from the garden, it will be hard to leave it behind. I'm not sure the beans are going to actually have beans for us to eat before we move, despite the fact it has been plenty of time and they look tall enough. I'm not sure why they haven't flowered yet. It's so much fun to have a little bit of country here in suburbia.

Garden and Chicks

It is a time for growth here at our place! Not only are the kids growing, but our veggies are growing like crazy as are our chicks! It's amazing how fast they grow. They had their first time out of the coop last weekend, when these pictures were taken. They happily ran around devouring dandelions and pulling on grass and eating ants.

Rob had a field trip to a farm last week and brought home a tomato plant, despite the fact I didn't want to have to move more potted plants to our new home. Oh well.

Speaking of new homes, we closed escrow last week and it's OURS! We really like the neighborhood and the neighbors are so friendly and so happy to see a family move in, the place has been vacant for a year. We're a little nervous about it, but we are pretty sure that it will gain some value eventually. It will also mean a MUCH shorter commute for Mr. Geek and with gas at $4/gallon, that's saying something. We still can't get over how low the prices are right now.

Chicken Freedom!

The chicks (or chickteens as it were) weren't overly interested in getting out today, but were content to perch on the side of the coop next to us, particularly Ginger, our sweetie pullet. It was pretty warm today (about 90) so they were panting quite a bit. Corsair is the Welsummer on the left in the 2 chick picture, and Ginger (darker) is on the right.

They will be 7 weeks old tomorrow, believe it or not, which means we have had them for 6 weeks! By late June they should be laying large dark brown eggs for us. They will also double in size again by then.

Sad day

Our 7 week old Ameraucana pullet died today. She was such a bossy, pushy, curious thing, we'll miss her beauty and her funny personality. The kids are very sad about losing our Susie. We're not sure what happened, but it happened pretty quickly. She was a bit lethargic last night and earlier today, and then she died.

We have just loved having chickens. They are fairly easy care pets, they are fun to watch, and FULL of personality. I am sorry she didn't make it to laying, I was looking forward to her bluish/greenish eggs. The two Welsummers appear to be doing fine, let's hope they hang in there.

In other news, we are buying a house! A really nice bigger one in a nice neighborhood. We'll start moving in May and will finish in June. We plan to let the kids finish the school year here since it's a new town and a new district.

The picture here is of our Susie, may she rest in peace. This was taken about a week ago.

Monterey Peninsula

We made our annual spring pilgrimage to the Monterey/Carmel/Pacific Grove area last week. It was wonderful as always. We spent most of the day at Point Lobos. It was really busy there, but a gorgeous day all the same. We didn't see any otters like we usually do, but we did see harbor seals and sea lions AND we found a cool tidepool with lots of sea urchins and chitons. After a fun day of exploring, we stopped off at the Sea Harvest and had clam chowder and fish. The boys, of course, had chicken. I guess we are lucky that this year Andy will eat chicken. There was nothing on the menu that he would eat last year. Point Lobos has to be one of the most beautiful places in California, if not the whole west coast. It is just amazing.