Chickens Day 6

The chicks turn a week old tomorrow. They are eating more and more. Their wing feathers are really coming in and they all have the beginnings of tail feathers. And they chase each other around their pen playing tag with pieces of pine bedding. It's the cutest thing I've ever seen.

Book #13

This was Sarah Dessen's first novel. It's a very short novel that feels too short. I kept waiting for the story to pick up and 25 pages away from the end I realized it was never going to. I don't regret reading it though. It's nice to note Dessen's progression as an author since her debut.

Chicken Blogger

I'm totally enamored by my babies. Each of them has a personality. We know that Lucy, the lightest colored Rhode Island Red is the friendliest of the bunch. An as yet unnamed Easter Egger is our bravest. Ethel, another RIR, is the runt with a sweet disposition. The buff orpingtons are most skittish when they're being picked up but you can feel them relax as you hold them. The others stress them out sometimes.

They're all wonderful.

Although I've Already Updated Every Social Media Site

I have to write it here.

I got chickens! A like 5 year dream in the making.

I ended up with seven. There are no guarantees and since some might be roosters I wanted a variety. But hopefully they were sexed accurately and I've got 7 ladies.

3 Easter Eggers, 2 Rhode Island Reds and 2 Buff Orpingtons.





What comes first, the chicken or the coop?

The chicken.

Book #12

I'm quoting from this review to sum up book #12:

If all "borrowed" dystopian ideas are stripped away, what is left is a tepid, G-rated teen romance affair with an obligatory love triangle and magical love connections. Even the male love interests are the same old tired cliches - a sweet and loyal best friend type and a mysterious, hurt, emo type quoting poetry. Yawn! Yawn! Yawn!

Bingo.

Sunday Funday

I set out this morning with all intention to purchase 6 baby chickens. The chickens I'd visited on Friday.

THEY WERE GONE. Well, the good ones were gone. I don't want leghorn chickens or plain chickens. I wanted Plymouth Barred Rocks and Rhode Island Reds. I really, really, really want Easter egg chickens (they lay green, pink and yellow eggs) but I can't find anyone with them around here.

The good news is the farm supply store will have more Monday and Tuesday and a local tack store is having their Chick Day on Friday. I don't know exactly what Chick Day means but I'm hoping they'll have some fancy breeds.

My other plan for the day involved buying raised beds. I've decided I'm over tilled gardens. The ground is awful, weeds beat me every year, and I'm pretty sure I'll never plant another tomato in that particular garden space that doesn't get blight.

So. I started with one 4x4 bed (on sale this week for $25 at Big Lots). They require no assembly. Just slide the sides together. It ended up taking 4 cubic feet of fruit and vegetable soil from Lowes and .75 cubic feet of topsoil ($13 total) to fill.


All the books say you don't have to do this next part. But we (Jon) did break up the ground a bit before topping with soil and we (Jon) pulled out the clumps of bermuda grass. Again, super light. Nothing back breaking.


Jill supervised.


Supposedly raised beds allow for more plants in less space. So far I have a row of cabbage, a row of green leaf lettuce, a row of spinach seeds and half a row of radish seeds. I'll put in 2 more clumps of butter lettuce next weekend.


And after all that Jon was rewarded for his hard work with the privilege of burning old plants in the bird retreat.


If that's not the definition of a good day I don't know what is.

Book #11

My obsession with YA Dystopian lit continues with Lauren Oliver's Delirium. I'd been eyeballing this one since before its release last month. When I saw it on the new arrival shelf at the library I immediately scooped it up. Delirium takes place in a United States where love, or Amor Deliria Nervosa, has been banned and cured. I loved the premise. I loved the book. The only part I hate is now being forced to wait for books #2 and #3 in the trilogy to be written and released.

I ♥ Library Day

I love hitting the jackpot at the library!



Jill loves sniffing them to see where they've been.

Quote of the Day

Roseanne "We're Going to Disney World" episodes.
(Season 8, eps 17 and 18)

Darlene: Wait, isn't that the place where happy families go to vacation?

Roseanne: Well we're not letting that stop us.

Book #10

I spent half my day looking up Disney World vacations (why I don't know) and beach trips and now half my night finishing this book.

The book was surprisingly enjoyable (my expectations were low). I need a job for the rest.

Sometimes choosing between two pizzas is too difficult

Failure to Read

I've read 100 pages of the above book. And while it might be a perfectly enjoyable book for someone else, for whatever reason I can't get into it. Originally I thought setting a goal of 52 books in a year meant I'd soldier through novels even if they make me want to stab out my eyeballs. But I just can't do it.

Interestingly enough, this isn't my first crack at Marian Keyes and it isn't the first of her books I couldn't finish. (Don't know why I thought it'd be different this time.) I know some people who seem to really love her. Apparently I'm not one of them.