The rest of the month

We had some really cold temperatures last weekend.  At one point before I went to bed on Saturday night, it was -18 and that was without the wind chill.  We made it through with lots of extra blankets for humans and inside pets and hot water bottles in the chicken coop.  The temps have warmed up to normal 20s and 30s this week but we have spring on our minds, even if we have months to go.  

We grow cotton in Wyoming! In February! 

Trigger loves his Glenn. I took this picture on Valentine's Day and thought it was especially fitting. 

Here's the COVID update.  I'm still working from home with chickens who want to come in the house.  Numbers in Wyoming are as low as they've been since last Fall and that's reassuring.  Glenn and I and the kids are still pretty far from getting a vaccine but we're glad that more and more people are getting it.  We were reminded this week that COVID is still an issue when we found out that a few boys from the basketball team are quarantined because of positive tests.  Will isn't quarantined but he sat by one of the boys on the bench the day before the quarantine started but everyone was wearing masks.  I'm keeping a close eye on Will this weekend which he adores (sarcasm.)  He loves when I remark on every cough and sneeze and ask him how he's feeling every few minutes. The team is pretty disciplined at wearing masks during the game and especially on the bench so I'm hopeful that Will is going to be okay.  The end of the season tournament is next weekend so we are all hoping that no other kids get infected and the team can finish out the season.  Will had his best game this week against their cross-town rival.  His team lost but Will made two free throws and played some really good defense.  I didn't scream when he made his free throws which is a win-win for everybody.  

 

Day 219

Reina has spent the last two days schooling from home.  She started to feel yucky on Sunday and had a low-grade fever and sore throat yesterday and a sore throat today.  In 'normal times,' I probably would've given her a few tylenol this morning and sent her on her way.  But today, I let her stay home and she was able to follow along with her class on Zoom and keep up with her work.  In history, they are studying Egypt so I got to sit next to her while she made a poster about daily life in ancient Egypt.  She had to include several illustrations on her poster which she drew herself instead of printing something off of the computer.  Her artistic skills are pretty amazing!   

Reina's 'rich Egyptian woman" with a modern twist.  

Solomon and Snow with Oreo and Black Chicken in the back.  Without combs, I think they look like weirdly sized eagles. 

So it's been a more hectic start to the week than I anticipated but if I haven't learned to take one day at a time during this crazy year, well... when will I ever learn?  I'll just keep looking at my cute chickens from the basement window and see what Wednesday brings.  

Snow Day #2

For the first time in decades, we had another snow day!  The sun came out but we have at least 14 inches of snow on the ground and the wind is still blowing so everything is shut down.  Here's a lazy blogger's recap of the day. 

Will needed a pie for school today because it's PI day (3.14) and he doesn't like regular pie so I found a recipe for a chocolate chip pie.  It looks less than edible but hopefully it tastes good! 

Trigger is feeling much better and he takes a lovely selfie.

We were all out shoveling and didn't want Coco to miss out on the fun.  She stood on the porch for about 15 seconds before she wanted to go back inside. 

I call this The Reluctant Shoveler.

Less shoveling and more climbing on the giant snow pile.

He asked me to take this picture.  Reina was outside too, but she managed to avoid the camera. 

Glenn wearing a neck warmer on his head instead of a stocking cap because why not.  While I was on a work call inside, one of our neighbors offered Glenn their snowblower and Glenn TURNED HIM DOWN.  When I came outside, I had no qualms in asking to borrow it back.  Glenn wants me to memorialize that he was trying to build character for our kids.  I was hoping to not spend all day shoveling the driveway.  Plus, I'd never used a snowblower before and it was quite fun! 

The view to the chicken coop.  Our girls are warm and dry inside the hen house. 

Inside the coop it looks very disaster-movie-ish.

Glenn shoveled everything out because he is a good chicken Dad. 

The front walk after reluctant shoveling, the neighbor's snowblower, Glenn's brawn and a little bit of sunshine. 

Back to work tomorrow, which most of us are happy about. 

Our weekend in a nutshell

What a whirlwind of a weekend!  Reina had three (3!) dance recitals, we had a bunch of rain that put a damper (ha!) on gardening and baseball activities, some of us watched the Royal Wedding so some of us also napped and then we had the last day of Sunday School, a classmate's birthday party and so many chores.  So let's recap quickly.  

It's a TRADITION for Vicky and I to watch royal weddings together so I hauled myself out of bed at 4:45 a.m., popped from frozen scones in the oven and waited for the guests to arrive.  It was strictly a pajama affair, although we had big dreams of making our own fascinators.  I did wake Reina up right before the ceremony started so that she could see the dress.  She was glad I did even though she asleep within the hour again.  Dancers need their rest!  

Coco was incredibly unimpressed with the getting up out of bed early and preschool guests arriving in the pre-dawn hours.  That's right, Preschool Cousin joined in on the wedding adventure too!  

 Reina and I got a few more hours of sleep and then launched into the second day of dance extravaganzas.  Reina took Ballet 3 and Jazz 1 this year.  Ballet 3 performed in a Friday and Saturday night performance and Jazz was during Saturday afternoon.  It was a lot of dancing but a lot of fun too.  I think my bun talents improved with each show. 

Reina and her Jazz 1 class. They danced to a song from Mary Poppins - they were chimney sweeps!  

Look at that ballerina!  Her ballet class danced to the theme from "Up."  Yep, I got a little teary-eyed.  It's a pretty piece of music and the dancers were balloons floating through the air.  It was really well done.  

I could watch her dance all day.  

 Today the sun came out during the afternoon and while the temperature wasn't warm enough to garden, we did get to spend some time outside.  Our lilacs in the backyard have gone crazy this year. 

Purple!  Green!  Allergies! 

Gratuitous shot of chicken girls.  

We only have a few more weeks of school to muddle through and then it's officially summer time. We are ready! 

The Great Chicken Mystery of 2017-2018

I don't write about them much but the Pauley chicken girls are still racing around the backyard and providing us with a lot of company when we are out there.  They are pretty friendly and super food oriented so if you go out the backdoor and yell "come here my little chicken girls!" they come running.

Egg production hasn't been what we expected but we've chalked that up to a lot of different factors.  Over the summer two of the girls went broody - which is cute for a day or two until they stop laying and don't leave the next box and insist on laying on everyone else's eggs.  Luckily neither one was aggressive - I've read that some chickens will peck or attack anyone trying to make them leave the next.  My girls would complain and head back to the hen house as soon as they could, but no biting.

After they stopped being broody, egg production picked up a little bit until molting time.  The number of feathers floating around the backyard would briefly give me pause everyday until three live chickens came racing around the corner of the deck to see if I had brought any snacks home with me.  All three molted at different times but we stopped getting as many eggs each day and then the days got shorter as winter set in.  We don't have any artificial light for the chickens so egg production naturally drops off as winter sets in.

The last few months, as the days have been longer and the chicken girls are all healthy, we've gone weeks before we'll find a few eggs in the coop.  We blamed the cold, we gave the chickens pep talks, sometimes I resorted to strongly worded lectures (listen you slacker chicken girls!) and egg production has slightly increased over the last few weeks.  But we definitely haven't been getting eggs every day.  Sometimes there will be three eggs in there and then we'll go a few days with nothing.

Which brings us to today.  Glenn called me as on my way home and said something like "I might have figured out what's happening with the eggs but don't jump to any conclusions."  Today was cold and snowy but the snow wasn't sticking and the yard was a big muddy mess.  The chickens don't mind but we kept the dogs inside to cut down on the mess.  When Glenn got home, he let the dogs out, went to check for eggs and as he opened up the back of the coop, he was greeted by Trigger standing inside the hen house.

Huh.

"Don't jump to any conclusions?"  Yes, we should probably conclude that Trigger has been eating the eggs. 

Mystery solved?  Probably.  We tested it when I got home and with hardly any encouragement, Trigger can squeeze himself through the chicken sized door into the hen house.  Tootsie took a lot more convincing so I think she's off the hook.  Unless she's smart enough to not incriminate herself.  Looking back, every once in a while, I'd find a few tiny bits of egg shell in the nesting boxes and I'd worry that maybe the chickens were eating their own eggs (eww) but the few times that had happened before, it was a bigger mess and they wouldn't eat the whole thing.  I wondered if something small was getting into the hen house and stealing eggs but there aren't many animals out here that wouldn't just try to get the chickens. 

Furthermore, Trigger will eat just about anything.  In the past, we've caught him snacking on raw potatoes, onions and a banana that he pulled off the counter.  He can hear the sound of a chip dropping on to the kitchen floor from rooms away and he also tries to steal the scraps I bring out for the chickens.  Once he gorged on the cat food bag that he found in the garage and then barfed it up all over our bed.  That was a fun day.  AND, his coat has never looked more luxurious.  Or maybe that's only if he's been bathing in eggs, I don't know.

AND we keep finding little bits of wood shavings from the coop inside the house.  This has been happening for a while.  We'd just say man that stuff gets everywhere ha ha ha and never wonder why are the wood shavings from inside the coop INSIDE THE HOUSE and stuck in Trigger's coat?  Huh. 

Bottom line, it's a good thing that Glenn and I don't run a detective shop.  We can solve mysteries but it takes a while and it's helpful if the evidence just sort of presents itself, by standing in the hen house waiting for you to feed it an egg.   To borrow a line from one of my favorite episodes of Law & Order (where clearly I learned NOTHING about detecting, evidence, putting two and two together, etc.) "Girl you are as dumb as a sack of hair."

Kids, if you are reading this, Dad and I are going to brush up on our detective skills by the time you are teenagers.  We'd better get cracking. 

Who me?  It's not dog shaming if said dog as no conscience.  

Odds & ends

Lots of Thanksgiving pictures coming soon but I'm still in a slight turkey haze.  So let's talk about chickens instead.  All three girls are still going strong.  We had an unpredictable summer of egg production because two of them went broody, meaning they really want to sit on eggs and not make any new ones.  We made it through that and then they started molting.  A quick google of 'molting' and it turns out that it's not a quick or pretty process.  It seems strange to me that an animal would lose most of it's feathers in a cold part of the year, but I'm not a chicken and it works for them.  All three are going through various stages of molting and I think one of them is finally done.  Black Chicken as we lazily call her when we can't remember which on is Lolly or Dolly, is smack dab in the middle of it.  Isn't she something?  Up close, you can see the new feathers coming in but her shiny black feathers are few and far between and the absence of fluffiness makes her look scrawny and slightly crazed.   But she's still interested in treats. 

Are you looking at me?  

What we're up to, pets edition

Enough about the Broncos Babies, let's talk about the pets!  I started this post to talk about Coco watching videos especially designed for cats but then I saw a chicken picture on my phone and then I felt guilty about the dogs and included them too.  So here's the rundown on the Pauley Pets. 

Our chicken girls are doing pretty well.  Today was their first taste of winter and they were a little unsure about the snow.  I don't think they like getting their feet wet so they stuck to the parts of the yard that have already melted.  All three girls are pretty friendly now, especially if you come outside with a snack or the treat bag.  A few weeks ago, I stepped outside with a Pringle in one hand to ask Glenn a question, Dolly (the blonde one) came running over to me and jumped up and grabbed my Pringle.  Snack food preferences aside, all three are laying eggs and we are getting between 0 and 3 eggs a day.  It's still pretty exciting. 

Lolly, Ren and Dolly.  Also known as my little chicken girls.

 Earlier today, I read an article that mentioned youtube videos designed especially for cats.  Last week, Coco watched part of a PBS show about cats (naturally) so of course I had to find the youtube videos.  She watched this one for almost twenty minutes and only stopped when she jumped on the keyboard and stopped the video. 

Here birdie, birdie, birdie

Let's not forget the dynamic duo of T&T. Tootsie and Trigger aren't slowing down much.  They still like to jog every day, sometimes twice a day if Glenn and I are on different schedules.  They love sleeping on the new couches which is a fight that I decided wasn't worth having. Luckily we have a good vacuum. They've both adjusted to the chickens.  In fact most days, the chickens are the queens of the backyard.  Both dogs have been pecked and usually keep a wide berth around the little chicken girls, unless they are eating something that Trigger finds interesting. 

Don't bother getting up guys.

Reina keeps making noises about wanting another fish for Christmas.  Coco is a big fan of that idea but the Bronco Babies Mom is feeling like the pet situation is pretty full up right now.  We are good. 

Our chicken girl who's not actually a girl

September!  Football - Will's league, college and NFL - has dominated our free time this month, along with hunting, piano and ballet practices, work stuff, cat who needs more adventure and try to venture outside every chance she gets, chickens who prefer the spacious backyard to their well-designed and tidy coop and two dogs who show more enthusiasm for jogging at 6:00 a.m. than I show for doing anything at anytime, AND a den remodel.  As usual, the Pauley house is one big ball of craziness right now.  But to pile on to that craziness, apparently we own a rooster.  

Let's start at the beginning.  About a month into chicken ownership, we wondered a little bit if our Rhode Island Red was not a Rey but more likely a Ray.  Apparently chicken gender identification is more of an art than a science and while the guy we bought our chickens from boasts a 95% success rate, that's still not 100%.  So we watched little Rey and frequently googled "rhode island reds" and convinced ourselves that yes, the hens look like the roosters, yes their spurs are on the bigger side and yep, they have those pointy feathers in the back that look rather rooster-y.  Reina overheard us discussing Rey/Ray's gender one day and immediately freaked out that we'd have to find Rey a new home if in fact she was a he.   I told her that we'd have to wait and see but that we were pretty sure we had a hen. Until a few weeks ago.  

(Am I really writing a whole blog post about chicken gender?  Apparently I am!)  I noticed last week that Rey had grown a bit taller than the other 3.  Glenn commented on her spur size again. Will came in the house one afternoon and mentioned that Rey was being silly and biting the other chickens on the back of the necks, isn't that weird?  Now, I should point that I'm not technically a farm girl but I did grow up around enough animals to recognize amorous chicken behavior when it's described to me by a 9-yr old.  I mentioned to Glenn that night that we shouldn't make any decisions until we hear a cock-a-doodle-do. 

Fast forward to a few mornings ago.  Glenn's hunting, the kids are getting on their bikes to head to school, I'm walking out the door for work and I hear a loud chicken noise that sounds like a very amateurish 'something something doodle-do.'  I pause and listen and uh-oh, there it is again.  I head to work in a slightly unreasonably sad mood (it's just a chicken! But she's a friendly chicken!) and think about what to do next.  Glenn happens to get cell reception and he calls me later in the day and after I update him on relevant kid behavior, I mention the rooster noises.  We agree that I should contact the guy we bought the chickens from.  I text that guy later and tell him my concerns.  He says to send him a picture of Rey when I get home.  Which I do and get an immediate reply of "Oh no, that's a cockerel."  

So there you have it.  Our girl is a guy.

Yeah, I don't know how we didn't know either.  Hey big fella.

So that brings me to last night.  After a few back and forths with the chicken guy, he agrees to take Ray back.  We can't have roosters in the city limits and frankly we don't need one anyway.  We just want eggs, not a harem.  The chicken guy tells me that there's a chance Ray will become a back-up rooster and live out his life doing you know what.  That's how I shall think of him.  But I'm still left with the job of breaking the news to Will and Reina.  I chose the car ride on the way home from Chick Fil-A (oh the irony) after football practice.  Will was pragmatic.  I think his exact words were something along the lines of "well it is just a chicken, not a dog or cat."  Reina took a different approach.  Bless her chicken-loving heart, she was the opposite of pragmatic.  Lots of tears and heart wrenching sobs. Just like with her goldfish, she immersed herself in the stages of grief, moving between anger (why didn't you make sure she was a girl?!) and bargaining (Let's just move to the country.  And surprisingly, "let's break the law!")  She calmed down a little when I pointed out that Ray was moving back to where he was born and gets to hang out with his parents and his brothers and sisters.  I can't say she's at acceptance yet but she's getting there.  

Ray is with us until Sunday.  When I took some grapes out to everybody tonight, he ate the grape out of my hand and then pecked my arm pretty hard a few times looking for more.  Maybe he's just trying to make it easier for me to send him back.  Maybe it'll help her grieving process if I send her out with the grapes next time?    

Dolly, Lolly, Ren and Rey

Coco is super interested in the chickens.  Also interested in holding them in her mouth.  

So it's high time I wrote about the girls.  The chicken girls.  Dolly, Lolly, Ren and Rey.   Yes, I know it seems crazy to add more critters to this already hectic life but some days they are the easiest thing to take care of and sometime soon we'll have fresh eggs in the fridge.  In the meantime, we have little bug eaters and weed destroyers and poultry entertainers.  

On one of their first excursions in the backyard.  They were so little!  

Reina has been a great help with the chickens.  They might not appreciate her enthusiasm but she helps take good care of them. 

We kept the chickens in the basement for about 6 weeks while we waited for the weather to warm up and for Glenn to build the chicken coop.  It was tough keeping the dogs and cat out of the chicken room and we are all pretty happy that they are finally outside. Well, except for Coco.

A few weekends ago, while trying to get some chores done, I gave Reina the camera to take pictures of the chicken girls and she did a great job!  Here are some poultry pics from the perspective of a 7-yr old.

Meet Ren.  She's a Barred Rock.  She's still the smallest chicken and the friendliest.  We thought she'd be the leader of the pack but that title goes to the Rhode Island Red named Rey.  I don't see her picture in this post but she's pretty.  And bossy.  

This is Dolly an Orpington.  Dolly was a few weeks older than the rest of the gang when we got them and she's pretty shy still.  She's also not the sharpest tool in the chicken shed but that's okay.  She routinely gets panicky when she misses the entrance to the chicken coop and can't figure out why everyone else is on the other side of the wire.  There's a reason that chickens haven't taken over the planet yet.  But she's pretty!  

Ren and the rhubarb.  

Meet Lolly the Australorp.  She's a little dinosaur.  She's shy but warming up to us especially when you are holding corn on the cob.  

The Chicken Coop to end all chicken coops and the chief architect/construction manager/laborer/painter.  

We agree that our chickens are living the 1% life.  Besides being spied on by a few dogs and a very interested cat, these four are living the life in a big run and a warm coop.  We let them out in the yard when we are home and they love hanging out on or under the deck.  'm surprised at how entertaining it is to watch them just be chickens.  Ren chased another bird out of the yard one afternoon.  If one of them starts running, they all run even if there's no reason for it.  They are discovering table scraps and made quick work of a piece of watermelon today.  There's something oddly peaceful about watching them peck and scratch the ground.  While I never pictured myself eating dinner on our deck with chickens running around, I'm so glad we brought them home.  We are having fun with our chicken girls.