Eggs!

I think I've got another layer. I was down to one chicken laying. She's a good one though because I still get one almost every day and she's done this for almost 2 years now. If I feed her off schedule for a day then she gets pissy and doesn't lay that day. Well, I was on one of those off schedule days but when I did finally go in to feed the poor poultry, there was an egg! No way. It was small though... even smaller than they normally are. I think because of the weather, the competition for food (darn that Mozzerella!) and the passed rooster problems, the eggs have just been small lately. But this egg was even smaller. My baby chickens (bigger than my layers are now) are about 7 months old now and that is a typical time for them to start laying so I was hoping this was going to happen soon. Sure enough, the next day I found two eggs, and one in a different laying nest. I'm sure it's my Rhode Island Red.

Since this is a chicken post you are all going to have to put up with my pictures of only chickens. I don't know if I can get across to you all how much I love chickens. Not in the way that I would be devastated if one died (in fact, I would probably kill a few myself) but just in the way that when nothing else in life is bringing me joy, the chickens are. Call me wierd, that's okay, but I like my chickens.

Here they are:

This is the rooster that I brought to my mom and dad's. They have some of their own chickens (living in luxury) and have even let one of theirs hatch her own nest of eggs. They are probably about 4 months old now and just starting to be distinguished as male or female. Unfortunately for one. My big ol rooster here, Jake (dad named him) could also distinguish which one was a rooster and he killed him! I told you all he was violent! I'm glad he's away from my flock.

This one here is my Rhode Island Red. Isn't she perty?! Not really actually. She has long yellow legs and walks probably similar to how my sisters and I walked in puberty - all limbs.... awkward. You can tell she's red in this picture but sometimes, outside in the sun, her feathers look so dark you almost think she's black. She's gonna be a keeper. They lay lots and long. I like this one.

This is my sumatra rooster. I have mixed feelings about him. Sumatras are one of Dad's favorite chickens so I naturally like them too. They have beautiful black feathers. It doesn't look that great in this picture but under the sun they are sooo blak they look green. The feathers are magnificant. The rooster has great neck feathers that poof out when he's angry or trying to show off. And his tail feathers, as you can see are flowing and long. They are about half the length of his actual body. Sumatras are actually quite small and skittish. They don't like me at all and are kind of wild. I was going to give him away to Dad along with his other half of the pair but the night I boxed them up to bring to mom and dad's, he disappeared and didn't come back in the coop. I think Jake was threatening to kill him. A few days later I found him walking around with my other chickens again. My main rooster actually chased him high into a tree, which was kind of neat. He had found a branch about 7 feet up in a pine tree. A perfect little roost. It's hard to see why they would be a favorite except for their great feathers. This guy seems to have whitish grey feathers around his neck. I don't know if that's normal. I'll have to ask the guy who sold me the egg he came out of. I'm sure he's not mixed.

Here's his little hen half. She now belongs to Mom and Dad and I have no idea how she's doing. She always stayed out of the way at my place since she was a favorite among the roosters (if you know what I mean). She actually roosted the highest of all of them She was always sitting way up in the chicken coop somewhere. Like I said, they are a bit wild.

And finally, here's a bad picture of my speckled wyandottes. If I haven't already given out this title, I think they are my favorites. They are beautiful. I love the colours, the shape, the temperment, and I'm sure that she will be a good layer. I think they are an older breed of chickens. I like that I have a pair. I hope that when she does start laying I can put some of her eggs in an incubator and keep this line going for a while.

Well, that's it for this post. I do have my camera with me now, as you can see, so I'm gonna go update my flickr while I'm here. If you're bored you can check out those pics too. I'll probably make comments on them too so look for the comments.

P.S. You should all get chickens!

It's my blog and I can whine if I want to

I got a cold. boo hoo you say? Well, it sucks. If any of you know Dan or any other male Wikk (wait, is it a Wikk thing? I can't remember anymore), you will know that when he is sick, oh boy, he is the sickest person in the world! or so he thinks. Well, last weekend he had one coming on. It turns out that it's a quick cold and he had his worst day on Sunday (he deserved it going out all night Sat.). Today is my worst day. The thing with this cold is that I can breath (most of the time). It's not the snot that's bothering me it's the aches. My head hurts at the back, behind my ears, in my temples and I can barely hear. I think it's a sinus headache. So I put up with Dan's whining last week and this week that's all I want to do. I don't see it getting much better any time soon either because tonight Dan and I are going to a Christmas party with his aux. shift. Those parties are always soooo much fun though so I can't really back out. Besides Dan said he wouldn't go if I don't go (aww how sweet). The good thing about Dan being such a suck when he's sick is that he feels REALLY bad for you when you get sick. I'm glad that he got it first though because now he can't blame it on me for giving it to him. Last time I got a cold (on my birthday!) he didn't even sleep with me for fear of it. Instead he slept with my sister. How nice, eh? Oh the memories....
Well, enough of the whining (cuz it really isn't that bad). My house is still messy (I ran out of dishwasher soap) but I bought a poinsetta. Cass gave me a bag full of white Christmas light strings where a bunch of bulbs were missing. Dan and I spent a couple of hours replacing all the bulbs while listening to Christmas music and ended up with 5 free strings. Cool, eh? We're really getting in the festive mood. This weekend we might even get our Christmas tree (if there's snow). I remember as kids every December we would all pile into the back of Dad's big work truck to get our Christmas tree. We would all wear lots of warm winter gear so that while we were out tree hunting we could take off our mittens one by one to mark the trees that were good ones. Eventually we would all check out the marked trees and finally pick the best one (or two). We had sooo much fun doing that. We would finish with hot apple cider and candy canes. It was so much fun that other people wanted to join our tradition and come along. Another family that we were friends with came with every year but some years we would take a spare friend here and there who would remember it the next year and ask to come again the next year. The first year that Dan and I started dating Sarah said that she was starting a new tradition where any new boy would have to drag the tree out of the woods to the van so Dan ended up dragging the tree by himself back to the truck. I think that tradition only lasted one year. I made Dan go with me for our first Christmas. At first he fought a bit (soo much work) but now he loves it. It's become our tradition and, like when we were kids, the fun is infections. Friends want to come with us. We took a couple with us last year who want only fake trees. They are still getting a fake tree this year but they asked us at least a month ago if the could come again. Another couple asked if they could come too. So, if there's snow this weekend, we're going out for our tree. Maybe we'll go anyways but it's much better with a few snowballs.
I'm off... gotta go pick up party supplies.... I hope none of you catch this cold. Merry Christmas!

A few quick minutes

Here I am at the library again. Dan is picking me up in about 10 min. so I only have a few to give you a quick update.
Things aren't too busy or too boring.
Dan and I went to mom and dad Z's for the weekend. We had a wedding to go to on Saturday and I wanted some quality mom time so we went home Friday. I'm happy we did! We were pampered the hilo way (Hilo is the name of our family homestead.... kinda odd once I think of it). They took us out for dinner with their/our good friends, Jasper and Wilma. The restaurant is a fancy shmancy one so I enjoyed the special dinning (although Hilo has just as good of meals).
Oh, here's Dan....
I'll have to make it short:
Lots to eat,
Lots to drink,
Got rid of two chickens,
Got to stay till Monday afternoon,
Dad brought me to Dan's job site and I got to show off
Had a day off yesterday
Baked,
Cooked,
Planted,
Didn't clean,
Going home to a messy house.
Oh well, It'll warm and clean itself up quickly.
Lots of love!
Think about Christmas!

Another work day and more pics

The work day at Amy's inspired me to have a work day at Larissas. Her and James have been trying to get their place cleaned up and spruced up since they bought it a year ago. I don't know if it was a good idea but I offered the help of Mom W. and I (and Larissas M.I.L) and we got to work on her kitchen cupboards. It didn't take me long to remember how crappy kitchen cupboards are. I don't know why I thought I could do it again. I forgot how crappy of a painter I am. Anyways, 6.5 hours later and the first coat is finished. We'll do the second coat in a couple of weeks. Larissa is preggo too so we can't have her in the room or house while we're doing the painting. This post is going in circles... I must have been around too many paint fumes.

Here's some pictures to tell you a few stories since my words are sounding garbled to me:

Mom W. and I painting. I know I look funny here but I'm bent over sideways trying to paint under the cupboard. We're painting black over that blue (in case you can't tell).

Sorry this picture is sideways... i'm bad at that. This is Amy and Joel. Putting their bellies together was his idea. I love Joel! He's just like my mom. Perfect for Amy.

Guess who's eating more boeter coek (spelling???)!

That's it for now. See yas all later.