Sometimes...

Sometimes...you just have to close the door and walk away.

Sometimes...you have to laugh, or you will cry.

Sometimes...here is the most important place you can be.

Sometimes...dignity is completely unnecessary. 

Sometimes...washing dishes and bathing the baby is the same thing.

Sometimes I am fed up, frustrated, at the end of my rope, burnt out, and too tired to say another word...

...But it IS worth it...And not just sometimes!

Which Came First....

People have been asking for some time now "When are those chickens going to start laying eggs?".  I would give my usual response "Oh sometime around the end of July, or beginning of August." (Not having any real idea if this was true or not.)  Having never been a chicken farmer, all my information comes from the internet.  Well Wikipedia said it would be July or August and that was good enough for me.

Gretel Louise - The "Alpha" Chicken

But July came and went and still no eggs.  I kept making sure to have their nesting boxes ready just in case.  I felt like I was in my 9th month of pregnancy, and was "nesting', literally.  Then a couple of days ago I went out to make sure the chickens' water was fresh and, lo and behold, there was a chicken in one of the boxes.  It was rather humorous to watch her.  She would scoot down in the box and then hop back up, make a cuuuooorrruuuuuuck, reposition and then scoot back down in the box. 

  Natalie Emma - Our Scardy Chicken, or Chicken Chicken, if you will

After a while I actually started to feel sorry for her.  I realized that I had not been a very good mother and had never given her "the talk".  She had no idea what she was doing, or what was going on.  I watched her for quite some time...hoping.  She then unceremoniously hopped up and ran away.  It was rather disappointing.  No egg.  (Or so I thought)

  Ned Triceratops - The Crazy Runt of the Litter

Maionne Sophia - Taking a break after a big day

I decided to finish my "chores" and refill their water, and right next to the waterer was a brand new egg.  It had been their the entire time.  I was so sure that Maionne was working on egg that it had never occurred to me that she had already laid an egg.  (not very perceptive)  So 1st prize goes to Maionne Sophia for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd egg laid by our chickens.

  "The Coop"

They would have been part of our dinner tonight except Anya dropped 2 out of the 3 of the eggs this morning.  My poor girl, she was devastated.  Oh well.  We will just have to split the last remaining egg.  I mean, it's not every day you get to eat something that just fell out of a chicken a few hours earlier (okay that was gross).  You can just scratch that last image from your mind.  

Anya shortly before the "incident." 

We are so pleased with our little brood, and hope the others will follow in the egg department shortly!