Hi My Name is Andrea

And I have a compost problem. I started suspecting it when I started mowing things that didn't need to be mowed just to have grass clippings to put on top of the Burdock in my compost pile. But it was undeniably confirmed with I caught myself fantasizing about mowing the ditches along Hwy 6 with my wee mower with grass bagger to take home to my compost.... Isn't there a support group for this? I'll probably need to get all new friends because I think most of my friends have the same addiction - most have multiple addictions that include extreme gardening....

Turns Out....

that I could probably not make a living as a person who determines the sex of animals. I have been completely convinced that the 2 chicks we hatched January 29 were both roosters. One was an Ameraucana and one a Silver Laced Wyandotte. Well, turns out that the odds are finally being evened out. (Remember last summer when I hatched 6 eggs and5 of them were roosters?).

I was feeding and watering the chicks the other evening, when an egg literally fell out of the bottom of the Ameraucana chick (I guess she is not a chick any more). Her name is Edie as she is the daughter of the black Ameraucana we hatched last summer who Dean named Edgar. The shell on the right is what I managed to salvage from that soft first egg.

This event precipitated a now obviously needed move from hanging out with our Amaraucana/Orpington chicks into the chicken coop where there was a nest box she could use. I moved her in with her hatch-mate, Chicken Licken (who I now also strongly suspect of being a hen) and some of this spring's chicks who I thought were probably hens (given my track record, perhaps we could count on them all to be roosters?) I left behind those I thought were probably roosters and given the croaking sounds coming out of there are several of them try to crow this morning, I may have at least been partly right... Anyways, after two days in the big coop with those mean big chickens, I found this wee blue egg laying on the ground of the coop this morning. It is about the size of a quail egg. As you can see, her first one was much larger - probably very lucky for her, it had a soft shell.

Anyways, I have been wanting my own Ameraucana hen for SOOOOOO long! I am thrilled to have one - especially one that is the daughter of my friend's hen who lays enormous blue eggs and that wild, gorgeous black rooster we hatched last summer.

A Fence

Ostensibly the reason my parents came up from Richmond was, of course, for Kaetlyn's grad. However, the thing my dad was looking forward to doing was building my fence for my sheep. And we worked in a panic to get it done (everyday except Sunday, of course). It has about 2 more hours of work to complete. Maybe there will be a beucolic scene of sheep baa-ing inside of it very soon!

Here are the two strong guys (Drew trying to look especially brawny with that huge chin look) with their post hole auger. They were experts at handling it by the end.

My chicken coop is also sporting a nifty new door. Gone is the piece of plywood held up by a bag of wood shavings....

Images from my Life

I have been really busy. Really busy. And on top of that, things have been percolating in the back of my mind. I have lots to say. I just haven't formulated my thoughts yet. But in the meantime, there have been some pretty big milestones around here. Kaetlyn graduated from highschool. My parents and my sister (one of my 6 sisters) came from the lower mainland and we had a big open house here for Kaetlyn. Here are some images from that day.

She arrived in a 'calvalcade' (Dean's word) of bikes with horns and bells that was organized by her big sister. Here she is with her biking crew and the cool bike she rode. The next is the obligatory family photo. I think we look pretty good!














Here she is taking her turn to walk up to the stage in Kal's blue and gold.













Here she is with her life-long friend - they met when they were aged 5 and 6 and because of their friendship, I became good friends with her friend's mother who introduced me to her brother.... and so they became cousins. It's kind of like they knew they would be cousins when they met.


And here she is cutting her amazing cakes made by her and my dear friend. Surrounded by friends and family who love her and many who have known her most of her life, she passed through this rite of passage. Congratulations Kaetlyn!

Now what?