They Grow Up So Fast

I was talking with my friend Jodie earlier this week, telling her about our little chicks. Jodie grew up on a farm, and in recent years, she and her family moved back to her hometown, where they live just down the street from her parents, who are still farming, and who we all lovingly call Papa Joe and Grandma Go. She is also close to her brother and sister, who both live in the same town with their growing families. We have made numerous visits to the farm, and we are lucky to have this country life so available to us, only a 90 mile drive away. It has helped us be more at peace with our continued city life, to have these country options available to us (this, and the frequent visits to my parents' house in Tennessee).

Jodie listened and laughed along with me as we discussed our recent adventure into chicken farming. She knows a lot about chicken farming. Papa Joe began a chicken business a number of years ago, as a supplement to his other farming life. He raises chickens for both eggs and meat, which he sells at the farmer's market in their small but bustling town. He has a wonderful, big healthy flock—they are fed organic feed, allowed free range of the farm and live good lives—but there has never been any question that these birds are destined for either laying or eating. All the grandchildren assist in the care of the chickens, feeding, gathering eggs.

In recent years, Papa Joe added turkeys to the flock, but there was never any question of their purpose either. He named one Thanksgiving and the other one Christmas. 

When I told Jodie that our chicks are currently living in our apartment, she just burst out laughing. She was so tickled by this idea and could not help her reaction. I can imagine the reaction of Papa Joe if she mentions our current living arrangements. 

But oh, it has been so wonderful to have these little babies right here in our house while they are growing up. And they are definitely growing up. Fast. I know people always use the expression, "don't blink or you'll miss it" about childhood. And I can concur with these sentiments, having recently observed that my children seem to be growing in their sleep, that their feet are visibly bigger from one day to the next. 

But that cannot even compare with the chickens, who seem to grow bigger within minutes. I will say good morning to the chickens. I will pet the head of Trickster, who still has a fluffy head, thankfully, so she seems just a little bit more like a chick than a chicken. And then I will notice that they have kicked a bunch of litter in their waterer, so that there is practically no water left. I will clean it out and fill it up, and when I go to put it back in the box, I will notice that Trickster has sprouted another feather in the meantime. Topsy Turvy already looks like a full grown chicken—she is clucking! I half expected to find an egg there this morning.

They all have such unique personalities, and it has been fun to be able to tell them apart so clearly from the beginning, to notice that those personalities have remained remarkably true. Skittle is still skittish, Topsy Turvy is still big and dominant. Glo is still gentle and sweet. Blackie is still indifferent but approachable. Junior is still the hardest to categorize. Trickster is still the friendliest, most curious and most daring.

The boys like to put them in a push cart we got for Otto when he was just learning to walk. It is a wooden cart that looks kind of like a stroller, and Otto hardly used it. I had recently pulled it out of a closet with the intention of selling it. But the boys immediately found a better use for it. And I must confess, it's really fun to watch it used this way. Max likes to sneak a chick out and take her on a tour of the house, usually wrapping her in a bit of cloth, in case she might get the urge to poop while she is on her tour. We all like to let them out of the brooder to explore the back porch, then make their way into the kitchen, stopping to admire their reflections in the trash can.

It will be strange to actually put them in the coop in a couple of weeks. It has been so easy caring for them while they are right here. It is so easy to check on their food, their water, their grit. If it gets a bit chilly in the apartment, we know that it also might be getting a bit chilly for the chicks. We can raise and lower the lamp in the middle of the night, while wearing our pajamas. And we can pull them out of the coop many times a day, for a brief play period. To feed them treats. To get to know them. It has been ideal for us.

And I think I'll kind of miss hearing their pecking in the middle of the night, as they poke the side of their brooder box, and I imagine they are trying to tunnel their way out of the box and come visit us in the bedroom.

But it will be another wonderful adventure. I guess the same thing will happen with the boys someday. They will move out of our cozy apartment and into apartments of their own. But luckily, that still seems like a long way away. Chickens definitely grow up faster than boys. But I still don't want to blink.

Interior Coop Tour

The boys and I gave this tour of the interior aspects of the chicken coop in August, but I didn't manage to put it up on YouTube until today.

Winter Coop

We want the right side of the coop to be insulated and closed off to the elements for the coldest of days. We had already insulated all the exterior walls, but we hadn't finished the removable panel. That was this weekend's project.

First we measured and leveled the panel as best as we could.

We laid the window on the panel and traced its outline, then cut out the window hole.

I should have gotten a wider shot of this, but hopefully it is apparent that Martin is standing inside the coop, and the window panel is on the right half of the coop, to provide this little winter room for our hens. We still need to work on the pop door (which will be larger than a normal pop door, assuming we will leave it open for all but the very coldest of days, and we want to be able to have as much light as possible in the lower half of this section.

This right section is where the ladders and roost are, as well as access to the nesting box and to the run.

Homeschool Olympics

This year's theme was Canada, in honor of the winter olympics which were held in Vancouver earlier this year. We were all supposed to bring a Canadian dish for the potluck picnic, in addition to a game for the competition. We had an inside scoop, given our connection to certain wonderful Canadians. Said Canadians had supplied me with a full list of Canadian specialities (which was even broken down by specific provinces—very helpful, and even better, pretty funny), and I forwarded it to the group, so that we had lots of inspiration.

The feast included a tourtiere (meat pie), maple beans, Canadian cheese, saskatoon berry and rhubarb pie, and nanaimo bars, in addition to an entire table filled with all sorts of other delicious dishes.

Otto helped me do the pie crust, cutting out the Olympic logo as well as some small maple leaves to make it look "more Canadian."

The opening ceremonies involved a parade with a hula hoop and some scooters and a bunch of kids running around. Max and Otto weren't ready to join the crowd, but they donned their Olympic mittens and observed the parade from the sidelines.

The opening ceremonies were followed by a variety of unexpected Olympic events, part of what makes the Homeschool Olympic gathering so darn cool.

First Event: Scooter Race.

Max was still not ready to join in, but he rode his scooter along the race course while we waited for the competitors to return to the finish line.

Next up: Capoeira Moves and Clap Circle (since we didn't have drums on hand).

Not on the official registry of events, but an event all the same: Wrestling.

(Finally, something we can participate in!)

Sack Races were heated.

The discus throw was noted for the fine form of its competitors and the critical input of bystanders.

Half the fun of shot put was decorating the shot, and by this I mean the round object which greatly resembled a tennis ball. And who says we homeschoolers will never learn to line up? Pretty nice form overall.

Nanaimo bars were very extremely good.

And our pie was a hit.

The only drawback was that I realized Martin didn't get to try it. He loves rhubarb and had already mentioned sort of sadly that I never bake anything with rhubarb. Lucky for him, there was a bit of filling left in the refrigerator, just right for a rustic pie. Yum, I think I liked this version even better!

Chicks Day Out

It was a beautiful day, warm enough for the chicks to be outside. We took them to explore their run for the first time.

The Morton Arboretum

We never fail to have a lovely day at the arboretum. Oh, wait, somehow I am forgetting that the last time we were there, it was miserably hot, and the boys laid down on the trails and declared that they could not possibly go any further. I sometimes re-write my memory in this way, to remember the best parts of the day and not the difficult ones.

But this latest visit requires no re-writing. It was, in fact, that perfect weather that you wish you could have on a more regular basis, but which you know is so wonderfully rare that when it does come, you must drop everything and be out in it.

Our drive to the exhibit passed so quickly that we barely got to enjoy any of the audio book we were all listening to (Harry Potter: The Order of the Phoenix). It made me think we should plan more of these "road trips" so that we can further ourselves along in the book, as we all enjoy listening in the car more than any other location.

There is a sculpture exhibit there now called Steel Roots. They have quite grown on me (no pun intended).

Spotted: Great Blue Heron.

Found: Fuzzy Caterpillar.

Created: Necklaces of Wood Discs.

Crossed: Web of Rope.

Explored: Treehouse.

Thoroughly Enjoyed: One Afternoon.

The Sun, the Stars, and So Many Buttons

I always forget about how much I love this little beach, just south of the planetarium. It is almost always empty. It was such a beautiful day today that I didn't want to go right into the planetarium, as we had planned, and the boys totally agreed. We played for a long time here, drawing with sticks, building a catapult and experimenting with what we could fling with it, and exploring the beach.

We found a surprising number of Monarch butterflies, and we wondered if they had fought the big winds by the lake while they were making their migration south and west. I assume they had come from north or east of us, and would have therefore had to cross the lake. It's kind of sad to think that the little butterfly would have made its way so well for so long, but then be greeted by unkind Chicago winds and ended up on the lakeshore.

After we soaked our feet and covered ourselves in sand, we decided we were cold and ready to head inside. But of course, I didn't want to traipse into the museum with the remains of our beach visit sticking to our clothes. So we had to take off our socks and shake out our pants and rinse our shoes. I love Crocs for how easy they are to clean and dry in just such an occasion.

The observatory was open for a brief period during our visit (it is only open once a week or so, and is dependent on the weather, so we felt lucky to be there on a clear blue sky day). The telescope was positioned on the sun (pretty much the only option for observation in the middle of the day), and we all got a nice look at it and noted the prominence that was visible in the lower left corner. I had no idea what a prominence was, or if I knew it at one point, I had forgotten it. But the knowledgeable volunteers explained that a prominence is gas that is gathered at a point that is outside of the sun's perimeter. It looked to me like a small gas leak on the side of the sun. They laughed at this phrasing, but it seems like the best way to understand what it looked like. 

Back inside the planetarium, we visited the Little Explorers exhibit for the first time. This would have been a really great exhibit to have around when the kids were small. We still managed to find it quite entertaining, and we all had a blast (literally) when we participated in mock lift offs from the rocket.

The planetarium closes at 4:30, a really unreasonable hour, if you ask me, especially when the days are still relatively long. We had only just gotten inside the place after lunch. But the benefit was that we were thrust back outside into the beautiful afternoon sun. We played for a while more at the lakefront.

We picked up Martin from work and kicked off our weekend by heading to the Busy Beaver Button Company for the opening party for its new Button Museum. They had the world's largest trinket/button dispenser on hand for the event.

Chickies: Two Weeks and Counting

The chicks celebrated their two week birthday on Monday, and we are amazed at how they have grown. We have given them so much love and attention in these last weeks, spending many mornings just playing with them and getting to know them. And finally, they are all officially named. And we are pretty sure we know which breed is which, realizing that we made some earlier errors. But I suppose we should prepare to be surprised, in any case.

So without further adieu, I introduce to you...

Topsy Turvy, our Easter Egger. Named for grandpa, because she has a fluffy gray "beard" around her face, just like Grandpa. Grandpa likes to turn the boys upside down, and since Topsy Turvy likes to do her share of tricks, we think this is a good name for her. We also think she looks a bit like a wise old owl, which is also a grandpa kind of thing, so that's good.

Topsy Turvy is our wild card, since we are not quite sure what she will look like when she is grown up. She will lay colored eggs, but they could be green or blue or pink or creamy white or brown. So we will have to wait to see.

Here she is at one week:

And here she was this morning:

We just love to look at her, she looks the most like a bird, like a hawk, we think. Especially when she is carefully observing her surroundings, as she is in the above photograph.

And here is Glo, named for Grandma, whose first name is Gloria, and who is very glow-like in her personality. Glo is our very sweetest little chick, and the one that still seems like a chick, compared to all the others, who seem to be getting bigger right in front of our eyes. Glo is a Buff Orpington and will grow up to look like this. But for now, she looks like this:

Glo will almost always let you hold her, she is trusting and sweet and lovable.

Next is Trickster, the hen we have now named three separate times, first in error, as we thought she was an Australorp and would grow up to be all black (Otto wanted to call the Australorp Blackie), secondly she was named Posey, because she was such a camera lover, the only chick who came right up to the camera, and in fact, would even jump up onto it, like it was a perch. But her exploits were not limited to the camera, and she soon proved to us that she liked adventure of all sorts, would be the first chick to jump up on the roost, then figure out how to jump up onto the brooder box edge, then be ready to jump right out onto the floor. One day while watching her antics, we exclaimed that she was quite the Trickster, and somehow that name seemed right for her. She is never shy, and in fact will jump right up onto your hand if you put it in the brooder. Trickster is a Dominique and will grow up to look like this, but for now, she looks like this:

And here is Trickster, playing on Max's video camera, which he intended to use to take a movie of her. Obviously, Trickster had other plans.

You can see the white bits coming through on Trickster's new feathers—the first sign that we had gotten the two black chicks confused. But her super friendly personality is also a sign that she is a Dominique.

Next is Blackie, our Australorp, who will grow up to look like this. Blackie is somewhat shy, but she will tolerate a modest amount of attention. 

We have been letting them out for some exploration outside of the box. Blackie is not at all sure what to think about this, finding the floor a bit too slippery for her liking. But she is curious, all the same, and seems to be happy to be out.

Junior was intended to be Max's favorite, which is why he gave her this name. Junior was the name of a rooster that my parents had, who Max was quite fond of. That Junior was killed in what we think was a bobcat attack. We like to think he was defending the hens until the end. Before our chicks even arrived, Max had decided he would name the Speckled Sussex Junior. And so he did. She will grow up to look like this. She is evolving so much in the last two weeks, and as she gets her feathers in, it has been fascinating to watch her change. She does not really like being handled, but Max is persistent and determined, and so, she tolerates him. But she pretty much runs from anyone else.

The last chick is a Golden Laced Wyandotte. She is the most skittish of all the chicks, she doesn't like to be held by anyone, not even Max, who certainly tries. Because of this, she is the least played with or handled chick, but we still like to admire her from afar. She was the last to be named, but she has benefitted by getting a name that suits her perfectly: Skittle. She will grow up to look like this, but for now, we're watching her feathers come in, and she looks like this:

We're having fun letting them explore that back porch, as they try to find bugs in the floor and peck at our clothes and feet.

Max's smile says it all. (And I love that I only managed to capture his mouth. It doesn't matter, it's enough to show the joy he feels in having these little chickies.) That's Trickster on the left and Glo on the right.