Feeling Like Summer

JD and Elijah have been hard at work on the pool deck for the last month. Yesterday it passed final inspection, just in time because it turned hot! Now we just need to stain the deck. We are also waiting on interior stairs to be delivered. This was the perfect summer to put the pool in. We have literally talked about it every summer, but this is the summer that the kids may have no swim team or community open pools, so I'm so thankful we did more than talk this year! 

The beginning of summer always mean llapaca sheering; we had the same team from MD that came last year. They sheer them, trim their hooves, Dremel their teeth and gave them a de-wormer shot. They don't enjoy the process, but love how cooler they are the minute it's over. 

Bella has been tending the chickens in the morning while Selah and I feed and milk the goats. The general rule is that all eggs get gathered everyday; it's especially important in the spring as some of the moms get broody and start gathering eggs to sit on. I went in with Bella the one day to find a mom sitting on 15 eggs. They generally lay eggs in the same boxes so it was possible that they were all from just that day. (Here's a sneak peak into Bella....) I asked Bella how many days those eggs were there, she replied, "like 2 or 1". So, I said, " there is no way they have been longer than 2? It looks like the mom is sitting on them which they generally don't do for about a week". Bella assured me not. Then I examine the eggs and there are 7 olive eggs. Since we have only one chicken that lays olive eggs and she only lays once a day, my detective skills placed the eggs at a minimum of a week old. So, I marked them with an X, moved all other chickens to the other side, and low and behold, in one more week, she hatched out 4 babies with another two that died before completely hatched. Now Lucky, the last chick to hatch, is living in the kitchen NICU, because he hatched late and the mom wasn't going to wait for him. I'm hoping he gets stronger in the next few days and can go out to the coop with his mom and siblings. So, this explains why Bella is content with our Corona lock down - a day, 14 days, it's all the same to her. 

Thought I'd show you my new Mother's Day mug - my chicken, goat and llama mug collection is expanding to large enough that any future farm visitors will be treated to a farm appropriate mug!