Thursday, July 9, 2009

UPDATES

Time flies when you're having fun and so much time has gone by since the last update. Our baby chicks aren't babies anymore. We hope the hens will start laying eggs soon. The roosters are going through puberty or something. They puff out their chests and fluff out their feathers to one another. We have heard they will start fighting so I suppose we will have to make a decision as to which one we will keep and see if we can find a home for the others or they may end up in the soup pot. Our original 20 became 18 as a result of a couple of mishaps, one drowning and one that the dog managed to capture. Then Jeremy acquired 10 more Jersey Giants, but we found out chickens don't handle the heat very well and the older chickens like to pick on the younger ones and keep them away from the food and water source. So we lost 5 all in one day. The rest seem to be doing ok and are holding their own against the teenagers. It's called the pecking order.

It has been quite hot here with some days over 100 degrees. The water is too hot to touch coming out of the hose so we have to let it run before we can even water the garden. Speaking of the garden, we have been picking tomatoes and squash almost daily. We have also had beans, some basil and cucumber. The lastest produce tonight was our very first watermelon. It is in the fridge chilling so we haven't actually sampled it yet. Hope it is good. We are still waiting on cantaloupe, okra, and peppers. The gardening is fun but a lot of work.

I will be visiting K-town again this summer so I am looking forward to taking a little break from the hot weather. I miss the mountains and even that low tide smell sometimes. The sunshine has been nice here but I could go with a little cooler temperatures. The wind always blows as well. Somedays it is kind of creepy with that mournful howling sound.

The latest creature sightings have been turtles. They just seem to want to cross the roads all the time, but for some reason some of them stop in the middle and can't get going again and usually end up.... well as road kill. These are quite large, some the size of large dinner plates.

We have also taken up geocaching. If you don't know what it is, look it up. It is quite
entertaining and the whole family participates. It is the thrill of the hunt more than the actual treasure you might find. Jeremy is official now with his new cap with geo cache logo. I will be looking for the caches in Ketchikan when I go there in a few weeks.

Kyran looks all grown up now with his new permanent teeth taking up the wide gap after loosing his front teeth. Kaylin will soon be four and she is the little princess. Kegan is just enjoying being a little boy and loves playing Indian Jones on the Wii. Both boys played T-ball this year so that was quite entertaining to watch. Kyran's team actually came in second place in the tournament. Laila is 6 months old now and trying to learn how to crawl. Wow, kids grow up so fast.