The Post Office called at 6:15 this morning to tell us that our chicks had just come in. Yay! They are so cute and we are so excited. All 27 survived the trip so far and they all appear to be eating, drinking and moving around quite well. There’s one little one that I’m particularly worried about but we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. I think I can be a grownup about when one of them dies. Here’s hoping anyway :)
Here’s the box they came in. They were shipped on Saturday and chicks live on their yolk reserve for 2-3 days without eating or drinking. Makes sense when you realize that a hen lays 1 egg every 25 hours, so to lay a clutch to hatch takes several days. The first ones out need to be able to survive until the hen is done sitting on the unhatched eggs.
I took them out one at a time, dipped their beaks into the water and made sure they took a drink. (I was worried how I would possibly know if they had drank or not, but fortunately, it’s obvious.) Then put them out in their brooder, under the heat lamp. The heat lamp makes it about 95 degrees, which is just where they like it right now. I had food scattered on the paper towels to get them started and they just fell right to it.
Here they are under the heat lamp when they first arrived. They’ve since spread out around the whole enclosure so I think they temperature is about right. The lamp is red so it makes the picture a bit funky, but that discourages them picking on each other.
And here’s some peeping for your Monday morning. :)
I’m big into quick sewing projects these days. I love it when I can decide to make something, sit down and have it done all in one session, especially on those magical days when quiet time coincides with a baby nap.
I made this little needle book for my sister’s birthday and sent it to her with a nice bunch of embroidery floss. She does amazing freehand stitching (like embroidering 12 different scenes from Roald Dahl books onto a quilt made of old t-shirts) so it’s fun to send her things like this.
I got the general idea from a project in Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts
I’ve been writing a lot about food lately. I have a post over at the Green Phone Booth today about CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) and it made me realize just how much I’ve been focusing on food lately. But its just so good, even when you’re not an expert at making it. I’m lucky enough to have an actual-for-real-live chef in the family and my brother is an amazing cook (so amazing that he catered our wedding of 250 people) so I know how good food can get.
A big reason we moved to the farm is to grow our food. (That, and I really want a cow and chickens. Chickens come next Monday! A cow will have to wait until I know a bit more about what I’m doing.) Its funny to realize that we’ve changed everything in order to eat better, but then again, its better than a lot of other reasons, right? (Even if you disagree, don’t tell me now :)
David’s bread is yummy and we haven’t bought a loaf from the store since Christmas. The recipe is from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day
My dear friend Kirstin made us pain au chocolat from scratch. I still can’t quite believe it – croissants take days to make but they are so, so good. She made them, the froze them before the final rise so we have a lovely little bag of them in our freezer that we just let rise over night, then cook for 10 minutes in the morning. Lovely!
And our seeds have started arriving! I know there’s alot between us and eating these, but I’m so excited. It’s like a stack of new fabric or yarn – such potential!!
Here’s to everyone eating good food!
The last couple of days have been the type of days where I spend the time counting the minutes until David comes home to save me from the kid-induced chaos. The type of days where I make brownies at 10am and then try to not eat the entire batch before 5pm. I know comforting myself with food is cliche but I really like brownies. :)
Anyway, one of the things that helps me get through is if I can find the time to make something not immediately consumable – so I made three of these fabric beach balls. Little Katie was really enjoying playing with the one that I made for Tommy two years ago (which he wasn’t so crazy about sharing. See above about the brownies.) so I made her one. Then Zoe wanted one of her own (see above about the brownies). And then I made one more, adding the ribbons into the seams as an extra thing for Katie to grab and to play with.
Its an easy, fast pattern to make and is great for scraps of fabric. One change to the pattern that worked better for me was on the end “buttons”. The directions call for cutting the circles, then pressing in the edges 1/8 of an inch, then sewing them onto the end of the ball. I am not very good at pressing to begin with, much less something that is supposed to be at 1/8 of an inch AND in a circle. I’m sure there’s some trick to it that doesn’t involve burning myself and cursing but I haven’t gotten that far yet. So, instead, I just did a quick running stitch by hand around the outside of the cut circle, then pulled the two ends of the thread together until the circle edges were gathered up nicely and pressed that flat. It is very easy to sew them on once that’s done.
I tried to get a picture of Katie with her new ball but they all came out like this:
She likes it. Yay!
When we were looking for a new house with land that we could farm, I harbored a secret hope that the house would also have enough space for me to have a room or a part of a room dedicated to making things. Somewhere that I could set up my sewing machine and not have to take it down every night. Somewhere that I could actually see all the supplies that I’ve bought over the years, especially the fabric. Its been so lovely that this new house has just the space for it and even better, its a big enough ‘library’ for David and I to share it. He has his soldering iron, laptop and circuits and I have my ironing board, sewing machine and knitting needles. Nerd paradise!
Now, dreams meeting reality mean that I’m slow to get things unpacked, but here’s a little peek at some of what I’ve gotten done so far.
This hangs above my cutting table and has just a couple of my fabrics up on it, but I already like the idea of hanging more of them up on the wall. I tend to buy fabric without a clear project in mind (bad, bad idea) because I think its pretty so at least I can use it to bring some color to the walls, right?
This is the space right behind my sewing table. Its still a work in progress, but basically, I bought two pieces of pegboard at Home Depot and then covered them with paper from the Paper Source. I just used double sided tape to stick the paper to the pegboard and it makes them prettier than just the big black boards alone. The hooks cover the holes they make but even if I decide to move a hook, the hole left behind doesn’t look bad at all.
I like the look of the paper so I did a couple of the switchplates in the house too. Time to warn all the appliances to watch out or your going to get covered! :)
(Please ignore how funky the switches themselves are, we need to replace them in the entire house so it takes time. Sigh.)
Lest you think that I have anything under control, here’s what the rest of the room looks like:
Hah!