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Encouraging Heroes. You can be one too.

Hullloooooooo, Internets! I’ve been away from you for-lemme check-3 days ohmygoodness! Allow me to explain. 🙂

If you read my post at GNMParents (now Forever Parenting) you know that the boys were gone last week. The older boys went to Scout Camp and the youngers went to Camp Grandma. Did I mention that here? I don’t recall. As usual I managed to fill the week with activity and time just plain flew by. The Scout portion of the family came home Saturday, and we picked up the Grandma Campers Sunday afternoon.

We were literally driving home Sunday when some friends called to say that they’d found a lone chick wandering their farm, and would we add it to our little flock. (Which at that point numbered 4. Six chicks had hatched but we lost two over the course of the week.) Oh, and by the way, they’d also found 2 hens nesting and wondered if we wanted to incubate the eggs for the rest of the time. Our friends were done dealing with chicks for the year and the hens weren’t in a safe place to hatch out and handle that many babies on their own.

So. We hurried home and got ready, then went over to pick up the chick and the eggs. Twenty seven eggs. The chick was ADORABLE! They’re Bantam Chickens; they grow to be about half the size of a standard chicken. The boys kept calling them Phantom Chickens, which caused some giggles. We got the eggs into the incubator and set chickie up in a safe place. I’d just served dinner when our friends called again. They had 6 more eggs and two live chicks….would we take them?

So now, we’ve got 31 eggs in the incubator (one hatched and one…didn’t) and 8 chickens in the pen. The boys just love them! It’s so cute when they go out and pet the chickens and talk to them and take care of them.

What does all this mean? Well, we’re back in the egg-watching business. We don’t know exactly when these eggs will hatch, so everyone’s keeping a close eye on them. The boys are doing a great job of chicken wrangling. Each chick has been named and is handled frequently so they get used to people. Then everyone Washes Their Hands With Soap Thankyouverymuch.

It’s crazy hot here, how about you? We got up early today to do chores, then the boys played and later we went to Tae Kwon Do. It was a very busy day. Oh yeah, we took time out to witness a car accident as well. No one was hurt and the boys were very sweet while we waited for the police to arrive.

Tomorrow I expect some more work but we’ll try to be hiding in the basement where it’s cool by midday. Hopefully I can get the lawn mowed, some weeds killed, and make a batch of jam. And of course we’ll watch the chickens. And eggs.

It’s a very exciting life I lead.

Oooooh! Speaking of exciting. Stop back tomorrow for an announcement. It’s a giveaway! And yes, I’m really excited about it. So. Come back and I’ll give you all the details.

Bring friends!

Earnest Parenting: advice for getting the best out of education.