Yes, I know, I've been slacking and have posted for a while...work got hectic, then the holidays were upon us and next thing I knew it was 2008! So, Happy Belated Holidays, whichever ones you celebrate, and a Happy New Year, too! :D
Things are going well here, though both Mike and I are eager for Spring to arrive. The holidays were quiet for us here in Western NY, we celebrated Solstice with a lovely dinner and tried roasting chestnuts(not so successful there).
We spent Christmas Eve out at my mom's, taking along with us 8 dozen eggs! We had a nice quiet day there and came back that evening - overnight trips anywhere in the winter time are going to be nigh close to impossible, as we've no one to care for the chickens. We had a nice peaceful Christmas day wiled away by installing the new rubber bumper set that Mike's dad bought him for his pinball machine. It's amazing the difference they've made!
We've just come out of an amazing January thaw, seeing a record of 64 degrees set yesterday morning at 3am! Today we're hanging out in the mid to upper 30s...what a difference. We're hoping that the warm spell was short enough that it doesn't mess with the trees too much, though it's definitely messing with our sinuses!
We sold just about half our flock last week. :( Finally had to accept the fact that we weren't going to be able to find enough buyers for the eggs at the point in time. Seven of our Easter Egger hens went to a family that lives about ten minutes for us, seemed like good people, with two daughters who seemed to just adore chickens. So, now we have Brutus, our Buckeye rooster, six Buckeye hens, and two EE hens, Jackie and Isis. They're still settling back down from all the ruckus of splitting the flock, and from the shake up the weather's given us, so we're not getting a ton of eggs right now, but hopefully everyone will settle down soon and we'll be getting some steady production.
We've been spending some of our nights with seed and nursery catalogs spread all over the couch, trying to decide what we're going to plant this spring. We're planning on an extensive change to our landscaping..or rather, doing some landscaping! We're hoping to plant a couple of pecans, walnuts, and a pair of almonds trees, as well as a number of fruiting bushes to act as a hedge. I think we've settled on a basket willow to fill in the spot between our property and our one neighbor, giving us a nice dense screen, as well as materials for baskets and such. Our garden list is up around 30 different varieties, from tomatoes to pumpkins, cabbage to spinach. We're really looking forward to getting that in and seeing how things grow up here.
