Introducing Ms.Judy and Scarlet (&Gray)

Two weeks ago, I gained another egg customer. Now 3 chickens are not going to cut it for 3 families. All families with growing boys that love eggs. Mine alone (Man & Boy) could wipe out a dozen in a few days if I let them. So, the time had come to add a few more grown birds to the mix. I met a wonderful lady farmer through the wonders of Craigslist (have I mentioned how I.really.really.heart.craigslist?). She had some Aracuanas and White Rocks for sale at a wonderful price. So Boy and I went out for a ride in the rental car (did I mention before that my car was hit the same week I had my MRI?) to the farm. Nothing better than a rental car to pick up chickens, eh??

She had a wonderful farm, and quite a few chickens. Boy "purchased" 22 eggs from her as well (she gave his money back to me). They were delicious!! (And they were fertile eggs...oh, if I had a broody hen!!)

So we picked....Ms.Judy.....

And Scarlett (who is grey-get the Buckeye reference? You would think we were actually football people. We aren't. Boy named them.)

They are both Aracaunas...one lays an almost Army Green egg, and the other lays a pink egg. We haven't yet figured out which one is which. Arica, our previous Aracuana, was the lowest in the "pecking" order, and right away established that SHE was ABOVE these newbies!! Everytime I saw her that first day she had feathers in her beak! Yikes. No the bald spots are not from my out of control chicken...that's from the rooster at their previous home....you know.

The grey one has now found her place, and unfortunately Ms.Judy is the lowly one now. Here it is a week later and still she is picked on. Hopefully all will settle down in the Coop soon.

And on a side note....the first day we had them...Scarlett jumped out of the coop within the hour of arriving to the Wallace Homestead...and we spent over an hour trying to catch her...then this past week, both "flew the coop" and spent about 2.5 hours "free ranging" the side yard, with 3 Wallaces "herding" them. I'm sure our recluse neighbor was laughing his tail off at us!!!

Tomorrow, will start a new chicken adventure, so stay tuned!

We're also looking at another property tomorrow that looks extremely promising. Both of the previous properties have been mostly ruled out. We met the Amish across the street from the one, very nice people. Apparently the man is too sick to run the mill anymore and they are looking to move, so the major draw is not there. Plus the house is really not good. (Mold, smell, small rooms, peeling ceilings, etc) and to move a different mobile in would cost the same as just staying here. So....

And only 23 days until surgery...and I've moved out of fear to looking forward to it as the pain in my leg and back is definitely getting worse on a daily basis. It seems that I am doing quite a bit, but actually, I think I'm only up a few hours a day. We are homeschooling in my bed, or the car if we are off on "adventures". The boy is in our homeschool dinner theater in 12 days, a pretty big speaking part so we are busy with that in my waking hours. Fortunately, my friends in the homeschool group know what is going on and have offered help, dinners, and play times for the Boy.