I'm nervous.
Our village is looking into the backyard chickens issue and I'm a bit iffy on which side things will fall. I was feeling really positive until I went to the farmer's market in town yesterday. There's a big split between the baby boomers. Some say this is a "common sense" issue and that we live too close to the forest preserve to keep chickens, so it should be illegal. To that I say that common sense issues should be left to the individual. Aren't we supposed to be making those decisions for ourselve...
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I frequently refer to my younger daughter by the nickname she gave herself as a toddler. You'd ask her what her name is and she'd respond enthusiastically, "I'm Fi Fi!" So she's stuck with it.
Anyway, Fi is getting ready for a 50's-themed music program at her school. She even has a speaking part where she gets to announce a boy who's playing Elvis. Last night I cut her hair into bangs and tonight I need to finish making a poodle skirt for her to wear in the show. Just the addition of the bangs changed her look so ...
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Fi's at her dad's this weekend. I always miss her, especially on weekend mornings. Saturday mornings are often spent with everyone in the house, cats included, piled up on our bed while the kids watch cartoons.
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We've been making do with a 1 gallon watering dish for the girls. Now that they're laying, it's not even getting them through the day. They're consuming feed at at least twice the rate that they used to, and now the water needs to be filled up twice a day. So in order to make sure fresh water is always available to them, I devised a contraption that involves a gravity-fed auto-waterer, a food-safe rain barrel, and food-safe tubing (came with the waterer), a cage around the dish, and a paving stone to elevate the dish...
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Poor Annie has been complaining all morning...whimpering and clucking. Her hind-end seems rather puffy and she's staying away from the other hens, so my best guess is that she's getting ready to lay her first egg. She's very happy for us to hold and pet her, so we think it must be soothing.
Since the other hens are hanging out in the coop and she wants some time on her own, I've taken the wash tub and lined it with straw so she can nest in private. I'm sure once they all start laying, there will be a more comm...
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Don't be fooled by the cute. This monkey is pukey.
Poor Monkey Man.
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January in Chicago is nothing if not anti-climactic. It's the end of the holiday buzz and the beginning of the long and tortured march toward Spring. The only way to get through a Chicago winter is to find ways to enjoy the cold weather. So once we realized this weekend would top out at a balmy 27 degrees with sunny blue skies, we decided to find a reason to get outside. A little search turned up a pretty neat fact...It turns out that a mere hour and a half from our home, hundreds of bald eagles have come to roost in...
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