I'm so egg-cited!

Our first eggs!

Two of them! Woo-hoo! Yesterday, Hubby texted me to ask if I had put the two eggs in the coop; he deemed them too clean to have come out of a chicken's posterior. I advised him that they must have come from our hens; even I am not weird enough to plant eggs in the coop. One was in the nest and one was on the floor of the coop. We don't know which two hens laid them but Hubby guesses that it was Dixie and Tallulah because they were hanging around the coop and because "Sydney is the least girly so I don't think it was her." (The "least girly"? We'll let that go for now.) So. Two eggs.

We are going to a friend's house for dinner, and are in charge of dessert so I used the eggs to make brownies. We were invited to go treat-or-treating with them and their baby but we decided that Baby A+ is too young too enjoy the festivities, so we're just going for dinner. Plus, I had decided not to dress her up in a costume since it would be for our amusement only; I didn't know if she'd like, much less tolerate, a costume. However, I came across the perfect costume that solidifies her honorary harvardchick status, and I had to get it. For my amusement, not hers. While it's not quite Jon Benet Ramsey level exploitation, I did feel a little bad for making her wear it for two minutes while I got a photo. As you can see, she was not loving it.


It's a bit big for her right now so don't be surprised if it's reprised again for next Halloween. If she wears the chicken, I think I'll dress up as an egg.

I'm serious.

Huh.

Poor child. She's going to need a lot of therapy, isn't she?

She's smiling

Baby A+ flashed her first smiles this week. Oh.my. It made my entire day when she smiled at me, and now I'm working so hard to get her to do it again and again. She uses her whole little mouth and face and just puts everything into it. It's just the greatest thing. I've not been able to get her gummy grin on camera, yet. Below is a happy baby face with a slight smile, but it's nothing when compared to the real deal.

The Great Gonzo and his chickens

No eggs from the girls yet. And they don't entertain me, either. Oh, Great Gonzo, if only my girls could be like yours!

Have you no decency, Sir?

At least McCain is funny. Skip to 12:45.

(And Obama starts at 33:09.)

Looking for a good fried chicken recipe

I really like fried chicken but rarely eat it because it is so terribly bad for my heart (in the long term) and my colon (shorter term). But I'm thinking of finding and trying three recipes for modified, less fattening fried chicken. I figure I have three freeloading hens that aren't laying any eggs so, heck, let's make a taste test out of them.

Grumble, grumble. Sigh.

I'm not serious, of course. But we are still waiting for an egg. The girls and I share a birthday tomorrow: I'll be 31 and they will be 6 months old. The books I've read say that heavy breeds are supposed to lay by 6 months but apparently, no one has told Tallulah, Dixie or Sydney.

In other news, their coop has been winterized. I stuffed straw under the coop and have 4 bales along the north and east walls for insulation. The girls also have a light now and we'll put in the heated water bowl in the coming weeks. The $200 egg has gone up to about $230.

Baby A-plus is fabulous, if screamy. She has a thing about fighting sleep and feels she must scream for a few minutes before konking out. On the flipside, she is working on smiling. Like the proverbial egg, we are waiting for our first baby smile. Last week, she half smiled at a toy she was looking at. I must say, I was a bit irratated with that. "Does that toy get up with you at 3 in the morning? Does that toy feed you 8 times a day? No. So how about directing that smile towards your mama instead, Tootsie." Speaking of getting irratated, she also witnessed her mom yell at some poor kid on Thursday. At least, I think it was a real live person; however, I may have chewed out a robocall....

We got one of the now famous calls from the McCain campaign on Thursday. I don't think it was a robocall because I picked up and said hello, and then a girl said, "Hello? Hello?" I said "Yes, hi." And she said, "Oh, hello. I'm calling from the McCain campaign because you need to know that Barack Obama associates with domestic terrorists...."or something to that effect. After Wednesday night's debate and both candidates being taken to task for their negative ads, I thought that they would be shamed into better behavior. But no. Not the case. And I lost it. "Are you kidding me?! You can't tell me what John McCain is going to do so you need to smear Barack Obama instead?! You know, I respected McCain and thought he was a man of integrity before this campaign and his recent behavior but now, I would never vote for him! And when he loses this election, he's going to have no one to blame but himself. And I hope in 10 years time you look back on this and are deeply ashamed for having been a part of it!" And I hung up. Yeah.

I want this election to be over. I'm tired of the nastiness, and we don't even have a TV so we've not seen any ads! And I want Sarah Palin to be sent back to Alaska to get mauled by a moose. Or a wolf. Or a salmon. I don't care. Just send her home.

To leave this post on a more positive note, here's video of our stupid cat enjoying one of Baby A-plus' toys: the swing. And no, I didn't put him in there. It was his idea.

The $197 egg

I calculated what we've spent on the chickens so far. Including supplies to build the coop, their feed, the chicks themselves, and all their chicken accoutrement (feeder, waterer, pine shavings, straw, etc), we've shelled out almost $200. That first egg will be a $197 egg. Our first dozen eggs will come out to $16.41 each. It will be a while before we break even, if we ever do. We may not considering that we keep incurring the cost of feed, electricity to heat/light up their coop at night (so they can read in bed before going to sleep), and bedding.