slip slidin away

Ok, I know the title is lame, but I'm tired. So enjoy the pics of the kids on their slip n slide.

It took a few minutes for Dante to warm up to the concept, but as you can see, he eventually got the hang of it.

It took Lucia a little longer to get the idea.



So, Dante captured this lil guy at the cranberry bog the day before, and s/he spent the night in our pond tank. I told Dante to get a pic before s/he had to go back, but evidently the poor thing wouldn't stop running around on the deck. Dante solved this problem, as you can see above.

Preying together

Our preying mantis egg case hatched today -- now we have oodles of tiny little mantids. We put them in the compost heap, hoping that there are enough tiny bugs there for at least a few of them to thrive. Last year, the case hatched more on the second, and just a few more in the third day after the main hatch, so we'll be checking again tomorrow morning.

Chick'n Livin'

The Blue Laced Red Wyandottes got their first taste of the great outdoors today and seemed to enjoy it. I initially placed them in the pen with the other girls, as I had last week with the new babies, but right off the bat, Bandit gave a nasty peck at the lightest colored baby, and came away with a mouthful of feathers. So the new girls got to free range outside the pen, while the bigger girls stayed in. They were delighted to be out back by the compost heap again.

The new gals seemed to stick together, despite having the run of the yard.

Can't get a pic head up while they're outside, only fuzzy butts. These guys are tiny!

Fly, our biggest bird, is on the left, with Bandit, the other speckled sussex on the right. It really does seem to hold true, that bird of a feather flocking together bit.

Here's a shot of the brooder after a long day outside. New babes, plus the auracanas on the right, big girls on the left. Why are the big girls clustered in that corner?

They're dipping their beaks in some tasty yogurt. Mmmm.

the laggards arrive!

Ok, so tonight the kids and I made the trek one last time to the "Chicken Lady" to procure our favorite breed -- Blue Laced Red Wyandottes. Check out the gorgeous adult pics at feathersite's wyandotte page (scroll down until you see Beauty and her pretty blue petticoats). We got what seems like an assortment of colors, since this breed comes in a black, blue and spash version. (those colors refer to the lacing, or color on the edge of the feathers, as well as the underneath or petticoat color). These are only sold as straight run, which means they can't tell the gender in day old chicks, so we might have four roosters. The Chicken Lady will exchange any roos for hens but I'm hoping we grabbed at least a hen or two.

it's too darn hot!

This week has been so hot, it fried this poor luna moth to a crisp, right on top of our umbrella.

So, for respite, we headed to the beach to catch some minnows and to enjoy Dave's last summer of freedom before he becomes a workin man.

Well, the peanut butter cups melted at the beach, so naturally, Lucia absconded with them to the pantry and, well. You get the idea.

Predator Day

Well, we had the new chicks outside with the others today, and they all seemed to get along pretty well. Dante and I planted our seedlings in the butterfly garden, and found tons of grubs while we were prepping the area. The girls were going mad every time we walked near their pen. Dante's posing with both new girls.

Daddy took the kids fishing again since he got home a little early, and Dante caught 1 bass and 2 sunnys.

Before they left, we noticed that the local birds were going nuts. Dante discovered why -- we think this is a broad-winged hawk which was perched on a tree not 20 feet from our babies!

Check out his tail -- those marks are one of the reasons we're thinking broad-winged hawk.

And guess who came to visit in the evening? Now I know why I'm going through birdseed like crazy! And now you can see why we need to build our coop nice and strong! (and why I need to relocate this hanging basket.)

More chicks!

The new girls are here -- just two this week. The woman who got them for us called them Araucana, but I'm not so sure. Who cares? They're very cute. And it was funny to see all the big girls reacting to them in the brooder. And of course, you can always go to feathersite to see what they might look like as adults. But the reason we picked this breed is for their colored eggs -- blue or green tinted.

the cranberry bog bass

Luke took the kids to the cranberry bog where we skate in the winter.

A shot of the sun through the trees.

Dante caught 2 bass. Except while he was pulling one in, he noticed that Lucia had fallen in.

Here she is, pre-dip. But in real-time, she's awake and crying, so no more details at present.

Back to Boston for a day

Oooh, translucent skin guy with light-up organs at the Museum of Science. Cool.


Dante just found out we're not going to make it to JP Licks...

Our first solo construction project

Well, the girls were unhappy because they had outgrown their cardboard box. So this morning we got up and built them a new brooder (or place to hang out since they had no soft squishy mama hen to sit under). We're getting more chicks in the next couple of weeks (2 auracanas this Tuesday, and 2 Blue Laced Wyandottes next Tuesday), and only have one heat lamp, so I designed a screen to keep them from hurting the new babies, but allowing them all to share the heat. You can't see the screen in the pic now because I haven't hung the heat lamp up on a chain yet, but we're getting there. Dante did all the measuring and much of the nailing, including staple gun fun to attach the screen.

Boys with their hammers... poor Lucia had wanted to play sorry, but you can see that it got pushed aside in favor of our project.

Voila! Installed under the shelf in the laundry room -- way more out of the way, and much more space to run about. I think it's more drafty than the box though, because they tend to stay under the heat lamp more.

Some of the girls, with the screen between sections behind them. See how tiny the Silkies are compared to the rest of the girls?

A close up of the Silkies -- see the feathered feet? And their wing feathers are more like hair than feathers -- long and stringy. I can't wait to see them all grown up! And despite their size, they are NOT wimpy. These guys have no compunction about snagging grubs or other treats from the beaks of the giants...

Power tools are fun

Our neighbors have a small farm, and own a lovely backhoe. While here on a visit with her 2 year old son, Lynn offered to have one of her older boys come up and level out a big pile of dirt in the back corner of our yard where are planning to put the chicken palace. So sure enough, a few hours later, we heard the hum of a big engine heading up the hill to our house. Jack levelled out the whole thing in a matter of minutes, saving Luke oodles of heavy lifting. Poor guy -- guess he'll have to join the gym to get those muscles.

Chicks again

It's difficult to capture a pic of the chicks looking up when they're outside, because all you usually see is fuzzy butts and bent heads. Above is Rosie, searching for a tasty morsel and enjoying not being in the box inside. Today they were stuck inside all day due to rain and our absence, and were peeping madly when we got home. So we covered the rug in the living room, made a little pen and we all sat down to watch Shrek 2 together while the chicks ran about and got some exercise.

Bandit and Fly are really feathering out. And having a blast scratching in the thinnings from the pea teepee.

Now that we took the planks from our temp pen to build the nest boxes, this is what we're using to contain the girls outside. Not too sturdy, but does make it easier to catch them at the end of the day. And the love the shelter Dante built them -- they like to roost on top of it too when they're tired.

Meet the cows that make our milk

After spelunking at the Bushy Hill Nature Preserve last Friday, we all headed to the Deerfield Farm in Durham for a homeschool field trip to learn more about cows and raw milk. We got to meet the calves, who really enjoyed licking all the kids' salty hands, their moms, and the dairy farmer, a 24 year old woman named Melynda who graduated from Middletown's Vo-Ag program, and UCONN's dairy program. You can find more info at http://www.realmilk.com/

Above Dante is getting licked by one of the very friendly milk cows who was chained in the barn that day. Below is Lucia with one of the 3 veal calves. The poor things were getting sent in for "processing" next week. They were so cute and friendly, licking all the little kids, and loved getting petted and having their neck and ears scratched.

Where in the world is Dante Petruzziello?

Can you find Dante in the picture below?

Or how about in this one?

Ok, maybe you can see him in this one:

Uncle Tommy took Dante out to call turkeys in the wee hours of the morn a couple of weeks ago. They got all rigged out in camouflage and brought several types of bird calls. They ended up coming over a hill and nearly stepping on their quarry, which responded by freaking out and roosting in a nearby tree. Poor lil turkey thought he was on his way to a lovely day with a willing female, and found two guys dressed in leafy shirts instead.

Having gone to bed late and gotten up at 4am, Dante nearly snoozed through his piano recital later that day. But he woke up in time to play The Wigwam song and eat tons of cherry tomatoes and celery at the reception afterwards.

monkey see, monkey do

We went to the playscape in town yesterday, and after coating our faces with french fry grease and ketchup, we hit the equipment.

the great outdoors

Today was 80 degrees outside, and so we made a new makeshift pen (as our old one was cut up for nesting boxes in the coop below) and got the girls out on the lawn. They make the sweetest sound of contentment when they hit the ground and start hunting for tasty morsels.


With some of the scrap wood from the coop, Dante built a small shelter for them. Here you see the lovely Lucia showing off this fabulous structure.


A close up of the girls enjoying the shade. Look at those fuzzy butts! And everyone has names now -- Rosie and Speck are the Gold Laced Wyandottes, the two in front, Fly and Bandit, are the Speckled Sussex, and you can now start to see the white speckles on their wing feathers; and Ping and Pong are the all-black Silkies with the feathered feet. The two Silkies are still much smaller than everyone else.


Rosie takes a break from scrounging to sunbathe.


Bandit shows off her new plummage, while Ping eyes me warily in the background.