I’m really behind on my posting, but I've had a lot of homework and big things just keep happening before I can post about the big thing that happened before that, so settle in for a catcher upper post=) Firstly I started candling Buffy’s eggs with a flashlight almost every day from day 3 of incubation. At first all I could see was a speck, then a spot with gossamer like veins branching from it, then a pulsing blob with veins over most of the egg, then… you get the picture till the entire egg was black. We removed 2 eggs that never developed specks, spots , or blobs, which left 6 potential hatchers. On the evening of the 20^th day we apprehensively called our house-sitter and found that all 6 eggs had hatched. I was very excited, and thankful, because on day 15 Buffy tired of her maternal duty got off her nest, jumped the divider, and mingled with the rest of the flock for an hour or so before I came in and found a motherless moving box full of COLD eggs. Luckily she resumed her maternal duties after I threw her back with her eggs and thankfully all the blobs survived their chilly experience.

They are truly adorable little balls of fluff, now 3 weeks old, and getting big. We let them out to range with the rest of the flock, and enjoy watching momma hen unleash her fury on any hen unfortunate enough to get too close to her brood. This is her fluffed up like a bowling ball warning me to back off, she has since gotten used to me and doesn't mind when I cuddle the chicks.They are a cute mix, 1 speckled Sussex x Buff Orp , 2 Rhode Island Red x Buff Orp and 3 pure Buff Orps.

If you counted the little heads in the above pic you may have noticed that there are in fact 7 little chicks under momma. On the day of our return our neighbor offered me a lone americauna chick from her own flock. How could I say no? The Americauna breed is known for it's tinted eggs, green, blue, pink, or just plain old brown. She is the same age as our own chicks so I thought I could smuggle her in with momma's babies, so I wouldn't have to brood her inside. But the momma bird knew that something was amiss, and chased the poor thing from her own babies. So what do I do, but brood her inside. She was lonely so I gave her a stuffed animal and a mirror to keep her company.

A few days later was the day of the biannual livestock sale. I had been looking forward to this for a while. So I got up early on a Saturday morning, now that is sacrifice, with both my parents to peruse the hundreds of cages full of critters. Chicks, chickens, bantams, ducks, quail, doves, puppies, turkeys, geese, guineas, llamas, donkeys, miniature horseys, sheep, goats, piglets, etc. We did not come home empty handed. I bought 4 light brahmas and 5 welsummers both breeds I've been interested in for a while. These are all in the bathroom, and have been for a whole week. the younger welys have taken over the mirror's job of keeping the americauna company. On a warm afternoon I took them outside to run around and eat some grass and bugsthe big whitish ones are the brahmas, the browny ones are welsummers, and the bluish one is the americaunaIsn't this one adorable.
Unfortunately that is not all that's new. We lost one of our ducks to a predator =( We suspect a fox. It was in the middle of the day, when we heard the roosters sounding the alarm like crazy, we ran outside and the female rouen , mallard looking one, was missing. We never found any trace.
I've been much more carefully about when I let them out now.
--Anna

The Beach

Last week we went to Delaware for our beach trip. Sunday even though the weather was nice we didn’t go to the beach because it was way too crowded. Monday it was overcast and windy which made the rip currents (when the water pulls you out to the ocean) bad, instead of going to the beach we went to the pool, but throughout the week it was freeeeeeeeezzzzzing. Every time we get together with our relatives we work on a big puzzle, so that kept us busy. Also since our house had a pool and ping pong table my Uncle Bernie organized a double elimination tournament. My dad ended up winning pool and my Uncle Richard ended up beating dad at the ping pong championship. On Tuesday we went to the beach but the sky was again overcast and the waves were rough so dad and I ended up getting pummeled by the big waves which was not a very pleasant experience , yet I was able to body board the rough waves. Wednesday through Friday the weather was bad so we played pool, ping pong, and worked on the puzzle inside and toughing out the swimming pool outside, shiver. Until Saturday we saw, could it be SUNSHINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We then put on our bathing suits jumped in the car and went to the beach and it wasn’t even windy.A jelly fish had washed up on the beach.

When we got there it was cloudy again but every now and then the sun broke through.

When we (Anna, dad, and I) got in the water we got past were the waves were breaking so we could jump over them, when a huge wave broke way deeper then the other ones and right on top of us (that’s how dad and I got pummeled Tuesday) but luckily we were able to dive under it at the last second. After that I wasn’t going to take a chance of reliving Tuesday so I went closer to shore a safe distance away from the pummeling and surprisingly consistent huge waves. Dad and I were still able to however, body board the waves without getting pummeled.





LOL, we just missed that big wave.

After surfing for awhile we took a break and played frisbee on the beach.I got a neat picture of this wave curling. I like this picture because I got the wave breaking in the back.


After that we left.

I was sad that we only got one good day at the beach, but grateful at the same time that we did get one day at the beach and that God had a reason for it. So the next day we took our group pictures, said goodbye and were on the road. When we got home me and Anna sprinted out of the car and into the coop and saw our mama hen walking around with six little baby “chickis” :D.

Anna will post about them later.
So that's all for this post.
--Philip

This year for science I studied about plants and how butterflies and bees pollinate them. So for an experiment I (Philip) planted a butterfly garden. We got our plants from Lavender Fields Herb Farm. We got Parsley, Bee Balm, Hyssop, and Bronze Fennel.Here is a chrysalis on the fennel.A visitor



. We are leaving for the beach (at Delaware) tomorrow YAY :D, we got a house that has a ping pong, and a pool table so we’re going to have a little family tournament ;). So we’re busy packing and taking care of the animals before we go ,but I was able to squeeze this post in, phew.

--Philip