I’m sittin’ in the railway station
Jul. 10th, 2011 12:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
teaberryblue…waiting to go home from Delaware. The train is about ten minutes late, and the GPS overestimated the length of our trip by about 30 minutes, so all in all I have had about an hour in the station. They just announced the train delay, so I though I’d take a few moments to update, because, wonder of wonders, the Wilmington train station has free wireless for its passengers. Excellent, I say!
Had a lovely weekend with my family. Grandparents are doing well, and I got to see my cousin Jeremy for the first time in about twenty years. He has five kids now! One daughter from his first marriage, three stepchildren, and a new baby! His kids are all adorable and precocious and amazing and they were so much fun. We went to my cousin Shannon’s wedding reception (she got married in the Carribean somewhere, I forget where), and had a delicious cake which is the official state cake of Maryland, that I’d never had before. It was one of the best wedding cakes I’d ever had (traditionally, it’s chocolate, but Shannon had it in strawberry, orange, and banana. I tried strawberry and orange as bananas are my mortal enemy.)
Some sad news, though! Chick Luisi, aka Salty Bob (according to Jess) died this weekend. My dad got up to the house and found her with her neck broken in the hen yard.
At first he didn’t tell us her neck was broken and I felt terrible and horribly guilty that we didn’t do enough to prevent heat stroke, or that maybe the chickens had gotten sick and would all die.
But then he told us about her neck, and while I am still sad that we lost a chick, it sounds like it was the work of one of the bigger chickens, which, I hear happens from time to time. We suspect Chick Luisi was not really a hen but a rooster (she was showing signs of not being female) and this is not uncommon. My dad is still sort of freaking out and thinks a wild animal got into the henyard, so he took a giant Santa Claus that my parents use as Christmas decoration and set it up outside because he is convinced that will scare away the wild animals. My mother is convinced it will just weather damage Santa.
Anyway, very sad to lose a chick. :-( Here is the last picture I took of her last weekend.
Time to pack up for the train! Love you all! <3 <3 More later!
Mirrored from Antagonia.net.
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-10 05:19 pm (UTC)But yeah, it's better that it wasn't a mistake anyone made or infectious chicken disease. I hope your mother is able to explain to your father that a predator would not have slipped into and out of the coop undetected and without eating anyone.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-10 06:20 pm (UTC)I had a very small hen that was quite fond of setting on her own tiny, infertile eggs. One day I decided to get her some fertile eggs. Fearing that she would notice that the new eggs were gigantic compared to her own, I slipped a few a day under her, simultaneously stealing (and eating!) a similar number of her own. I continued to do this over the course of about five days.
When the time came for them to hatch, they hatched in the order in which they had been put under her. Consequently, about 3 hatched early and a few still lingered. So I took the unhatched eggs and brought them into the house and put a lamp over them.
First of all, we were enthralled to find that the unhatched eggs were cheeping! Then they hatched one by one.
I brought out the newly hatched newcomers and put them under the mama hen. Sadly, she perceived these newbies as liabilities and pecked at them and even pushed them out of her nest until they succumbed.
This brutal fact of chicken family life is one reason raising chickens in the classroom is a little dicey. Fortunately most children will believe most anything, especially with the benefit of a spring break to interrupt their interactions with their little feathered friends.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-11 02:05 am (UTC)LOL about the Santa!
And here is a blog that somehow really reminds me of your style (I mean, you draw better but just..something about the writing.)
So if you haven't seen it before, I think you might like:
http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-11 03:50 am (UTC)I'm sorry for your bird loss, I always feel particularly bad when I hear about bird passings :(
also: the gals are keen to hang out again, but we'll be out of town the 17th-22nd for a business trip. soooo, let's do something soon, but if not this week, then the last week of July?
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-11 04:03 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-12 01:10 am (UTC)Thursday, Kate and I are going to see Harry Potter at the Ziegfield. There are limited seats and they do assigned seating-- let me know if you want to come and I'll give you our seat numbers.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-12 01:11 am (UTC)Thursday, Kate and I are going to see Harry Potter at the Ziegfield. There are limited seats and they do assigned seating-- let me know if you want to come and I'll give you our seat numbers.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-12 01:13 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-12 01:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-12 01:22 am (UTC)Thanks for the invite though!
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-12 01:28 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-12 10:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-12 12:43 pm (UTC)