Which Came First...

You remember the age old dilemma...which came first, the chicken or the egg?  Well for me the answer is easy... these little girls are definitely here before their egg laying capabilities... even John admitted this weekend he couldn't wait for them to get older and begin laying...to not have to go out and buy eggs anymore (ah the good old days).  At any rate ~
                      Look how big they have gotten!

All feathered and pretty... Actually, who am I kidding, this is like the awkward stage every teen goes through.  Half feathered, half chick fuzz.  They are all getting quite their own little personalities.  When you go visit them (as we do frequently to ensure that their aggression is saved for predators...not caretakers) they fly out of their cage and land on your lap or hand...whichever is more convenient.  I took a funny video of them, but haven't figured out how to get that off my phone yet. :)  Once I do I will surely try to post that on here as well.

 

My biggest gripe at this point is the amount of poop they are capable of generating... and how badly they stink! Having to house them in our first floor bathroom is leaving the living area of the home somewhat stink-ih-fied!  But they are little yet, what can I do? Certainly not kick them out.  I think they will be ready to move out the same time the goats are ready to move in.  That should be a fun day in the Webster House!

Abi's Room is (finally) Underway

After living in the house for 4 months...I had to finally put my foot down and insist that John get started on Abi's room.  Abi has been patiently sharing a room with her little brother.  At the age of 14 I feel she should NOT be sharing a room with her little brother...and I don't believe her little brother should have to be sharing a room with his big sister!
This is a picture of Abi's room taken before we move in, I believe it was the second time we had gone to look at the house... I asked if I could take a few pics specifically to take a pic of the attic.

Her room is going to be in the attic, but not like an attic that sits atop the entire house.  This is the second story of the cape side of the house and sits floor level with the rest of the upstairs, so while it is an attic in the traditional sense... she is right there on the second floor of the house with the rest of the bedrooms.

 Clearly it needs a lot of work and John started by ripping out all of the sheet rock ... although in retrospect, i have no clue why.  It was plenty insulated, so pulling the sheet rock off the walls/ceilings seemed like an unnecessary step.  I love the hardwood floors that are in the room already. 

Very distressed looking, after a coat of polyurethane is laid they are going to look like the floors that people pay thousands of dollars to have laid.

One of our first orders of business was putting in a skylight, for now we opted for one on the far side of the room... This will allow for the maximum amount of light to enter her room on the side that she will "live" on.   The chimney which runs floor to ceiling, almost through the center of her room, will act as a room divider. On the far side we will house her bed, dresser, TV, night stands. All the bedroom essentials. On the side closest to the camera we will build in a closet and foyer so to speak. I'm very excited. Here you can see John working diligently on the roof to cut the hole for the skylight... he has himself tied to the chimney. Can you tell he's not fond of heights. (Neither am I). I had the luxury of working from the inside of her bedroom just handing him things through the hole in the room. What fun!

OK, so I want to quickly recap and update (today's date is 7/3/12).... much has been done since I last posted about Abi's room.  Sadly, we are still not quite finished yet.  Her birthday is in 4 short days and she will return from Maine at the same time... I am hoping desperately that it will be done by then.  Here are a few pics of where we have been and where currently are:

 As you can see here John ripped out all the old sheetrock, I'm guessing in an attempt to create more work for himself...which he was very successful in doing.

I even caught him at one point trying to put up drywall without replacing the insulation that had fallen out.  That aggravated me immensely!  This resulted in him having to rip out what he had already done and putting up new insulation.

So as you can tell, when you try to cut corners DON'T LET ME CATCH YOU (and I will)!  Here in New England not adding insulation is a big "no-no" you might as well leave a big hole in the side of the house.

I love the wall color Abi picked, it was Behr Paint and Primer in one, Coral Cream.  It changes shades as you go around the room, and as the light outside changes. 

Sometimes its very coral, other times its a barely- there pink.  Its going to look great with the contrasting turquoise that she loves so much. 

Take note of the floors, we ended up hitting them briefly with a sander and adding a couple coats of polyurethane.  It looks beautiful!  A 200 year old floor...distressed perfectly.  I will add pictures of the floor when I update the end result.  John promises it will be finished tomorrow.  I'll believe it when I see it ;-)

We got Babies... Cheep cheep

On a bit of a whim me and Abi stopped by the local feed store to get chicks.  I knew the store had gotten the chicks in the week prior and I also knew the chicks go fast in our town, so you have to be quick.  We woke up early and were rushing because we needed to be to several different places that morning.

We pulled back our hair, threw on our shoes and we were off.

After wandering around for a few minutes, and letting the kid running the place finish up with his customers, I asked if they had chicks left.  He escorted us to the back room straight to a feed bin full of rust colored little babies.  I was a little sad that there wasn't a great variety of colored chicks to choose from, everything he showed us was of the same breed, which turned out to be Rhode Island Reds, and he assured us they were all hens (although there is always that chance that you get a Roo or two). 

We opted for 12 little babies (at $2.50 each why wouldn't you opt for 12?), grabbed chick started, a warming bulb, paid our $42 and off we went.  Above you can see the babies just after we got home soaking up the sun.  So smoochable and small!

Here are the ladies more recently with all their wing feathers in and back feathers starting to grow in

The great thing about having twelve identical birds is that I can't tell one from the other... making it very difficult to create a bond with them.  Bonding with my animals is what makes me a notoriously awful pet owner.  I take it very personal when an animal in my care is injured, sick, or dies. In fact it tears me apart on the inside... which causes me to get another animal in an attempt to make up for what was just lost.  I am somewhat of a controlled "animal hoarder". 

I realize I am, and I work very hard to keep myself under control. 

These are not a shy breed, and what I have read is that Rhode Island Reds can be a rather aggressive breed,  the roosters have been known to kill foxes who attempt to disrupt their flock...and as a group they will kill rodents who enter their coop.  These are things of which I'm not too concerned, as I can also be an aggressive breed.  ;)

I am hopeful that I do have a rooster, but worried that I will end up with more then two.  Apparently the Rhode Island Reds are one of the toughest breeds to sex ~ so I guess only time will tell what I've got!