Chicken Cat babies, Part 2

At about 6 weeks once they were eating dry food (mostly) we made Cameron's room the "cat room" and brought them inside. I had homes lined up for all of them.... one by one they got picked up! The black one went to a Friend of Jen Wesphal, the male gray one went to a friend of our neighbor Laurie and the female gray one went to Chris' cousin Amanda. 

We were so sad to see them all go. I absolutely loved having the kittens around but they don't stay kittens forever!

Side note: At the same time we brought the kittens inside we had CC fixed. She did well and stayed in our bedroom for a few days after the surgery to recover. We debated keeping her inside but she was clearly wanting to be outside again. Once we lost all of our chickens (another blog post!) she left and we haven't seen her much since :(

Chicken cat babies, part 1

 CC (Chicken Cat)

The morning of May 18th 2012 I went out to let the chickens out of their coop as usual only to find CC (the stray kitten who has been living with our chickens for the last 6mo) laying at the entrance of the coop, which was usual. I thought maybe she was hurt but as soon as I opened the door she ran inside to her usual spot. Not 5 minutes later her first kitten was born (a black one!) I saw it happen and was in total shock. I was hoping because she was still a kitten herself her litter would be small and possibly only one.... not so! Soon after 2 more gray ones were born! The kids were very excited and intreged by it all. They watched at least one being born if not two (I can't remember!)

CC was a wonderful mama to them. They co-existed with the chickens for a few weeks and then CC moved them into the shed for a few days. After that they were back into the coop. CC was very good about letting me and the kids hold them (and take tons of pictures of them!) 

 3 days old

 

The black one was female, and the gray ones were one of each!

 5 days old

to be cont......

a quick word

I still need to play catch up from last year AND add things from this year. Ugh. I believe I'm going to take a big step back from Facebook. It's a time warp for me and it's stealing valuable time from me & my family. I do hope to be more active here though. This is worth the time much more so because I can come back and  reminisce, much like a journal.

more things that need blogging:

• Pop-Pop's death
• Christmas 2012
• Granddaddy's death

Cameron Says: curse word edition

Cameron used to use bad words that were not really bad even though he thought they were.

blood
thief (pronounced FeeF)
Butt Hudge (a personal favorite)
**you are ckkuk** w/ hand motions (inside joke I want to remember)


Lately he's moved on to actual bad words
Shit is his favorite. Hands down.

But tonight he said this:

*putting PJs on*

"I almost said damnit" (as if he didn't just say it then lol)

I give him the look

"oh! is that a bad word?" 

"Yes, Cameron it is"

"did you know that? the whole time?"

yep, I've known the whole time buddy. 

10 years and counting!

10 years ago. 10 long years ago.

we've lived in 4 different apartments/houses.

we've lived in the city.

we've lived in the country.

we've had 2 babies.

we've yelled & cried.

we've laughed & smiled.

we've given all we had.

we've hurt.

we've healed.

we've agreed & agreed to disagree.

we've dreamed big dreams and rejoiced in the little things.

we've loved.

we've been *this close* to ending it all. but we didn't. 

and in celebration of all of that.... we went away for the night! to the Poconos where we dined and hot tubed and hiked (Appalachian trail!). I can honestly say that we're probably at the happiest we've been in our relationship thus far. it feels good. really good.

Hatch Report

alright.... only 4 months late! 

Hatching this year was pretty disappointing. I think I know where I made my mistake** so that will be helpful in planing for next years hatch (oh yes, I will not be deterred). We had two chicks hatch, both in the middle of the night while we were all sleeping. The second chick didn't make it past 24 hours old. She/he was floppy from the get-go so I knew something was wrong. 

**I believe I had the temperature too low during incubation. I wasn't totally trusting the thermometers and for some reason had it on the low side even though I felt like they were too cold. There were quiet a few chirping and rocking that never made it to hatching. sad. 

May (and I) wake up at 3am to find we were probably 20 minutes late to the first hatching. Still exciting!

Because chicks like to be with other chicks we had to go to the local feed store and buy some more chicks for our lonely chick. They make you buy 6 chicks at a time so now we have a lot! Our chick was a bit of a bully at first while the others recovered from the transit. After about 12 hours or so everyone was normally socializing. 

Well, we already have 5 chickens and don't need anymore (hindsight is 20/20 haha) so we made arrangements for these new guys to get a new home in Philly. Unfortunately one of our cats (we think Kit Kat due to what happened next in our summer animal adventures) killed 2 of the chicks before they went to their new home.

So lets recap: 2 hatched, 1 dies, 6 bought = 7 - 2 killed = 5 whew!

^^this is the one we hatched ^^

bye bye 2012 chicks!

playing catch up

sooooooo I've been majorly slacking on this blog. I don't want to give it up because it's proved to be a really useful tool when I need to look back on something. I check the blog and if it's important enough it's there! I guess you could say I'm using it as a journal/diary of me & the kids lives these early years.

Anyway, I want/need to get back to this space.

So far I need to rewind and cover these major events of the last few months....

• Project Hatch #4 results
• May anniversary trip
• chicken cat gives birth
• June birthday trip
• summer poultry massacre

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