The old man is snoring and ruining my painting schedule!

Woke up with the rain at 3am and its still coming down. The weather reports have hastily revised themselves - we were expecting high 70s, now we're expecting rain until 1pm. Frankly, its so chilly I'm likely going to have to build a fire.

Given the rain and cooler temps, I've canceled the painter today. There's no opportunity for the paint to dry before evening and I do not want wet paint in the house all night. We'll try again when I get back from Colorado. We'll try to get the gates painted, as the rain will hopefully taper off as it warms up this afternoon. Not sure we can get the ramp done at all today. Likely I'll get stuck doing that this weekend.

I'd called our new farm hand at 7am to cancel, having sent her an email last night without response. There's no point in trying to re-fence in the rain. Hopefully she gets these messages, I'd have to have to send her away after she drove here though I suppose I can have her bury the duck pen fencing and call it a day.

In hatching news, we're now at 3 chicks! Joining Ruth are two beautiful little Silkie chicks, both very light in color, with beautiful top knots. Picy goodness to come!

Feathered Folk Picy Post

After a very chilly (50s) morning with fog and rain, we've gained a few degrees of temp and are hovering now at 53F. That's just warm enough with sunshine to get some great chick pics! We're going to play the Tryst Inn version of "Where's Waldo?", called "Where's Gracie?" See if you can find Gracie in these pics!

Salt now has three chicks, the aforementioned Ruth and two beautiful Silkies!



Its easy to tell the Silkies from the Ameraucana/Cochin mix by the little "poof" on their heads called topknots.



Salt talking with Ruth:



Salt and her three:



Somehow all three of the chicks are essentially the same color, as is Mom. That's a bit of a stretch coincidence-wise because the Silkie eggs were shipped in and of varying colors. The Ameraucana dam is a Blue Wheaton.

Just for comparison, Onyx and her three. Notice the cockerel on the right with the visible comb compared to the pullet on the left with barely any comb showing: