egg hunter!

"It's up here somewhere..."

 "Got one!"

"Could it be?  Another egg up in the tree?!  Doesn't the Easter Bunny know that I'm not that tall?"

a little note on our loss...

I sure have been thinking about Gus' great-grandpa, Dop, lately.  He passed away in late February, and although it wasn't completely surprising, it was completely crushing.  I'm not sure that Easter time was necessarily Dop's most beloved holiday, but for some reason my mind is flooded with memories of him in this season over the years:  Lot's of one-liners and limericks (which I ought not to repeat here) and old photos of him with bunny ears are bouncing around in my head.

Very unfortunately, Gus never met my grandmother, Nom.  One of my favorite memories of Nom and Dop is of an event that happened quite often, as often as the family was together:  We would all be gathered around and Dop would hold Nom's hand and say to her, "Would you look at this - We did this..." and then, of course, "I don't care what they say, you're not as bad as everyone says you are [wink, wink]!"    

gus and the girls

For about two months now, we have been raising four little chicks.  We decided to leave the naming of them up to Gus (with only a tad bit of steering by Mama and Papa).  Their names are:  Stick-the-Chick, Marvi, Suds, and Polly Jean.  They've been in the brooder box in the garage all this time, everyday being looked after by their new family.  While I feverishly worked on building the coop and run (pun fully intended), those girls worked on growing and growing.

Well, today was their first day of freedom!  We had a ton of fun just hanging out with them in their run.  Gus is a natural chicken farmer.  (He's also a natural lawn-mower.)

(click on any photo to enter full-screen - it's hard to get a feel for just how cute these girls are with such tiny pictures)