Movement

If you follow you will know that I have chooks and recently added a rooster to the collection. 

For the soul purpose of playing cupid for my hens. 

I built an incubator, which has been an interesting exercise. I have found it difficult to keep a consistent temperature and if there is one thing eggs need it is a reasonably consistent temperature. When we are at home it is ok we can monitor it and open the vent if it gets too hot or make internal adjustments when it gets too cool. these past few days have been the hardest. We have had a few cool nights and even a couple of frosts. The eggs are in the garage and I am convinced that it not the best place to have them. It gets quite cool at night and warm in the afternoon. 

Anyway yesterday we had a party at punchbowl for Hanisi. with all the excitement of getting ready I forgot the rearrange the internal walls of the incubator before we left. I got home and one of the first things that I did was check the eggs. My heart SUNK! They were too warm. I thought that I had lost them. I cooled them down as best I could and thought, Do I scratch this lot or do I keep on going and see what happens. The first batch is due to hatch this coming weekend. (mums birthday). 

So I left them bee and thought I will check them in a day or tow and see what happens. I have lost a few already due to a bacteria that grows in the egg for some reason. 

Tonight when I checked, this is what I saw.

The little black thing moving around is the embryo.

Yeah that is a little chic embryo bouncing around. I know which chook this is from and I am not surprised that this is her chook. All the others have been quite still and just happy to keep growing. So this was exciting to see. I was so glad that I didn't throw them out yesterday. This one seems happy for now.

This weekend will be exciting waiting to see if we have a new addition or not!

WHIT WILL

I am sure that it is stated somewhere, or maybe it is just part of our developed culture that people at weddings should not upstage the bride. Feel free to comment if you have any links to actual facts.



So as I mentioned in a previous blog, our family attended Mariah's brothers wedding in Sydney. It was a beautiful day and we had such a great day. I was so surprised to see that there was one woman who had obviously attempted to take the spotlight from the bride. I have to admit though she was good looking and caught my eye on more than one occasion.

Whit Will..... I think Mariah enjoyed being out of the tracky dacks and in a dress.

The kids even got in on the action thanks to GNB.

Been Busy

Being at Uni, is busy. It has been a good semester so far, probably the semester I needed to calm the nerves and show myself that it can be done.

It means that I have been busy and have had to leave Mariah at home with the kids a lot more than I have had to the last few months. I do believe that she was enjoying having me around to help out, especially with the cooking and entertaining the kids.

I do know that one thing that has kept me on track with my study has the been the lousy weather that we have been having. We took a trip to Sydney in August for Mariah's brother''s wedding and we had 25+ degrees everyday that we were there. It made us so sad that we had to come home to rain and cold. But it was home and it is where we love to be.

So back to being busy and the cold weather, Milly and I decided to take a break the other day and went out the back to lay in the hammock. Hanisi came for a play as well but then decided that she would be better off seeing what mum was up to. In the time it took for Hanisi to go in side, and back out again with mum, Milly and I were out to it.

We were both so pooped, Milly had been unwell and I was just pooped from a busy couple of weeks. 

  

It was nice and warm in the sun, and so comfortable having a quiet snuggle with each other. It wasn't long before Hanisi was back with a "daddy, wake up" into my ear trough the cloth of the hammock. 

So I have been busy. So busy in fact that I needed a little nap. 

Love you Milly.

Spring

We've had the spring lambs, who have arrived early, bu now as Perth (Tas) starts to warm a little the magic of spring is starting to appear.

 Our deciduous trees are preparing explode in to colour.

The seeds that have been planted are starting to shoot to the sky and soak up as much sun as they can get.

 The kids are enjoying being outside without freezing off their fingers, or being covered in mud. It gives them a chance to get to know our cooks a bit more.

 We stared off with e few hens, then we got some younger pullets that are just starting to lay in the past few weeks. This is one of the pullest (young hen).

We could not let Spring go buy without getting a rooster. We all know that spring is the season for swooping plovers, baby lambs, new growth, and we are hoping that it is the season for baby chicks. We have seen our rooster getting friendly with the hens. We have waited in anticipation for the hen to become broody and sit on her eggs. After weeks of waiting I did some reading and found out that hens from egg farms tend not to be the best at nesting on eggs. So we have been collecting the eggs from 'THE' hen and have being preparing to incubate them.

A good incubator can cost thousands. We do not have thousands. So...................

Here is one that I made from scraps in the garage and a free Styrofoam box from the local green grocer. It works well and so far so good. It holds a constant temperature which is good, it is warm, and we hope that it works. We should be able to hold egg up to the light in a week or so and see if there are chicks growing. in 21 days we should have some babies.

Spring is a great time, a time of preperation for the summer months. We are enjoying the longer days, and look forward to daylight savings and being outside more and more.

These two pics are just some of the kids wearing the head lamp that we use when we lock out rooster up at night. Yeah ... to keep us and our neighbours happy, our rooster gets locked up overnight in an insulated box to muffle his crow.