Posts Tagged ‘April fools’’
Egg Bonanza
One of the best things about April 2nd is that there are 364 days before needing to survive April Fools’ Day again. The one silly bit of mischief I tried to pull off yesterday didn’t work as hoped, but still provided some laughter when I demonstrated later how I had intended it to play out.
Well-timed revenge was enacted and I came back from my lunch break to a malfunctioning mouse for my computer. I found a slip of post-it paper stuck to the underside covering the laser. “April Fools!” was written on the paper. Nicely executed.
One thing that was no prank yesterday was the home-laid egg performance by our eight hens. Yesterday was our first 100% production day for this year.
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That’s one less trip to the grocery store in search of essentials for me.
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Wayward Wire
Our fence is pulling an April Fools’ prank on me. One of the plastic pin-lock wire insulators has given up the ghost at a high-stress corner post. That location sees intense UV abuse from the sun and the insulators are going on six-plus years duty. Actually, there are two insulators mounted there, so maybe the one that just failed hasn’t been in use for all six years.
It will be easy to fix by simply swapping the busted one out with an insulator from another post in a position that sees no off-line pressure. The biggest complication is that the insulators are mounted with two different screw heads, so I need to show up with a drill driver and multiple tips to get the job done, as opposed to discovering it unprepared while on a walk with Delilah.
I don’t know why the fence installers didn’t run the wires on the outside of that corner post like they did most everywhere else. Maybe it wouldn’t look perfect because the post wasn’t installed in a precise position to allow the wire to run straight and true. As long as I’m working on it, I should just release one of the ends of all four wires and move the insulators to the outside of the post.
Of course, it’s right by the road so that passers-by get a good view of what looks like a severely neglected fence. A fence in disrepair speaks volumes about a property.
Mine won’t have much time to diss me. The repair is high on today’s list of things that will be receiving attention. Most likely I will go with the quick fix for now. It may not be ideal to make those insulators hold all that tension, but they’ve lasted this long …for the most part. They can survive like that until I become motivated to reroute them for a more permanent solution.
Regardless of whether or not the wires will travel in a perfectly straight line.
Happy April First, 2020!
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April Fooling
We get the joke. Today starts the fourth month of 2018, and despite the general trend of average warmth climbing around the globe, we woke to teeth-chattering cold. The clear sky overnight was wonderful for viewing the blue moon, but it also contributed to the drop in temperature.
We had a reading of 10°(F) before the sun came up. With the fresh coating of snow on the ground from Friday night’s storm, there is cold in the air, as well as radiating from the ground.
We’re not laughing.
It seems like the forest animals weren’t much interested in facing the cold, either. In a search for tracks around the full perimeter of our property, there were surprisingly few foot prints revealing activity. Based on the evidence we collected, a rabbit was the only critter moving around.
At least we know that it didn’t have any problems with dodging predators.
The cougar that growled near Cyndie and Delilah last week is likely long gone after its journey past our home. We did a search in the neighboring woods where the eery sounds came from last week, but did not find any hint of a foot print or disturbed snow where the drama played out.
In a long shot reaction, I mounted our trail camera to observe the trail closest to the area, but it only provided added evidence that nothing was moving around after the snow, except Delilah and me.
Yesterday, Cyndie unleashed a great weapon against cold and snow. She filled the house with the smells of fresh-baked buns and whipped together a couple of egg bakes for a family brunch today.
No foolin’.
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Brilliant Chickens
Our chicks are growing up almost as fast as the days of the week that fly by in a blink. Ever since that first day when Cyndie taught them how to find a drink of water in our brooder, they have piled on one new accomplishment after another. Sometimes it is a result of them copying each other, and sometimes it is through our gentle instruction.
In order to raise them to be comfortable with our presence and willing to have us handle them, we spent some extended time picking them up and whispering sweet nothings in their direction yesterday. Cyndie spent much of that visit searching for unique markings that will help identify individuals for naming purposes.
I think we should get to know their personalities better, so they can show us what names they deserve. My idea for using favorite chicken recipes was summarily denied, but I still may succeed in getting one of the yellow ones named Parmesan.
We think that the classical music we have on all night long for them is working well to feed their rapidly growing brains with intricacies and emotional depth. They have demonstrated such quick ability to grasp everything we introduce that we are confident we have the makings of brilliance in this flock.
It’s almost like they knew to perch on that stick I put in the brooder before I even finished setting it in place. Now I am working on finding just the right gnarly branches from our brush piles that I can use to carve little chess pieces. With 10 chicks, I’m debating with myself over the need for more than one board. They obviously learn well enough by observing each other, I think they can get the game down by watching a match played by their brood-mates.
Cyndie is busy creating flash cards with images of ticks, flies, and bugs, as well as piles of manure to be scratched apart in a “green means go” motif. The back sides will have a red theme and include threats like the hawks and eagles overhead, fox, raccoon, coyote, the neighbor’s dogs, and yes, even Delilah.
Our chickens are going to be brilliant.
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Relative Something 