Beautiful Blue Sky and 55 Degrees.

When I was cleaning out the chicken house on Saturday I twice heard the worst sort of screeching/strangling noise of an animal. After hearing it the second time I went rushing out to look at the chicks because it dawned on me that the sound just might be a cockerel making his first pathetic attempts at a crow. All the chicks just looked at me like I was nuts and went on with their activities. Yesterday, however, I caught him in the act! So, it's official: of the 8 chicks hatched this spring (who have made it), 1 - for sure - is a rooster.

But the thing that's really struck me is how much more quickly these chicks - hatched underneath a broody hen and then raised by her - have developed in comparison to last year's chicks which were hatched in an incubator somewhere, shipped to me when they were a day old, and then raised underneath a heat lamp in our utility room! Tom and I both noticed that these chicks feathered out so much sooner and gained weight and size so much more quickly . . . and this crowing business (at 9 weeks of age) is a full 3 weeks sooner than my incubator hatch last year. Just further proof that Mother Nature knows how to do things best!

The other item of note is that, after having wanted to for quite some time, we, as the bumper sticker says, have "killed our TV." We had our television service disconnected yesterday - both in an effort to save money (we can only get satellite reception down here in the 'holler') and just to see if we can "do it." And, we figured that with the busyness of this summer (and hardly ever being home), it was the perfect time to try it out. Of course we'll still rent movies for those evenings when we need a little mindless entertainment. But, no more absentmindedly flipping through the channels - too late at night when we should be asleep - looking for something good to watch . . . and then realizing that, even with 150 channels, there's not!

Have a good Memorial Day, and enjoy the Monday off!