Don't Blink

Things change fast on the farm.

Take for instance, Cher. Remember how just 72 hours or so ago I wrote about her being cooped up with Sonny, the promise of little Bonos, her staying power?

 Yep, not 18 hours after I posted that little intro, Cher flew the coop. Up and left. Headed out on a solo career. Leaving Sonny (and my dreams of crazy-haired babies) in the dust. We'd suspect a varmint or a coyote, except there's no evidence of either, no other birds have gone missing, and we saw one of the other ladies on top of the feed shed in the chicken yard. It's been awhile since we've had upwardly mobile chickens around here. I guess it's time for a little wing clipping party.

I had high hopes for Sonny and Cher. Dang creative types with their flightiness.

Then we had another change from just a few days ago. See the pretty red pan holding breakfast-for-dinner below?

It's no longer with us, either. Karlie broke it while doing dishes. It was part of a 3-pan set my Mom gave me last year. Grumble...grumble. Poor Karlie felt so bad Tanner actually offered to sweep up the mess for her. And if you knew the home dynamics between those two, you'd know why that was worth mentioning. I'll miss my red dish. I liked it a lot.

But with the bad comes the good.

Here are two happy events to keep our cosmic house in balance:

We have a new layer.

This is the first egg we've gotten from our new flock and I was so excited to see it this morning.

Almost as excited as I was to see this:

Look close and you'll see Autumn and Pheebs' new bunk mate. Autumn and Pheebs have been sharing a nest for weeks now and overnight or early this morning, their first duckling made its appearance. The Mamas are very nervous and protective, though, so I didn't get a good photo of the little peeper. Can't wait to see how many more they hatch. They have lots of eggs under them and they've been diligent nest warmers.

So, you lose some, you win some.

We're ending on a winning note for today.

Love from the farm,
Teri