Eggs

11 today (3 Barred Rock, 2 Golden Comets, 3 Marans, 5 Rhode Island Red) but still no blue (4 Ameraucaner).  Is that a record?

Reading  Through the Fire *** Shawn Grady Adrian “A-O” O’Neill comes from a long line of Reno firefighters. A day before the 10-year anniversary of his dad’s death in a fire, A-O defies orders and attempts to rescue a child thought to be trapped in a burning house. His actions get him suspended, prompting a trip to Mexico to visit his uncle, yet another ex-fireman. While there, A-O puts his own life in peril once again to save a drowning boy. Will this successful rescue save him from his guilt over all that has gone wrong at home? Apparently not. Never completely recovering from the loss of his father caused him to lose his fiancée and possibly his nerve, for now the idea of entering a blaze terrifies him. Enter Julianne Caldwell, a fire-prevention analyst, who helps A-O find the faith to work through his demons, even as an arsonist terrorizes the town. PS: he finds the arsonist and a new love.--Mary Frances Wilkens (BookList)

Egg!

First pullet egg from the marans. Definitely darker, but not as dark as I expected. Maybe the others will be darker. But the best part was that she laid it in the nest box.  Her girlfriends must have showed her where the safe place is.  I'd been worried that they were laying in the forest and I was losing them, but the small size shows that this is probably her first egg.  Her cockerel has gone to the coop threshold so perhaps by cold weather he'll let his young girls spend the night inside.

Marans are out

After the Big Girls dispersed for the day, I opened the Little Girls' tractor door.  The 2 blue black girls poked their heads out first, then the rooster.  They only took a few minutes to "think" about the open door and they were free-rangers. The Golden Comets snuck back to the yard when I passed out some treats.  The rooster took care of his girls in a little tussle in the weeds with a Golden Comet after which she checked out the inside of the tractor.
They have 2 white golf balls in a grass-filled-milk-carton nest.  I wonder of they'll need brown chicken-balls.

Reading:  Finally finished Shadow of Power *** lots of courtroom; must have just been Ok or it wouldn't have taken me so long.  Switch:  How to change things when change is hard **** What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem; to change behavior, change the situation; to change behavior influence their hearts and minds; self-control is an exhaustible resource; we burn up self-control managing the impression we make on others,  coping with fears, focusing on simple (often negative) instructions.  Perfect book for current work situation.

Catching up

The marans have been with us for 6 weeks now and are slowly becoming less skittish.  They still hang together but don't bunch up in a corner when we come around.  Last night they pecked at cheese pieces as I threw them, a first.  One of the black ones has tiny feathers on her front legs; she looks like she hasn't shaved in a while.  Two have floppy toes as if they'd been broken in the distant past; one of them has a comb 3 times as big as the others; she better not be a "he".  All of them are growing in the bald spots caused by crowding and pecking in their former lives and their bronze neck feathers are brightening.  They are beginning to sit on the poles rather than huddle in the corner, too. Now, if they'd only go under cover at night and when it rains.

Buddy has to be lead to the pick-your-own berry feast we have, but once his nose is pushed into the patch, he gets it.  Gambol competes with the bears and chickens for best-berry-picker.
With the end in sight we are thinking about the Cast Party, scheduled for July 31, 2:-6:00.  Tacos (build your own) might make everyone happy and by then perhaps we'll have tomatoes and peppers to work with.

Reading 3 books at once which is probably why I'm not accomplishing many pages in any: Infant Massage: A Handbook for Loving Parents by Vimala Schneider McClure ***** from a course I managed at work.  It's off the deep end in some respects, but very interesting and apparently research based in most.  Maybe this one, along with Free Range Kids should be required reading for new parents these days.

Collapse, Jared Diamond *** I think I found another problem with Kindle:  it's hard to see how big a book is, how many pages.  In the very first chapter he gets weather and climate confused, so now I'm skeptical of the whole book.  Since my boss recommended it (several times) I'd better plow on through.

Shadow of Power, Martini ***Murder in a hotel; a steward is accused; his father asks a lawyer friend to defend.  Ordinary so far.

Lost one

A raccoon got one of the pullets from the tractor last night.  At least this loss was to an animal that ate the whole chicken; nothing except the gizzard, one foot and a pile of wing feathers was left.

Blueberries picked in about 45 minutes this morning.  Scrumptious!

Doug recommended putting a wood block above the Builders Mission lights that will be installed under the catwalk and in the master bedroom hall.  The 10 inch square lights do not have a top and because they will be placed on 8 inch wide beams, the lights will overhang the beams and their wiring and insulation will show, as it does on the one light that has been installed. Doug checked with Dwayne and he said it would be OK to make a mounting block that was about 10.25 inches square and that would act as a top for the lights.

Scott was concerned about the right color of caulk that will be used around the edge of the hearth, so he made a pallet of possible choices.  We will probably go with the lightest color as it will blend in better with the wood.  We are constantly amazed at the creativity in problem solving that all the members of this team deliver:  the pallette, above, to show is the caulk choices is just one example. The extra board to make the stairs pass inspection, below, is another.

The stairs now have gap fillers of 1x1 oak strips under the front of the treads to make the gap a legal 4 inches.  Now we have a reverse Oreo cookie staircase.
We have several holes in the floor for the registers that distribute the heating or cooling from the heat pump and a couple of larger holes for grills that will return air to the heat pump.  Paul ordered maple drop in registers and steel scroll work for the grills.

 
The clear glass makes for much better views out of the windows.  The crew took the protective film off today.  We need sunglasses.

We have 5 more pieces of yard art but they'll have to acclimate in the chicken tractor for a few weeks.  They are 4 month old maran pullets.  One is a cuckoo, kind of speckled white and black similar to a barred rock; 3 are copper and will have copper hackles, and 1 is blue.  All are expected to lay dark brown, almost mahogany, eggs. Joe the breeder says they are not aggressive, hardy, and good layers.