I'm Back!

I've been away. And there were butterflies.

Guess where we went?

I brought the rest of the family with me. I think they had a good time.

We even got to see a little piece of home away from home.

And now that we really are home...I get to sleep.

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And Then There Were 4

A few days ago we muddled through the process of candling the eggs. I decided I should be over-cautious which resulted in a couple of '?' status reports on eggs #6 and #3. To be fair, they had lovely dark shells and I am very much a rookie and I certainly didn't want to disqualify anyone who didn't deserve it.


#5, #11, #13(my favourite: smooth and very pink shell with the cutest pointy end) and #15 all received positive reports granting them continued access to the incubator. Just yesterday I cleared out the rest after reading stories about bursting rotten eggs in the incubator. And, of course, after a second, very thourough, candling session.

Before 'lockdown', those important final three days when the eggs are not turned or touched and the incubator is not opened, I will check them once more for signs of life. I've been very realistic with the children, hoping they don't expect too much out of this experiment. I've been clear that even though all signs point to 4 little chicks in the very near future, sometimes eggs don't hatch or chicks don't survive the hatching process.

We should have some action on the 30th. XXXXX (←Crossed fingers )

♥Mrs. A.

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New Project

In typical homeschooling mother fashion, last week I found myself discussing the schoolish side of life with a fellow homeschooling mom. And in typical homeschooling mother fashion, I on-the-spot dove into an unexpected project. It is living underneath my messy, catch-all bulletin boards. In further typical homeschooling mother fashion, I have myself in fits over the little intricacies of this project. It's consuming brain cells and I'm sure my sleep will soon be affected. There are 16 chicken eggs baking in there. If I could get the temperature to sit still, I'd feel a lot better. I'm not sure how many are fertilized. We're on Day 3 right now. At about Day 8 I can check and see if I have any baby chickens growing. I don't expect they will all develop, let alone hatch, but the hope is that there will be at least some action. The eggs are from a nearby farm of a homeschooling chicken-raising mom. She's very cool and busy with 4 kidlets under 9. If this chicken hatching scheme works out, even a little, it will be a win-win for both of us. She gets new fowl for her flock and I get a really cool science experiment. If I'm not too devastated after my first go at this, I will probably do it again. I'll just have to manage another very un-typical homeschooling mother 21-days at home... ♥Mrs. A. ...who would be a lot less crazy if her paragraph spacing would stay where it was put!

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