Happy Valentines!

My darling husband gave me roses a couple of weeks ago.

Always ahead of the trends, that guy!

He's been doing a run across the state every night for the past couple of nights.

Which means he doesn't get home until 6 am.

(POOR GUY!)

So this morning when I got up,

this is what I found.

I know, hard to read.

But it says Happy Valentines Day

I added a bunch of hearts as my contribution.

We had a conversation about Valentines at the office this morning.

The consensus was,

none of us like to receive roses.

Too much $$$ for too little bang.

But most of us like those little "posie" bundles from the grocery store.

And I'm not a big card person.

Hey!  I'm listening to Glenn Beck and "Keith from Palm Bay" is on.

He's a regular caller on our local talk radio.

He's FAMOUS now!

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On an unrelated note.

Kyle went and pick up 20 new chickens for me yesterday.

And then we hurried and "finished" the coop.

Not FINISHED, but "finished".

Enough to put the birds in there.

And then we let them out of the crates they were in.

But by then it was dark and they were asleep.

So they didn't WANT to get out of their crate.

But they were mashed in there like sardines.

10 birds to a crate and not tall enough to stand in.

So I dumped them over and then had to pull them out one by one.

And then I had to lift them onto the nest boxes one by one.

(Didn't want them on the floor overnight and we haven't put up the roost bars yet...)

Once they were all settled in (with food and water)

we brought Bison and Ozzie out to spend the night in their fenced area.

To protect them from night predators.

(The neighbor has been losing chickens to a bobcat.)

(Kyle has seen the cat a couple of times at dusk...)

(He now carries his 22.  Just for protection.)

(yeah, right.)

This morning when I went out to feed, they were ALL doing the quiet, happy chuckle.

Not a real "cluck".

Just a quiet chuckle.

And having, probably their FIRST dirt bath.

Happy chickens.

We need a light in there.

It's pretty dark.

But here's a first glimpse at the new girls.

There are 14 whites and 4 reds.

They are all production birds.

The whites are a Rhode Island Red / White Rock mix.

The reds are RIR/Barred Rock mix.

They are bred to be prolific egg layers.

They lay a large brown egg.

And they lay 350 eggs in a year.

But they only lay for about 2 years and then they are pooped.

So I'll be rotating in new babies every year.

But this time I bought "nearly" point of lay.

They are about a month out from their first egg.

I have a customer who wants every egg I can sell them

As soon as I can sell them.

So I needed to get online as soon as possible.

But I'll be getting 20 new babies as soon as we have a brooder set up.

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So, at work when we were discussing Valentines Day and what we like and don't like to get.

I don't like roses (for Valentines - I like them other times though...)

I don't really love cards.

I'm trying to cut back on chocolate.

So one of the girls said "So Collette, what DO you like?"

I said....

CHICKENS!

(And love notes on the mirror from my darling!)

Happy Valentines Day!

Hope YOU got what your heart desired.

I did!

LOL