4 weeks old

The chicks are 4 weeks old and growing like weeds.

My mystery chick...we think maybe she's a Partridge Rock or a Welsummer


A Marans chick


One of our 15 Turkens


A White Wyandotte


An Ameraucana - I'm not sure if you can see her green legs or not


This is a little group of girls being girls


The babies are going through almost 4 pounds of food a day now. I'd forgotten how much they eat when they're growing. It takes a lot of energy to get so much bigger than the chicks are at birth as well as changing the fluff they are born with for feathers of many colors. At 4 weeks, they are at least halfway feathered out. Another 2-4 weeks and they'll be done with that.

I cleaned the covered over outside area yesterday, swept what the rake wouldn't get up, and this morning I put down a clean flake of hay. It smells a lot better in there now.

Argh...that reminds me that I need to clean the baby coop area. 36 chicks can make a lot of droppings in a week, and that stinks. I guess maybe later today I'll clean that out and replace the litter so they don't smell up the whole yard.

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I added some plus-sized pettipants to my Etsy store. The headcoverings aren't selling, but I think maybe these will because every plus-sized woman who wears dresses with bare legs in the summer will suffer the consequences of chafing, which is very uncomfortable. Abby has already asked me for some. I'm probably making hers today if I get enough sleep in a while to be safe at the machine.

I need to go see my pain doc today, too, so I have to try to take a nap this morning after hubby leaves. I see her at 10:00 and she's about 35 minutes from here. If I sleep till about 8:30 and leave at 9:00 or so just in case I should be fine. Friday I see my psychiatrist. It feels weird to not be seeing either one of them more than every 2 months.

I should get my morning started. Hubby will be up shortly.

Another night with no sleep....~sigh~

Abby and the kids came over yesterday. Here she is playing with Patrick while the boys are taking a nap. He's getting so big!

These are my boys. They had to have a picture taken because Patrick did and if he does, they do. They're getting so big!

This is my Patrick boy. He's a hoot. He was smiling at me because the flash kept going off at him. He's such a cutie!

This is how Jimmy's new quillow looks when it's all folded up. It folds up lengthwise into thirds and then from top to bottom to top in thirds as well and it tucks into the little pillow space and voilà! A quillow!

This is the quillow opened up. It's about 45 or so inches wide and about 60 inches long. It's just the right side for a toddler!

I'm having a horrid time typing today. It must have to do with the 2 hours of sleep I got last night and my need for more. I've had to retype this several times as well as needing to re-upload the photos a few times and I also rearranged them more than once. I do some not-so-smart things when I'm tired. Between that and the meds I can be a real mess.

By this time next week we'll have baby chicks! I'm so excited. I hope the ground and coop will be dry by then. It's so soggy out there I'm afraid I'm going to slip and fall every time I go into the lounge area or walk back to the closed in yard.

I think I'll go take a nap. Maybe I'll be thinking more clearly after that. Right now I can barely type. Thank goodness for spellcheck and the backspace key!