Decisions, Decisions

There is a lot of work required in food gardening without chemicals. There is a lot of work required trying to get a flock of chickens started and building them a coop. The list of projects seems never-ending so it's with some chagrin that we've now realized that there is yet another project that must go to the head of the list immediately.

We have a water leak somewhere. Somewhere underground. Somewhere among a lot of pipe. Underground. We're not even sure of the exact route the pipe takes to get from the road to the house. Did I mention underground? As in digging is required to find it?

We have been able to narrow the leak's location down to maybe just over half of the total amount of pipe we have; the leak stops in front of the house, so at least we know it isn't under the house or past the house. So it's between our house and the road; that sounds better until I look out the front door and realize how far it is to the road. Wow. That distance takes on a completely new dimension now.

There are a couple of different options in such a situation. One would be to focus on finding and repairing the leak. That could take a lot of digging, especially since we aren't sure of the water line's route through the property. The second option would be to go ahead and dig a new trench and lay a new water line through the property, at least to the house. PVC is relatively cheap and, if there is a problem with the current water line in one place, it is possible that another problem will pop up eventually as it all was laid at the same time.

Ah, decisions, decisions.

Fuzzbutt Pictures

Here are pictures of the fuzzbutts the day they arrived:





A tired Golden Comet falling asleep in co-worker's hand








Learning Curve--We did see the difficulty the chicks were having reaching the food so we took the lid off the trough, after we took a picture. :) I couldn't resist. (And yes, the blur at the end of the trough on the right is a small chick who was able to fit through the feeder.)




I wanna see the babies! He is so maternal, he really wanted to love on them. He LOVES babies. Baby dogs, baby cats, baby chicks, doesn't matter. He loves and protects them all.

We Have Fuzzbutts!

All is quiet on the TCE front because 1) I had to finish this riveting series I'd been reading and could not make myself put down and 2) we have fuzzbutts!!! We got a delivery of chicks Monday and have been in chick nirvana with the soft down and sometimes soft (sometimes loud) peeping and cheeping. Now they're pretty happy so the cheeping isn't that loud anymore.

Their cute little faces and bodies aren't turning out very well in photographs. The majority of the chicks we got are black, and I've noticed our black dog's pictures don't turn out well either. I'll keep working on it, though, maybe I'll get a lucky shot.

They hatched Saturday so by the time they reached us they were 2 days old. Now they are 4 days old and they still seem so little--but they are perky and are busy eating, drinking, and sleeping.

There isn't quite anything like healthy, happy little chickies to perk up a mood!