Amy's brood

This is a very quick post, because I have a lot of work to do. Amy has Four chicks now, three black and white/ yellow and one brown full blooded Ameraucana. We're not sure if the last egg will hatch, but I'll keep you posted. As you can see it's no longer in the nest, her babies kept hopping out of it and after the second time Amy dragged the egg out so she could sit on all five of them I just left it there.
 I couldn't get that good of pictures of the chicks because Amy is very protective of them, this is the best one.

 

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Jury Duty and an egg update

That's right people, I had jury duty today. I can't believe it; I only reached voting age a couple of years ago. Thankfully I was dismissed early.

 I should have, and was planning on, writing a blog post for today on the weekend, but I spent my weekend helping build a chicken coop and run for Mohawk, which has not been finished yet. Amy's eggs are due this Wednesday or Thursday and Mohawk is getting rather restless. She seems to have  gotten more protective of her children and has started laying eggs again. There have been quite a few misunderstandings as we've reached in to get the eggs, and by misunderstandings I mean attacks. She's been laying almost every day now. We have two of the 10' by 6' chain link panels made for the run.

~~Just got back from the chicken house. I walked into the house to pick eggs and found Amy on the floor under the nest boxes with a chick that appears to have hatched early last night. Two days early! There was a chick in the abandoned nest, dead. Apparently it had caught a draft. The rest of the eggs might have caught one, too. We're sick with ourselves here. Today was the day we were going to move Amy to a cage and hope she was too far into the brood to freak out and almost crush all the eggs, like the first time we tried to move her. We've moved her, her baby (who looks just like Little Bit), and the rest of the eggs into the cage and are hoping for the best.  


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Reseeding (again)

Let me start off with Happy Fourth of July!

  For some reason I have been having a horrible time with the herbs I've been trying to grow from seeds this year. I don't understand it at all. I planted Lavender, Eucalyptus, Catnip, Thyme, Feverfew, Hyssop, and Pennyroyal; and all I have to show for it is a spindly thyme sprout and three small Pennyroyal plants. (which, by the way, smell fantastic.)

  All but the Hyssop and Catnip (I have been having a terrible time with catnip) seeds came up, and all but the two mentioned died shorty after. I think I over watered the Feverfew. I don't know what happened to the Lavender. It was looking nice, growing strong and suddenly started dying. One by one each of the four seedling turned brown and died. The Eucalyptus developed tiny purple-brown spots and promptly died.

  Mom's trying with the catnip this time. I've tried planting Feverfew, Lavender, and Eucalyptus again, but if they don't work out I'll probably wait until fall to try again. It's rather hot to be planting anything. Although, it's been in the nineties for highs and has been dropping into the seventies for lows recently which feels wonderful after all those  hundred and higher days we were having.

Bats Bizarre's fourth of July sale ends this Saturday! Be sure to use the coupon code JULY4 for 10% off your purchase before 7/6/13. Discount doesn't include shipping.
                 
                        Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's official blog. Have a bat-tastic day!


      

Adventures in soldering

 I've recently started trying to learn to use the soldering iron Mom found in the barn. I've used it four times now and I haven't burned myself or set anything on fire so I guess it's going pretty well. For some reason when ever I start to smell the soldering iron heating up I think to myself, 'Oh crap, I'll going to burn something.' It probably doesn't help that it wants to sit with the tip touching the paper; so I have to do a lot of finagling to keep it pointing up while the iron warms. I'm going to try using a rock or a brick.
 
 This is a picture of the kitchen table after I commandeered it for soldering practice. As you can see I put newspaper in the vise (also from the barn) so it wouldn't damage the wires.

There are a few things I have to remember when doing this:
1) Solder wants to sticks to itself and to a much lesser existent the soldering iron.
2) It moves fast. Especially when it's moving to some place you don't want it to.
3) It will always try to go where you don't want it to. Twice I've had it flow into the little wire loop I've got on this project. And I really don't want that loop filled with solder.
4) Once it gets into the spot you don't want it to it's almost imposable to get it out.
5) If you try to use the iron to clean up the spot you soldered; the solder will almost always turn liquid and ooze away from where you want it to. 
6) You have to get solder on BOTH sides of the wire you're connecting. Other wise when you try to clean the spot up with a file, like the book on soldering I checked out from the library suggested, the solder will shot off towards your eye.
7) Wear safety goggles.

  Just a few things I've learned while trying to get the hang of this fairly dangerous craft.

Bats Bizarre is having a fourth of July sale! Use coupon code JULY4 from 6/28/13 to 7/6/13 for 10% off your entire Bats Bizarre purchase. Discount doesn't include cost of
 shipping.

                    Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's official blog. Have a bat-tastic day!