#proudparent

Ok friends, I could tell you or I could just SHOW YOU:

What!! Our pandemic panic-purchased chickens started laying eggs this week! Now of course this was always the idea, right? But despite knowing this outcome in theory, because none of us has an agricultural background, we remain completely bamboozled and amazed.

And how about those light blue eggs? Those are from Fluff, who is our Easter Egger chicken. Easter Egger is an actual variety: some lay green eggs, some purple, and some – like our angel – lay baby blue eggs. SO pretty To her additional credit, Fluff has produced 4 eggs thus far this week, while the other four girls have contributed two eggs all told (specific provenance of each unknown). So here is a shout-out picture to Fluff, all by herself. Not only is she a stupendous egg layer right off the starting line, but you can also see here that she has spectacular cheek fluff and a beautiful beard which completely work on her. In short, the total package.

Speaking of chickens (when aren’t we), I thought you might be amused by our dinner conversation last night. Once we got past recriminations for events that had accumulated over the course of the day (typically this takes the whole dinner, but we had a little time left over last night), Jonathan proposed that we have a draft for the chickens with each person “buying” shares. Here was the idea: everyone had a total of 125% to spend, in minimum increments of 25%, so that there would be a total of 100% shares for each chicken. We went around the table with draft picks going from 1 – 4 then 4 – 1, etc. So it was Jonathan’s turn, then mine, then Simon, then Lucy, then Lucy, then Simon, then me, then Jonathan, etc. Here’s how it all played out:

Fluff: Lucy (50%) / Jonathan (25%) / Simon (25%)

Sunshine: Simon (25%) / Lianne (25%) / Jonathan (25%) / Lucy (25%)

Pepper Potts: Lianne (50%) / Jonathan (50%) –> actual quote from Lianne during this conversation: “I love that Pepper Potts. When Pepper looks at you, you know that she is just right there with you, am I right?”

Chickpea/Chipotle: Jonathan (25%) / Lucy (25%) / Simon (25%) / Lianne (25%)

Harpy: Lucy (25%) / Lianne (25%) / Jonathan (25%) / Simon (25%)

Now you’ll see that Harpy had representation across the family, but that was only because all of the shares in all of the other chickens were bought up by the last draft, leaving Harpy, our Naked Neck chicken (in my brother’s characterization: “the one with the mangy neck”) as the only last option for everyone. This is not because of her looks! Harpy is, not to put too fine a point on it, a meanie weenie (especially to Sunshine, who is universally acclaimed as the sweetest of all of the chickens). But we hold out hope that as Harpy ages, she will mellow.

Now, to end on a happy note and as a nod to all of you cat lovers out there (are you out there?), here is our kitty cat Georgie, looking like the present that he is!