After about a year of reading and thinking and talking about keeping chickens, we're actually doing it. Dale built a coop on one of the rainy days that prevailed this past week. It's a chicken wire house on skids, complete with four laying boxes. We'll be moving it around just outside our garden area as the chickens scratch and eat the grass and bugs they find there. Of course, right now it is smack dab in the front yard, near the sidewalk. We're keeping a heat lamp in the pen while the chicks are so small. Verdin's in Laurens had a nice selection of several varieties so we're starting with Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rocks and Buff Orpingtons. Dale decided we should get one rooster but, sadly, he only survived a couple of hours after getting home. According to my husband he "sleeps with the fishes". Our other ten biddies are doing just fine! ( Maybe he couldn't deal with the pressure.)
If you've ever bemoaned the passing of a favorite garment when your child outgrew it, then you can understand why I would sew a new suit to accommodate an old monogram. I had made Hamilton a jon-jon suit last spring and had it monogrammed with his three initials. He outgrew it quickly and Gray asked if there was anything to be done to make it useful again. Of course the new suit I just made could have been newly monogrammed but then I still wouldn't have accomplished any "recycling' in the effort. Here's the result.
