so very, very much

It’s busy. But wonderful. Would that make it wonderfully busy, or busily wonderful?

In between helping out at the free tax prep clinics, doing schoolwork, mucking the barn, and lots of other pleasant demands on my time, I’ve been enjoying having the kids home for February vacation this week. Although it seems we haven’t actually seen much of them. Rowen had an overnight at a friend’s house, and my Mom watched the boys while Niek and I had our own taxes prepared (unfortunately, not at the free clinic), and yesterday two of my aunties came down from Bar Harbor & Ellsworth to celebrate everyone’s birthday (sadly, Aunt Kathy and Uncle George couldn’t make it due to ill health).

We had a great time celebrating the kids’ birthdays. As one Aunt put it, “We can’t really make it down for each one, so we thought it would be fun to have one big party” – and that, we did! The kids were spoiled rotten and enjoyed every nanosecond of it.

The aunties love Rigby, so he was right in the thick of things as well – can’t you just feel the love?

We started with a feast, but no one got pictures of that. I did manage better with the blowing out of the candles, though.

And then there were gifts. Huge, wonderful, numerous, glee-inducing gifts.

And the packaging was pretty fabulous, too. Nick fit entirely inside the bag that held his gifts and started a sack race around the dining room.

In amongst all the frivolities, I noticed that our batch of Maran eggs were hatching – early! I bought a dozen eggs from a like-minded FB friend who plans to buy a dozen Barnevelder eggs from me later in the spring. When I warned her of the cold temps here, she attached 40-hour heat packs to the packaging, and clearly labelled the box that I was to be notified when they arrived at the local PO to avoid them being dragged around in the cold while the postman made rounds. Naturally, the PO ignored the labeling. And of course it was a day that I was out of town on business. And so it would follow that he mail carrier simply left them sitting on the front steps … in 22 degree weather. All. Day. Long. I never expected them to hatch but put them in the incubator anyway. About halfway through the incubation cycle, I didn’t see any signs of viable life and was ready to throw them out … but I got busy, and several days passed before I could get to it. When I double checked, just in case, lo & behold, they WERE developing! The first egg hatched last night, and was joined this morning by a brother or sister. There are four more with holes that will hopefully hatch this morning, and then another 4 that I hope will hatch. Two of the bunch were obviously infertile – but given how miraculous this has been, I left them in the incubator anyway! These chicks will join my own flock, enabling me to offer more “chocolate egg layers” next year for sale. Marans are beautiful, very calm birds, which makes them a nice addition to the flock, and the dark brown eggs they lay have become a favorite at the marketplace where I sell eggs.

I’ve even made a start to Hooked Rabbit Pincushion, by The Goode Huswife! I’ll share a picture of that next time. Thanks for visiting!