I have witnessed both Doodle (Black Copper Marans) and Sherlock (black and silver mixed breed) crow this week, but Rockadoodle (Golden Spangled Appenzeller Spritzhauben) has yet to crow. I have also witnessed both Doodle and Sherlock doing their rooster responsibilities with the hens, but again, not so much with Rockadoodle. He does seem to have a small group of hens that stay near him, but he just doesn't seem interested. Possibly because he's much smaller than the other two roosters and likely at the low end of the (literal) pecking order.
I did some calculations. We have roughly 20 hens and three roosters, plus something like 18 ducks (five drakes and about 13 hens), plus four geese (two ganders, two geese), and a couple guineas (both boys). That means, during the summer months, if every female were to lay an egg on the same day - we could potentially gather over 30 eggs! Yikes! We currently have five nesting boxes up for the chickens, and another one on the ground for the ducks. I know everyone always says that you don't really need a ton of nest boxes because they'll all stand in line for their preferred couple anyway, but I think I will need to add a few more, just to be on the safe side.
It didn't turn out that well. The whole loaf turned a dark chocolate brown, and rather than a couple gooey chocolate chip spots throughout as you cut the slices, all of the chocolate seemed to have melted into the entirely of the bread. To make it worse, I again under-cmpensated additional flour for the moisture in the bananas, so the loaf was still sticky and gooey inside. The kids usually love the gooey part, but today nobody finished their slice but #5. That's a strike out for chocolate banana bread.
To be clear, I'm sure Mark Twain tomatoes are supposed to be much larger than this one. This one came from a slow seedling that got a late start, grew in a bucket, and then got moved into the house when it started to get cold, with a tiny tomato start way back a few months ago.
I have another tomato plant that keeps growing and putting out flowers, but try as I might, I can't get them fertilized. I've tried using an electric toothbrush in the past, this time I tried blowing on them to simulate wind. No luck so far. Anyone have other tips that are tried and proven?
This coming weekend I have a friend coming over. I don't get many visitors, we don't generally invite people over for various reasons (biosecurity not the least of them). Anyway, it'll be nice to catch up with an old friend for a while. and bonus, Tony has the weekend off so he can wrangle kids so I can actually spend some time having a conversation with another adult without constant interruption! Whoa! What an amazing possibility!
Before I end this blog, I wanted to share a link. While browsing Petfinder in my search for a new dog to join our family, I came across a cat. We can't adopt another cat into our household, but I was hoping maybe if I shared her photo and a link to her Petfinder page, someone out there might see her and fall in love with her. Her name is Iaso and she is available through The Babinski Foundation in Pequot Lakes. You can see her profile page HERE. According to their website, cat adoptions are $50 + tax. She caught my eye, and if I didn't have a house full already, I'd adopt her straight away. Maybe she will tug on your heartstrings too. Feel free to share her link with other people who might provide a suitable home for her.