New York Botanic Gardens

We are frequent visitors at the New York Botanic Gardens but I have only been once without my kids - with Corinne to see the train show about 4 or 5 years ago ... or maybe I did have one or two of them and they were in a stroller, I can't remember!

I went today without them for a class I am taking and it was divine.

 Peonies.

 

Orchids

Then it started to rain, so we went into the Conservatory for their current exhibit.

 

 

If it hadn't been pouring, I would have gone outside to get some better pictures of these great and weird sculptures they had. They made me think of Ents!

 

 In the name of good parenting I'll keep taking the kids but I'm definitely going there again by myself!

The Ladies Turn One Week Old

The chicks turned one week old today. I am totally enamored with them.

They are all doing well and so far, it's pretty easy to take care of them. I just make sure they are clean, warm and fed. Compared to my own babies and Millie as a puppy they are a piece of cake!

Yesterday I cleaned them out while the kids were at school. Other times I have cleaned them out the kids have held them, so today I just popped them into this bowl that I had used to wash the two when they "pasted up" last week. When I came back in I thought I'd snap a few pictures before putting them back in the brooder.

This is Kevin.

 She's the biggest of the four of them.

Opal is one of the Ameraucana's, so one of the smaller two.

I love their black & yellow fluffy little bodies.

This is little Brookie Chookie. She is still the smallest but is now thriving.

I love how much yellow she has. She may be my favorite.

As I was taking the pictures Onyx jumped out of the bowl. As soon as Kevin saw that it was possible, she hopped out too. Only Brookie and Opal were left - both still too small to make it out.

When they are not sleeping under the warmth of the brooder light they are always eating and drinking.

I love watching them all crowd around the feeder. Man, they eat a lot. Little Brookie shoves her way in there and often pushes the others to the side to get to the feeder. I love to see that she is holding her own.

You Can Take the Girl Out of the Country but .....

I think I had an idyllic childhood. I've lived in four different countries, many towns and neighborhoods and attended so many school but no matter where we lived we were outside all the time. We had lots of space to run and play.
We learned to love and appreciate nature. We always had animals.

So many of my favorite memories are from working in the garden with my Dad, planting, taking care of the chickens (duck, goat, horse, dog, etc). I talked my parents into so many pets. I always felt kind of pleased with myself for getting them to do it but looking back, I think my Dad was always pretty gung-ho to get most of them too. I loved growing up in that rural setting.

A lady from church (Annie) lives one town over and has chickens and gets chicks every year. She is so sweet to let kids come and visit them and we first went just over a year ago. Jane was in HEAVEN! This year she sent out an e-mail that the chicks were ready for visitors and we set up a time to go and see them. As we went in Jane asked by name how the chicks from last year were doing - I couldn't believe she remembered them, we hadn't been there for a year!
Jane LOVES chicks. Always has - always will

We had been told when we bought the property to build our house on that chickens were not allowed in our town. After that visit to Annie's chicks we decided to verify if that was correct - and it wasn't. No roosters and there are rules about how far they have to be from other residences (300ft) and free roaming, etc but there is no town ordinance forbidding them.

Within a week I had done a bunch of research and ordered four chicks. I had wanted one each of 4 different breeds - Buff Orpington, Blue Americauna, Copper Marran, and a Black Australorp. When I called to order them I found out that they were on opposite hatching schedules. Most hatchery's have a 25 chick minimum, there are only a few that will let you order a 3 or more, so I was kind of bound to the couple of hatcheries that would do that. I REALLY wanted a Blue Ameraucana and they are harder to get, so I ordered two of them and then two of whatever they had on the same hatch schedule as Ameraucana's - a Blue Orpington and a Barred Rock. If things go well then we can get two more next year and get a Buff Orpington and a Australorp .... lets see how these 4 do first.

 Yep, they send them in the mail. The doorbell rang and I opened it up to see this chirping on the doorstep!

It was so exciting to see these little heads popping up when I opened the lid.

They found the food right away.

The kids were THRILLED when they got home.

I am so happy that we made this decision. It's going to be a great adventure for our family.