Egg update

It seems the only one of our girls who is laying is Fiona. She laid her first egg on Monday, on Wednesday, I saw her lay an egg. Then Friday and again today on Sunday. She's like clockwork, every 48 hours. We just wish the other girls would get with the program.

Egg!

After months of chicken nurturing, we got our first egg today! We have been through a great leaning curve with housing, disease and death. We got our three new birds a little over a week ago and they have settled in.
We've looked for eggs every day for the past six weeks and got our reward today.
We took pea soup over to Mom's for dinner and it was pouring rain. I went out to change their water and check their food. Mom and Kristen were on the porch out of the rain when they heard me yell "Egg! We have egg!" They both ran out to the coop in the rain and we all did the happy egg dance.
Of course there was a big argument about who should have the first egg. Mom won. She'll have her fresh egg for breakfast tomorrow. Can't wait to hear how it tasted.
I'm not sure who laid it - probably Alice or Fiona, based on the color of the egg. We're hoping this will inspire the other girls to get with the program.

New chickens

We got three new hens this afternoon. From the left, the Partridge Cochin, who we have named Dee Dee, Speckled Sussex, named Fiona and the Easter Egger named Alice.
The Easter Egger is a hybrid breed - sort of a mutt in the chicken world. We can't show her - like we would. She's a funny little bird, full of personality. She was sold to the woman we bought her from as an Americuna, but she's not, as Americunas lay blue eggs. Hers are apparently brownish.

The two bigger birds, Dee Dee and Fiona have been picking on Wili. I guess they are establishing their pecking order. After a couple of hours they seem to have calmed down and we will have eggs..... SOON!

New peeve

As President of District Six, Sons of Norway, I get all of our lodge's newsletters. 56 of 'em. My new pet peeve has appeared in ALL of them.
They all say "I want to thank John and Mary for blah, blah, blah" And I want to thank Ole and Lena for whatever.... Why not just thank John and Mary. Thank you Ole and Lena. Not I WANT to thank you. It bugs me and my family says I'm being too critical.
I have become more aware of this recently and just say thank you. Not I want to thank you.

Ride on!

Pat and I had a new adventure today. We drove to Oakhurst (near Yosemite) last night, had dinner and spent the night.
Today we embarked on our first organized ride - the Grizzly Ride. They have four rides to choose from - a 100 mile ride (no), a 100 kilometer ride (no) a 24 mile ride with 4000' elevation rise (no) and a 24 mile ride around Bass Lake with a 1000' ride. (yes!).
I was a bit apprehensive as I thought maybe we were biting off more than we could chew and I also thought we'd be geriatrics compared to the other riders. Thankfully, wrong on both accounts.
This ride cost $35 each and included breakfast, lunch and dinner plus a commemorative T shirt. What a bargain! We were pleasantly surprised to see many older riders - some appeared to be in their 70s. Most of the riders we encountered were "about our age".
The first five miles was tough, as about 95% of it was uphill. I was not too proud to get off my bike and walk when I needed to do so.
This pic was taken at 7.44 miles. They had a rest stop at around 11 miles and had snacks and drinks for us. One of the snacks I liked the best was cold boiled red potatoes. What a delightful snack! Being of Norwegian and Irish descent - we loved the potatoes!
The ride around the lake was gorgeous, the weather was a perfect 72 degrees and we finished the ride. Everyone was SO nice and we had so much fun. The Grizzly is on our list for next year and we'll be looking for other organized rides.
What a great day!