Chickens and pickin's :)

Our chicks arrived on Tuesday, twenty five to raise as laying hens and twenty for meat.

The laying hens looked to be about a week old.  They have some wing feathers and can already flutter up to the top of their pen to perch on the edge. When I peeked into their box at the store I saw their feathers and felt a little cheated.  We'd missed out on most of their cute, fluffy stage.

But then I noticed that some were smaller and still fluffy yellow all over.  The meat birds were just day-olds.  I feel kind of mean calling this little cutie a meat bird...but that's what it is and soon it won't look so cute and the thought of eating it won't seem so heartless.

Yesterday we did the annual strawberry picking trip. It was a gorgeous day and the berries were plentiful.

Justine offered to stay home with the sleeping Nadia, and everyone else came to help pick.  You can see why this guy was so eager to come along...

Thomas plunked himself down and filled his basket in no time.

But plunking down in a strawberry patch has consequences when you're not particular about where you sit...

When we got home the kids got back to work, cleaning the berries and turning most of them into jam.  I didn't have to do any of it this year!  Keeping Nadia entertained while they worked wasn't hard...

For my pavlova recipe look here. Enjoy!