The chicks are getting BIG!

The chicks are getting big and are almost covered with their adult feathers.  

(Sorry for the red tone to the photo but their red heat light was in when I took their picture this morning.) They always seem to look like they have been through a wringer when their feathers are coming in with patches of down, patches of real feathers, and patches of skin showing under pin feather sprouts.  Poor things.  The coop we made for the original flock is not going to be big enough since we are doubling the amount of birds housed in it with the addition of the new hens.  We don't want to have any territory disputes or overcrowding so it's time for us to start deciding on a larger coop design and to start building it.  I would really like it if we could design it in such a way that it would allow us to keep their feed and scratch cans inside it, be big enough for us to walk inside it, and allow the girls lots of room to flap their wings.  We live across the highway from national forest so in order to keep raccoons and opossums out of the chicken feed we use large aluminum trash cans to hold it.  All bets are off if a bear tries to break into the cans.  I'm sure they can open the cans and I'm sure I will not get in their way.  It would absolutely be safer to have the cans in an enclosed building rather than on my back porch.  I recently saw a black bear along the side of the road on the way to drop my son off at school.  The bear had been hit by a truck.  The area we live in is known to be where they pass through occasionally.  Odd thing to see regardless.

Baby leg warmers

To me, little babies look funny wearing little baby pants.  They always look like they are wearing old man pants pulled way up to their chest.  I like the look of a onesie with baby leg warmers instead so I found a free pattern through a Ravelry search.  I realize it seems strange for me to be decking my baby out in wool while living in Florida but, since we are in the panhandle, it does get chilly during the night in the winter and in early spring.  The one I used is called Woolies by Jenny Raymond.  I am about 80% finished with knitting my first one.  It is a very easy pattern to follow. It probably wouldn’t take someone else long to knit a pair of them, but I am a slow knitter and have way too many projects started at once and not enough knitting time to hand out on any given day.  I am using Lion Brand Baby Wool in English Garden.  

It knits up very nicely and is suppose to be a superwash, but since I haven’t washed mine yet I can’t comment as to how well it does yet.  I will post about it once I do.  Incidentally, I am geochick on Ravelry.  

A craft project and an over acheiver...

So, just to see if I could make one, and to see what it's like to use them, I found a couple free patterns online for a cloth diaper cover to sew in order to try out using cloth diapers on my 4 month old.  I took a bit of instruction from both to sew the diaper cover I made.  The base pattern came from here which shows how to sew a fitted diaper with absorbent layers built in.  This one is what I used to cut the fabric with, mostly because it used velcro and has little tabs to fold over the clingy edges before it goes through the washer so it doesn't snag on everything.  I didn't want to spend the money on a snap applicator tool if I wasn't going to be making very many of these hence the velcro.  One still needs a waterproof outerlayer over the diaper this pattern makes.  I did not sew in the absorbent layers as I intended to use old fashioned flat cloth diaper squares that need to be folded to fit the baby.  I also visited a craft blog here that shows how to sew the basic cover I was looking for with a waterproof inner layer and a soft outerlayer.  Her design uses snaps to give the covers an adjustible fit which I did not do.  Here is my end result.

It is a bit big through the legs for our baby right now but I put a cloth flat diaper on her with this cover over it to try it out.  She wet in it within five minutes while sitting on my husband.  The good news is it didn't leak and was super cute on her.  Not sure if I want to go through the time and energy to make more but the option is always there.  At least I know I can make them.

Our adult hens went through a very harsh molt last summer and their egg laying slowed significantly through the fall and winter months to the point we were getting about 4 eggs a month.  We normally get between four and six a day.  Well, within the last week they have started to lay again.  Alot.  Somehow, in two days, we got fourteen eggs from six chickens.  Someone is an over-acheiver.