Hoppin' Down The Bunny Trail

A while back, Milah over at From My Back Porch had a crazy idea about a quilt challenge. She had five printed panels depicting Beatrix Potter's beloved children's classic, Peter Rabbit. Her rules for the challenge were simple. She and four other quilters would each make a baby quilt using as many blocks from each panel as possible. And the quilts would all have to be finished by Easter Sunday and posted online for all to see.

I really enjoyed working on this project. It seemed challenging at first to come up with a design and find colors to work with the pre-printed blocks. Once I finished the modified log cabin blocks, I decided it still needed a little something. So I took advantage of the opportunity and taught myself invisible machine applique. Come to find out, I like machine applique! I chose simple in the ditch machine quilting for the blocks with hand quilting around the appliques. Then I just finished it off with a scrappy binding.


The photos really don't do it justice. It turned out far cuter than even I expected. It's been a long wait for those of us involved to see what everyone else has come up with. So while you're chowing down on malted milk eggs and chocolate bunnies this morning, please take a moment to check out the other quilts by Milah, Bren, Lori, and Winona. It's amazing how different each quilt turned out to be.

Oh, and have a Happy Easter!

The Miracle of Life

I'm in love. Boy? Girl? Doesn't matter. We're keeping it.

Old Jack and Pearl's only child.

It Ain't Over...

...but it's over. I'm declaring them duds. Not a single chick has hatched. I can hear one peeping, but it should have pipped out by now. I don't think it will make it. It takes everything in me to override that motherly instinct to crack the egg open and haul it's fuzzy little bum out of there. But there's a reason they're not coming out of their shells. It's best not to mess with Mother Nature in that department. In theory the others might just be running a little late, but I suspect they're not coming at all. I'll leave the incubator plugged in for a couple more days, but I don't expect anything from it.

Lots of things can happen along the way to cause a hatch to go bad. First we had Blackbeard's little infertility issue. Combine that with The Wench's advanced age and we'd be lucky to get anything from them anyway. The incubator temperature may have been a little off. Or the auto egg turner may have been an issue. Then there's Old Jack. While he's doing everything he can to repopulate the earth, his girls are so young their eggs are still small. I suspect the small egg shells are what caused this hatch to go bad. I don't think there was enough room in there for the little buggers to grow.

So unless Pecking Polly has some success this weekend, we're going to be chickless. I finally caught her off the nest the other day and quickly candled the eggs. I think she has one good one and possibly two others. They were iffy. At this point I'm hoping the poor girl doesn't hatch just one chick. It would be one lonely little chick. So it would be better at this point if she didn't hatch any at all. Or I may stop at the farm store tomorrow and pick up a few chicks to sneak under her. After she's been sitting there so long I think she deserves some babies.


But there's still hope we might get a few of our own chicks this month. My girl, Pearl, has decided to go broody. I've tried for days to get her to stop but now she's claimed four little green eggs and has no intention of letting anyone take them. So I'm going to leave her to do her job and see if Mother Nature can do it better without us.


EDITED TO ADD***** It made a liar out of me. Minutes after posting this it hatched! Looks like I'll be making that run to the farm supply store in the morning.

I Hear Peeping!

I had a post all written and ready to go about how I was giving up on this hatch. I was sure they were duds. That is until the kid came out and told me he heard them peeping. Skeptical, I sat around waiting and listening and sure enough, there's peeping! YAY! We might get babies after all!

No Worms for You!

They're officially late. Watching paint dry is more exciting than this. At least with paint you get to see it go from shinny to dull. This is just dull. I was beginning to suspect that they were all duds. It would just be my luck to have one rooster shooting blanks and the other shooting duds. But I think I see a pip forming. A pip is the start of a tiny hole the chick first makes in their long journey out of the egg. I have to go somewhere this evening. What do you want to bet they'll all hatch then?

I suppose shaking the incubator to wake them all up would be bad?

If The Early Bird Gets The Worm...

these baby chicks are going to starve to death. We've got nothing. Not a rock. Not a roll. Not a peep. Not a pip. Nothing. They're being slow pokes.

Meanwhile Old One-Eyed Calico Jack and I are getting tired of the cafeteria food. We want babies and we want 'em now. Poor bugger is wearing a hole in the ground he's pacing so much.


Something needs to hatch soon or I may have to go buy some peeps to make him happy.

It's Best to Stay Busy When You're Waiting

They say a watched pot never boils so I tore myself away from the windows in the incubator and set to work outside today. First I ripped the 100 year old fence out of this tree line...


and balled it up with my bare hands...


and flung this 400 lb metal gate to the side out of my way...

Okay, okay we hired some young strappin' guys to do it for us. They're going to take out the old fence and put up a brand spanking new one. I couldn't believe how quickly they were able to get the old one out. It was completely encased with vines growing all over it.

Of course it helped that they were wielding a chain saw. And it made quick work of removing the apple tree that's been hit by lightning twice since we moved in here. Removing it really was the humane thing to do at this point.

But it's not like we've just been sitting around eating bon bons watching the young kids work. Nope. I completely cleaned out the coop today and replaced all the shavings. Then did some more yard cleanup. The Engineer filled in some holes around the coop run, removed the old no -longer-in-use internet satellite dish and drove Old Blue to town and fetched supplies and we started building the Sheep Shack.

Okay, okay, maybe the Engineer is building the Sheep Shack and I just helped hold things down. I'm invaluable for that. And offering suggestions. Like making sure the writing on the plywood is facing the center so the sheep will have something to read.

I don't know what he would do without me.