Nine

Three more hatched over night. By late afternoon, there was no sign that any of the other eggs would hatch. We'll put a new set in tonight.

The newbies join the day-olds (photo taken while water was being changed)

Half a Dozen

At the end of the day, we have six chicks. The one who had the biggest hole first thing this morning had a hard time making any progress and it finally pushed itself out about a half an hour ago. (It seems exhausted.) We've moved them from the incubator to a box with a heat lamp, where we'll keep them for a few days. We're also going to put 42 more eggs in the incubator tomorrow. These are "fresher," so we should have a better yield in 21 days.





Our little brood

And Another!

Hatchling 3 was a fast worker and still had lots of energy when it freed itself from its shell. (The one I called "determined" in the first post has made no more progress from this morning than sticking its beak out.) It's going to be a beauty ... red with black stripes.

Feisty

Another!

A second chick has liberated itself from its egg. It seemed to take a lot of energy ... we wanted to help the poor thing out a few times. This second hatchling has huge black raptor-like feet. It's not as noisy as its clutch mate (yet anyway).

Cracking the shell

Pushing hard

Almost ...

Freedom!

Hatched!

The first chick is out of its shell! It's a hard-working little bugger, as a few of its mates have more shell broken away but haven't made their way out. (This one came out of the egg with the little white spot and crazing in the last picture.) It is making quite a racket. G & I are wondering if it will imprint on one of us!

Plucky

Incubation

Our "yard hens" lay eggs all over the place, and most of the time Maike finds the nests and eats them. But this year, Dan, Grandpa & G made an effort to find the nests before Maike did. Twenty-one days ago (the incubation period for a chicken egg) they put 42 eggs in an incubator to see what would happen. Lo and behold, this morning there are several eggs with evidence of chicks trying to break out. We are also hearing intermittant peeping. Stay tuned for "The Great Chick Hatch of 2008" news!

This chick is the most determined of the lot! (If you enlarge the photo, you can see a white dot and some crazing on the egg to the right where another one is starting to work its way out)

A Different Perspective

Props to Lying Down, Looking Up


House of Burgesses

Jamestown 350th Anniversary Memorial

Monticello

Day 5: Monticello

At Mr. Jefferson's home

A different view

Jefferson's grave. He wanted to be remembered for the Declaration, the Virginia religious freedom statute and UVA

Day 4: Yorktown & Shirley Plantation

Checking out Continental Army accommodations at the Victory Center

At the battlefield (James River in the background)

Shirley Plantation main house

Won't Do?

Class of 2018?

Day 3: Williamsburg Again

Our wonderful docent Miss Virginia laces G into a corset

At the Governor's Palace

Maze at the Governor's Palace (no blast-ended skrewts in sight)

G and Patrick Henry (a truly inspirational presentation)

Evening 2: African American Music

No cameras were allowed inside at this presentation in Williamsburg, but here's part of the group before this amazing event

Day 2: Williamsburg

Parlor dancing at the Wythe House

Group at the Magazine


Playing a colonial game

Sketching at the Governor's Palace lawn

Day 1: Jamestown

We visited Jamestown Settlement, the Glasshouse and Historic Jamestowne.

With our guide Hugh outside a Powhatan hut

Inside the hut


Aboard the Susan Constant

Memorial to John Smith

Something to do with Rev. Hunt, a figure G was familiar with because of a book she'd read

Class Trip

G and I just got back from a week-long class trip to Virginia. It was a dense itinerary, so we got to do a lot. Lots of walking, lots of fun.

We stayed at the 4-H camp in Jamestown

G's bunk

The camp was on the James River

Click, Clack, Moo

G and some of her classmates presented a "Readers' Theatre" at the local library during Preschool Story Time today. They performed Click, Clack, Moo, Cows That Type, a story about some cows and chickens who demand electric blankets from a farmer by composing messages on a typewriter. Afterward they helped their audience make paper plate farm animals. Even if they hadn't had a blast, it got them out of school for two hours!



Narrator G with assorted disgruntled cows, chickens & ducks and the farmer

Girls & Women in Science

G, her science teacher and I attended Beloit College's "Girls & Women in Science" camp. It is a conference to encourage sixth grade girls to pursue science studies, show parents how to support them and provide teachers innovative ways to bring science to the classroom. The Beloit student organizers and presenters did a really nice job and it was a fun and informative two days.


Group shot!


G participates in the "Mayan Treasures" lab

Mrs. Meler & G at the poster presentation

Class of 2018?

Rvr Frnt Prprty w/Vue

Anyone interested in acquiring some river front property? Thanks to all the snow and rain, the local river has overrun its banks, headed into the adjacent marsh and joined our flooded marsh. A few more inches and it will come over the road ... then we'll be able to canoe into the neighbor's cow pasture!

The tree line on the horizon abuts the river, so it gives you an idea of how flooded everything is here

The Freshmaker

For her birthday, G got a tube that facilitates the Mentos-and-Diet-Coke stunt. We tried Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi. The Diet Pepsi worked better, most likely because the tube was screwed on tighter.

Blueberry Hill

My dad bought three blueberry plants, so Dan & G helped him plant them while we were there.

Other ActiWiities

We took the Wii along so that G & my parents could play with it. My mom Wii-bowled from her wheelchair (sorry, no photographic evidence of that!). My dad and G played several games, though tennis seemed to be their favorite.




Mike & G playing Wii tennis

Cake 4

Mini Chocolate Chip Cheesecakes

Wall of Sound

When I wasn't watching Cash Cab, I was downloading as many of my brother's non-essential CDs into iTunes as I could. (You can only imagine what the essential collection at his house looks like ...)



Sam Phillips anyone?

Packer Backers

Birthday Girl

Cash Cab

Don't ask me what rock I've been living under, but I'd never heard of the game show Cash Cab. My parents watch it, and I got totally hooked on it. (Fortunately for me, there was a Cash Cab marathon on one day). I may have to spend my next vacation in NYC, hailing cabs at Union Station or Columbia, so that the years and years of trivia stored in my head can finally be worth something!



Dan reenacting Cash Cab for me during a period of withdrawal

Spring Break

We spent G's 10-day Spring Break in PA with my folks. (We left a day early in order to get ahead of a winter storm ... turned out to be a good idea, since it dumped a foot of snow here.) While it was cooler there than we would have liked, there were flowers, green grass, budding trees and mostly blue skies.



The nice weather allowed G to stroll around the neighborhood with Nana & Pop-Pop