Good Trades

Today we traded figs for eggs. We have a fig tree but it's outgrown it's pot and didn't produce very well this year. Jonathan has been craving fig jam and there just happened to be an ad on Craig's List. The poster said she would trade 2 pounds of figs for 1 dozen farm eggs. Our girls have been producing pretty well lately so we had 2 dozen to spare. Somehow, Jonathan only came home with 3 pounds of figs. She obviously didn't weigh them. Nonetheless, we'll have some great jam in a few days and we couldn't have eaten all of those eggs anyway.
I love to barter, it always feels like I'm getting something for free and then doing something nice for someone.

I brought 2 little kittens home from the shelter today. They are only 4 weeks old and will spend the next month or so hanging out with us. They're scared and tiny and desperately need a bath. This is one of the ways we are charitable. We find it feels good to help these poor little critters who are only suffering because people are so stupid. They come to the shelter from all sorts of terrible places, orchards, vineyards, car washes, fast food drive-thrus, gutters, etc. People, please spay and neuter. Thank you.

Eggs in the Hand

With 2 Ameraucanas and 2 CaliWhites laying and our brown layers coming into their first molts, we are suddenly overrun with white and green eggs. It's so strange to peer into the fridge and see green and white. Especially the white. White seems so "grocery store". I can't wait until my little Orpingtons start laying and we have a better looking assortment. I know, color is not important. It makes me happy, though, to see such a wonderful mish mash of colors. Even Dottie's speckled eggs seem to come less frequently now. Hopefully soon GiGi will begin laying her mahogany colored eggs. Oooh, I can't wait!

We also have a pile of eggs in the incubator. We candled them on Wednesday, exactly a week after we began the incubation process. Some seemed to be void of life and were disposed of. It was hard to just throw them away. I wasn't sure if they could be fed to any of the animals after being kept warm for a week. We marked about 12 with a question mark because we just couldn't quite tell if there was anyone inside. But, we did see some with a definite somebody inside. We even saw a little movement. That was super exciting. The incubator has some pretty wide temperature swings now and then and we're real nervous that our little peeps won't make it. We're taking deep breaths and thinking sweet thoughts. 2 more weeks and we should see some new friends.