The Second Half

WIP Wednesday: Baby Poncho, Cardigan and Shrug

Hi everyone!  I decided to pick up with blogging again.  I was going to start last Friday, with a Friday Cat Blogging entry, because the internet and cats were made to be together so what better topic than cats?  But I would have ended up writing about my sweet little Miles, who was just diagnosed last Friday with a spinal tumor.  That would have been a bummer of a post with which to recommence blogging.  So I'll start anew with a knitting WIP (work in progress) post instead.  Miles had surgery today and it went fairly well; I'll learn more over the next couple of days and will update on Friday.

I'm doing the Ravellenic Games on Ravelry.  Basically, the idea is that Ravelry members set goals for themselves and work toward those goals during the Olympics.  I'd never done it before, but it seemed like people had a lot of fun doing it so I'm doing it this year.  Interesting how just this tiny bit of self-imposed deadline makes me want to get these things done.  It's not like anyone on Ravelry knows for sure what I've done or not done; I could be lying about it all.  I suppose lying about knitting in order to get a virtual internet badge would be pretty pathetic.  And yet, I'm sure someone's done it.  This is the internet, after all.

Crap.  I just finished typing this whole post only to learn that Typepad doesn't support IE10 (which I got on my new pc) so my photos won't upload.  It's too late tonight for me to figure out the workaround (if there is one), so links to the patterns themselves will have to suffice.  I'll upload pictures of my actual projects another time.

I have three projects to finish in order to earn a virtual award from a website run by strangers on the internet.

The first project I'm aiming to finish is the baby poncho from Fiber Trends.  Although the baby in question was born last summer, the poncho is pretty big for a baby, so she'll probably not even use it until next winter.  Fiber trends also offers this poncho in child sizing.  I'm almost done; just have to do the border, weave in ends, add the decorative buttons,  then block it (it's superwash so blocking consists of putting it through the washer and dryer).  I'm using Berroco Vintage superwash yarn.

I think this would be a fun project to make in team or school colors for little fans.  Unfortunately, I don't know any such small fans, although I guess it would be up to their parents to dress them up in team colors and take lots of pictures which will be useful for future embarrassments.

There are probably crazy enough adults who put the "fan" in "fanatic" and who would wear an adult version.  Ponchos are in fashion again.  I think.  (I have only the mandatory minimum ounce of fashion sense issued to every person at birth.)  I could make myself a poncho (or shrug or capelet or what have you) in Giants colors, but...nah.  Their colors are red, white and blue, so I'd just look patriotic (nothing wrong with that) and not necessarily like a Giants fan, which would be my point in making and wearing it.

The Broncos have become my #2 team, but I wouldn't wear a poncho in those team colors (not unless I lived out there).  Even if they are my #2 team, my #1 team is the Giants and I live in Jersey, so I would feel really weird wearing team colors other than the Giants (or, heaven forfend, the Jets; I think I'd wear Broncos stuff more readily than Jets stuff).   Maybe pyjamas because I wouldn't, in theory, wear them outside of the house (although, technically, I have worn them just outside the house - quickly, hoping none of the neighbors catch me).  Kevin gave me a Broncos sweatshirt as a gift and I have to say I feel real weird owning it, let alone wearing it out and about (although I have done that and came to no harm in doing so). 

He also gave me a Giants sweatshirt so I'd stop borrowing his.  I still like his old sweatshirts better.

The thing is that I feel like I'm cheating on the Giants if I go so far as to use a piece of another team's fan stuff, let alone actually own it.  I need a mousepad, but I'd even feel a wee bit guilty using a Broncos mousepad, if there is such a thing.  I haven't looked, but even if the Giants didn't sell a mousepad, I'd still feel a twinge of guilt getting a Broncos one.  I'm not weirded out about it enough that I would refuse to use it; there'd just be a little smudge of guilt to get over.

Which is kind of weird.  I mean, it's just a fanship (= newly made up word, but I'm sure you get the drift).  And I'm highly unlikely to be found out and, even if I were, even more unlikely to experience any trouble about it.  It strikes me as weird how this fanning (= another new word) thing works, how it gets under your skin, into your psyche, your emotions, etc.

All that being said, both teams broke my heart this past season.  Nay, the Giants extruded it out of my torso, ever so slowly throughout the season, excruciating piece by excruciatng piece, then stomped on the whole wretched organ until it was a useless, bleeding pulp.  The Broncos waited until the Super Bowl to wrench my newly reinstated heart out and gave it to Thunder to trample all over it.  Not that I take any of this personally, mind.

Let's turn away from that violent diversion and back to knitting.  So.  The second project I'd like to finish is the Top-Down Cropped Cardigan from Plymouth Yarn Company.  This is for a 13 year old girl.  The pattern had a one- or two-button at the top option or a buttonless option.  I went with the latter and hope to find a fun shawl pin or clasp pin that a young girl might like.  Suggestions welcome.  I'm even closer to done with this one: sew up those short sleeve seams, weave in ends and block it (superwash again).

The third project is for a young wife and mom, but I have to admit that I'd like to keep it for myself.  I'm making it just for the fun of it, not for an occasion, and she doesn't know it's coming, so I could certainly keep it with no one the wiser.  I think I'll just make myself one; this one is grey and I think I'd like something a tad livelier.  Anyway, it's the Shrug Style Jacket from Knitting Fever for Noro.  Personally, I find Noro colorways akin to clown barf, so I'm using Cascade Yarns 220 Superwash in Charcoal (colorway 900) instead.  Still to do: the arm-like things (I'm having trouble seeing how this pattern becomes a shrug; I think I do the arms next.), weave in ends, and block.

I believe I've only ever used superwash yarns so far.  I did have some angora, but gave it away because it was an impulse purchase and I really wasn't into using it.  It was a bright red, and red is my favorite color, but this yarn just didn't move me.  I chose superwash for the above projects because the end users are, respectively, a baby, a 13  year old and a busy mom to two young girls.  I don't think these people or their parents want to deal with hand wash only items.  Ain't nobody got time for that.

So yeah, bummer about no pictures.  I hope I can figure out how to load pictures; I'd rather figure it out than move to another blogging platform.  Any ideas, please let me know!

 

Mmm Mmm Monday: Lemon and Dill Salmon with Spinach

Today's recipe, Lemon and Dill Salmon with Spinach, comes from Stephanie O'Dea's A Year of Slow Cooking blog.

I have to admit that I was hesitant about putting a nice piece of fish in the slow cooker.  First, I think of fish as being more delicate and sensitive to cooking methods.  I find that the slow cooker, while it certainly cooks food, doesn't do so with much nuance.  Second, whether or not it's actually true, I still think of fish as expensive protein.  So I was hesitant to put it in the slow cooker, have it turn out badly and end up tossing it, which would have been wasteful.

Anyway, I was curious enough about this recipe to risk the fish...FOR SCIENCE!  Here's the recipe:

Ingredients (Note: This recipe serves 4.  I cut the recipe ingredients roughly in half to make 2 servings.):

• 1 12 oz. pkg. fresh spinach  (We finally seem to having some success with container gardening.  We have a nice batch of spinach out there right now.  I look forward to trying this with our own spinach.)
• 2 lb. salmon
• 3/4 tsp. kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper
• 2 tsp. dried dill
• 2 lemons, sliced
• 1/4 c. white wine

Instructions:

1. Use a 6 qt. crockpot.  (Bc I was just cooking one big piece of fish, I used a smaller one.  Use whatever size suits your amount of ingredients.)
2. Wash spinach and put all of it into the crockpot; shove spinach down if necessary.
3. Place fish on top of the spinach.  Sprinkle each side with salt, pepper and dill.
4. Put the sliced lemons on top of the fish.
5. Pour in the wine.
6. Cook on low for 2 hours, or until fish flakes easily with a fork.

I don't recall if I adjusted the cooking time or not; I think not.  But I would definitely not stray too far from the crockpot while this recipe was cooking.  That way I could check on it and keep it from overcooking.

The fish was cooked through, yet remained juicy and did not seem dried out.  I know fish is supposed to be cooked so that it's still a bit pink in the center, but I don't know how I feel about trying to achieve that in the slow cooker.  The spinach did wilt a bit during cooking (and the blog does mention that that will happen).  I like wilted spinach, but I would prefer it less wilted.  I suppose I could try adding the spinach in toward the end.  I could also wilt the spinach separately, perhaps even in the microwave, but then it wouldn't soak in the juices in the crockpot.

You can see in the after picture that some of what I believe is the fish's fat settled on top of the fish.  Not the most attractive feature of this recipe, but it does come off quite easily.

I am pleased to know that fish can be cooked successfully in a crockpot and this was a super easy recipe.  I would try this recipe again, although it occurs to me that I haven't actually made it a second time yet.  I will make some adjustments iot avoid over wilted spinach.

Bon appetit!

Before cooking:

After cooking:

 

  

Categorically Speaking

Buenos dias, muchachos!  It's been a while since I last blogged, even though it's a positive experience for me.  I enjoy writing about the things that interest me.  Also, it gives me time to think about stuff.

I know when I started this blog that I said I wouldn't have themed days (other than Friday Cat Blogging, bien sur) bc I found them to be a bit much.  However, I find that I miss them after all.  So they're back.  I know I'll keep the following, but will likely add/re-add others:

• Mmm Mmm Monday
• WIP (work in progress) Wednesday, when I have a WIP
• FO (finished object) Friday, when I have a FO
• Friday Cat Blogging

Color, My Unrequited Love (3KCBWDAY1)

UPDATE:  As it turns out, other than this post, I did not blog for Knitting & Crochet Blog Week.  I was on vacation that week and hoped to get back into blogging with K&B Blog Week.  Unfortunately, there were connectivity issues w/our vacation spot.  One, internet connectivity was spotty (occasionally dropping) and very slow.  And two, I couldn't upload anything, e.g., photos, which are big part of craft blogging, at least for me.  Oh well.  I look forward to next year's week.

Well, folks, it's that time of year again, for Knitting & Crochet Blog Week, when many knitters and crocheters from around the world blog in time for a week.  This year it's April 23 - 29.  The week is run by Eskimimi and based at her blog, Eskimimi Makes.  There are seven topics and participants can blog about the topics in pretty much any fashion they want.  There's also a wildcard topic to substitute for any topic that doesn't suit your fancy.  I don't know if I'll do all seven days.  I had been thinking of picking up blogging again with other topics, but these topics would do just as well.  Plus, sometimes it's kind of fun to blog about a provided topic.

So today is Day 1 (or 3KCBWDAY1, in Blog Week code) and the topic is color:

Colour is one of our greatest expressions of ourselves when we choose to knit or crochet, so how do you choose what colours you buy and crochet or knit with. Have a look through your stash and see if there is a predominance of one colour. Do the same with your finished projects - do they match? Do you love a rainbow of bright hues, or more subdued tones. How much attention do you pay to the original colour that a garment is knit in when you see a pattern? Tell readers about your love or confusion over colour.

I do like color.  Unfortunately, I don't know how to use color very well.  Most often, I end up throwing too many colors together and ending up with too much going on, color-wise and visually.  E.g., click here (scroll down the post a bit for the picture) to see a Baby Surprise Jacket I made a couple of years ago.  You'll recognize it when your eyes struggle to focus on the mass of multicolored yarn and buttons I saw fit to put together.  Oofah.

(Sadly for a post on color, I'm unable to include images here.  I'm on vacation and the wifi here doesn't allow for certain activities, such as moving images around.  Rest assured, that link will reliably take you to a picture of the ill-conceived baby sweater.)

Since then, I'm a little more circumspect when selecting multicolored yarns or different colored yarns that will be used together.  If at all possible, I hoodwink someone else into helping me decide on a color scheme.  Of course, if I see a beautiful sample and want to make it myself, I'm likely to use the exact same color.  Failing these approaches, I'll take a good long time to decide upon a colorway/scheme.  I usually end up selecting something, thinking it over and then kicking it down a notch.

In fact, I did that this very afternoon when I visited a local yarn shop, Close Knit Sisters, near where we're staying.  Like many knitters, crocheters, spinners, etc., I like to visit local yarn shops whenever I travel.  I also like to see any yarn made by local spinners and dyers.  I felt completely comfortable selecting a gorgeous red angora/merino blend from Hidden Brook Fibers.  When selecting one of their multicolored sock yarns, I eyed a few of the more vibrant colors, pulled back, thought about it and then finally settled on a superwash merino/silk blend in their Earth color, which, as you can probably guess, a combination of earthy, natural tones.  (And so soft!)

(As an aside, I now have the good fortune of living next to Sandy, who has a very good eye for color as well all things decorative.  I defer the vast majority of decorative decisions to her, including the recent selection of new colors to paint the house.  Basically, I don't make a decorating move without her input.)

I do hope to improve my relationship with color.  I do a lot of inspired copying, that is, where I identify what it is that I like about a color scheme, then try and recreate it with a different color scheme.  E.g., I might find that I like the way the solids in a project pick up the smallest colored bits in a multicolor used in the same project (as opposed to picking up the more obvious colors in the multicolor).  Maybe picking up the smaller colored bits give the entire piece more punch.

I don't know that I'll ever have an "eye" for color such that I don't even have to think about it, but that's okay.  I hope to improve just enough to avoid making too many disastrous choices in future.  

To see other bloggers writing about today's topic, Google search "3KCBWDAY1".

Rabbit Blogging: Happy Birthday, Leo!

Happy birthday to our cute litte bun, Leo!  As with Pinchita, we don't really know when Leo's birthday is so we've lumped in with some of the cats on their assigned birthday of March 15th.  We also don't know how old Leo is.  We thought he was 2 years old when we adopted him, but when we took him to a rabbit savvy vet recently, we learned he was likely 5-7 years old.

That was a bit of a disappointment bc his life expectancy is 7-10 years old.  When we thought he was about 2 years old, we thought we had many years with him ahead of us.  Now we have to get used to the idea that we'll probably only have a few years with him.

Leo, posing on his blankie:

A little more relaxed for this photo op:

Enjoying the view from the top of his Bunny Luv Critter Castle:

He's usually pretty tidy, but once in a while he makes a big mess:

Like all of our critters, he's too cute to elicit any anger at anything he does:

Everything he does is cute, as far as I'm concerned.  Happy birthday, Leo, and I hope you have many more happy, healthy days!

Friday Cat Blogging: Happy Birthday, Pinchita!

Happy third birthday to our sweet, darling kitty, Pinchita!  You may recall that Pinchita is the cat we adopted from Aruba a couple of years ago.  She had some medical issues shortly after arrival here, the most discouraging of which was a lymphoma diagnosis and a prognosis of one or two months to live.

Fortunately, she's still alive and doing well!  The diagnosis at that time was not definitive bc that would have required a biopsy and Pinchita was in no condition to have an endoscopy to get the tissue.  She still hasn't had a biopsy; we've avoided it bco her continuing good health.  Since she's been thriving, we haven't wanted to subject her to the endoscopy.  And, if I recall correctly, her abdominal ultrasounds have improved since that first one that suggested intestinal lymphoma.  She's been on prednisone since that initial diagnosis, just in case she really has lymphoma, but her dose has been continually tapered downward as time goes on.  I believe she's currently receiving 1/2 mg every third day.  At some point and unless she has problems, she'll go off it entirely and we hope she'll do well without it.

We really don't know when Pinchi's birthday is...we though she was a kitten when we first met her: she was so tiny at 4.75 lb.!  (We weigh her weekly and she's now at 9.7 lb., just over twice her arrival weight.)   A more thorough examination told us that she was a full grown (albeit undrenourished) adult and pregnant!  We lump most of our cats into two birthdays, March 15th (yes, the ides of March) and September 15th, based on what we think is closer to their actual birth date.  If we have no clue, we lump them in on March 15th.  So, since we think Pinchi might have been slightly older than 1 year old when we met her, we put her birthday as March 15, 2009.

She is, of course, still positive for the feline leukemia virus, so she continues to reside in separate quarters:

She's a social being so she shares the room with Leo the rabbit.  In the above picture, she's standing in victorious posture on top of Leo's cardboard castle.  There's a screen door on the room, for two reasons:

1. Bco of her sociability.  Her positive feluk status means she can't come in contact with uninfected cats or their things.  But she still likes to see them and they watch her sometimes, too.  The screen isn't a 100% effective barrier; we are considering making the bottom half plastic or glass.
2. It allows for better heat and a/c circulation.  She could stand the poor circulation, but it was uncomfortable for us.  Plus, once the bun arrived, we wanted to make sure it didn't get too hot or cold in there for him; he's more sensitive to temperature than she is.

As an aside, we could give the resident cats the feline leukemia vaccine, but it's not nearly as effective as we'd need it to be to feel comfortable letting them mingle.  Also, there's the risk of vaccine associated sarcomas, which are overwhelmingly fatal.

Here she is in one of her cheesecake poses:

Is she or is she a fiiiiine looking cat?  You know she is.

Friday Cat Blogging: Lizzie's Feeling Better

So just about the time little Leo was doing poorly, Lizzie became ill, too.  She had a couple of days in December where she stopped eating and started vomiting.  These are alarming signs, especially from a cat who has been robustly healthy and very much a cat's cat, and certainly signs that should be treated immediately.

Our regular vet is a housecall vet, but this kind of issue needs a visit to a vet facility bc, at the very least, an x-ray will likely be required, possibly an ultrasound as well.  We had an appointment to bring her in around mid-day, but, early that morning, we decided not to wait any longer and brought her into the emergency vet at Animal Emergency and Referral Associates in Fairfield, NJ.  Several of our pets have been there before, either for emergency reasons or to see the specialists there.  If she needed surgery to remove something or some kind of tricky treatment, we wanted her treated there.

We were especially concerned about surgery  to remove an obstruction bc we thought she might have eaten a chicken feather.  Lizzie loves cat toys that have feathers attached to them.  Since we have chickens, Kevin gave her a couple of feathers that Sandy had dropped since she was molting at the time.  She went bonkers over them and first started showing symptoms the same day she got the feathers.

The ER vet thought the x-ray might miss a feather.  I later showed an actual chicken feather to the Internal Medicine vet, who thought it would have been noticeable on the x-ray.  The feathers on the toys were different from Sandy's feathers in that the former were softer, lighter, more pliable.  Sandy's feather looked and felt stiff, like a small quill feather for writing.

Lizzie stayed overnight for observation, tests, fluids and some hand feeding.  She was eating on her own the next day and, since there was no identifiable problem, she came home.  She's been doing very well since then.

We have no idea what the problem was, which I find a bit disconcerting.  I like to have as much information as possible wrt our pets' illnesses so that we can make the most informed decisions wrt their care.  I also like to know if it's a one-off thing or if it might recur.  In this case, it looks like we won't know what caused her to get sick.  I'll surely take a healthy kitty, if I have to choose between that and an answer, and hope it was just a bug or something like that.

Despite the funny looking eyes, here's Lizzie feeling better and hanging around at the top of the stairs, as is her wont.  She particularly enjoys sitting about two steps down and staring at the gap in the trim left behind by some contractors who ditched us toward the end of the project.  I think she hears things from there and is lying in wait for The Thing That Lives in The Wall.  I think there was something(s) living there at one point, although I think they moved on when the roof was replaced and sealed up tight last year.  But kitties have long memories for these kinds of things and, actually, I trust a cat's judgement wrt these matters over mine.

Sanctuary

The other day, when I blogged about Leo's recent health issues, I mentioned how I like to see him looking relaxed, comfortable and secure.   I thought about that a bit and I realized that I, too, like to feel relaxed, comfortable and secure at home!  Stephanie, after whom one of our chickens is named, once noted how calm my home is and, after thinking about that a bit, I realized that I do put some effort into keeping that way (that is to say, a person noted this, not a chicken).

Firstly, I suppose it must be admitted that the absence of children probably contributes a great deal toward a calm, quiet home.  We do have a fair number of pets, but they're pretty mellow, too.  The chickens are all hens, so they usually just chatter here and there, you know, bok bok bok.  They tend to vocalize a bit right after laying an egg, but that's it.  Apparently, some hens start to crow a bit as they age, but that's probably a ways off for our girls yet.

The cats don't make a lot of noise.  It did seem really quiet after Dolly died in November.  I don't know if this is correct, but I always figured she got loud bc she went deaf and couldn't hear herself.  But she was talkative and loud, so her absence was quite noticeable.

The rabbit makes very little noise, although his cuteness is deafening.

So basically there's just the two of us to make noise and we don't seem to be very good at that.  There's the tv, but we don't watch a ton of tv.  There's music, but we don't blast it very often.  (For some reason, I save that for the car.)  We don't argue very much (sometimes I wonder if we should argue more, i.e., if we're both too non-confrontational) and, even when we do, it's more of a "discussion" than a holler fest.  I think I can count on one finger the number of times I've raised my voice in anger.  And for some other reason, I don't like to yell throughout the house, say, from downstairs to upstairs.  I don't know why; what would be so wrong about that?  I don't know, yet I always have a little misgiving when I do it.

Maybe that misgiving is bc I really, really count on being able to come home and feel safe and secure.  Not so much from any specific threat, e.g., crime.  It's more an appreciation that I can shut the figurative door on bad news, lousy weather, whatever happens to be flooding the news channels at the moment (politics, tsunamis, scandals, royal weddings, etc.), annoying people, basically any kind of stupidity, etc.  And it's not so much that I want to always ignore tsunamis and elections and whatnot; or that I don't care about people suffering; it's more that I appreciate knowing I can get away from most anything by shutting the door, grabbing a diet Coke, sitting in The Comfy Chair and luring a kitty onto my lap.

I said that I put some effort into keeping the house calm, but now that I think about it, it doesn't seem like very much effort.  I certainly avoid inviting over offensive people, but that seems like a no-brainer.  Some people feel they have to invite person X bco a family reason or something like that.  Sure, I'll invite someone who's a little annoying if they're, like, married to someone I like, but that's about as far as I'll go.  Positively speaking, I invite people whose company I enjoy, who add to my life rather than suck the lifeblood out of me.  And I would have no qualms about giving the heave ho to anyone who harshes my mellow chez moi.

I also don't like having a lot of stuff going on at one time.  E.g., I would never schedule two big things, such as having the roof done and the garage built, at the same time.  I also wouldn't schedule them too close back to back.  That's just asking for trouble.  Just as it's true that construction work will cost X% more in the end, it will also take X% longer than planned to complete.  So yeah, I kinda take it easy wrt that kind of stuff.  It's just not worth it to me to have so much stuff going on right where I live.

So I guess I do manage things in such a way as to preserve quietude on the home front.  As much as I like people and I like going out to do stuff, I like knowing that I can come back to my little burrow and do my own thing.  I don't think I've ever not looked forward to coming home.

Leo's Trials & Tribulations

As Charlie Brown would say, "Auuugh!"  I just typed up a big long post about Leo's recent health problems and then the internet connection dropped and I lost the whole thing.  Perhaps it's just as well bc the post was getting a bit wordy and involved there.  Let me sum up things better then:

• Leo got sick in December, 2011: lost weight, not eating, messy stools, goopier eye discharge.
• We brought him a couple of times to our housecall vet's colleague with a brick and mortar practice.  He got him feeling better, but not back to normal so he referred us to Dr. Margaret Fordham at Oakhurst Veterinary Hospital.
  • Leo's been there a couple of times already and has had:
    • x-rays (looks good), fluids, Critical Care, meds, exam, observation, nasolacrimal duct flush
    • his teeth ground down to the gumline
  • Back at home, he continues his meds and he's doing very well.
  • We learned that Leo is older than we previously thought.  He's approx. 5-7 yo so he's actually an elder bun.  This is disappointing bc we had thought he was 2 or 3 and life expectancy is 7-10 years.  He remains, however, cute as a button regardless of age.
  • We also learned that the eye discharge is not related to his incisor removal (done before we adopted him), but more likely due to a blocked nasolacrimal duct.
•  He goes back to OVH for a follow up in a few weeks.  The idea is to see how fast his teeth grow in order to figure out how often he needs his teeth ground down.

We've learned a lot about Leo in particular and rabbits in general.  Not all vets are rabbit savvy, so, even though it's a bit of a hike to OVH, it's a relief to know that he's receiving well-informed care.  He's an excellent traveller and patient.  Here he is about to leave for OVH:

Is he freaking adorable or what?!  Here he is, back at home, feeling better.  He loves just sitting on top of the ottoman.

 I like seeing him stretched out like in this picture:

I don't know if I'm correct, but when I see him lazing around all stretched out in the open, I interpret that to mean that he's feeling safe and relaxed.  That pink bed is actually Pinchita's pink princess bed, but Leo's taken it over and camps out in it for hours at a time.

Casual feet!

He's doing very well now: eating his select greens (he only likes certain greens) and pellets; producing good stools; his eye looks much better and bopping around and relaxing like his usual charming self.

First Two Egg Day of 2012!

So I haven't blogged in a donkey's age and yet what is the topic that compels me to blog today?  Why, it's no less than the first day of 2012 on which the girls have laid (lain?) two good eggs!  Here are the beauts:

Because there's no good reason not to post another picture of the girls, here they are:

This is from last summer; here they're sunning themselves.  I think that's Michelle on upper left and Sandy on the upper right.  Stephanie's on the bottom.

Today's eggs are from Stephanie and Sandy.  Michelle lays a bigger egg, but hers have had thin/no shells lately.   I found it surprising that Michelle lays the big egg and Stephanie and Sandy lay similarly sized eggs.  Michelle and Sandy ("the twins") are the same breed.  Stephanie is a different, slightly larger breed.  I thought Michelle and Sandy's eggs would look similar, but no.  Sandy and Stephanie's eggs are the same size, but Sandy's is slightly darker.

Who was laying the big egg was a topic of speculation for some time until it was determined with finality.  Although curious, we weren't going to sit around and watch to see who lays what egg over the course of a few hours.   Each hen was suspected, in her turn, to be the author of the big egg based on very casual observations.  Finally, one morning Kevin went to let them out and, as usual, checked for any eggs already laid that morning.  None.  Then, while he was still there, one chicken went in and settled in to lay an egg.  He waited until she was done, went in to collect the egg - which happened to be the big egg - proving once and for all that Michelle is laying the big egg.  As he put it, he outwitted the chickens.  We take our successes from whence we can.

Since I last blogged, Sandy molted and went on holiday from laying for the last few months.  She's recently started up.  From the article, Light in the Chicken Coop (about adding artificial light to chicken coops):

Hens naturally lay eggs when the days are long, and slow down as the days grow short in winter. This is because daylight stimulates the pituitary gland, which stimulates the hens' ovaries to produce eggs. Hens lay when they have daylight for at least 12-14 hours per day, and egg production drops off significantly and may even stop once days are shorter than this.

So her molt, combined with the shorter days, led Sandy to drop off laying eggs.  She appears to be starting back in again.  I barely notice that the days are longer, but I guess it's enough for Sandy.

Sandy's molted both winters we've had the chickens.  I don't believe Michelle molted, unless it was a very light molt.  Stephanie hasn't molted at all yet.  Curious.  I thought Michelle was looking a little scraggly in certain spots, so maybe she's getting ready to molt, but I don't know for sure.

Molting is when chickens lose some/all of her feathers and grow new ones.  They can look a bit ratty during molting although I think my girls are always gorgeous, but I'm hardly objective.  It takes a lot of energy to grow new feathers, energy that's diverted from egg production, hence the decline in laying.  But soon enough, a hen will have herself a fine new down coat and start laying again.

It may not seem like much, but I shall take today's egg output as a sure sign of spring to come!