An EPIC Day

We were driving down I-89S when today's solar eclipse started to ever so slightly cover the sun.  Behind us were were pulling our newly purchased 2011 Viking Epic pop-up camper.  I wasn't sure if I was more excited to get home in time for the peak of the eclipse or to start working on the camper. 

  After a few glamour shots (both of us and of the camper), we got to work.

We like to think of ourselves as creative designers, but today's photos seem to highlight our destructive nature.  We'll update as the camper comes along.

100 bales of hay on the truck...

Eric spent most of the day yesterday cleaning out the barn to make room for 100 bales of second cut hay.  This will hopefully keep the goats plenty fed until next year!

The Chicken Detective

Back earlier in the summer, we debated whether or not to kill off our old egg hens and buy a new batch of chicks.  The egg production was low (3-5 eggs per day) from the 16 remaining hens.  Ultimately, we opted to wait until next year.  Two weeks ago, however, when we started getting 1 egg per day, we decided some of the hens had to go!

This was a difficult decision to make, as we had no idea who wasn't laying eggs.  So Eric set-up the game camera each morning and each evening, Teresa played "chicken detective" to try and deduce which birds were laying which eggs.  After almost two weeks of monitoring and some humorous photos, we can confidently say that 7 of the hens haven't laid a single egg!  

Six hens will shortly be removed from the coop.  The 7th is our barred rock from our first batch of chicks 4 years ago,   We will give the old bird a pass!