Dies Irae

I regret to inform you that on Invocabit Sunday of 2012, a hawk descended into the back yard and killed our little friend, the juvenile Dominique hen, whom Evangeline called "baby." We returned from lunch to find the hawk eating our chicken. She was already cold, so I think she probably died around 2:00 pm. She was buried promptly behind the shed near a sunny spot where we will be planting a bean tipi this spring. We actually miss her. She was the smart one of the bunch, the first one to figure out that if you snatched the food and ran away, you were more likely to get to eat the whole berry or grape. Its sad, and now I am back to obsessively checking craigslist for chickens. I don't think we can have anything less than fully grown hens. I've got my eye on blue laced red wyandottes now. Well... we miss our little hen.

But turn that frown upside down, because it is Lent, after all. Spring is nearly upon us. What was dead comes alive this time of year. The beets, carrots, lettuce, spinach, kale, peas and onions are all hard at work emerging from their deadness and breaking forth from the soil in their glorified plant bodies. The peach trees also seem to be emerging from their dormancy, which will be exciting to see. I am pretty sure that I scorched one of them this past summer, but it looks like its going to pull through.

Is this not the cutest pea seedling you've ever seen?

The Goings On

Evangeline can do this now

It was a touching piece of the afternoon to see Evangeline
copying her dad and eating a snack with a book at the table.
And the book is "Mealtime". Huh.

Dr. Seuss day at library story time

Kids in various stages of "Heads Shoulders Knees and Toes".
Evangeline's not buying what Miss Christine is selling.

Library story time. 

Kyle's new bottle cutting hobby. He's using them to cover
the sprouts he planted too early. He also knows that bottle cutting might
not be the safest of all hobbies around small children. Probably safer than
smelting or something, though. Taking orders for bottle glasses.

Irene in a sweater. And jeans.

Irene's Got Something To Say

And, I mean this in only the best way: Doesn't Irene look a little like a Monchichi? An adorable human Monchichi.

Irene and grandma 

Evangeline and her gang of girls take over Chipotle

pills

Evangeline got into Aunt Jessica's purse when she was here and had a quick Lohanesque descent into addiction. She tore apart the house in a rage and then got pulled over for driving 35 mph under the speed limit. She missed her court date and might have to spend some time in the slammer. Luckily, she is already used to sleeping in a cage... errr... crib. The good news is that the child proof bottle actually worked and no pills were ingested. The bad news is that we still don't know what is causing this erratic behavior.

We snapped these photos, and they will probably end up on TMZ pretty soon.

MANIAC

And here is a snow chicken picture thrown in for good measure.

By Popular Demand

Since some people loved Evangeline's performance from yesterday so much...guess what? We have more!

Also, it snowed today. The best kind: white and fluffy surprise in the morning, gone by the evening, and predicted to be 68 degrees by Thursday. Oh and we still got 5 eggs today.

Don't worry; we only let her eat snow off the firepit. I think.

Brava.

zoology

We took a field trip to the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro today. We saw a bunch of signs that said that the Africa part of the zoo was closed, so we sulked around the half closed North America part of the zoo. No one wants to see North American animals at a zoo. They are all brown and they are all slow. We did get to see some otters embroiled in an impassioned embrace, but other than that, it was pretty slow.

There is supposed to be an ocelot in there.

The beehive was closed because it is "cold," but there was at least a bee statue outside. We took a wild ride on this worker bee. Its almost like that scene from Honey I Shrunk the Kids.

Somehow, we misread the signs, and the Africa portion of the zoo WAS open! We wasted most of our time watching boring animals, but then finally got to see the cool stuff.  By that time the kids were ready to go and had no problem letting us know. Next time, we will know to go to Africa first.

Aunt Jessie!

Aunt Jessie is here visiting for a few days, and the girls are loving it.

smells like toddler spirit

Evangeline broke out the electric guitar tonight while mom was away at choir practice. 

I thought she looked like Kurt Cobain.

She really was having fun until she saw that the camera was more fun than the heavy guitar that she doesn't know how to use.

Milk Drinking Angst

Valentines...

More Valentines! And it's only the 12th. Thanks everyone.

From Aunt Beth:

Two-year-olds have no concept of hoarding stickers

Full-body bib. Irene was confused.

Kyle claimed he hadn't taken any pictures lately. But this was the last
picture on the camera.

A Few Cute Pictures Of Irene...

...and a picture of Evangeline in her new Valentiney coat.

Irene totally ignores the "rule" to not put your baby in
an umbrella stroller till she can sit up. Ha.

Thanks for the coat from Alaska! (Evangeline's not feeling
too well, but she's got her milk and bunny, so I think things
are going to be ok.)

Road Pizza

Today Officer Farlow let her owners take Katie, 8, home instead of taking her to the pound. "Your dog was nearly a road pizza," said Farlow. The exchange was made in a church parking lot about a block from the Cheagle's home. She was discovered roaming south on Benbow road and has no new travel plans made. Katie chose not to comment but is said to be pondering the day's happenings comfortably in her own dog bed.

purple egg and little girl

I do so enjoy being able to go home for lunch every day.

eh?

And, for all of you haters, here are some photos of the purple egg. 

I suspect that the bloom actually has a purple tint. I don't know why, and I haven't gotten any good answers on the chicken forums yet. In conclusion, I think that the egg shell itself is not purple, but only the bloom. Don't know what an egg bloom is? You need to read more chicken books.

lisää kanat

 Well, I drove to Mt. Airy yesterday and picked up some more chickens. Mt. Airy is notable as the fictional town of Mayberry. There is a ton of Andy Griffith stuff there. Anyways, these are Brahma hens, which means they are gigantic and they have feathered feet. They are super docile too. I had been looking for these for a while, and I ended up getting these for free. The guy who was selling them is moving to Russia and was liquidating his flock. One of these hens is five years old and was his pet. Since I was willing to take his old pet (Annie) he also threw in a free young hen. So, looky here... two free hens! The others cost 10 dollars each. I found a purple egg in the nest box today, which makes me think that these Brahmas lay purple eggs.

They are not nice to other hens, but are very nice to little girls. Evangeline can actually approach and pet these new girls. They also will eat out of her hand.

I got up early this morning to make sure the chickens didn't kill each other. It turns out that when you get up early, you  have a ton of extra time, and you also get to watch the moon go down over the scenic Greensboro skyline. Thats it to the left of the big building. As usual, you can't take good pictures of the moon.

These two gigantic chickens that don't really fit into the nest box on their own somehow think it is a good idea to get in there together.

The Dominique is really taking the backseat these days. She sleeps up next to the rain barrel.

Doh dee

I have read/watched some things on toilet training. I've noticed that one common thread in all these programs is the part where when they finally do it, how you're supposed to be super excited and act like it's the best thing that has ever happened. I have always thought when that time comes, I'd have to pretend to be super excited. No big deal, I can handle pretending with my kid. Well, I'm SUPER EXCITED for real.
We had to leave The Girl's pants and diaper off today to try to get rid of a terrible diaper rash, and I was prepared for a long and sad day of cleaning up after her since I have been far too impatient and tired to try to actually potty train her. Instead, she simply told me when she had to pee and did that in the toilet and then told me when she had to poop and did that in the toilet. I think we're all super excited about this (even Irene, but she's excited about lots of stuff).So, now I feel like we've got to stick with it, so I suppose we've accidentally gotten on the toilet train.
We'll see how exciting tomorrow is.
Did I mention that I'm super excited about this?
Way to go, Girl.

U.R.

Uncle Rick came for a short visit as he makes his way around the Chicago, Washington, Raleigh, Greensboro area (Aunt Alene also came for a little visit). He brought some great books for the girls and even a puzzle that will guarantee that Evangeline and Irene know all the provinces of Costa Rica. We watched the Super Bowl and Evangeline cried when he left.

Showing Uncle Rick how to ipad.

Wait, no, he's almost got it!

Showing Uncle Rick how to run a farm (though he probably has one on her there).

Irene catching the Super Bowl with U.R.

And this: