I was walking in the hen house the other day with Levi because we were going to clean the roost, and I noticed this small yellow thing plastered to the floor. The hens have been sitting on this nest of eggs for a couple weeks now, so I recognized the shape, form, and what it was. A dead chick. The very first chick to be born in the hen house by hens sitting on a next, and it was dead.

I was terribly disappointed, so I thought up this idea to move the hen into the turkey building (brooder house) with food & water and her nest of eggs, so she'd be undisturbed by the other hens and if the eggs did hatch, they wouldn't been in danger of falling from the nest to the floor. So, I followed through and took her over, and – bad hen – she never ever sat on the nest. She apparently didn't like her new surroundings, and showed that by sitting on the roost instead of her nest.

After a while I had to move her back to the hen house, and now there's several different hens getting to sit on the nest at different times. I hope there wasn't just one good egg and the rest of them duds! But, just in case, I'm keeping a closer watch on them.

This (2nd picture) is a really, really tiny turtle that I saw one day floating in the barnyard pond. You can see how small he is by the size of the leaf floating beside him! I believe he is an Eastern Painted Turtle, because we caught a large sized version that looked like him last year.

Gabriel didn't really know I was taking that picture of him, because his mind, at the time, was on frogs. He was actually barking because when he shows up all the frogs dive under (and generally with loud splashes) and it makes Gabe mad because he wants to catch one!

I don't know how often I'll be able to post in the coming week (after Monday) due to the fact that Levi & I will be heading up to visit with our grandparents for a week (which means the only internet we'll have is [10hrs of] dialup!). We're taking the camera though, so I'm sure we'll have tons of pictures by the time we get back, especially since Levi & I both like to take pictures!

I reckon I'll see ya'll when I get back! Arefay eyay ellway!