We interrupt the story of the gold rush trip to show you this, Penny’s 13th egg, otherwise called The Boob Egg.

Complete with nipple.

Nature, you are so weird.

Penny has been inclined to make nests and hide lately–what they call broody behavior. Then today, this was in the pen.

It is small because it is the first one. I think it is cute.

As I mentioned, my dad and Kyle moved the door of the bathroom from inside the room to the hallway. By doing this, they made the bathroom into one big room.

Last weekend, Kyle did the next step of the process and removed the wall that was dividing the room.

Before:

Kyle removing the wall:

After:

I looks so much better. Already the room feels huge and full of light and space. I am really digging this bathroom remodel so far because every change is so dramatic.

“Wendell Berry says the greatest act of independence and rebellion is to maintain a garden,” actor Mark Ruffalo said in an article in the New York Times. “You’re taking yourself out of a kind of capitalist culture and you’re making a point of self-sustenance.”

This is exactly how I feel about gardening. I have never seen anyone else put it into words before.

So major points for for that, Mark Ruffalo.

However, I am going to have to deduct a point for marrying someone named Sunshine.

This weekend, if all goes well, we are finally going to start remodeling our bathroom.

I hate our bathroom. It is ugly, moldy, and stupid. The sink is perfectly positioned so that when you are putting on make-up, you can easily drop things on the floor or into the toilet. I have had to throw many things out because of this. The linen closet is about eight inches deep, which means that nothing can be stored in there. The linoleum is peeling up from the floor. And the bathtub is chipped, ugly, and has mold around the edges that I can’t seem to get rid of.

But the worst part of the room is the door. It is positioned so that as you are standing at the sink putting on make-up that you are also trying to keep from dropping onto the floor or toilet, the door slooooooooooowly shuts so that you are lightly bumped from behind.

Imagine, if you would, trying to line your eyes when you are lightly bumped from behind by a door. You cannot shut the door because someone has taken a shower and there is no fan in the bathroom, so everything is fogged up. Therefore, you turn around and push the door open again. It slooowly swings over and bumps you. You push it open. It slooowly swings over and bumps you. You push it open a little firmer this time. It swings faster and bumps you. This continues until you finally get so mad, you turn around and start punching the door. Then your husband comes in and asks what the heck is the matter with you.

Anyway, this weekend, we are MOVING THE DOOR so that I can actually put on make-up in peace. The first step in a long remodel, but a significant one.

Lucy is obsessed with climbing on my head. I think it’s because it is the highest point she can get to. I don’t let her up there because I don’t like the idea of a bird pooping on my head, but it’s funny that she keeps trying.

I have never seen anything develop as quickly as these chickens are developing. They will literally be different in the evening than they were in the morning. Marcia took the above picture just last week and Lucy looks completely different now. It’s kind of amazing, really.

On Friday, Kyle and I got baby chicks. We bought two little chickens, a Rhode Island Red named Lucy (after Lucille Ball, another comical red head) and a Silver Laced Wyandotte named Penelope, or Penny for short.

We brought them home on Friday and are keeping them in a chicken brooder we made from an old bathroom cabinet. In three days, they have already grown about a half inch and are developing pin feathers on the tips of their wings. We’ll keep them inside the house until they have full feathers and then we will put them outside in their chicken coop.

Lucy is the smarter of the two of them and has a quirky little personality. The first day, she was trying to leave her pen by reasoning that she could jump on top of the water bottle and then out of the the brooder. She wasn’t able to accomplish that, but I had heard so much about how stupid chickens are that I was surprised to see her plotting her escape.

She is also very sweet. The first day, she fell asleep in everyone’s hands when she was picked up.

Rhode Island Reds were developed in Rhode Island (duh) in the 1880s. They can produce 250 to 300 eggs per year and begin laying as early as six months of age. Their eggs are brown. Here is a picture of a Rhode Island Red from Wikipedia:

Then there is Penelope.

She is more adventurous and aggressive than Lucy. She tries to fly all the time, which may be a sign of future trouble. But she is also very sweet and likes to fluff out and nest. When you pick her up, she gets quiet and likes her back stroked. She also fell asleep in my hands the first day we got her.

She is growing faster than Lucy and has already developed little wings and the starts of tail feathers. If all goes well, she should be a very pretty chicken. Here is a picture of a Silver Laced Wyandotte from My Pet Chicken:

Silver Laced Wyandottes have been around since the 1870s and were the most popular breed of chicken before World War II. They lay about 200 brown eggs a year.

Yeah… so do the math. 200 + 250 = we’re going to have a lot of eggs around here.

Remember how Kyle made my this compost bin about a year ago?

Last Saturday, I pulled 13 wheelbarrows of dark brown compost out of that bin. I couldn’t believe that our kitchen scraps and yard waste had turned into this amazing, manure-like substance.

There was enough compost in the bin to thickly cover one of my 12X12 garden plots.

After I shoveled it onto the soil, we dug it in. Now I am ready to plant.

“Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground.” Genesis 3:18-19

I often think of this scripture when I’m out weeding and fighting gophers and ants. Melodramatic? Perhaps…

1. I have sequestered myself in my office, hiding from this ridiculous heatwave. It seems to be fading back to normal spring now, and nature is doing things outside. For example, new birds have taken up residence in this nest by my front door. I found half of an egg on the ground yesterday (pictured above), so I guess the babies have hatched already.

2. For some reason, I’m obsessed with the color turquoise. It’s the weirdest thing. One day turquoise was just another color and the next, anything painted turquoise is the coolest, most vibrant, most edgy thing to me. It’s so strange that I could be into a color, like being into a band or into an author, but it feels like the same thing. I am sincerely excited about turquoise, especially the lighter shades of it.

3. I am also into tulips. For Easter, I picked one from my garden to have under the TV and then I had several store-bought bouquets scattered around the house. Finally the flowers all died and I went to put them in the new compost bin. The one that I had picked from my garden had opened wide and was filled with aphids. I was horrified. These disgusting, icky, plant-killing bugs had been in my house for over a week feasting on my tulip. I went right over to my basil and fuchsia plant, afraid the aphids had spread, but they were bug free. The aphids hadn’t gotten on any of the store-bought tulips either, just that one flower from my garden. It was weird and slightly disturbing.

4. I have a feeling aphids are going to be a problem this year….