Look Mom! Chickens!

I forgot to put something in the photos to give you an idea of how much bigger Oregano and Barbecue are!  They now have feathers pretty much everywhere except for the lower part of their necks.  It looks as if Oregano (foreground) will have a floofy tail like Crockpot, while Barbecue's tail feathers are a bit more organized.

 Here's Crockpot.  You can see how her tail feathers are all sprangled out and discombobulated.

Drumstick, on the other hand, is a much neater-appearing hen and has a very tidy tail.

If anyone had told me ten years ago that I would have two laying hens and also be raising two more pullets in the house, I would have said they were crazy!

This afternoon Oregano and Barbecue got some time out in the sunshine, contained in the dog crate (which I guess is now a pullet playpen), while Crockpot and Drumstick patrolled the yard and Eli (the dog; I never post about him because he's not nearly as interesting as chickens, poor thing) dozed in a sunny spot.  There were only short, minor skirmishes but nothing serious.

Birdman mowed the grass while I was at the grocery store buying a ham and some other things for our Pascha basket, and I ran the weedeater once I got home.  I am SO thankful we didn't get all the rain that was forecast.  My yard looks much better now.

Once the young'uns came back indoors we discovered that the heat lamp had burned out, so Birdman and I went off in a tearing hurry to Wally World to see if we could find one.  They do not sell heat lamps of any sort.  I did, however, get a new tube of fake tan for my legs, some 'bare spot repair' grass seed, and some Italian bread with garlic spread to go with.  I wandered through the clothes but didn't find anything that yelled at me.

Crispy thin crust pizza for dinner while watching the movie "Up", and now we're trying to fight our way to the top of the mountain of laundry..... kind of like being caught in a denim-and-toweling avalanche.