51 Little Chicken Nuggets

They're here, finally.

I got a call yesterday at 7:34 am from the Mission Post Office. The chicks are here. On my lunch break, I drove over to the PO and collected a cardboard box containing 51 chicks. I brought them back to school (much to my students' delight) and gave them some food and water.

They're so freaking cute.

After school, I loaded them into the car and drove down to the ranch store for some last minute supplies. Katey and I cleaned out the coop a few days ago, and we found a waterer, but one isn't enough (those chicks drink a gallon and a half in 12 hours). I picked up another heat lamp, a waterer, two feeders, and 3 cubic feet of pine shavings.

When I got home, we set up their pen (a 3x4 enclosure with rounded corners) inside the coop, laid down 2 inches of shaving, filled the waterers, hung the lamps, and put some feed in and around the feeders.

We dipped each chick's beak into the water as we set them into the pen to make sure they knew how and where to get water. I think I checked on them 6 or 7 times last night before going to bed.

When I stepped outside this morning, I wasn't prepared for the cold. I had a moment of panic - what if they all died in the night because of the cold? What if some rodent or snake was drawn to the heat lamps and devoured them all? They're so helpless...

Not to worry. All 51 alive and well this morning.

As I came back inside, I noticed that our garden is starting to fade. I picked 5 zucchini, and observed that I should probably harvest the butternut squash this weekend. I'll cut the rest of the basil and make a batch of pesto this afternoon. There are only a handful of tomatoes left. We may get a few more, but it's September. We'll have our first frost soon.

For all of our panicking, the garden did well this summer. We have winter squash put up. Several quarts of pesto, and several gallons of tomato sauce are in the freezer. Katey will be freezing some of her famous chocolate zucchini bread before we go back to school on Tuesday. I'm proud that we were able to reduce our dependence on the industrial food complex, if even just a little bit.

And come October 23rd, we'll have chickens in the freezer, too.