Anniversary Trip

This year, J and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary. Since we almost never do anything special to celebrate beyond a dinner out, we decided it would be fun to do a little mini vacation.

Something on my bucket list is to hike the Narrows at Zion National Park. Since the entire length is 16 miles, and most of that is in shin-armpit deep water, it's not a very child friendly hike. We decided to visit Zion as our little get away.

Initially, we thought we'd camp, and we'd tent it and everything. However, we found it was difficult to find a place nearby that either didn't demand reservations or actually had openings. As we got talking further, we realized we were too old and lazy to tent it. So, we got a hotel in St George so we'd have full amenities.

We got there around dinnertime on the evening of our anniversary. Our first full day there, we did the Zion hike. We knew we wouldn't be able to do the full 16 miles- most people will backpack in and spend the night out on the trail. That didn't sound fun to us, so we decided we'd hike until we wanted to turn around. We bought Keen sandals for the hike, as we'd heard that open toed sandals were 1- going to break and 2- not protect ones' toes from the rocks. Several people reported losing multiple toenails on the hike, and that sounded extremely unpleasant.

The scenery on the hike was amazing. The Narrows rightly deserved its' place on my bucket list.

We hiked for about four hours, and decided we were getting tired. Hiking in the water on large, hard to see rocks was really quite exhausting. We turned around and came back, spending about 7 hours total on the hike, and going a little over 12 miles round trip. I'd love to see it again.

We staggered into town, and went to D.U.B's BBQ, arriving just before they closed for the night. The mac & cheese wasn't fabulous, but the rest of the food was AMAZING.

The next day, we were both pretty sore and tired, and decided we wouldn't go *AS* crazy with hiking. We ended up doing the Emerald Pools hike, as well as the Canyon Overlook trail.

A view from the Canyon Overlook.

The Lower Emerald Pools.

That evening, we went to dinner at a place called Buffalo Trails, which is a little outside the park in a little hole in the wall. They raise their own bison for bison burgers, and they were very yummy.

Unfortunately, the next morning brought us to the time that we knew we needed to start heading home. We'd heard good things about the Kannarraville Canyon and decided to check it out. It's not in Zion, it's a few miles outside of it, and it was on our way home. We were NOT impressed with the town. Signs everywhere, not permitting ANY on street parking, which didn't seem very hospitable. Then, at the actual (dirt) parking lot, there were some rather rude signs, demanding $10 to park, or else you'd be booted or towed away. You could park at the city hall for free, but it was a fair bit away. We grudgingly paid our $10. Honestly, if they'd had free parking, and then a donation box, we actually would've donated more, and been happy to do it.

The whole thing felt a bit rude and extortionistic though, and we muttered to ourselves about it for a while.

The first couple miles of the hike is just dirt road, but then you get into the narrow canyon. It is also stunningly beautiful, and we forgot to be annoyed.

All in all, it was so much fun, and incredibly memorable. I think maybe from here on out, we'll try to do more trips like this as a couple. We did buy a National Parks Pass, which will get us into any national park for a calendar year, so we'll take our kids back to Zion before it expires. Some of the hikes are not for kids, but there's plenty for us to see and do.

I have hundreds more pictures, so if you want to see more, let me know and I'll let you watch a slideshow of everything.

Day 21

Day 21

So today is day 21 for most of my eggs, and tomorrow is day 21 for the rest. Regular gestation (? Is it gestation if it's not a mammal?) for chicken eggs is 21 days.

I went camping in the high uintas last week, and wasn't around to obsess at all over the chickens last week. I left my neighbor in charge of my chickens. I told her to collect and eat any eggs the chicken left. She decided to give me one of her rhode island red pullets, Bow, because it was being really meant to her other chickens. Awesome! I don't have a chicken that lays an egg that color, I'm thrilled. Anyway, during the acclimation period, Bow broke through my separation area to keep poor Lucy in peace. My neighbor fixed the breach, and thought nothing of it.

Well, I got home Saturday night, and of course wanted to go check my eggs. I get counting, and realize that instead of five eggs, there's SIX!! Sometime during the week, Blondie managed to sneak over and lay an egg in Lucy's nesting box. Whoops. I have no idea how long the egg is sitting there, so I take it inside, and stick it in a glass to see if it floats or sinks. It sank, which means it is fresh. I left it on the counter and went back out to candle the five hatching eggs.

I used a very powerful mini LED flashlight. I found it worked much better than the other thing I rigged up. So, I'm candling eggs, and just not sure what to think. They're much more opaque, but I still don't see veining or anything else. So, I'm pretty sure they're duds My neighbor came over to watch the candling, and I'm thrilled to have someone else to give their opinion. After seeing those, I said I'd go get the rogue egg, so she could see what a fresh egg looked like, so she could give her opinion on whether or not the other eggs were duds.

So, I went back and grabbed the egg, and took it out. I put the flashlight up against it, and we IMMEDIATELY see a little shadow in there, and we can see it moving allllll over the place. Oh. My. gosh. It is so cool to watch! I never saw anything like that with the other eggs, which leads me to believe that the other five are definitely not going to hatch.

I'd hate to be wrong though, so I think I'm going to let them sit under the chicken for a couple more days. After that, I think I'll crack them open. I'm a little scared they'll really stink, or, even worse, I'll find mostly ready chick.

Stay tuned.

My attempts at "Candling"

Unfortunately, we're down to five eggs. My black copper marans egg got stepped on and broken. Lucy is in the favored box (read: only nesting box that really counts), so the other chickens keep trying to step over her to lay. Never mind there's five other perfectly good boxes. We went camping for a couple days, and my neighbor chickensat for us. While gone, my neighbor was getting 1-2 eggs a day in the other boxes, and figured they weren't laying much because of the heat. Then, Sunday morning, she realized there was a broken egg under Lucy, so she went to clean it up. She found a DOZEN eggs there that weren't supposed to be hatching! Poor hen was trying to sit on 17 eggs.

I've never really been known much for my patience. When I heard that it's possible to "candle" an egg, I was all over that.

I've been trying to rig something to candle the eggs, but I don't think I've been entirely successful. I don't think the light is quite bright enough. The only egg that I feel like I'm getting much luck with is the white egg.

This is what I saw yesterday, which would be around day 7:


That definitely looks like more than just a plain, unfertilized egg. However, I don't see any veining, and I don't see any independent movement, like I've seen some of on youtube.

Today, after finding two different chickens sitting on poor Lucy, I decided to try and separate the henhouse so that she'll be left in peace. I used our chicken wire/fabric, and just tacked it up. Lucy still has access to food and water, but she can't get out of the coop. She hasn't wanted to, so I only feel a little guilty about that. On the plus side, so far, no other chickens have gotten in.

When I was trying to rig it up, Blondie kept trying to sneak past me into the nesting box so she could lay. She was such a pain that it was like having a 2 year old out there "helping" me. I finally got the net up enough to where she couldn't go in, and she finally gave in and went to a different box and laid.

I have the highest hopes for eggs 1 (white) and 4 (green). #2 is so dark I can't see inside. I think I can see a slight shadow in 2 and 4. 5 seems quite porous to me, and I can't see any air sac, so I'm pretty sure it's a dud. However, I'd hate to crack it open and discover I'm wrong, so I'm trying to sit tight.

Broody Hen!

I noticed that Lucy, my black copper marans hen, has been spending most of her time sitting in the nesting boxes. This coincided nicely with me putting Sue in with the girls, and getting (I hope) fertile eggs. With her going "broody", I thought it would be fun to experiment and see if we could get some chicks.

So, on Sunday night, I decided to give Lucy the four eggs that were laid that day (well, the fourth egg was one of her own, and from a day or two earlier). Then, I decided to give her three eggs that were laid Monday. I didn't bother giving her an egg from the silver laced wyandotte because she is so mean to Sue that I seriously doubt her eggs are fertile.

The eggs that I decided to let her try and hatch are all marked with a marker because the other chickens keep trying to lay eggs in the box she's sitting in, so when I go to collect eggs, it could get very confusing. Here are the eggs I have given Lucy to try and hatch (one of the white ones went into the cheesecake).

Monday night, I realized I was shy an egg for a cheesecake for K's birthday party, so I went and stole one back. Oops.

Anyway, from what I've read, chicks hatch in about 21 days, so I figure around August 8 or 9th, we could possibly see some babies!

When they have been sitting under the chicken for 7-8 days, I can try "candling" the eggs, and I should be able to tell if there is a chick developing. I'll have to try and find a really powerful flashlight and try it out in a week or so.

Here is Lucy sitting on the nest. Doesn't she look MEAN? So far she hasn't tried to peck at me, but she makes a weird growling sound whenever I root around, trying to find eggs that I haven't earmarked for her.

I may get her on video getting mad at me. It's kind of funny.

Chicken Update

I just realized that I haven't blogged about my chickens in a while. Frightening!

First, Lucy, the black copper marans, saw her replacement (more on THAT later) because we had all of the chicks outside in our time out coop, and started laying again. Same big, beautiful eggs, 3-4 a week. Because of that, there's been a few times when I've gotten an egg from all seven hens in one day!

Second, much as I hated to admit it, Foster/Sue seemed to have a much redder and more developed comb than I thought a pullet ought to have. Sadly enough, he started crowing, and is most definitely a rooster. He was kind of picking on a rooster my neighbor had, and she got fed up with it, and kicked him out. We put him in the time out coop, and she kept her chickens in her back yard.

Here's a video of him crowing from a month or so ago:

And here's a picture of him taken just a few days ago. I think he seems to have grown into a very handsome boy. His crowing has improved, but I haven't taken video of it recently.

We are in the process of making the chicken run about 3x as big as it was before. We did most of the work today, we just need to get some more chicken wire to complete the project.

Once that's done, we'll probably have Sue join the girls. As it is now, he's still separated from them because he hasn't quite asserted his dominance yet. He did manage to, um, not be a virgin anymore. That was awesome- we had our friends and their six children over when that happened. However, there's still a couple hens picking on him. He is bigger than all of them now, and that really helps. In the beginning when he was smaller, he just ran away like a big old chicke... well. Yeah. Anyway, we'd been calling him Foster up to that point. But, we decided to go back to Sue, following Johnny Cash's philosophy in "A Boy Named Sue".

I think he was shocked because his nestmates adored him. They followed him everywhere, and he basked in their admiration.

They still remember him, and recently when he was free ranging, the saw him on the other side of the fence and went running over to visit. It was funny.

Adams Canyon

For date night last night, J and I decided to hike up Adams Canyon to the waterfall. That link has a typo- it's actually 4.2 miles round trip, with an elevation climb of 1580 feet. It is a somewhat challenging hike. I'd take my 11 and 13 year olds, but not the 4 and 6 year olds.

The sun was starting to be a bit lower in the sky, and most of the hike is shaded, so it was really quite lovely.

Looking down the trail.

See that rope across the river? No? Look closer. It's there. To get to this angle, you have to take off your shoes and socks and walk through icy cold water. We're talking 35 degree water, I swear. My feet were numb by the time I got across.

The sunset view we saw as we left the canyon and went down the switchbacks to the trailhead.

Monster Repellent

What you are seeing here is monster repellent. Z got that viking hat at Scandanavian Days, and has loved wearing it around, pretending to be a viking. Yesterday, he told me that vikings are very fearsome and scary, and if he left his viking hat outside his bedroom door, monsters would be scared to come in because they knew a viking was in there.

S thought it was a great idea. Before she moved bedrooms, we would write "Keep Out, no monsters allowed" in dry erase marker on K's aquarium. Because everyone knows monsters respect keep out signs. But now that she's with Z, no keep out signs have been written.