The new ladies

On saturday Julie traveled to Burlington to pick up a free (albeit very beat up) chicken coop, and yesterday the kids and I traveled to Randolph to populate the coop with 5 new laying hens. The kids are very excited about the newest additions to the homestead, and we've so far had a rough time keeping them from bothering the chickens too much. No eggs as of this morning, but the rumor is that we should expect these ladies to give us a couple dozen eggs a week. At the cost of $2 a chicken and about 20 cents/lb for chicken food, we should get our investment back quickly. They'll have to stay in the coop for a couple days to get accustomed to their new digs, else they may not return once they are let loose. The plan right now is to let them free-range during the day. This obviously bears some more risk than fencing them in, but we'll see how it goes. Yesterday when I was raking out a roughly level spot for the coop, Evie was also raking a pile of sticks and rocks around the area, informing me that it was a barrier to keep the bears and wolves away, so I guess we don't have too much to worry about. Those are Evie's eyes peeping up in the back window of the coop.

It's also been an exciting couple of weeks for the Moore family career-wise. Julie got a big promotion at work, and is going to be the chair of the "clean and clear" program. The Center for Clean and Clear is one of the outcomes of the massive internal reorganization at ANR. She's very excited about it, and it's a big responsibility. I'm sure it wouldn't be professional for her to get on here and brag, but I can happily do it for her. You can read a little bit about it here and here. My brother, Uncle Chris, also recently started a new job that has him moving to the Montpelier area. He is renting a moving truck and starting the process this weekend. I, of course, am still just looking for a job, but I'm enjoying hanging out with the kids, and watching for the right thing to come along. I have an interview next week for a job with the DEC.