My chickens finally laid their first eggs! I'm so proud of my girls! I had no idea how long they'd been festering in the henhouse, so I had to toss out my first three smallish brown-shelled eggs, but you can betcha, I'll be out there tomorrow, looking for my first edible eggs and I'll be planning quiches and omelets and all kinds of beautiful things.

Once we get back from a birthday party tomorrow, we're going to finish up painting the kitchen and then we're going to fence the garden off from the chickens and let them out in the yard during the day to peck and play. The second you leave that coop door open, they're all flowing out their henhouse -- a river of clucking and ruffling feathers pecking at every little thing they find, so I think it's time.

It was weird, I realized tonight, I probably haven't been out there in a month and a half, but I've been busy and broken. It was really cool to find that they've started to lay eggs. I had Mike lay out straw in each of their boxes and we cleaned out all the old lumber and made sure they had water and lots of grain and they were just so damned cute and bokbok. I tossed in some weeds for them to peck at, which they appreciated. I was struck by the fact that they've all gotten so large and matronly and Rupert is such a little rooster, I keep wondering if he's up to keeping the girls amused. He's so much smaller than they are and I keep thinking -- you know the way you do if it's a boy beagle and a female St Bernard,"Can he reach?"

Only time will tell, I s'pose.