pullets and day 14 i've been at this 2 weeks?

first off........ new chicken pictures.... aren't they cute??? these little girls are a cross of a speckled sussex rooster on buff orpington hens....

i am very interested in seeing how they lay. i think they will be really amazing laying hens... .......and i love the patterns on their wings, although i do like the buff orpington shape and colors much better, but the folks that bred these little girls are working on getting those pretty patterns in the buff orpington so i may end up with spangled orps for hens... i love these little chickens

they should end up a rich deep reddish buff color.... and glow in the sunlight....i want new chicken tractors for them too. even if i have to do it myself.

now this is the drawing to date...i just now took the photo.

as you all can see it's about done... i am going back to the drafting table in a few minutes and work on it......i am thinking maybe a day or two more and it will be done- a few more leaves and i am sure a few more faces will pop up.... and i am going to give a modified egg tempera a go. i also would like to do a bunch more black and whites like this with color on overlays

i have the over lay pads so i am good to go

i'll print out a 'dummy' to do the color work over....and then do straight egg tempera for others...... ducks huh? who knew ducks could look this good??

i have to say even at times though the work is tedious, i am enjoying it...i love watching it emerge from the page, and i love watching the movement in it

lately all i have been wanting to do is sit and work so that must be a good thing right?

in duck news.....i had to bath phoebe in the sink......she's filthy this morning and i don't know why

i took momma out into the pond which was frozen.....tomorrow they are all going into the day pens... bernie didn't dig us out..he was so exhausted i told him not to.

so by tomorrow i think the snow will be melted enough to bring the girls out back

meanwhile lilli and falstaff are out in the day pens

tomorrow everyone goes out in the day pens

and i think i am going to put falstaff in the A Frame if i can get him into it.

that leaves me the temp pen to put a bath tub in.......and lilli and phoebe will take turns

i'm planning on dumping hot water into the pond to thaw it for momma

i need to get a white sheet so i can put that on the budgie cage and take a video of them in there

they are just so cute.......

yesterday after we picked up the little chickens, we stopped at dick blick art supplies down in emmaus.... they didn't have the m graham watercolors or gouashe, they didn't have the pigment set, they didn't have the brushes i was looking for..... or the clayboards

so i just got two small jounals for working out stuff and a set of 10 artist water soluble crayons..... (not at all like normal kids crayons)

i had a coupon.......

and i get 10% off over that

bernie got glue

and then we stopped for an icecream

i baked a turkey breast with asparagus and parsley potatoes that bernie made saturday night...... and gravy so we ate well and we have good leftovers for the week

my birthday is coming up......i have to decide on a present

and i am trying to figure how to afford to bring deb and snowy the new cat out....

oye

so that's today (and today IS monday)