We had Rosie's BFF neighbor dog Beanie overnight, and in the morning we had pancakes. So beanie got to take part in our weekly ritual. She was pretty good at it, but it's definitely much more work to get three dogs to cooperate for photos than it is one or two.
Today we got a magical package in the mail.
You can watch my unboxing video:
And perhaps a tour of the contents? Some for us, some for the neighbors, but we will raise them together until they are old enough to live outside. Do they have names yet? No, they do not. We'll be casting around for female singer names for a bit, I think.
Here's a Barred Rock (neighbors):
Another Barred Rock (also neighbors):
Silver-Laced Wyandotte (us):
And 3 Easter-Eggers (us or them, undecided):
They enjoyed exploring their aquarium habitat
And now some movies, because they're so cute at this age that movies are best:
On Wednesday we said goodbye to our dear buddy Ted, who was only five years old and had lymphoma. That morning he didn't want to get up, and could hardly be enticed to move, even with the offer of one of his favourite things: a visit to our yard to play with Rosie.
Ted was a good boy, an enormous sweetheart of a dog who could be a pain in the butt, but was very dear to us. He loved to come over and look at the chickens, who fascinated him.
And he felt very at home in our house, from numerous daylong play sessions on weekends to the occasional overnight stay (when his people had a baby, and when they went on vacation).
At the very end he was sad and sick and miserable, and we're all glad that at least he didn't have to suffer.
We've agreed that Ted will be buried in our yard, once his ashes are returned. I chose the spot by the gate where he always peed as he arrived. The gate meant good things for Ted: coming into the yard to play at the beginning of the day, and leaving to go home and eat and lie down after a long day of fun.
Yesterday we went to the Maker Faire in San Mateo. It was OK, although very crowded and a lot of the projects really weren't ready; it was more science fair than technonerd fair, in my opinion. But I'm slightly prejudiced as I've had a tech startup in my dining room for the last three years, so my threshold of impressiveness is fairly high.
On the other hand, there were cute little goats.
They were pretty playful at the end of the day, when the sun was going down and they heat was fading.
I made some movies of them playing.
This one started with us looking at the goats eating from their feeder, then there was a dramatic goat-fight on the pile featuring one of the finest GWF (Goat Wrestling Federation) moves ever.
And this one shows more of what was happening most of the time we watched them.
Ted has been staying with us for a few days while his people adjust to their new baby. For the first day or so, there was basically non-stop rompage, and now, the poor things are DEAD TIRED.
This is how they spent the morning today:
Rosie and Ted had to share the single dog bed because under the harpsichord, Goldie was bogarting the double-wide:
