Lambies and Chickens and Eggs Oh My!

I spent a great Father's Day with my . . . Dad! Isn't he a good lookin' guy? Here he is, showing off his new egg washing contraption, which not only washes the gazillions (OK, not that many) eggs he collects from his chickens every day, but it also weighs and sorts!

Why is that a big deal? Because it took HOURS every day to do this by hand not so long ago. And hand washing and weighing increases egg breakage.



Here you can see the eggs on their nifty conveyor belt post washing AND drying, being weighed.





And below, you can see the eggs coming down their respective chutes (jumbo, extra large, large, regular, small -- did you know eggs are classified by weight?) and Dad's egg carts all ready and waiting for more eggs.



Pretty cool, isn't it? Even better, these are free range, organic chickens, who keep the bug population on his organic kiwi farm down the natural way.




Along with a small flock of baby doll sheep (I could only find the one who would pose for pictures). The sheep had their first lambs this year, but I didn't see any!!! Here, at least, is one sheep lounging under the kiwi vines during the very hot weekend....


Dad has really worked hard this year on the farm. He tore down the old barn and built two new chicken facilities in addition to the new egg processing "plant" and walk in fridge that he built earlier this year. I'm completely and totally impressed -- he was architect, contractor and builder.



You can see less than 1/3 of the chicks below, who live in 1/2 of the big chicken complex. These little chicks are no longer that little! But they still "peep" vs. cluck. I have about a million pix of blurred feathered bodies -- they run in every direction, but just don't sit still. This one is the best of a poor lot...

Of course, I visited Mom right along with Dad, but didn't get a picture. She's doing better, but isn't 100%, and is still largely chair bound thanks to such severe neuropathy in her legs that she can't walk. Thank the stars for home health care, who've done a wonderful job working with her to rebuild strength and relearn to walk.


So, back at home. The girls were/are very happy to see me, and the feeling is definitely reciprocated. I don't know what's up with Fiona. She's spent most of tonight hissing at and attacking Molly -- not in play -- and this isn't the first time she's done this. I don't know if it's in reaction to my being gone. Or if it has something to do with the huge fur ball I found on the hall floor tonight (maybe someone's feeling punky after yakking that up). Or if Molly is so secretly evil that I'm clueless.

Is this the face of evil?

Nahhhhhh.