Thar' B' Pippin'

I am replenishing my layer flock of chickens. I have put layer hen's eggs under my Bantam hens because they are great setters.

The eggs have been fertilized by this guy.

I have a small Wyondotte (who, by the way, is very veracious in her duties. She draws blood when she pecks me when I mess with her nest), now setting and the chicks are pipping and hatching as I write.

So far out of 6 eggs, I have hatched two chicks, one is pipping (to pip means that the chick has started chipping at the shell from the inside to get out) and the other three are still brewing. Oh my goodness, there is nothing cuter than a chick that has just hatched hours ago!!

The genealogy trail of these chicks sounds like a soap opera. So many individuals involved in the making of a new life.
So here is the final result of hatching...

Travelin'

We flew our Cessna 172 to Sedona, AZ via the Siskyou pass, Merced, CA and Bakersfield, CA. We attempted to leave the Willamette Valley and got as far as Eugene and turned back home. The next day we made it out and got caught by clouds at the Siskyou pass. We waited it out for a few hours and tried going under the clouds and were blocked so came back out and went above the clouds and broke free of clouds at the south end of Lake Shasta. Spent the night in Merced and got as far as Bakersfield before being blocked once again by IFR skies. We spent the night at a friends house,thanks Greg and Denise!


The next day we flew between cloud layers and broke out past the Gorman Pass.
Below are the various clouds that we experienced. Bruce, where is that IFR certificate!?






This is me really glad to leave the clouds behind and get to our destination with clear skies


We did this trip with our friends Randy and Cheryl who built their RV-10 a couple of years ago. Randy had to "wallow" in the air to stay slow enough to fly with us. The engine is bigger than ours which allows you to get higher when you need to and it is twice as fast as our Cessna. Bruce, where's our RV-10!?


It took us four days instead of two to get to Sedona, but we did it!

We took in, among other things, some ruins (dated at 1100 to 1300 A.D.)and cave drawings (about 3,000 years old).



Here is my favorite part of the trip...spending it with him.