This and that

Yeah, I'm big on creative titles tonight, aren't I?
It's been a busy week here.  Even though I had Monday off, I still feel like I haven't gotten much done.

Marilyn has been taking quite a bit of time and care.  Not that I regret keeping her alive, but she is a lot of work. V has really stepped up to the plate while I've been at work since we've been feeding her every 1.5 -2 hours during the day.  She was just beginning to be able to find the feeder but then we moved the chicks into the dog kennel and she isn't adapting very well to the larger space, even though I tried to keep the distance and position of the feeder and waterer the same from the brooder lamp as when they were in the box.  We're still putting her into her little box with a dish of mash and she eats and eats and eats until her little crop is crammed full.  She seems to do better with the mash than with the dry feed, I think because it is more uniform and she doesn't have to aim accurately to pick up a crumble.  She does this sad but funny head bob trying to figure out the depth she has to peck to eat.  Sometimes she is to shallow and misses the food, sometimes she pecks too deep and buries her beak up to her nose.  She is still very, very small.  She is growing quite slowly. The other chicks are easily twice her size now, but they aren't picking on her, not even Bettie who is older and bigger than the rest.  The don't even pick on her when she tries to snuggle underneath them.  Sadly, the bathroom is cooler than Justine's room and Marilyn doesn't venture too far from the brooder lamp.  She can find the waterer on her own and even though she she can sometimes find the feeder she doesn't do well with either the dry food or the little holes she has to find in the feeder.  We'll keep at it and see how it goes.

In garden news, last night I finally got around to planting my tomato, pepper and eggplant seeds.  My little brassicas are growing nicely under the grow lights already getting ready for Spring which I hope will truly arrive soon.  We had salad from the greenhouse but sadly, I discovered I've got aphids on my spinach.  So, since it's supposed to be fairly warm this weekend I'm going to try to get out there with some soap/garlic/hot pepper mix to try to take care of them.

I haven't had time to sew since the weekend and I really need to get busy.  And I really need to get onto the exercise bandwagon since I've only got 106 days left until the big race.

The boys and I will be heading down to my parent's for Easter.  I'm looking forward to going but also realize that it's a day out of my weekend that I really need.