Biker, Chicks Part Deux

Scoobie has actually been riding for a couple of weeks now. But here's a picture of her in action. That little bike is pretty tough - as evidenced in the following pic.

Removing the pedals so a kid can first learn to balance is the best! I remember the way I learned - pretty painfully. No helmet, cold turkey, wipe off the blood and get back on the bike. I had a screamin' orange bike with ape hanger handlebars, a metallic orange banana seat, and a flag (for safety?) - yeah, more likely so they could find the body. Ahh - good times!
On the chicken front - the critters are at least twice the size as when we got them. We have moved them out of the kids' bathroom to the back of the house. The odor was too much. By mid-December they should be able to go outside.

Next

Here is my finished painting.
I'm off to Home Depot to get some wood for another canvas.

Starting to Paint

Made a canvas yesterday. Pulled out the paints today. It has been a while. Scoobie was painting right next to me. Hopefully I can finish this one soon.

Chickens and painting

This is a painting I did a while back. A night scene of a Hyde Park street.


It seemed better to post this picture than one of our chicken pen. We have to clean it out at least 3 times daily. The chickens are sequestered in our kids' bathroom - for temperature control reasons. The smell is quite intense. We have a Renuzit air freshener - but that only adds a sickening sweet odor to the chick box. A recommendation to anyone thinking of raising chicks: get them in the summer. That way you can put the fertilizer factory outside.
So far, the chicks seem to be decent pets. Scoobie plays with them at least once every hour. Apparently the more she plays with them, the more pet-like they will be when they are grown. I still think of them as lizards with feathers though.

Biker, Chicks

We have started bicycle training for Scoobie. Cheech decided that the Scandinavian method of learning to ride a bike is pretty good. It involves removing the pedals from the bike and learning to balance while scooting around. Next I'll reinstall the pedals and she will be biking!

We also received a generous gift from Cheech's dad of an adult tricycle. I fashioned a rickshaw seat for the kids on the back. It was made from two couch pillows, a life jacket, and some leftover wood (cost = 0$). They love it! In fact, they want us to continually pedal them around in it.

As if the kids didn't have enough... We gave into Scoobie's pleas to get some chickens.
(Yeah - we wanted them too)
So now the kids bathroom is the temporary chick coop with a heat lamp for the next 3-4 weeks, until the chickens can regulate their own body temperature.
We'll get eggs in5-6 months. Does that make it "pets with benefits"?