So.. We went away for the Easter Weekend..to do what we love to do as a family -->play at the dunes on our quads with a bunch of our friends. Check out our pictures HERE! :) As you might imagine it can be really hard to find someone to take care of The Farm... Taking care of the farm is always relaxing and I love to go putter in the yard with the goats and the chickens after work--I find it helps me wind down and just reconnect. But it's definitely not for everyone! :) as Nathan reminds me--"it's just MORE TO DO!"

We found someone to do it for us, she actually does pet sitting as a business, although, don't know if 'pets' included chickens and goats! ~lol~ She was excited to do it either way. Being the nervous mom that I am, we did a run thru and I pointed out what was going on around the yard, said I'd also leave a detailed note on The Care and Feeding.. I told you I am a nervous mom right!? Mostly all I care about is that no one's food and water run dry, all else will be on cruise control for a few days. In my note I said DON'T TAKE THE EGGS FROM UNDER THE SILKIES! Unfortunately the note wasn't read immediately and the eggs were removed. I was terribly sad, but on the bright side...I had gathered up 9 duck eggs before we left and stuck them in our little incubator. Cameron and I put those new eggs under the girls, so they continue to sit for us and the new eggs are due to hatch April 26th.... I also found another clutch of duck eggs to put in the incubator--which I did last night--nine more! :) It will be warmer by the time these new babes hatch, which is good. So all in all, despite the disappointment, it will probably be better.

Here's some of the eggs in the incubator... hard to get good light there so it looks funny...

a sittin' silkie--that's her bottom poking out there...

And the other sittin' silkie.. I did try to get some pictures of the actual eggs, but I just can't get it to turn out very well. There is a post on Backyard Chickens that shows really great embryo development... you can view those pictures here... Really really -- go check them out! :)

**I LOVE to use cardboard boxes for nesting. when they are gross, you can just compost 'em!**