Saturday, April 6, 2013

A Slow Go with Mary Hart

I really thought I would be finished with Mary by now. It is certainly not the fault of the sampler, because it is a very easy, pleasant stitch.

For any number of reasons this has been a very turbulent and distracting time around here. There were several evenings that I just was too tired or distracted to stitch.
I took this photo two days ago.


Since then, I have finished the border on the right side, and last night, I made a start on the cat.
It seems like I am back in the groove, so hopefully it won't be too much longer for a finish.

On the home front, we did not have good luck with our eggs.I think we had a problem with our incubator. Out of twenty two eggs, only 2 hatched. One was very weak, and only lived one day. The other one was a French Black Copper Maran. He (or she, I hope), was very weak for the first week. We fed her by hand, a mixture of vitamin water and honey.

Suddenly one day she was alert and hopping about. We didn't want her to be alone, so we drove upstate to buy a few chicks to keep her company. They are all thriving now.

Here is a photo of the little one at two weeks old.

 
We really hope it's a female, because Black Copper Marans lay the most beautiful chocolate brown eggs!
 
We had a little setback with Walter too. He had finally been integrated with the hens (or so we thought), and spent 2 nights with them. We came out to find him huddled in one of the laying boxes. Apparently he had fallen off the perch, and was pecked mercilessly by the hens. When we found him he was walking with a bad limp. We had to separate him again. His leg is much better now. He is walking normally again, but now we have to start the integration process all over again.
Poor Walter!
 
We are still looking for Spring around here. I did have some crocuses come up, but still no sign of a blooming daffodil! That is very unusual for this area! Seems like it has been winter for 6 months!
 
That's all I have for now. I will be back in a few days, hopefully with a finish!


9 comments:

Anne said...

Mary Hart is so pretty and I always feel the same as you...that my sampler should be finished by now! Aw poor little chicks. I hope this little one makes it with her new friends.

Giovanna said...

Lovely progress on Mary Hart. Too bad about the hatch, but I'm glad that one chick made it, and I hope Walter recovers fully. I can well imagine that your stitching would suffer with all that happening...

Margaret said...

Poor Walter!! :( And bummer about your eggs too. Glad one survived at least and that you got some more chicks too. Your Mary is gorgeous -- I want to stitch this one too someday. Sorry things have been turbulent and distracting.

Barb said...

Mary Hart is looking great!I have never had chickens so I find your experiences very interesting. So sorry to hear about the eggs! and Poor Walter!

Emma/Itzy said...

Oh that is a shame about the eggs, I hope the one you do have will be ok though :)

Oh poor Walter!

Samplers, Silks and Linens said...

your sampler is looking very pretty.

Julie said...

Mary is looking very pretty. Spring is finally coming here, we have daffodils at long last!

Your little chick is cute!

Susan said...

Very pretty stitching. I think we have given spring a by and are going straight to summer this week. Sorry to hear the hatch didn't go well. Poor Walter - there is a reason it's called "hen pecked" - very vicious birds.

Karoline said...

Mary Hart is looking lovely, I hope you've been able to find some stitching time