The second week of the month was a wild and crazy one.   The week began with a work co-op day, several members of our farmer networking group came to the farm to help us build two new field pens for chickens. 
 
Tuesday we moved turkeys out of the brooder into the field.  Tuesday & Wednesday were also busy with assembling the new freezer/cooler and trying to line up the refrigeration guy.  Late Wednesday it was time to load pigs and cows to go to the butcher. 
 
Thursday was when the week began to get really busy!  Jody was on the road at 5:30 a.m. to deliver the animals to the processor.  When he got home at 9:30 there was beef and pork to put away in the old freezers (the walk-in still isn't completely finished).  Then, the two week old chicks needed to be moved out of the brooders to get ready for the new chicks.  Normally those would arrive on Friday morning, but we got a phone call from the Bloomington post office telling us the chicks had arrived there on a very warm truck.  Although they would usually come to the Ottawa post office on the following morning, we were concerned for their well-being so I drove down (a three and a half hour round trip) to pick them up ASAP.  I got home and we got the chicks (all healthy) into the brooders and wrapped up our work day about 9:30.  As we went to bed we discussed the chance of rain in the forecast.
 
About 2:30 Friday morning our youngest son woke me up and I heard a light rain falling.  I woke Jody and he went out to check on the young chicks that had just been moved out into the field.  I stayed to get Jack settled back to sleep, and dozed off myself.  An hour later Jody returned to get me to help.  The chicks had all settled to sleep in the front quarter of their pens (the only part NOT covered by tarp).  In the hour I had snoozed there had been a heavy downpour and Jody was working on rescue.  He had taken steps to get as many as possible out of the rain, but there were a large number that were soaked and chilled.  He brought up almost 200 chicks, we returned them to a brooder with heat lamps and hoped for the best.  Happily the next day we found 170 of the chicks recovered and only nine dead, far better than I would have guessed looking at those shivering, soggy little guys that came in from the rain.
 
Friday continued, regular animal chores and the care and feeding of three boys go on, no matter what time you get up.  Friday also brought a tour and interview that we had previously scheduled with a reporter from Crain's Chicago Business.  It finished in the evening with us going in two directions, Beth to Naperville on a delivery and Jody and the boys to Richard's baseball game.  When we got home we put in one more hour thoroughly tarping the whole pens of the young chicks, there was once again a chance of rain in the forecast.
 
Next came Saturday, on the way to the Oak Park delivery, I was rear-ended on Rt. 71.  Luckily, only vehicles were injured, and mine was still drivable.  So I made it to the delivery, slightly late but it worked out OK.
 
Saturday evening found us preparing 45 shares and our market freezer for our first farmer's market of the season.
 
Finally on Sunday we hooked up the trailer, picked up a fellow farmer who was carpooling with us and we were on our way to market!  When we got home Sunday night we figured out that we had worked about 50 hours each over the past three days.  Whew!
 

Well, we've made it, June is finally here! As I write this I'm in Arthur, (a small town 180 long miles south of Ottawa) waiting for the processor to finish our first group of chickens for this year.  The finished flock turned out quite a bit smaller than we planned; the wet, cool spring took a hard toll on them.  I'm eagerly awaiting them though, because I knew we were running very short for the last couple deliveries before June we haven't had any chicken for quite a while!  
 
Other preparations are coming along well also.  Jody and the boys are at home today, working with the contractor to get the cement pad poured for our new walk-in freezer.  Once that's assembled we'll pick up this month's beef and pork from the butcher.