First, this is for Justine. Mom made me a birthday cake. I, alone of my friends my age, still have a Mom who is around to bake cakes. I am very lucky. It is a wonderful cake, Justine, Mom made it from scratch. I had a piece for lunch.

Walter, the reluctant rooster, is in the process of being integrated with the other chickens. They peck him to the point where I fear for his life. He jumps up onto the feed bucket and they leave him alone. Sometimes he jumps down and they ignore him for an hour, but then, something sets them off and he has to run for high ground. He is twice the height of most of the chickens, but he is terrified of them. He has to go outside, soon. He is too big for the cage and still growing. He crows at the crack of dawn, and I need my sleep.

When they are free to range he is more social with them. He hangs with the black Australorp chickens who seem to have excepted him. Elanor and Deedee, though, don’t like him at al,l and they chase him whenever he comes near.

The hawks are about, so I don’t let them out until late afternoon when there is less danger. Yesterday there was a hawk circling them at 4PM so we had to stay outside with the chickens. The hawks won’t come near when they see a human.

I am trying to sell the blue truck again on Craigslist.

I priced it way too high before.