I really wasn’t excited about this move when we first started talking about it.  I liked the idea of being back in town, having access to biking and walking trails, and being a short walk or drive away from most of my friends and family.  But it meant giving up the chickens, the goats, and the cats a lot sooner than I had expected to.  It means saying good-bye to two cute little goats who’ve squirmed their way into my heart.  It means saying good-bye to a cat who has been my companion since before I had kids.  And it means giving up some of my dreams (at least for now), good-bye to fresh goat milk and farm eggs.

In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m a sentimental person.   I cling to things that bring me memories and good feelings.  God has worked with me on that in the past, and I am realizing that this move, and more importantly the bigger one coming up, will hurt a lot if I don’t hold these things loosely.  Because if he has to tear them from me, it is going to mean wounds that will have to heal.  But if I hold them loosely, give them up willingly, I know I will begin to feel free.

I’ve purged a lot of things this last week.  There were things I’ve gotten rid of that I had refused to let go of in the past.  But when I was faced with storing these things for years to come vs shipping them in expensive packages over the ocean, it has made me think more carefully about what I am keeping and why I am keeping it.  Really, some of these things are pretty silly.  I think it’s funny the things Elise will hold on to, because I know they will be meaningless to her in 2 or 3 years.  But at the same time I do the exact same thing.  There was a large Chemistry and Physics resource book that has been on my shelf since my freshman year at JBU.  It was awarded to me for “outstanding scholastic achievement in Freshman Chemistry.”  This book was huge, and John has given me a hard time about it every time we’ve moved it.  ”Have you ever even opened it?” he’d ask.  ”Yes.  Once, I think.”  This last time it ended up in our new house and John didn’t even mention it.  I was sorting through books, trying to fit everything we’d had on a bookshelf and a half onto one bookshelf because I didn’t really want to squeeze another bookshelf into our new home.  I picked up the book and I took a good long look at it.  I opened it to the first page and read through the certificate pasted onto it, and smiled.  I am still proud of that achievement.  I called Elise over and read it to her.  ”Pretty cool, huh?”  I asked.  I’m not sure she was that impressed, but she knew I was proud of it.  ”Why am I keeping this book?”  I wondered to myself.  When I was truly honest with myself I had to admit it was just because of pride.  It looked impressive on my shelf, it reminded me of how I had stood out in my class, and it made me feel good because of man’s praise.  But that isn’t what I’m supposed to be living for.  It really isn’t that important that I got good grades in college.  Especially if I was doing it to win favor from man and not from God.  And so I closed the book, took one last look at it and placed it in the box of give-aways.  It’s gone now, sitting on a shelf somewhere at the thrift store, or perhaps more likely, sitting in a trash can outside because really, who wants to buy a huge chemistry/physics resource book?

I even got rid of some of the things I’d tucked away in Emma’s box of things.  As we were sorting through the box, and I was taking out piles of medical reports, letters, and other papers I had kept, Elise asked me why I had kept it all.  ”Well, I didn’t really want to get rid of anything that was connected to Emma back then,” I said.  ”But now, some of these things don’t seem as important anymore.”  I think that is how it is with a lot of things.  Now if I could just fast forward to the part where it doesn’t mean that much anymore, so I could get rid of everything that I need to now.  :)

Our vision trip to Europe provided us with the clarity we were searching for.  I was so thankful that God made his plan for us clear, so that we came back knowing what our next steps were.  We are excited about what our roles will be in the ministry of TeachBeyond in Kandern, Germany, and we are also confident that our family will fit well into the lifestyle of Southwest Germany.

After our official acceptance, we enrolled in an online training class given by Kingdom Come Training.  This class was three weeks long and was excellent in preparing our minds and hearts for the next step in our ministry – partnership development.  It is obvious that we can’t follow God’s leading and head to Germany on our own.  And though God could obviously choose to miraculously provide the funds needed for us to go, he chooses instead to work through his people.  It’s not really about finances.  Sure, we need money in order to go, but the physical act of giving to the work of God brings blessings and growth to those who give.  The fact that we will be partnering with others in this work means we aren’t “going it alone” and have a base of emotional and prayer support as well as financial.  And above all, God is glorified.

We graduated from our class this last week and had our first partnership meetings this weekend.  We look forward to getting together with many of you in the future to share our vision and goals and invite you to partner with us financially on this adventure.

Our goal is to be ready and able to go by mid to late summer this year.  Please pray with us as we move forward.  A lot of things have to fall into place before we can go, and we know it will be all up to God to make those things happen.

Once in Malaga, we were picked up and brought to the guest apartment. It’s been nice to be able to settle into our own apartment this week. Please forgive any missing details in our description of our time here, as the sensitive nature of some of the mission work here means there are many things we can’t say.

Sunday morning we attended a Spanish church with one of the couples who work here. It was a unique experience as we rode there by bus, the church itself having no parking. It was located right in the middle of a city block, sandwiched between shops. Not at all the type of church I am used to. We were welcomed enthusiastically by the congregation and were very thoroughly hugged and kissed when all was said and done. In Spain you greet people with a kiss on each cheek. I was thankful for my experience with Latin American friends so that this practice was not too completely foreign to me. Our measly amount of Spanish was not enough to help us follow along with the service, but one of the congregation offered to sit by us and translate, which was wonderful. I found the worship of this small city church to be authentic and open, and enjoyed the time we spent there.

After a wonderful meal served by our hosts for the day, we headed back downtown where we explored the castle ruins, saw the spectacular Chrismas lights of Malaga, viewed an elaborately detailed nativity scene (quite popular here) at City Hall, and ate paella at a street cafe.

The next morning we joined the mission staff at their daily prayer time. We have been encouraged to see the emphasis on regular prayer together, and the family atmosphere makes this a very comfortable place. We were given a tour of the mission grounds after prayer time, and were able to talk with several people about their projects and work. It is wonderful to see how God is working through these people. Monday afternoon I was invited to go along with a couple of ladies on a shopping trip downtown. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing what a city this size has to offer.

The culture of Spain is quite different than what we are used to. For one thing the schedule is shifted later. The work day tends to start late here. Lunch is usually about 2 pm and is the largest meal of the day. Many people have off 2-3 hours in the afternoon and many shops are closed for siesta. Tapas (small snacks) are popular after the work day (around 7 pm). The last meal of the day is often not eaten until about 9 pm. It has taken some getting used to, and for the first few days we found ourselves eating quite often to get through the day.

Tuesday we met with the director and his wife. We heard a short history on the mission and the ministry here. It was a great conversation. In the afternoon and evening John and I enjoyed a date night complete with a walk on the mediterranean beach, sunset views of Malaga from the top of the castle, and pizza at a street cafe.

On Wednesday morning I tagged along to a street market with some of the ladies, while John spent some time working on a computer project. In the afternoon, while John continued to work, I joined the ladies and kids at their weekly kids club. This is for all the missionary kids at the mission here to have a time to spend together. Some of them are homeschooled and some are in the Spanish education system, but they all get along quite well. I had some very encouraging talks with some of the ladies. I have met several women on this trip that will always stand out to me as examples of godly women embracing their call in life. I was also able to help in putting up some Christmas decorations, which was nice, as I don’t have the skills to contribute in the same way John is able to.

Thursday we spent most of the day with the director and his wife in Mijas, a town on top of a mountain near here. The views were spectacular and John enjoyed returning to a restaurant he remembered from his time here 10 years ago. As we were doing some Christmas shopping in the town we enjoyed watching the town put up their Christmas tree. It was completely made of recycled plastic bottles. They had cut and painted them to look like flowers and spirals and then fastened them to a net structure. It was bright pink and blue and green, so quite a different look than you’d expect, but really fun and cheerful.

We had planned on taking a day trip Friday, but we were both feeling tired, so we didn’t do much most of the day. In the evening we went back out to wander around town and do a little more shopping. Today, we’ve also spent our time resting, knowing that the travel day tomorrow will be long and that Monday morning, bright and early, our usual life will start up again. This week has been harder for me as I have been missing the kids. I’m really looking forward to giving them great big hugs and kisses tomorrow evening.

Thanks for all your prayers during this time, and as we continue to reflect, consider, and pray about the future.

This southwestern Black Forest area of Germany is beautiful hilly countryside dotted with tiny villages. The houses and shops are all crowded together in the valleys and partway up the hillsides, and then surrounded by wide open fields and evergreen forests. Walking paths are everywhere — through the villages, into the fields and woods, and (if you go far enough) on to other villages. They even have signposts on the footpaths with distances marked to nearby or far villages and cities. If you had the time you could walk pretty much anywhere.

We didn’t do much on Saturday beyond tagging along to the grocery store. I am told that buying processed or ready-made foods is much more expensive here, but that basic ingredients are cheaper (though also available by season instead of year-round). That’s exciting to me since I have found in Arkansas it is often expensive to cook from scratch.

Sunday we headed to church. Bells were ringing through the valley as we left the house. It was beautiful. We went with the Greathouses to the BFCA church, which is in English. The service was great, very similar to home. We met some people, though I can’t remember the names and then were taken to Riedlingen, a nearby village, to eat lunch with two more couples from Northwest Arkansas that work for the international Christian boarding school here called Black Forest Academy (BFA). We had a wonderful visit, including an afternoon walk, which is traditional in Germany on Sundays. That night we joined the Greathouses at a party up on top of the mountain, where we met many more people. We had many conversations about transitioning and living in Germany, especially with kids.

On Monday we decided to lug the big camera around as we got a tour of BFA, the bilingual elementary school, the Janz Team office, and one of the dorms for BFA. We even got to peak into a German Kindergarten. Chris and Jenny took us out to lunch at one of their favorite restaurants. It was Turkish food and very good. Then we spent the afternoon in meetings with Teach Beyond staff. We got more pictures as we walked home through Kandern. It is hard to describe how absolutely picturesque it is here, even in November. I don’t even feel like the pictures do it justice. We hear that the grass stays green all year, even though it gets about as cold as Arkansas in the winter. It’s not as hot in the summer, so it’s probably a different more cold-resistant variety.

Tuesday, John and I ventured out on our own to order coffee (or Kaffee in German) and pastries at the bakery. It’s a bit overwhelming to me to be asked something in German and have absolutely no understanding of the words or how to say I don’t understand. I think after this trip, Spain might feel much more comfortable, just because I have a rudimentary knowledge of the language. We survived, and I even found my way back to the Greathouses’ house in order to tag along with Jenny on a shopping trip, while John was in some technical media meetings. Jenny and I drove to Lörrach, which she described as the Springdale of Kandern. We were checking out a fabric outlet store to look for some fabric for Jenny’s mom that we could take back to her in the states. We couldn’t find the fabric, but we had a good conversation anyway. She also took me to the grocery store that she commonly shops at here in Kandern. It looked and felt very like Aldi’s in the US, down to buying or bringing your own bags (which is common practice here). There were some differences in products, but most looked the same, just with German labels.

In the afternoon, I met back up with John so we could observe a Skype meeting between TeachBeyond and a school in Indonesia. John and I have both found our vision and excitement for what TeachBeyond is doing globally growing, and this meeting increased that. Then we were able to meet with the lady in charge of PR with Janz Team (the precursor to TeachBeyond, and now the German music ministry division) to finish off our meetings. We were invited to share supper with one of the girl dorms. It was crazy and loud, but fun.

Wednesday we visited the bilingual school again to observe a math class taught in German. Elise would attend this school if we came next year, so we had lots of questions about how the bilingual part worked, and how hard it would be for Elise to jump in at 4th grade. We met with a teacher, who was very helpful in answering our questions.

We tagged along with Jenny to France to check two more fabric stores. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find what Jenny was looking for, but John and I got to experience a little of France, including some fancy French pastries, which were available in the sporting goods store of all places.

Yesterday (Thursday) we visited Basel, Switzerland on a sight-seeing day. This is a city of about 1 million people about 30 minutes to the south (45 by bus) with museums, a zoo, and plenty of bigger-city shopping like Ikea. It was a great time to relax and walk, and we were able to experience a Christmas Market (sort of like an outdoor craft show).

Our time here has been amazing so far. The countryside is beautiful and beckons us to stay and see what all the different seasons bring to the picture. The Germans we’ve met have been friendly and kind. Their culture of Old Europe inspires me in many ways.

Thank you for your continued prayers for us during this time. We’ll be here until tomorrow exploring the area and then we’ll be off to the Mediterranean.

The only question we have left is where. Where do we go to follow this call? What do we do? It seemed obvious to start by looking at John’s skills and the needs he can fill. After just a little bit of looking, we found that John’s skills are highly valued on the mission field, something that seems to have changed in the 10 years since we last contacted a mission agency about involvement.

In two weeks time we will be hopping a plane to go get a first hand look at two of these opportunities. The first is with TeachBeyond in Kandern, Germany. TeachBeyond uses education to support missionary efforts around the world, and to reach traditionally-inacccesible populations with the gospel. They are looking for someone with both the technical skills and vision to tell their story through design, video and websites. The second is with Avant Ministries in Spain, where John could help with web and video work in an established team that is using the internet in evangelism and discipleship. This will be his second exposure to Avant’s work in Spain, as he was on a university missions trip there ten years ago.

Please pray for us as we take this trip, that in our first hand explorations we would be able to determine if one of these opportunities is a good fit for our family. Please pray for safety and health and energy so that we can get the most out of our time. Also please pray for both these ministries as they devote a little bit of their time to help us explore their world.

I realized the other day that I hadn’t shared any pictures of what has been happening with our animals here. Well, remember all those fuzzy little chicks that arrived back in August? Well, here they are now as 9 week old slim and sleek adolescent chickens. Quite a change right? They are really fun to watch, and come running every time I step outside, just in case I might be bringing kitchen scraps or scratch grains for them. We’ve taken them off regular commercial feed, letting them search for bugs, greens and other edibles in our yard. Once or twice a day I also give them all natural scratch grains, partly just to make sure they know that there are reasons to stay up around the house. They completely demolish my compost pile every time I add anything to it, but hey, instead of getting compost, I’m recycling my kitchen food scraps into eggs and meat. They have very effectively ridded our yard of all insect pests and have started ranging a little farther from the house to find goodies to eat. Pretty much the only time they get into trouble is when they venture into the neighbor’s pasture to get what I can only guess is winter wheat he put down about a week ago. I’m cringing at the thought that he might have whole patches missing when it starts to come up. Sometime in January we’ll set aside a day to put away the roosters in the freezer. It will be hard to kill such pretty and friendly birds, but I hope it will be a learning experience for our kids to see a little more of where our food comes from. In case you are wondering, the red and white ones are the red star hens. The black and red ones are the black star hens. The black and white ones are black star roosters and the mostly white ones are the red star roosters. We’ve been pleasantly surprised at the variation between each one. There are several that stand out enough to be recognized and therefore have been rewarded with names.

On labor day, our resident farm cat disappeared for a whole day. Finally that night we discovered her and her 4 little kittens in a box by our back door. We removed the kittens to a safer location, but not too long after their eyes opened, she brought them back closer to the house. Now they romp outside my sewing room windows when the kids haven’t carried them off to wherever they happen to be playing. Surprisingly enough they are very tame (i.e. don’t go running when they see the kids headed towards them) and extremely healthy (i.e. have survived two little boys who have not yet learned how to be gentle with small living creatures). They are at the stage of absolute cuteness. In these pictures, the one Elise is holding is Mischief, who is the littlest and therefore I am finding my favorite. I was always a sucker for the runt of the litter. And yes, he does have one eye closed, he’s still dealing with the sticky eye the others have grown out of. The one Will is holding is I think Roly Poly. I’m not sure because Roly Poly and White Paw (I think that is still his name, the kids change them occasionally) look exactly the same, though one is a boy and one a girl. There is one other one named Smoky (amazingly the kids stuck with my choice of name on this one). He’s a beautiful white with grey tipped tail, ears and paws. Anyone want a kitten? ;) I guarantee they will be tough little farm cats after surviving my two boys, and the momma has already started bringing them her hunting catches to eat, so I’m sure she’ll make sure they are good mousers as well.

We really are enjoying being out here in the country. The kids have days like yesterday when they play outside almost all day, only coming in for naps and meals. Will and Elise especially have been enjoying making up elaborate stories while carting around the kittens. And never far away are our two little goats and flock of chickens.

He still does that sometimes, but he’s also embracing the joy of drawing from a preconceived idea, or copying letters. I’ve been trying to teach him his letters, since he would like to learn to read. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to have as good a memory for letters as Elise did, but he’s slowly getting it. He doesn’t yet know how to spell his name, though he can write it. Notice it written on the bottom of his pirate picture. I once heard him telling someone that he knew how to spell his name, and when asked he said: “W, little line with a dot, two long lines.” I suppose he doesn’t really have to know the names of the letters if he at least knows the sounds they make. He actually does seem to have a good ear for the sounds. The last letter we practiced was D. “Will, try to think of a word that starts with d,” I said. Will looked thoughtful, but I could see he was having trouble coming up with something. “Say the d sound d, d, d and see what your mouth wants to say,” I helped. Will touched his tongue to the top of his mouth and said: “Dragon!” Not the word I was expecting, but yes, it definitely starts with D. He’s been good at coming up with words for all the ones we’ve done so far, except for c, which is just confusing since he did think of a couple words that started with k. I helped him change kitten to cat, so he could have a c word, and here is the picture he drew for his paper.

He’s a lot of fun to teach. His enthusiasm makes school time exciting, and his unexpected thought processes make it interesting. He is also learning to recognize and write his numbers. So yesterday, after teaching him how to write a 3, I asked him to draw 3 things on his paper. They could be anything he wanted, there just had to be 3 of them. He started drawing something very elaborate that I couldn’t quite figure out. Finally I asked him what it was. “I don’t know yet,” said Will, and continued adding lines until it formed into a large castle. Knowing he didn’t have room left on his paper to add two more such castles, we settled for adding three doors to the castle to help him remember the letter 3.

He is great fun to talk to as well. Yesterday he discussed his future plans with Aunt Hannah. It started by him showing off his brand new shoes, which sadly did not have lights on them because mom says they’re too expensive and we have to buy them ourselves. “So when I grow up,” he said, “I’m going to buy light up shoes.” Hannah asked him how he was going to make money to buy the shoes, and he explained his whole plan. “I’m going to be a horse rider.” “Oh, you are going to train horses?” she asked. “No, I’m going to ride them.” he replied. “I’ll buy lots of horses and sell them, but keep one for me to ride like Tio” (who buys and sells used cars). “And then, I will go and buy the shoes, except I will buy light up boots, because I will wear boots then.”

And here are a couple stories about Seth that show that he really does pay attention and has a good memory. Perhaps soon he will start actually making choices based on those two things.

Several weeks ago, we lost electricity for about half an hour. I was worried about our little chicks who were still tiny and using a heat lamp. Will, in his usual problem-solving manner, tried to come up with a solution. “I know!” he said. “We can go get the fan, and put it in front of the chicks and turn it on.” “Well, that won’t work Will.” I explained. “First of all, the fan makes you cold, not warm, and secondly, the fan uses electricity too.” Elise suddenly got a worried look and asked if the car used electricity. “Well, yes it does,” I answered. “But it makes its own electricity because it has a battery.” “So we can still go somewhere then?” she asked. “Yes, we can go in the car even without electricity in our house.” Elise and Will ran off to play or get ready to go, not sure which. I had promised them that if it got too much hotter in the house we’d go somewhere cool. Seth, who had been sitting quietly on the stairs in my work room during this whole exchange stayed behind. After a few moments of quiet pondering, he suddenly spoke. “Mom, plug a light into the car?” What a smart little kid. He had sorted out on his own, that the heat light needed electricity, which we didn’t have right now, and the car had a battery and made its own electricity. Why couldn’t we combine the two things and solve the problem?

Last week, we started school. As I sat down with Seth to do a little preschool with him, Will kept interrupting with instructions for Seth. “Will,” I finally said in exasperation. “You are not the teacher. I am.” Will just laughed and answered: “You are not a teacher, you are a mommy.” “I can be a teacher and a mommy too,” I replied. Will just seemed to think that was silly. Several days later as we were loading up the car, Seth started teasing me by calling me a “big man.” Figuring he was confused on the right wording, I corrected him by saying that no, I might be a big woman, but not a big man. “No,” laughed Seth. “You is a mommy teacher.”

So, you see. Seth really does pay attention. He just decides that getting into trouble is somehow much more fun than learning from his mistakes. I’m sure that will change . . . I HOPE that will change. Will has become a bit more responsible with age, but even he sometimes finds something to do that baffles my mind. Like last night, when he came out of his room after bedtime with his thumb securely stuck in a little hole he had found in his toy dump truck. As John and I worked for several minutes trying to release him from his predicament, I asked Will why he had stuck his finger in there. “I wanted to see if it wouldn’t get stuck,” he replied. And for some reason that makes perfect sense.

After a quick visit to the visitor center, which I’ll tell you about at the end of the blog, we headed to the picnic area for some lunch. The kids played a little on the playground, and then we headed back up the hill to start a hike. We hiked a total of a mile and a half. It would have been fun to go further, since the trail was beautiful. It is one end of the Ozark Highlands Trail, which is a 160 something mile long trail. Wouldn’t that be fun to hike sometime? I think I’d need to be in much better shape and have kids with longer legs. ;) We hiked to a “seasonal” waterfall, which was apparently not in season. Along the way, we saw a deer and lots of trees and leaves and rocks. It is fun to take Elise out and have her point out things we learned about in school. It is very reaffirming to realize she is paying attention and retaining some of the information.

Because Seth is getting quite heavy now (he only walked a small portion of the way and was on John’s back the rest of it), and the weather was quite warm, and the kids were running out of water, we decided to turn back at the waterfall. We made it back just in time for the “Wagons Ho” presentation. Since we were the only ones there, we got a personal presentation from the park ranger, who also took us out to check a box turtle nest (unfortunately, no baby turtles were emerging yet) and let the kids hold the turtles in the turtle tank. She held the kids attention with her presentation of the wagon and what it held. Lake Fort Smith has its very own original wagon and several tools that were equally as old. Seth’s favorite part of the presentation was the explanation of how to trap and then eat a bear. Everything after that point was continually interrupted with Seth’s proclamation of “bears live in the woods.” Will seemed to like the long two person saws (felling saw and bucking saw). Elise liked interjecting comments of all her knowledge on the subject being discussed. It was probably good we were the only ones there. The park ranger said she usually didn’t have anyone there to do her presentation to, so she was happy to have us.

The visitor center also has information on springs (of which there are several in the area), log cabins (with squared logs like the Arkansas settlers would have built) and local wildlife and flora. We ended our visit with some ice cream bought in the gift shop and headed back for pizza and a movie at home.

I ordered from the same place I had ordered from in the past:  Murray McMurray Hatchery.  The choices are unlimited, but we settled on two varieties which will do well for both egg-laying and eating.  They’re both hybrids, but supposedly great producers of eggs and decent meat-producers as well.  They are called Red Star and Black Star.  They are the results of cross-breeding red, white and black chickens (depending on which one).

The chicks are shipped right after hatching, which is possible because they can live off undigested yolk in their stomachs for quite awhile.  I remember as a kid being quite excited to go to the post office to pick up my box of cheeping chicks.  It actually was just as exciting as an adult.  When I walked into the post office I could immediately hear my new little charges peeping in the background.  They come in a box, full of holes to allow for breathing.  We had ordered the minimum of 25 chicks, which meant we received 26 because MM Hatchery always throws in an extra rare breed chick for fun.

We brought home our box of chicks and the supplies we’d picked up for them this morning.  Once home, we banished the cat to the outdoors, in case she thought we’d brought home chicken nuggets just for her.  Then we set to work setting up what is called a brooder.  Basically that’s a fancy name for a large container with food, water, and a heating source.  Sorry for the creepy red lighting in these pictures.  Red light is supposed to reduce the risk of the chicks pecking each other too much, apparently it turns my boys into scary monsters as well.  For our brooder we used a large metal basin I had found in the barn.  I thought it looked huge until I got all the chicks in there.  Now I think we might need to divide them into two brooders in a couple weeks when they get bigger.  We used some nice wheat straw for their bedding, gave them two waterers (since I’d read that sometimes some chickens guard the water and won’t let some of their flock-mates drink), and a nice long feeder full of chicken starter.  As they get older we hope to feed them mostly kitchen scraps and what they can find for themselves outdoors, but for now they are on commercial feed to make sure they get what they need to get a good start.  We carefully added each chick to the brooder, first dipping its beak in the water so they’d know where it was.  The marbles in the water are supposed to reduce the risk of a chick drowning in it.  It also keeps them from wallowing in the water we’ve found.  Once we got them all situated and made sure they were all drinking and eating, I added a screen top so the cat can’t help herself.  They all seem to be adjusting fine, regularly going from napping, to eating, to drinking and back again.  The kids have found that it is really entertaining to throw a grasshopper in the brooder and watch the chicks chase it.  They aren’t quite big enough to eat it yet, but I’m all for getting them used to the idea.

The really neat thing about these chicks is they are sex-linked.  Which means that the males and females can be distinguished by color.  The Red Star females are reddish in color.  And the males are classic yellow.

The Black Star females are mostly black, whereas the males are black with a little white spot on their heads.

And here’s our rare breed mystery chick.  We haven’t figured out what it is yet, but Elise has adopted it as hers.

Speaking of Elise, she treats these chicks just like all her other animals.  They are each special individuals and she even asked if we would be putting tags in their legs with their names on them so we could tell them apart.  I am consistently reminding her that all the little roosters are destined for our freezer, so hopefully she’ll focus on getting attached to the little hens instead.