Eggs and chickens, les Diables Rouges, socialising with friends, and taking care of Kiki

Maggie encouraging "Princess Layer" to get to work

success

some variation in egg size

The big one was a double-yolk

tracking egg production

We have been having a busy time during these hot temperatures in Brussels.  It's remarkable that we have had such a long stretch with so little rain, as summer in Belgium often includes some rain.  Apart from the thunderstorm that we had the second night that Wendy Waller and family were here, there has been no rain to speak of.

The chickens have been doing well, getting established in the coop.  The eggs are still small compared to commercial ones but we need to give them some time.  We have been letting them out to roam around the garden all day, and they spend a lot of time scratching in the garden beds, and taking dust baths, and then they naturally head back to the coop in the evening.  Their egg production appears to be something like ten eggs a week.  I've done a rough calculation, and given that eggs are around 35 cents each here in Belgium, given this production rate, it should take about two months for us to recoup our investment cost of 30 EUR, or if you prefer to count these things in eggs, about 85 eggs.  These chickens should lay steadily for at least a year, perhaps longer, so that's a pretty sweet return.

more than halfway finished the attic

The drywall has been proceeding but it has been slow and hard work.  At floor level our attic is quite comfortable, but standing up on a ladder at the top of the ceiling there is still quite a bit of hot air that collects there, and of course it is a strenuous activity to hold the plaques up in place together and drive the 11cm wood screws in while holding a heavy drill over your head.  Still I am hopeful that it will be done soon and we can proceed with some wall framing and electrical installation.

enjoying our Belgian IPA with brewer Jean-Marc Taymans

We've been doing lots of socialising over the last couple of weeks.  Our friends and fellow Wavriens Jean-Marc and Anne had a 20th wedding anniversary party, and I had a chance to sample the Belgian IPA that I helped brew a few weeks ago.  I am encouraged by the result and Jean-Marc has confirmed that he would help me with my first brewing project here at our place... I hope to write about that soon.

We dog-sat Osa  for a couple of days while Bryan and Kiana went with visiting family on a short trip to the Netherlands, and we also had Tiffany and Lawrence and kids over for a nice couscous and campfire afterwards.  Tiffany helped me out at braiding the garlic, and it's now hanging up to continue drying.  As a side benefit, it should keep any pesky vampires away...

Penni and Damien and family visiting from Montreal

Penni Clarke was the choir director at St. Andrew's when we arrived there, but she and her family moved to Montreal a few years ago.  They were all back for a visit and it was great to have them for lunch and a walk around Wavre.  As it happens her husband Damien lived in Wavre from age 8-18, and his parents had a house here for years afterwards, so he knows it well.

The garden is ok, despite the lack of rain; we are trying to keep up with irrigation.  We've had a ton of zucchini from a single plant, and the squash plants are going nuts.  The geraniums and the lavender are doing well on the street side, enjoying the heat, and the back garden hedges are doing well.  We have green apples growing on one side of the garden, and my stargazer lily seems to have overwintered very well.  The scent of these is overpowering indoors but in the evening in the garden it's quite nice.
  

Kiki is back home

We have been extremely concerned about Kiki over the last week or so, but the good news is that she seems to have turned a corner.  She was acting a bit lethargic before last week, but we put it down to the heat.  Then on Thursday last she threw up her dinner, which has never happened before, and she was completely uninterested in food, so we took her to the vet on Saturday.  She was still relatively ok at that point, but by Monday she was in a bad way, and couldn't walk properly.  Her blood tests revealed blood chemistry consistent with kidney failure, so they hospitalised her, sedated her, and put in an IV to rehydrate her.  Three days and three bags of rehydration later, her blood was back into normal levels, and she was able to come home.

Worryingly she still wasn't eating, so we took her in again on Saturday to get a shot and some pills to  stimulate her appetite.  That seems to have worked and she has been eating and drinking quite a bit since Saturday evening, and becoming much more responsive and vocal, which is a relief.  We are keeping an eye on her but the signs are looking better for her.

Les Diables Rouges return to the Grand'Place

None of us are big sports fans but the whole country was on the edge of their seats for the last few World Cup matches.  Belgium was beaten by France in the semifinal, so they played England for the third-place spot, and won handily.  They were welcomed as heroes, and Grand'Place was packed!  In the 30-degree weather I am sure that lots of cold beer was consumed to keep everyone cool.

We even saw the Red Devils acrobatic flying team pass over our house on their way to help celebrate.  This group of four SIAI Marchetti planes are based in Beauvechain, about twelve kilometres from here.