Rochester-bound & chicken moment of zen

(Zen can be found at the bottom of this post.)

A couple of people have written to ask how our dog, the Creature With Fangs, is taken the arrival of the baby chickens. (The CWF is a large, neurotic German Shepherd.)

We have not made the necessary introductions yet. There is a very good chance we never will. Some dogs take well to having chickens around. Other view them as a combination toy/snack.

And then there is the tennis ball problem. The CWF loves to chase after tennis balls, grab them in her mouth, and gnaw on them.

I am not sure the CWF would see much of a difference between a tennis ball and a five-day-old chicken. We are not going to test those waters quite yet.

Garden update: we’re still have frost in the morning, so I dare not transplant the veggies that like it hot. But they’ve all outgrown the little containers (also known as old egg cartons) that I started them in. So this morning I transplanted them to bigger pots of dirt. Another week or two and I hope they can go outside. Maybe I’ll just stick them out there sooner, and dress them in a jacket and scarf.

In between gardening, chicken-sitting and fussing over the compost heap…. oh, and writing; I do that, too, I am packing for this weekend’s trip to the ab-fab Rochester Teen Book Festival. You should join us!!!! It is the best, rockingingest YA book event east of the Mississippi River and it is FREE!!!!!

I’ll be there giving presentations, hanging out, signing sneakers, and laughing too loudly along with Holly Black, Coe Booth, Robin Brande, manga writing duo Lindsay Cibos and Jared Hodges, Marissa Doyle, Simone Elkeles, Ellen Hopkins, James Kennedy, A.S. King, Daniel Kirk, Alisa Libby, Barry Lyga, Mari Mancusi, Lisa McMann, Ben Mikaelsen, Alyson Noël, Sarah Ockler, Matt de la Peña, Amy Kathleen Ryan, Lisa Schroeder, Jennifer E. Smith, Terry Trueman, Vivian Vande Velde, and Martin Wilson.

Can you freaking believe that line-up?

You know you want to join us. Come on, it’s Saturday. You don’t have baby chickens to take care of. Come hang out with us!!

My chickens said I should post the following picture for those of you who are feeling a bit stressed. They meditate quite a bit, my chickens, and I think it is the secret to their happiness.

Moment of zen.

13 Replies to “Rochester-bound & chicken moment of zen”

  1. Chickens!

    Go ahead and join us–the ranks of folks who have chickens and suddenly find chicken and egg references scattered throughout their writing! My last two blog posts were such–drop by if you want a little egg-and-chick friendly companionship!

    http://www.portiabpennington.com

  2. You crack me up.
    If it were possible for me to find the money for a flight to NY, book a flight, and arrive in NY (without jet lag) in just about 18 hours, I would do so in a heartbeat.

  3. i bet CWF would love to try herding the chicks once they get bigger. of course, they’d need their own meditation room after an experience like that.

  4. I very much wish I was going, but we’re making one last attempt at our garage sale (nobody likes garage sales in snow or Mother’s Day and especially both, FYI) and my husband would not be happy if I left him with it all day. One of my teens has a reportedly awesome school librarian who has organized a trip for THEIR book club and so last night at OUR book club, she was very excitedly telling me about all the books she’s read in preparation and how very awesome they all are, thus making me a very very happy librarian. I would have you look out for her, but er goth teen girl who may talk a lot about music and anime like you should know EVERYTHING probably won’t stand out too much… have fun in Rochester!

    ~kiki

  5. Have you read Shannon Hale’s newest blog post about author salaries? I’m curious about whether you’ve had the same experience she writes about.

  6. What kind of chicks do you have? This spring I got two Red Sex Links and two Black Sex Links. What’s cool about these chicks is that when you mate a male Rhode Island Red and a female Leghorn, the females will be red and the males will be white. They’re color-coded!

    Are these layers or broilers?

  7. Bet your shepherd will be ok with chickens

    Loved your book Fever, read it on the plane back from Boston years ago. We used to do this until I got allergic to chickens. The Springer Spaniel killed some but I feel the German shepherd having good discipline will not do so. Thanks for sharing your pictures,
    Alice

  8. There are four baby chicks (redundant, I know) in a box under my desk at the library, and it is all your fault. I forwarded this post to my mother and husband because I thought they would get a kick out of it. My husband mentioned he would like to have some chickens too, and I agreed that yes, when we have a place to put them (like next year, when I have a greenhouse), that would be nice.

    He must have lain awake all night thinking about it, because when I woke up he had it all worked out. Fortunately, the box under the desk is only one day of the plan. There are only four at the moment because…my mother got to the feed store first, and bought all the rest. Please forgive me if I do not forward any more of your postings.

  9. contact

    Laurie,
    Saw you speak at the Virginia Hamilton conference at Kent State and my gawd you were great.

    I run a blog for Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) and wanted to connect with you…could you give me a jingle? We had a whole group of 8 of us who saw you there.

    What a powerful presentation.
    I hope we connect soon.
    Matthew
    mcibellis@rif.org

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