one hundred and two day-old chicks

That link I promised is www.bcam.qc.ca/takeaction.html. I don't think BCAM will mind if I give you a look at it, although it isn't officially online yet. Take a few minutes to print out the pages and mail 'em off. A better use of a few dollars' worth of stamps would be hard to come by. If you want to see some healthier alternatives to cleaning & personal products check out www.lesstoxicguide.ca.

The June bugs are performing harikiri on my window screens and the frogs are whooping it up. I heard somewhere that they only ever say two things: "Get on" and "Get off". If only life were that simple. I'm sitting watching lightning splay across Pinnacle Mountain. It doesn't take much to make me grateful I live here. A little/lot of rain would be most welcome. I want to put the rest of the garden in, but it's just too effin' hot.

I spent the morning dipping 102 tiny little beaks into water and then into feed. What a treat to see these little piles of sad-looking fluff turn into these zippy yellow bullets. You have to be careful not to lift your foot too far off the ground when you walk for fear of squishing them. The peep-peep is deafening. It's hard to imagine that in less than eight weeks, they'll be the hobbled, heavy-breasted broilers that filled our freezer last year. The science and the greed behind the breeding is terrifying. Breasts being worth more cash than legs meat birds are now so barrel-chested that their legs can't hold them up. Frankenfowl. With any luck, by next spring we'll be starting our own little flock of Barred Plymouth Rocks or some other pretty, rare bird. Wil's brother, Marc, who lives in the UK was saying that he & his family are off this weekend to the local Rare Breed Poultry Market to pick out some birds. In my dreams! Pigs are coming next. I think pink for 2006.

Loud train, soon rain.