The Skootcher Continues

Hello Everyone,
     Its been a while, but I thought I'd blog a little while I had a chance.  The kids are in school.  Thomas and Jessica are at the local High School.  Samuel and Shannon are at the local Intermediate School.  They are all loving being back in public school for nothing more than the social interaction that it provides (I'm sure).  Jenn is working on a Certificate program for Early Childhood Development through the local JC, so she is gone a couple of days a week.  With all my spare time I have managed to set up a hydroponics lettuce system, buy some chickens and build a chicken coop and run.  I did it all out of scrap wood that a friend of Darlene's donated.  We took apart his grandson's tree house and recycled it.  (His grandson is in his 20's now, and doesn't use it much anymore.)  The chicks are about a month old now.  We'll expect them to start showing whether they're hens or roosters in the next couple of months.  It's anybody's guess right now. 
     I am currently in San Diego (Escondido to be exact), holding down the fort at my cousin Heidi's place while she is in Ohio kicking it with her Mom (the lovely Bobbie) and banging out the Village Peddler Festival (30th Anniversary).  Wow!   If you remember from earlier posts, Heidi and Scott got married at the beginning of the summer and she inherited two pretty cool kids, Tyler and Montana.  Between us and the two dogs, Dixie and Bronson, we're pretty much a modern odd couple bunch down here.   The weather has been beautiful, but the humidity is ticking up today like its going to rain or something. 
      For those of you wondering about Bessy, well, she made yet another long road trip.  She's leaking a little bit of tranny fluid, but every time I check it it seems to be overfilled.  Would a Ford dealership actually overfill the transmission on a rebuild job?  Who knows, but since it's my third transmission this year, my money is not on Ford.
     I got to catch up with Joel in Minnesota a little.  He's busy getting ready for his harvest in a couple of weeks and negotiating his rental property there too.  Very stressful business.  At least he gets to fly every once in a while.  
     I'm still wondering what I should do when I grow up, but this being retired stuff isn't too bad.  I get up, get kids off to school or take them if Jenn isn't heading that direction or leaves earlier than they do.  When I'm in Oakhurst that is.  I check the garden for pests and any harvesting.  I check the lettuce setup.  I let the chickens out of their coop.  I had been hauling them from the garage up to their run because they were too young to be out all night where they might catch a chill and die.  They haven't feathered out all the way yet.  The chicken coop has been bleeding my time since I decided I would only use scrap wood the only things I bought were screen, screws and some hardware.  I made doors, a light (for heat), 5 nesting boxes and 3 roosts.  It should hold about 20 chickens, but we'll likely only have 6-8 after we find out how many roosters we have.
     I'll be headed back to Oakhurst via Thousand Oaks on the 18th (or thereabouts).  I'll be looking forward to seeing my buddy Clark and his family there.  That's all for now.
Cheers.
PN! EDIAS.