End of week - quail, camping, berries, garlic scapes

I am exhausted and ready for bed but wanted to get some of this into my notes so I don't forget later on.  Because I will, otherwise.  I have both the memory and attention span of a rock.

Poultry:

• Red Ranger hen had babies.  One of her eggs in the incubator hatched and I put the chick under her tonight.  I hope that she doesn't notice anything in the morning in spite of the fact that it's yellow and the other ones are black.  Here's hoping she mothers it and doesn't kill it.
• I butchered two of the younger Red Ranger roosters this week. I'm sure Jamie Oliver thought he was doing a good thing when he showed the world how to make chicken nuggets at home but I'm pretty sure we're just going to end up gaining weight.  If you raise the chicken and make the nugget, does that make it health food?
• The quail hatched yesterday - 35 peeps so far from 40 eggs.  We had friends over for dinner while they were hatching in the kitchen, so that was fun. They are so tiny they I was using beer caps for little waterers until they got interested in the quail waterer.

One day I will post a photo where my hand doesn't look fat.  Good Lord.

• Moved the geese and ducks into the back coop area.  Didn't think I had that many waterfowl until they were all together in the same place. Umm.... yeah... that's a lot of birds. Wow.  I think I just solved the raccoon problem by increasing the noise level 10 fold.

Garden:

• Berries are in.  Currants are being picked and wild black raspberries (the tiny ones) are ripening all over the place.  We've been having both in salads and in pancakes.  There are still tons of wild strawberries but we are no longer eating them because the neighborhood cats have taken to peeing all over my berry patch.  Seriously.  It's depressing and awful.

Pre-goose relocation.

• I have a ton of garlic scapes and don't know what to do with them.  People have suggested a garlic scape pesto.  They seem like they would be wonderful cooked somehow, steamed maybe. They are beautiful and remind me of asparagus both visually and texture-wise.  I bit into one and, yep, garlic.  I would love some ideas on what to do with these.

Fun personal stuff:

• WE WENT CAMPING.  Took the camper to a State Park by our house for a test night.  Everything went perfectly and now we think we're ready for a bigger trip.   
• Tips for taking a not yet two year old camping include:  Took the pac-n-play to contain him while we set up camp.  I bought a bag of little toys at the dollar store for him to play with when we got there (tiny dinosaurs, magnifying glass, bug net, etc.) - this was brilliant, cost under $10 and entertained him all day. Brought along a copy of Goodnight Gorilla.  I also made a hand-washing station with a water jug so we could wash hands right at the table, that was priceless.

Camper was very comfortable and more spacious than we thought it would be, even during the brief rainstorm.  We had the oldest camper at the park by a loooong shot.  Also the coolest looking one.

Next time I need to remember that the front bed is a twin but the back one is NOT - I need to find sheets to fit - maybe a double?

It's been a very busy and satisfying week.  Hope the next one is just as good. Yay summer!