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I have to give a little nod to Frank who gave me this Garmin as a going away present. At first Lisa didn't like the Garmin telling her what to do! That is until she got lost one day... then she started liking it.

Here is is guiding us out of Berlin to Lisas House.

Thanks Frank

Lisa had finished the apartment we were working on last time I was around. But she had plenty of other work lined up and this is how most of the days went.

There was a LOT of this sort of thing. This particular job was pouring a slab to close up a big opening to a crawl space under the front of the house.

Just one of many big jobs

One of her less onerous projects was a home made egg hatching incubator built from an abandon refrigerator. She has had chickens for awhile but never hatched any eggs. The incubator was just starting to bear fruit (uh Chicks) when I arrived.

We built a temperature controlled box we called "The Hospital" for hatchlings. When they got a little older they were moved to this modified rabbit cage.

The chicks a little older.

Below: Coming out into the world outside for the first time.

We did not hatch all the eggs. Some ended up on the breakfast plate including the occasional double yoke egg. Those poor chickens! See the size comparison to a normal egg. They sure tasted good.

We put this miracle found egg in the incubator which was just handy and amazingly it hatched. And yes it was clearly a duck. Here he is in the rabbit cage bonding with his (her?) chicken friends.

UPDATE: I was told that after I left the duck grew up and, one day, disappeared (flew away as ducks are prone to do).

One little problem with the parents of these birds is that they like to come in the house and eat the dogs food. We were forever chasing them out.

As it happens goose eggs are much much more complicated to hatch than chicken eggs.

At left, Lisas first successful hatchling in the "hospital".

Here is a wider view of the inside of the "Hospital" with a few later arrivals. You can see the feeder and water. A light, probe for the temperature controller and a heater.

Here is that first gosling walking around outside a few weeks later. My how it has grown.

Here are a few of Lisas other animals

As you can see her do-it-yourself streak extends to sheep sheering. What a job that was! They make it look easy. This is the result when amateurs like us tackle the job . But at least the sheep won't die from the summer heat.

Here are the two strangest specimens

There were few distractions. It's expensive to dispose of many things in Germany. The result was the occasional bonfire.

And once when we were on our way somewhere we stopped to gawk at some windmills. They are very numerous and much larger and more impressive than the pictures make them look. Typically capable of producing 1.5 to 5 megawatts. (The largest over 7 meg)

Dispatch 8a

Germany & Lisa's Animals

24 April- 5 July 2012

There were occasional moment that broke the grind. Like this product I saw at the home improvement store. I wonder how they came up with the name?

One crazy development came one morning when I found an egg in the yard. It looked like a duck egg. Lisa has two Chinese running ducks. She keeps them to control the slug population (their favorite food). But she is sure both are males. How could they lay an egg in the yard?

An yet another amazing thing happened. One day a fellow came riding up on a bicycle and told Lisa he had some geese for her, naturally she accepted. The next day he came back with a wheeled cage behind his bike and presented her with a pair of geese. The female is a good layer he said. These are valuable animals, given free because the guy was going on a long vacation and wanted to find a home for them.

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Puerto Rico

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The Pergamon Museum In Berlin

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Puerto Rico

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