photo 21  We were stop #8 on Tour de Coop, which is in its 4th year. It's a benefit tour organized by JoAnn Trick to support Helpline House. There are others all over the country, including Seattle. People come by foot, car and bike. I wasn't prepared for literally hundreds of people to visit, nonstop, all day long from before the tour opened at 11, to after 4pm. We had to leave for a retirement ceremony so Mom and Richard and Nana regaled the late-comers. photo 24  I enjoyed myself immensely, showing chicken anatomy and all kinds of poultry science and husbandry. Whatever people expressed an interest in. I met all kinds of characters. I was pretty talked-out by 4pm though! See I have phones in both pockets? I am also coordinating a family reunion at Lake Crescent next weekend which has come into a little glitch - apparently they had our cabin double-booked. So the hilarity and machinations continue. I have no idea where our family is staying...could be rooftop? Yurt? Who knows! photo 27  Lots of characters came - such nice people, and all chicken-lovers. photo 28  The lady in green works at Bay Hay and sells chicken feed and all things chicken. She was spying on me :)
photo 17  This is Heather and Andrew from Bay Hay - such nice people. Heather chicken-sits for those who go out of town. photo 18  Merlin greeting Heather. Merlin was REALLY nice all day long, perfoming his magnificent crow, wing flapping, door-roosting routine. He didn't attack me at all and I even went in without my Merlin pole! photo 19  Richard did a great job fillling in the blanks that I missed! photo 20  The tour organizer, JoAnn in black. I think she was a bit shocked at my refreshments - I had nice lemonade out, plus "chicken chips" - I made sugar cookies dipped in lumpy melted caramel to look like a nice cecal discharge (Google it - basically by the discharge from the cloaca you can tell that the chicken's digestive tract is in good working order). They disappeared FAST I tell you.
photo 13  This is my friend Ben's wife and her mom - finally got to meet them! They adopted a couple of our hens including Oli Ednamode. And also hatched some fertilized eggs we donated when their hens went broody. I offered a cookie and lemonade to the mom and when she went to do hand sanitizer, my bottle went nuts on her and shot out a huge bolus right into the crotch area of her pants! She was such a trooper - just laughed and mopped it up. Poor thing! I was mortified! photo 14  Richard and a nice gentleman. photo 15 photo 16  These two were funny :) Look at her face looking at me! Just like in my Merck days, detailing...
photo 9  Explaining how the chicken manages to lay a clean egg out the same opening as her digestive tract. Pretty interesting. photo 10 photo 11  Showing the picture of Ben with little Gordon on his day of hatching. photo 12  Crowds like this ALL day long!
photo 5  I loved this sweet man - who is he? Anyone know? He told a story of trying to save a baby chick that his cat ran off with when he was 9 years old. He was so sad - the cat got away with his chick despite his best efforts. :( photo 6  Such a sweet man! photo 7  These two are shopping for a home...maybe they'll be neighbors! photo 8  Sam spying on all the action from above...
photo 2 photo 3  Not sure what he is talking about.