Paschal Reflections

No posts lately because it's the insane time of year.

Holy Week and Pascha (what's sometimes called Orthodox Easter) are a whirlwind of activity, with 23-26 (depending on how you count) church services, each 1-3 hours long, crammed into ten days.

Since I'm the protopsaltis in our parish, I take the week off from gainful employment and work instead for the benefit of my church family and my own soul. This year, Lent, Holy Week, and Pascha were a study in stark contrast.

We've been without a permanent priest for several years, but our bishop has always provided extra services during Great Lent. Until this year. We started Lent with no priest and we struggled through Lent with no priest. We had exactly one Liturgy during all of Lent. My family and I intended to go to services during the week at the local Russian church ("local" meaning it's only a half hour drive away), but we got terribly sick for three weeks... half of Lent. This, by far, was the hardest Lent I've ever been through. At first, we had a light at the end of the tunnel, because a priest from California that we know and love was planning to come up and be with us for Holy Week and Pascha. Then, half-way through Lent, his mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer and was given six weeks to live. Even still, he told the bishop that he would still come to Alaska to serve us, but the bishop told him to take care of his mother. As much as I completely agreed with the bishop's decision, I have not felt so stunned and dismayed except twice in my life: one was the first time a close friend was killed in a car accident, and the other was when a family member revealed they were fighting a terminal disease.

Chicks Ahoy

We have nineteen chicks hatched thus far. Five more are pecking away at their shells. One didn't make it. We just pulled the hatched chicks from the incubator and moved them into the brooder. My sister's eggs are the slowest-hatching. Only one of her eight has hatched, and three are currently trying to get out of their shells.

The black copper marans are easy to sex when they're only a couple days old. The hens have a distinct spot on top of the head, while the roos don't. Of the black copper maran chicks, we have three roos and four hens.

The rest of the chicks are all half black copper maran and half something else... an assortment of hens other breeds produced the eggs: cuckoo maran, welsummers, australorps, buff orpington, and one high-strung leghorn. These should all be decent egg-producers in a few months.

Hatchery update

We have at least four chicks pecking their way out of their shells now, and one black copper maran that has completely hatched. I haven't been this jazzed since the birth of our youngest child. My oldest daughter is giddy, and can't stop giggling. Definitely worth doing... if you haven't hatched out chicks, do it!

Hatchery update

The chicks have been incubating now for 9 full days. The kids and I decided to pull the infertile eggs and those with chicks that have died. We found 9 that were infertile, and 3 that had died. I threw away most of them, but kept one that had a 3-4 day old embryo for an impromptu science class some time later this week.

Of the remaining eggs, the majority had very obvious live chicks inside, swimming around, doing somersaults, etc. We really can't tell if any of my wife's eggs are doing well or not; the shell is too dark. Seven of my sister's eggs have live chicks in them; we couldn't tell with her eighth.

We're half way through the process now. It's strange to think that in just two weeks, we'll have a flock of chicks that were just eggs two weeks ago.