Dying to Know

I'm sure you are all dying to know how Peacow is doing and that your life will not be complete without this knowledge. Unbelievably he is still alive! He is a very hardy little thing! He is growing like crazy. Today we drove by where his mama and siblings are. Apparently we are feeding him well because he is quite a bit bigger than his siblings. It must be that awesome chick feed that we got him. I have to admit that it has been fascinating to watch this little creature! He now thinks that we are his family. He follows us all over the yard. Yesterday the kids had him outside and every time the kids would come in the house he would start to chirp like crazy and come looking for them. If the door was open he would hop in and run to one of us. It is pretty funny. At night when we all go to bed he will chirp because he is lonely. He is used to all the noise and commotion of our crazy house and doesn't like the quiet. I don't know what we are going to do as he gets bigger. The kennel that we have him is already too small. We still don't know if he is a boy or girl. That made sense right?!
We'll keep you posted on his development. In the mean time here are a few pictures.

Peacow Likes to Perch

We took Peacow outside today. He ran around pecking at the ground eating ants and a worm. He likes to be perched on our shoulders. Jeff put him on my shoulder and he totally relaxed and snuggled his little head on my neck and he kept softly pecking at my cheek which kind of freaked me out at first and then we figured out that he was showing affection. Weird! Who knew?! We have learned to mimic the sound that supposedly the mama makes to it's chicks. We must be doing okay because he responds to the sound. Am I weird? I know, I know that is a rhetorical question!

The Latest Nutty Blum's Escapade

This is by far one of the craziest stories that I have of our nutty little family!
Let me preface this story for you:
The last 2+ years we have lived in West Sacramento when we go to Jeff's parents we take the River Road up on the Sacramento River's levees to Elk Grove. The road goes along the levee, under a super old cement bridge and up onto the levee. Right before the old bridge there is a small shack and an old barn (that they tore down last week) on a small piece of property. On this property are quite a few peacocks. The kids always want to stop and look at them. All last summer we watched all the little pea chicks grow up. This spring we watched the males do their little mating dance which I have to say was enthralling and very interesting. So we have been again watching for the new pea chicks to show up the last couple of weeks.
Now for the story:
This last weekend we went to Jeff's parents to take their truck back that they let us borrow. I had promised Hannah that I would take her summer clothes shopping so I took the girls with me and I took I-99 to Elk Grove. Jeff took Hudson with him on the River Road. Can you see where this is going yet? They stopped to look at the peacocks and saw all the little pea chicks. When they got too close all the peacocks took off except one pea chick that was maybe 7 to 10 days. He got stuck in some chicken wire. It's mommy had left him behind, stuck so Jeff helped the chick get out of the chicken wire. As it started to run away Hudson caught it. Jeff was afraid that now this little pea chick had been touched too much and that the pea chick would be pecked to death by the other birds. So what other option could they possibly have but to bring this pea chick home?! So without further adieu, we are pleased to announce newest member of the Blum family.
This is Peacow the pea chick. Hudson named him after Lightening McQueen from Cars because he is so fast. He has always called Lightening McQueen "Peacow" because Lightening is always saying "Kachow!". I thought a good name for him would be Raptor after the velociraptor dinosaur because of his claws.
He is a very sweet little thing. He is very gentle with the kids. They...We are all very enthralled with him. He likes to eat out of my hand so apparently I am the mommy of a fourth child. The kids love him so much. We"ll accept any helpful ideas that any one has on how to raise a pea chick. We have been feeding him crumbled hard boiled egg yolk and oatmeal. We bought chick food from the feed store for him yesterday. That is supposed to have all the vitamins and nutrients in it that pea chicks need. Jeff and Hudson let him run around the back yard last night where Peacow found either a slug or a worm. Jeff said he whipped it around for a few seconds and then gobbled it down. Hudson thought that was pretty funny.

So if you know of anyone that is getting rid of a large birdcage asap I would be thrilled. We aren't sure how long we will be able to keep Peacow but we want him to be comfortable. We found out that peacocks can live up to 40-50 years . Jeff started laughing and said he'll be gone by then and I'll be known as "The Crazy Peacock Lady"! GREAT! I think that I'm already there!
The moral to this story is if you send the boys off alone, EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED! ;0)