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Randsco News

It takes time to create blog entries and not everything that happens, merits an entry. So, we've created this 'news' section, to keep readers up-to-date with our misadventures and accomplishments. Read about it here FIRST, before it makes it into a blog entry.

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First Live Rider Break-In Facility

April 28th, 2009  · stk

NewsBrief: [Live Fire II] Scott attends advanced firefighting training • [New Maintenance Facility] Randsco campus grows • [Rider Mower] Maintenance equipment donated to company • [Break-in Reported] Rachel's car is broken into

news

Live Fire II

Maple Ridge - Last weekend, three firefighters from North Cedar - including Scott Kimler - joined nine other Vancouver Island firefighters in a 'live fire' exercise at the Justice Institute training facility in Maple Ridge, British Columbia.

The focus for the two-day course was training firefighter personnel in the role of "company officer", when approaching various live fire situations. Training included a morning lecture on fire fighting theory (use of foam and foam types, properties of propane and BLEVE situations). An afternoon was spent in live fire exercises applying foam onto various hydrocarbon fires, as well as safe approach and shut-down of an ignited, venting propane tank. An entire day was spent rotating through various roles in a variety of live fire exercises in the 4-story, concrete "Burn Building" on campus.

It was a grueling and exhausting, but fun, two days.

"It was great meeting other guys from various [Vancouver Island] fire halls," said Scott Kimler, from North Cedar.

Of the nine other participants, six were from Colwood, near Victoria, two from Salt Spring Island and one from Eucluelet.

Justice Institute technicians ignited several rooms afire, using a number of wood pallets. Teams of four entered the building, named either as "Attack 1" or "Attack 2" - charged with fire assessment, suppression, ventilation, search and rescue. The third group acted as RIT, setting up a RIT staging area and conducting a 360-degree evaluation of the "structure", looking for hazards and secondary means of egress.

To give you an idea of conditions inside the "Burn Building", one of the firefighters from North Cedar, received first-degree burns on his knees, from the heat of the concrete floor.

"It was bloody hot," said Scott Kimler!

New Maintenance Facility

Hutton House - Those on the 5-acre Randsco main campus at "Hutton House" may notice the new, temporary maintenance building, in the northwest corner.

temporary maintenance shedNew Shed: From box to building in less than 3 hours! Scott & Rachel add a 10'x20' treated canvas "building" to the property. Randsco Newswire

"It's hidden in the trees," reported the construction foreman, walking a group of reporters to the site of the new structure.

The new building provides storage and a base of operations for the Randsco campus landscaping maintenance crew, which - up till now - has been forced to share space with the poultry management department.

"We're very happy to have our own space," said Scott, chief of the landscaping maintenance crew, "Not that we don't like the poultry people, but it is a tad stinky over there!"

The new treated canvas and metal pole struture is the first new building to be erected on the Randsco campus since the property was purchased three years ago.

Randsco president and Editor-in-Chief, Scott Kimler, during the ribbon-cutting ceremony said, "This heralds a new era for Randsco. Our company is growing. We're adding more employees and building revenue - day-by-day, month-over-month and year-by-year. While we're hoping to replace this temporary facility with a new, state-of-the-art facility, this building is a demonstration of our growth and proof that we're on target with our 10-year plan."

Reporters were led on a tour of the new facility and then treated to a wine-and-cheese bruncheon at the main campus headquarters, overlooking the newly mowed pasture and enjoying the sun-dappled beauty of the cafeteria patio.

1st Cabin Trip

Julia Passage - Randsco executives took the company yacht "Blue Yonder" to the floating corporate hideaway in the Barkley Sound, two weeks ago. Reporters are just learning about the trip, apparently the first of the season.

rachel & alex play princess monopoly at the cabinPrincess Monopoly - Rachel and Alex play a game on the front dock, while Dad is sick in bed with food poisoning. Other than the illness, the first trip of the season went well and was accompanied by nice weather. Randsco Newswire

"We didn't want to make a big deal about it," said Scott, during a phone interview, "It was a short three-day excursion and we're happy to report that the trip went well and - more importantly - the corporate yacht ran through her paces without incident."

The long Yellow Point winter is over and warmer days are ahead. Lucky Randsco staff and important guests are often treated with weekend trips to the remote and beautifully-situated floating company retreat, which is located on the doorstep of the Pacific Rim National Park.

"Unfortunately," said Scott, "I came down with food poisoning and the trip - for me anyway - was marred with flu-like symptoms. I spent most of the trip confined to bed."

Rider Mower

Hutton House - It was reported earlier that Randsco had built a new, albeit temporary, maintenance storage facility on their main campus. In a later press release, Randsco announced that they had received a generous donation of a riding lawn mower, which became the first piece of equipment to be stored in the new facility.

donated randsco rider mower"New" Riding Mower - Kind neighbors, Richard and Georgina, donated their old riding lawn mower to the Kimlers, after purchasing a new John Deere mower/tractor. 15HP with 5 speeds, lights & a rear bagger ... what's not to love? Randsco Newswire

"We are very thankful for the generous gift," wrote Scott Kimler, President and Editor-in-Chief, "The donors, Georgina and Richard, have given us their older mower, in favor of their new John Deere tractor/mower.

The new riding lawn mower is a 15 horsepower, rear-bagger model with electric start and night-operations capabilities.

"No more grass! No more grass!" shouted 5-and-a-half-year-old Alex with glee, riding atop the mower in the lap of the head of the Randsco maintenance department. The duo mowed the pasture in a third of the time it took staff to mow the pasture with the gas-powered, push mower.

Alex laughed going uphill, downhill, under branches, over bumps and around tight turns. She was even allowed to "drive" and managed to keep a straight track, in large part.

"Alex is a lot of fun," said the groomsman, after dumping a bag of grass into the poultry yard, "She loves riding the mower and helped me mow the whole pasture - staying up till 9 PM, which was way past her bedtime!"

"The "new" mower will be a welcome addition to the Randsco campus," said Rachel, "It means less time will be spent on mowing and they'll be more time for other projects!"

Break-in Reported

Nanaimo - Rachel dropped Alex and a friend off at the Nanaimo Aquatics Center for swimming lessons, then drove the short distance to the Buttertubs Marsh Bird Sanctuary parking lot. There, she locked the car and began jogging, following the nature trail that rims the marshy pond in the center of the sanctuary.

Her first hint that something might be awry, was when she spotted a man sitting on a rock near the parking lot area.

"He just looked suspicious," Rachel said, during her interview with the police, "but I wasn't paying much attention and don't remember much about his appearance."

When Rachel returned from her run, she discovered that the passenger window of her Subaru station wagon had been broken and that a thief - presumably the same suspicious-looking man - had stolen her canvas handbag. Inside was her jacket, wallet, hospital identification card and an envelope containing roughly $50 in coins (Alex's "Girl Guide" cookie sales money).

Rachel notified the police, but because she had moved the car (to pick up Alex and her friend from swimming lessons), they wouldn't "investigate".

Distraught and feeling violated, Rachel called Scott, to relay the news. Rachel returned home and began the process of canceling credit cards and taking inventory of all that was lost.

The car window was replaced the next day and the guy at the shop installed the window, free of charge. This helped to restore Rachel's faith in humanity, but still, the hassle and sting of the theft loomed large.

A couple days later, Rachel's hospital ID turned up - at the hospital and Rachel received a telephone call from a man who had found her bag, on a wooded trail near Vancouver Island University. The bag, her jacket and Alex's Girl Guide money were all intact. The only thing that was - ultimately - taken, was the wallet.

"The crazy thing," explained Rachel, "was that the back hatch to the car was open and there was a $250 depth sounder, in a box, sitting out in the open."

The smash & dash has shocked everyone at Randsco.

"Gee, we think of Nanaimo as being a small town and relatively insulated from this kind of crime," said one staff member.

The man who found Rachel's bag, declined comment, but did say that he routinely walks that particular path and has - on several occassions - found stolen belonging tossed into the woods.

"Someone is breaking into cars in the Buttertubs parking lot and has been, for some time," he said.

Hopefully, the RCMP is aware of the activity and will catch those responsible.

Aside from the major inconvenience, cost of repair and feelings of violation, the thief didn't manage to get much monetary gain.

"I had less than $20 in my wallet and none of the cards I'd canceled had any recent, illicit activity posted," said Rachel.

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Emergency Aussie Yahoo Sale

April 1st, 2009  · stk

NewsBrief: [Aussie Top 10] Tourism Queensland announces tomorrow the Top 10 "Island Caretakers" * [Eggs 4 Sale] Rachel sells eggs to Nanaimo nursing staff * [Aircraft Emergency Training] Scott attends weekend firefighting training at the local airfield * [Yahoo Hacked] Rachel's Yahoo!Mail account is hacked and Yahoo customer support is pathetic

Aussie Top 10

Queensland, Australia - Scott didn't make the Top 50 list for "The Best Job in the World", but still, the show goes on.

tourism queensland island caretake the top 12 of the top 50 by vote for the wild-cardTop 12 (by vote): The most-voted-for video applicant is automatically granted an expense-paid trip to Australia and will interview for the "Island Caretaker" position. Here's a look at the Top 12 of the Top 50, by voting. Randsco Newswire

Julia Yalovitsyna, from Russia, was eliminated because of her involvement in a porn scandal. Achim Dold, from Germany, withdrew his application for unknown reasons.

Forty eight remain. Clare Wang, from Taiwan, was declared the wild-card applicant, because her video received the most votes - by a wide margin (151,000+ votes, compared to 2nd-place Mitchell, with 55,000+ votes).

Tourism Queensland will announce, tomorrow, which of the 47 remaining applicants they have selected as the Top 10. All eleven will be flown to Australia for interviews.

UPDATE: Tourism Queensland announced early on April 2nd that they would be selecting 15 applicants for an expense-paid trip to Australia, rather than 10. (The wild-card - Clare Wang - will be going regardless and she'll bring the total number of applicants selected for a trip to Australia to 16). (tourism queensland news item)

The move is an acknowledgement by Tourism Queensland that the Top 50 have generated "incredible media coverage and support ... in their respective countries". (My guess is that they decided the media coverage far exceeded the $20k AUS or so extra it will cost them to offer a paid trip to the five extra candidates).

Good luck to all the Top 50 candidates who are anxiously awaiting to find out if they're one of the 15 that will be selected!

 

Yahoo Hacked

Yahoo!Mail Server Somewhere - Two weeks ago, someone from Australia hacked into the Yahoo!Mail server and broadcast a SPAM message to everyone in her Yahoo address book. The message was short and contained a link to some SPAM website.

We've been trying to work with Yahoo!Mail customer support to determine the nature of the email break-in and despite multitudes of messages, the Yahoo!Mail support staff has been very un-helpful.

"Most Yahoo!Mail customer service representatives don't read our message content," said Scott, exasperated with the lack of cooperation and assistance, "They just send back some automated message or try to throw up some other unhelpful roadblock."

The incident wasn't a one-off, as it happened again, last night.

"This is most frustrating," said Rachel, during a cell-phone interview, "and I'm thinking about swapping my account to gMail, because of the grief Scott's gotten from Yahoo!Mail customer service."

Aircraft Emergency Training

Nanaimo Airport - Last weekend, Scott - along with other North Cedar Fire Department members - participated in a joint training session at the Nanaimo Airport.

firefighter examination of Nanaimo Airport fire truckNanaimo Airport Fire Truck - The 500-gallon truck has 4-wheel-drive, a bumper mounted monitor, under-carriage spray nozzles, pump-and-drive capabilities with water, foam or nitrogen-charged dry chemical agents. Randsco Newswire

Because of the recent fire department boundary changes, different departments will now be responding to emergency calls at the Nanaimo Airport. The airport now falls within Cranberry's fire-protection district and they will now be responsible for any and all emergencies calls. In the event of a large-scale emergency, Cranberry will be calling on their neighboring departments - North Cedar and Ladysmith - to provide mutual aid.

The training provided an introduction and overview of aircraft emergencies, firefighting and rescue priorities, tools and techniques and got the new departments interacting with airport staff, equipment and learning airport procedures.

The two-day classroom course went well and there will be follow-on training and a mock emergency scenario training event, at the airport, this coming autumn.

 

Eggs 4 Sale

Nanaimo Hospital - With seven laying hens, the Hutton House hens have been producing more than Scott, Rachel and Alex can consume. Rachel has begun to take the extras (couple dozen eggs per week) to the hospital, to sell for $3 a dozen, to other nurses.

The labor and delivery department, where Rachel is now working, seems to be keen on the brown, free-range eggs. Rachel has more customers than the hens can keep up with in eggs!

At the moment, profits are used to "grow the company", so to speak - quite literally - as the hens are producing enough to keep themselves in feed.

Scott and Rachel have given some thought to expanding operations, which would require the acquisition of more birds, chicken coops, fenced-in runs and a permanent barn.

"If we can sell $2500-worth of eggs," explained Rachel, "we would qualify for 'farm status', which would lower our property taxes and provide several other benefits."

So far, the Hutton House hens are ambivalent about Rachel selling their eggs.

"There's been some squawking," said Scott, jokingly, "but usually, it's about laying the eggs and not selling them!"

Expansion of the egg business will be discussed at the next Randsco board meeting, expected to take place sometime this summer. No decisions will be made till all parties involved have their say. Any shareholder who cannot attend the meeting, may vote by proxy.

Though we can't determine which way company execs are leaning, we're fairly certain that Rachel holds the majority vote.

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Reef Cruise Go Firehall Dog

March 14th, 2009  · stk

NewsBrief: [Run Dog Run] Dog terrorizes Hutton House Hens | [Liars Go Live] Lindsay Kenney website goes live | [Reef Her Madness] Tourism Queensland Top 50 Update | [Alaskan Cruise] In the cards for the Kimlers? | [Firehall Field Trip] Alex's kindergarten class stops by.

Run Dog Run

Hutton House Chicken Run - For the past two days, some dog has been terrorizing our 7 chickens!

dog terrorizes hutton house chickensRutted Dog Path - Around and around the dog went, burning a path around the chicken run, in his frantic attempt to get at our seven chickens! Poor girls! Randsco Newswire

Rachel spotted a dog, out the living room window, by chance.

"There's some dog running down our driveway," she said.

"So?" said Scott, with his usual interest in odd animal behavior.

"So ... he's running toward the chicken coop!" said Rachel, excitement building in her voice.

Afraid that the dog might scare a bird to fly out of the fenced-in run and into "jowls of death", Scott raced outside. The dog was in a fervor, running around the fenced-in chickens, barking at them, which created quite a bit of feathered excitement, from the frightened birds. Scott yelled at the dog, which ran away.

The dog loped off the property, back out the driveway and Scott was relieved that Rachel had spotted it, by happenstance, at the same moment it spied "the girls".

Relief turned to frustration the following day, when Scott again spotted the dog, running around the chicken run, barking and scaring most of the chickens into the coop. This time, however, when Scott gave chase, he realized that the dog had been pestering the girls for quite some time - it had created a rutted path, all around the fenced-in run.

We don't recognize the dog and don't know where it lives, but it's grown suddenly interested in our chickens and we're not certain what we can do to dissuade it. Our poor chickens are being terrorized and spend most of their day in the chicken coop, afraid to come out.

Because it's the weekend, the regional animal services department is closed and besides, we're not sure what they could do, as they're a good 45 minute drive from where we live.

"It would sure be nice to know where the dog lives," said Rachel, "I'd have a talk with its owner, for sure!"

Scott moved the wireless driveway monitor, which is a heat-sensor, aiming it at the chicken coop. "At least we'll get a signal, the minute he comes back."

Meanwhile ... egg production has tapered a tad, as the girls are fearful of a certain, four-legged menace.

Liars Go Live

New Lindsay Kenney Law Firm WebsiteNew Design - Once the nameservers propagate, the new Lindsay Kenney website will look like this. (One of 54 lawyer profile pages, from this prestigious Canadian-based legal firm). Randsco Newswire

Vancouver, B.C. - Scott and Yabba have been working for the Law firm of Lindsay Kenney for a number of months, coding, designing and inventing for their new web design.

"Great News!" said Scott, "It went 'live' last night!"

"The site might bounce around for a bit, till the nameservers are propagated around the web," explained Scott, "and there's a known DNS issue, that LK Law's IT staff need to sort, but you should be able to hit the site at - http://lklaw.ca."

"It's hot!" said Scott, about the new design, look and custom features - including Scott's pure-css technique (Photo-caption Zoom) and custom javascript/PHP coding by Yabba.

Reef Her Madness

Queensland, Australia - Though Scott's bid for the "Island Caretake" ended when he found out that he didn't make the Top 50 cut, he's been having fun following the progress of those that did make the short-list.

He's performed a quantitative analysis of all 50 applicants, posting the results in an interactive table that many are using to see how the applicants rank against each other.

"It was surprising to see how many didn't demonstrate any knowledge or experience about the Great Barrier Reef Islands," said Scott, "Especially as this was one of the 'key points' that Tourism Queensland claimed to be evaluating."

Something smells fishy and it's NOT the reef!

hailey turner to fly around the world to land best job in the worldHailey's Around the World Promo Tour: Australia's Hailey Turner is taking her application to the streets, by flying around the world to garner support and promote the reef! Randsco Newswire

Meanwhile, one of the applicants, a 20-year-old girl from Australia, named Hailey Turner, has embarked on a round-the-world tour, to promote her application.

"It's mad!" said Scott, "But it's also fun and exciting!"

Kinda raises the question - What would you do to land a $150k "Dream Job"? How much time, effort and resources would you be willing to commit?

In more scandalous news, it turns out that one contestant is embroiled in a porn scandal and another received professional help from her countries top TV News station, to make her video (leaves many wondering the quality of her own material, should she be selected "Island Caretaker")

For those readers in Canada, a heads-up: Starting this week, Canada AM will be hosting a different Canadian applicant each morning (there are 7 Canadians in the Top 50). They'll showcase each applicant's video, plus have an interview with each.

Alaskan Cruise

Hutton House - Sources close to Randsco staff have heard rumors that Scott, Rachel and Alex might be planning an Alaskan cruise with Norweigen Cruise Lines, early this summer season. No details have been released, though it was rumored they'd be traveling with friends.

Firehall Field Trip

North Cedar Fire Department - The morning and afternoon kindergarten classes at Woodbank Elementary visited the fire hall last week. Scott was one of 5 firefighters that hosted the youngsters. Alex's class (afternoon) had fun and Alex (as well as her Dad) were excited about the event! The two groups watched a safety video, aimed at teaching kids about fire safety, helped firefighters "suit up" (w/SCBA) and got a chance to fire water from a 1 1/2" nozzle, at a distant target. Fun stuff!

Pictures and more to follow in an upcoming Randsco article.

Fire Hall

Click a thumb to see the bigger picture

  • Alex Takes Her Shot w/Dad!
  • Engine 1 was on Display
  • Alex's Thank You Drawing!
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Aussie Valentine Record

February 17th, 2009  · stk

NewsBrief: [Aussie This Aussie That] It's been all about Scott's application for Tourism Queensland's "Island Caretaker" lately • [New Lay Record Set] The Hutton House hens laid seven eggs today, setting a new single-day lay record • [Valentine Amore] Scott made a small blunder in buying Rachel's Valentine card.

Aussie This Aussie That

Yellow Point, Australia - Sometime shortly after filming Scott's Aussie "Island Caretaker" video, it's been like a 24-hour cable channel around here - the "AAA Channel". (We're talking about the "All About Australia" Channel, not the "American Automobile Association" channel).

If you don't already know - and it's pretty hard not to, when Scott throws up a site-wide banner about the bloody thing - Scott's applied for the highly publicized Queensland Tourism position of "Island Caretaker".

We won't go into details, as not to bore everyone to death. Just letting folks know that most of the recent news has more to do with the land down under than the land outside the front door.

Enough. View the video and vote 5 stars! (View it again, if you've already viewed it and vote again, if you've voted already. Vote daily, hourly or minutely ... and we don't mean a small, we mean OFTEN!

We apologize if the Queensland Tourism website is slow. We didn't design the site or plan the server specifications. IF we had, you would be darned sure that the "visitor experience" would be better! ;) (Just pull up the video link and camp on it and do something else. If the video comes up, watch and vote ... if not, just hit refresh and give it another few minutes.) Aaargh - I know, but it's a reflection on THEM, not my video. Makes my "thank you for voting" mean something more, because we know what you're having to go through.

New Lay Record Set

Hutton House Hen House - A new single-day lay record was set by the Hutton House hens today. Seven eggs were laid and gathered this morning!

"It was bound to happen," reports Scott, "now that we have seven hens."

(The last record was six, set last year, by - then - four hens).

Valentine Amore

Hutton Dog House - Valentine's Day came and went, but for Scott, this Valentine's may live in infamy.

First, the legal disclaimer: The following story in no way reflects poorly on Scott's moral or romatic upstanding. Any resemblance to Valentine's Day past or present is purely coincidental and unintentioned. Let it be known that Scott, being of sound mind and body, did herefore make a - terribly funny though it may be - social blunder.

"It was an honest mistake," he said, laughing.

valentine's cardGrandpa? Scott noticed the funny bee-type path above the animals, but failed to spot the word "Grandpa"! (Nothing says love to a woman more than addressing her as "grandpa"!) Randsco Newswire

What happened? Scott bought the wrong Valentine's Day card. So eager was he to share his love and affection, that he grabbed a card that showed three "people" on the front. His idea was that they represented himself, Tuxedo (the cat) and Alex. (Mind you, only Tuxedo's likeness was represented by a cat. Alex was a dog (on the right) and Scott was a - well - whatever that's supposed to be. A dog with stiff ears?

The outside of the card said, "Happy Valentine's Day" and the inside, "We [heart] You!".

"Ah, that's nice," thought Scott, "I'll let Alex sign it, I'll draw a small paw-print for Tuxedo. It's the nicest card on the rack!"

What Scott failed to see? That under the "Happy Valentine's Day", was stitched the word, "Grandpa"!!

Scott may have missed it, but Rachel didn't. :(

Reporting live from the frigid Hutton House Dog House and bringing you "news that you can use" this is Dirk Smedley (of the famed, "Birk Does ..." XXX-rated movie series).

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Little Hens on the Move

January 25th, 2009  · stk

NewsBrief: [Little Hen's Big Day] Yesterday, the new hens (which we got in October) laid two eggs. Their first eggs! It was a big day for the little girls, as they moved in with their older "sisters"!

Little Hens, Big Day

Hutton House Chicken Run - Yesterday, Scott and Rachel's four new ISA-brown chicks became full-on hens!

"Well," said Scott, "Two of the four did anyway."

"The chicks laid their first egg!" exclaimed Alex, explaining things to Rachel, clutching a small egg in her hand, "Two eggs! One broke though."

The four chicks have been growing at a fairly good clip and are nearly too large for their small wire cage. Both the eggs were laid inside the cage and one had broken, presumably trampled. It was a double-yolker, but small.

The other egg had a small crack in it, but otherwise survived the close-quarters.

"I guess it's time for them to move in with the big girls," said Scott, as he removed the temporary wire fencing that divided the chicken run into two unequal areas.

For the first time, all seven chickens (3 from our first batch and the four new ones) spent the entire day together.

The older ones asserted their pecking rights and chased the young ones around the run, occasionally, but for the most part, the amalgamation went fairly well. No one was injured, though there was a fair bit of squawking going on, during the day.

isa-brown dekalb laying hensRoosting Hens: After climbing into the coop and lifting the four new hens onto their roosting perch, all the girls begin to settle down for the night. (Hopefully, the new chicks will get the hang of things soon, as Scott says, "It's a squeeze to get into that stinky coop!") Randsco Newswire

Scott had to lower the other roosting bar, inside the chicken coop. This meant clearing the mesh floor of chicken poop, climbing inside and un-screwing the 2nd roosting bar and lowering it a foot or so. (One of the flaws in the original coop design, the roosting bars - two - were placed too high up and none of the chickens ever used it ... until Scott lowered it. Even then, he had to train the birds to "climb up" every night, by manually lifting them onto the wooden bar, for a few nights, before they got a clue that's what it was for.

When evening came, the three experienced girls put themselves to bed, on their normal roost, while the new hens were still clucking and scratching about, outside. Scott had to shoo them all into that coop and then later, had to climb inside and set them all onto the roosting bars. (The things he does for his "girls", eh?)

Once they settled down, Scott climbed out and washed his hands of the matter (literally).

"Hopefully, the new hens will into the groove and follow the pattern of the older, more experienced hens," said Scott, "They'll learn to put themselves to bed on the roosts and use the nesting boxes for eggs."

Scott and Rachel are hoping egg production will pick up as spring approaches. With seven laying hens, they're hoping for about six eggs per day (depending on how much of a slow-down there is with the older hens).

No matter the total, it's more than the Kimler clan can consume.

"We give eggs to our friends, fellow firemen, neighbors and house guests," said Rachel, "There's more than enough to go around!"

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