NEWS FLASH: THE NEW CHICKS ARE HATCHING!!!

Well, our minds were pleasantly distracted from the whole landlord situation this morning when Adrian discovered that the fertile chicken eggs our princess silky has been sitting on for the last three weeks or so have started hatching. One little patchy chick is peeping and walking around, and two more are hatching right at this moment! It's exciting, as the eggs, which Dan purchased from a poultry breeder, are a combination of silver-laced polish and two different kinds of pekin. There is also a duck egg so who knows what we'll end up with. Ah, the elation of being parents again and what an amazing mother silky has been - so dedicated! Meanwhile thanks for all the comments and suggestions rolling in - this idea of an escrow fund has a lot of merit we reckon. Today we will post a letter of response to our landlord acknowledging the notice and communicating our hope that we can work closely together to reach a cooperative solution acceptable to all involved (them, us, and future tenants) - either with a transition towards a low maintenence tree-based edible garden (that we believe could actually attract future tenants) or with the agreement that we will take the garden with us when we leave, restoring the property to its former lawn-based, err, glory. We will now think about suggesting the escrow fund idea in the lettter as an option - thanks heaps to Rob for introducing us to the idea - neat that it has an official name.