Back to the Front Page

Thanks to some prodding from friends, we're back to blog more regularly. Aw - you guys are great. So there should be a few posts appearing more often than the usual "every blue moon." In this post, I'll catch you up on whats been news lately.

If you've not heard the old news, flip back and read about our trip through Patagonia, which wrapped up in January. Since then, I've switched jobs - haha, yet again. I decided to recognize that tougher times are just around the corner and picked up a full-time position at an old client. They're a good shop and have their eye on the long-term, instead of what seemed like very short-term thinking in some other places I've seen. Plus, the people are wonderful.

On the home front, we're still fuzting around with our bathroom remodel - slowly picking through the final pieces and putting them together now and again. We've definitely fallen into the "long tail" finish of this project. There's around 5 things left, its all going well though. We use everything in the room and it all works great.

We overhauled the "back 40" on our lot and tilled the yard up, spread compost everywhere and planted a mix of grass and wildflowers. It's been a cool, wet Spring so the sprouts are slowly coming along, but there's a peach-fuzz of green across the yard.

The chickens have been moved to the side yard. They don't like this area as much since their view is obscured and their sunlight is more limited. However, it gives the back yard time to revitalize and allows us to set up the garden without worrying about their scratching and pecking at all the sprouts.

I'm learning to bake bread! We don't have a bread mixer or a bread machine, so I'm perfecting the use of the food processor (the "chopper") for some initial mixing. I'm quite impatient so the "rising" portion of the making sometimes gets cut short. I still don't know what a second rise is all about, so I skip it. The first loaf was horrendously bad, as I didn't understand the purpose of gluten. (Imagine an all-gluten loaf of gum) The second loaf was better, but it was a little dense, as my yeast poured right through the chopper's center hole (note to self: turn machine on).

Han has been out in the nicer Spring days on paid shooting gigs. She's also picked up a very fun assistant position as a web designer for a sustainability blog. She's quite busy when those schedules converge, and the post-processing is a big job.

The bikes have been tuned up for Spring. I performed my first "brake job" on the mountain bike the other day - it was tricky but when finished, the lines have no bubbles and I could flip over the handlebars as easily as my first day. I rode to the new job yesterday and it was one of the most magical, wonderful routes I've ever enjoyed on the way to work. It's close to 15 miles each way, with a few steep hills, so the evening was a hot bath in the gigantic tub.

Hanmi set out the sprouts and our first round of garden plants are just about ready to go in the ground. She also prepped the plot and sowed seeds directly last weekend. I'm very excited. After a break last year from tomatoes and similar plants (peppers) - we're back with a full-range of vegetables: Potatoes, Cucumbers, Peppers, Tomatoes, Strawberries, Blueberries, Swiss Chard, Cilantro, Basil, Oregano, Sage, Spinach, Snow Peas, and 2 different kinds of Beans. The lots of Carrots and Brussel Sprouts, Mustard Greens, Kale, Lettuce, Chives, Onions, Garlic and other stuff are all around the house in planters. We also have a fig tree and a persimmon tree we planted last winter that will hopefully bear fruit this year. Should be interesting!

The eggs are arriving steadily, about 3 a day. We have given a lot away lately, which feels good. We received a cute Thank You note from a small child (and family) that walked by to "visit" the chickens, since they are now visible in the front yard. The chickens are quite friendly, almost to to point of being nagging in their quest for food, sunlight and attention. Riding on shoulders is a common sight when we're in the yard. We let them out to clean the front yard of slugs now and then. It's a fun, carefree feeling to relax with chickens napping on your legs on a lounge chair on the porch.

We are harvesting rain! The first 2 rain barrels are in place and full already. I'm slowly adding delivery pieces to the output side of the system. Our barrels are "nonstandard" in their storage, so that I could fit them under the back deck. But after a few tests everything seemed to work out. I'm very happy with it. We'll have the garden on a pH-balanced and filtered water system, run off a battery timer, flowing every morning for an hour or so. It's drip irrigation so there's not a lot of waste. The pressure from the gravity feed, with 110 gallons about 2 feet about ground seems fine.

We've played a lot with the numbers and the space we could devote to this concept. We have room for 6 more barrels for a total of ~400 gallons (about 3200 pounds!). I've been imagining some neat uses for all the water in later phases (toilet, basement sink, bird feeder, etc). For now, I've been advised to finish some older projects first. Wise, those unnamed advisers.

Two eggs in one!

That giant egg we got last week did indeed turn out to be a double yolker!

Giant egg!!

I'm not 100% sure who laid this monster, but it's nearly twice the size of the eggs I collected yesterday!! It's either Foxy or Delilah--I'm tending to think Foxy. Not only is it the largest egg any of our hens have laid, it's the biggest [chicken] egg I've ever seen! I wonder if it has a double yolk?

Thrrrrreeee! Thhhreeeeee eggs! Ah ah ah ahhh!

Much to my delight, in the time it took me to write the last post, Delilah, Foxy, and Francine all took turns and left a neat little pile of 3 eggs in the nest box for me! Delilah's was huge for a first, and it's clear that she had a bit of a painful struggle, as well... but all are well and happily feasting on some cottage cheese to celebrate. That means Betty is next, and I'm sticking to my prediction that we'll be getting 4 eggs a day before the end of the week.

Cooper, Cooper, Party Pooper!

Well, our little friend has returned several times, now. We've got a positive ID--it is a Cooper's Hawk. Not surprisingly, this is one of several breeds known as a Chicken Hawk... This biggest bummer about the visits is not being able to let the chickens roam freely. Now we must supervise their yard time, and learn to speak [or at least understand] "bird"... On 3 occasions I have observed distinct behavior and vocalization changes in all the other birds, and as such shuttled the girls into their pen... within minutes the hawk has appeared, but always too late. "Cooper", as we've been calling him/her, is also a juvenile, and apparently their first autumn on their own is when they are the hungriest. But there is NO way I'm letting him near my girls. We've got many ideas on hawk-proofing the yard so they can get out more, but with everything else going on right now, it' going to have to wait, unfortunately.

In related news, Foxy Brown started laying eggs a couple weeks ago, prompting me to take a day out of the bathroom remodeling to build an addition to the chicken coop. Now we have two nest boxes, and in fact, Delilah is sitting in it right now, quite possibly laying her first egg...

This is a photo of Foxy's first... it's pretty darn big for a first egg... definitely bigger than Francine's first.

So now I must go check the nestbox... if Delilah has laid an egg, there will be another post soon! :)

New pics on the Chicks photostream

There are 26 new shots of the girls and their new coop from the past few weeks. You can really see how much they've changed in such a short time. Each has their own favorite food, distinct personality, and three of them come when called by name. NO kidding!! To view a slideshow in a big separate window, click HERE

More Chicks!

The girls are growing like crazy! These were taken last Friday and they're already noticeably bigger. Francine and Delilah pretty much look like full grown Bantams... But since they are standard size chickens, they'll get even bigger! Enjoy!

Retirement part 1 and more chicks...

On June 1st, at the ripe old age of 35, I gleefully retired... Today is day three of my new life of leisure, and it's good times all the way. The weather hasn't really been cooperating lately, but that's okay. On Sunday we roasted in the hot sun to get the veggie garden started, so the cooler weather and rain is a welcome event.

Much to my surprise I'm spending nearly half of my day with the chicks... either cleaning the brooder, refilling/cleaning their food and water dishes, handling/playing with them to keep them used to people, or just watching them interact with each other.

As Francine and Delilah get bigger, we are increasingly concerned by the marked physiological differences... longer tail, shiny neck feathers, flat chest/butt... basically we think Francine is a Frank... and that just won't work for our purposes. We went to Pistils Nursery to get more chick feed and asked about getting another chick so Delilah wouldn't be lonely if/when we have to send Frank off to live on a real farm somewhere. Unfortunately, their chick season is over, but we got loads of good advice & a list of other places to get chicks, from both the staff and another customer. I followed their recommendation and went to Burns Feed store to pick up a 4 day old chick. The staff was very helpful and even offered to take Ellis for a walk and treats while I was in the "chick room".

While there, I learned that Rhode Island Reds are very bossy and that we should not have more than one. I was also told I should get two to introduce to the flock, as they always do better in pairs. Since there was a 3 week age difference, this made a lot of sense as I was quite concerned about two "teenage" chickens hassling the baby. I picked up a Black Sex-Link [which sounds like an x-rated website, I know] and a Silver Laced Wyandotte. We named them Foxy Brown and Betty Davis respectively.

Francine (l) and Delilah (r)

Betty Davis (l) and Foxy Brown (r)


Betty Davis eyes the camera


Foxy Brown is a little more camera shy

I was surprised to learn that we didn't need to keep them separated from Francine and Delilah. I was told to rub a towel on the older chicks, then rub the same towel on the babies and introduce them to one of the big girls at a time. If there was any pecking or aggression, take the aggressor out and put them in a dark place with no food or water for a few seconds. Then reintroduce. Keep doing this until they figure out it's bad to pick on babies... Luckily no one had to go into solitary confinement. The girls all got along right away. The problem is that as F & D get bigger, they're a bit gangly and unaware of their own size/strength. I decided that a day of rest was in order for the babes and put them in a separate box anyway, so they could get more sleep/food/water. They're all back together now, though, and seem to be getting along just fine.