Hip Chick Chronicles

Have you found the new blog?

2009-12-14T08:59:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while I'll get an email from someone asking why I haven't updated my blog.

I feel a little confused for a moment and then I realize, "OH! They haven't found the new blog yet!"

So - for those of you who think I've dropped off the face of the planet - join us over at the new blog! Here's a link: http://knownbyname.wordpress.com

It's been pretty exciting around the place - the 2009 Chicks are kicking into high egg-laying gear. Someone is laying MONSTER eggs - you gotta see 'em to believe 'em! And we've finally got green eggs! Woo Hoo!

Hope to see you there!

:)

dina

Just a reminder...

2009-06-25T22:09:00.001-07:00

I've moved!

You can find my new blog here: http://knownbyname.wordpress.com/

Hope to see you there!

Blessings,

dina

It's Moving Day!

2009-06-01T20:41:00.000-07:00

No... no... we're not moving houses! Phew! Can you imagine? No - our blog is moving!

Here's the thing... I've got several blogs. I've got shortcuts to them on my desktop - and I'm always thinking about updating one or the other of them. But it just makes my life feel so fragmented.

I don't like a fragmented feeling life.

So, a month or so ago (maybe longer...) I started thinking, "What if I move - and merge! - all of my blogs into one location?" At first it seemed like a crazy idea. But the more I investigated, the more I thought about it, the more I brainstormed... well, it seemed less and less crazy.

So I've started a new blog - moved all of the posts from my other two most invested in blogs there, too, and well - today is the day. It's time to move.

So - you can now find me over at: http://knownbyname.wordpress.com/

It's still a work in motion. I'm trying hard to get stuff categorized - if you look on the upper right hand corner there's a drop down with categories. There's a category for the Hip Chick Chronicles and subcategories. There's a category for Living the DS Life (my weight loss surgery blog) with subcategories. And then there are some new categories where life kinda intersected.

So I hope you'll follow over there. If you're new to RSS subscription - look on your browser toolbar - it's a little orange button with a dropdown. When you click on that you can subscribe to a blog. Then, when updates are made, you can be notified. It's a very cool thing to know how to do!

Anyway - I've got some blog housekeeping to do. Hope to see you over at http://knownbyname.wordpress.com/

Spring is sprung!

2009-05-25T13:13:00.000-07:00

This is probably just about as random a collection of photos as you're gonna find, but it's spring - and I was outdoors with the camera - and so - well, here you go!

BiL's Farm Fresh Eggs has got itself an egg sign - and finally - a holder - and it even works! Woo Hoo!

The peas are looking like they may well give us something to snack on soon. I keep looking for a little pea pod to snap off and pop in my mouth - but we're not there quite yet... soon, tho!

Is there anything more beautiful than Japanese Iris?

This is the new garden plot that John has laid out, tilled, and prepared. We got corn, yellow crookneck squash, and zucchini planted in it yesterday.

Do you have sons? Cause if you do - this next photo will make total sense. Look! One of the pear trees is armed!

The flower bed along the street (adjacent to the low fence at the front of the property) got planted yesterday, too. There will hopefully be lots of Shirley Poppies, nastursiums, and sunflower seeds of varying types.

There are now 30 tomato plants of different varieties planted in the main garden plot, thanks to my husband's ever diligent efforts.

We love these trellises John put together for tomatoes. They are so easy to tie up (we use construction tape - it's amazing, and cheap at Home Depot!), and they get lots of good sun and ventilation this way.

This is John's stack of lumber for the chicken coop expansion project that he's working on.

He's removed the little run that was attached to the coop - that was the first step of the project, the demo. Now he's going to frame out the new addition area, and floor it first.

Can you see them? Baby pears!

Hanging out in the yard with Pepper, admiring the planting John did yesterday.

Pepper, the wonder chicken dog at play!

Gosh I love this time of year! Is there anything better than hanging out in the yard with the one you love and planting some amazing stuff that will enrich your lives?

First Field Trip

2009-05-23T19:31:00.001-07:00

We decided this afternoon that we would let the babies out into the big back yard this afternoon for their first foray into life without fences...

We were surprised that for the most part, the big girls just ignored them. Rooth being the most aggressive of the big girls - but she for the most part stayed out of the way of the babies - letting them get their first taste of the wider world.

Aren't they cute?

Five of the babies are supposed to be Delawares. Four of them look very much like Delawares. This one (below) is all white, with the puffier cheek feathers, and has black legs. Not so much like the other Delawares! Mystery chick!

Here's the buff minorca rooster (William is attempting to name him Paco - we'll see if the rest of the family will agree with this name or not!) - only two buff minorcas, and one of them is a rooster, darn it all! We started with three, one just didn't recover from shipping - the other two have fared well. But this means I'll have my work cut out for me in a few weeks, looking for a new home for the boys who seem to be emerging in the flock.

Here's one of the speckled sussex. They're so cute and inquisitive and one of them is the first one out the door and the first to scope out a new treat offered.

This one is a blue andalusian - also a roo. Great. I wish we could keep the roos. But the one set of difficult neighbors makes that impossible, unfortunately. Even just this morning I heard the neighbor down the street's rooster greeting the morning... sniff... wish we could have one - or as many as show up! :)

This is another one of the Delawares. Jessica has named her Pecky. She is BIG. She is inquisitive. She loves to try and peck at my rings, nails, earrings - well, everything. She's hilarious to watch jump high up and try to get leaves off of the willow tree. AND... she is perfectly happy to sit on a lap and be petted. She's VERY personable, thrilled with the attention, and loves to follow people around.

William named this female buff minorca Princess. She's sweet and mellow. She is petite, though - both of the buff minorcas are. It will be interesting to see if there's any evening out compared to the rest of the flock.

Here's one of the americaunas. They are so cute and happy to be handled.

This is the mystery chick. I think it was supposed to be one of the black minorcas. Yeah - not so much. This one DOES NOT like being handled - HATES being caught - and doesn't ever quite settle down if you do catch it to hold and love on it a bit. It will be very interesting to see what she turns into!

It's amazing how quickly they're growing. The babies are now 5 and 1/2 weeks old. Dang - time flies!

We need your help...

2009-05-06T12:57:00.001-07:00

Our son, William (you can call him BiL if you spell it right - long story!) has decided to start an egg business. With the family, neighbors, and friends who are interested in eggs on a fairly regular basis - and quite a big interest from those who go by our place - it was decided that if we had some more chicks, we could probably have a pretty decent little egg business.

If you know anything about chicken keeping you'll know that it's not cheap or inexpensive. However, if you factor in what we paid for our not as good as what we grow for ourselves eggs in pre-chicken keeping days - it's not THAT expensive. ($14 a week-ish for 40-free range eggs times 52 weeks - over $700 a year for eggs! So yeah - we're doing just fine now!)

But we've got a dilemma.

We need a name for the Egg Business.

We want your input.

Would you help us?

William thinks "Hip Chick Eggs" is dumb - okay, the other words he's used in conjunction to that name include stupid, bad, girly. But we're striking out on coming up with an alternative.

Will you help? Just respond in the comments section, and then when we've got some options, we'll post a poll where folks can vote - and then we'll let you know what the winner is!

Thanks!

I once fell in love...

2009-04-26T20:32:00.000-07:00

I was age 16 - away working at a camp for the summer in the Seattle area - far from home - and had a weekend stretching in front of me with lots of free time - and not much to do. I was a little bummed. A friend said, "Well, you could read the Chronicles of Narnia again..."

"The Chronicles of what?" I asked.

"You know, "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe" is the first one..." she prompted.

I looked at her blankly.

Her mouth dropped open and she held her hand out and said, "WAIT RIGHT HERE!" She dropped everything (literally) and went running full speed ahead toward her cabin. She came back at same break-neck speed with a cube-like thing clutched to her breast, and completely out of breath. "Here!" She panted, shoving said cube my direction. I grabbed it, looked at it, and realized it was a set of books. Seven books, to be exact.

Little did I know that day all those years ago that my life would be inalertably changed because of my friend's generosity.

I spent the day sprawled out on a blanket - part of the day on the floating dock at the beach, the other part in the shade of a tree not far from my own cabin - plowing through the first few books. (Have I ever mentioned I'm a voracious reader?) By the time the weekend was over I'd read all seven books - and fallen completely head over heels in love...

with Aslan... of course!

with Narnia... duh!

with the beauty, the poetry, the symbolism, the justice, the symmetry.

So much to love.

Do you know - that here, nearly 30 years later (it's true, I'm turning 46 this year!) I still re-read the Chronicles? I'll be honest, I'm a little ADD, and at one point in time I came across an amazing thing - audiobooks! - and found a lovely set by Radio Family Theatre of the Chronicles - not just narrated - but acted out - and purchased it. (Here's a link - if you have children - buy it! If you love beauty - buy it! If you have any kind of road trip in your future - buy it!) And, of course, I've seen the recently produced movies of "The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe" and "Prince Caspian" - which honestly, are good - but in my opinion, stray a little too much from the original.

Last weekend I attended the Beth Moore Conference here in Portland with two very dear friends. It wasn't easy for me to go - me in a cast, needing to use a walker and a scooter to get around and through the crowd of 7300 women there, and needing to keep my foot elevated. I was a little tempted to bail. I'm so glad I didn't.

The past nearly 8 weeks - following the surgery on my ankle, and my time needing to allow my body to heal and graft the donor materials into my body - I've felt a little... I don't know. isolated? Well, it hasn't just been just since then. Do you ever feel like your heart is getting tired? weary? hard? isolated? And worse - that you don't mind?

I think that conference last weekend (my first exposure to Beth Moore - shhh... I'm a Precepts girl! I know, Kay and Beth are BFF!) was the beginning of the thaw.

Spring has been helping with the thaw, too, I think.

This afternoon as I was sitting on my comfy bed knitting away, the movie of "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe" came on TV. (Have I mentioned yet that I've seen more TV in the last 8 weeks than I have in the entirety of my lifetime combined prior to this surgery?!) I thought, "Ah... Narnia."

Aren't visual reminders a sweet thing?

I was reminded a new of some important life lessons...

I don't ever want to be a land or country that falls under the alluring spell of a temptress that turns me to stone cold.

I want to be like the trees - once awakened - who exude beauty, grace, and peace!

I want to be breathed on by Aslan - daily - just in case my heart is hardening.

I want to remember when I see Spring coming to life around me - here in my beautiful corner of the world - that I want my heart to be growing and maturing and bearing fruit.

I want to have an open invitation to bury my hands into the golden mane of the Great Lion - knowing that there is nothing to fear because I have been rescued.

I want to never lose my fear of Aslan - that tinge of it at least - because, you know, He's not a tame lion.

I want to live my life expectantly - knowing that the Son of the High King is working things together - and will one day arrive.

I know - totally off topic. Not chicken or garden related (much). But it is real life related - for me, anyway. Sorry to be so random. But I'm feeling pretty darn thankful for Spring right now!

So grown up!

2009-04-22T15:36:00.001-07:00

The really cool chicks have already figured out how to FLY up to the ledge! Just a week old and already trying out their wings! Wow!

Speaking of wings - you gotta see how fast they're developing serious feathers! Wow!

Isn't she adorable?

I'm not able to get out to the coop much, unfortunately. I'll be so glad when I'm able to walk again!!! But I try to get out there at least once a day and spend some time talking to the babies and giving them treats and holding a few of them. I love that! It's so cool!

If the weather is good on the weekend, maybe we'll do our first field trip out with the baby gate to give the babies a taste of what life on the lawn is all about! Woo Hoo!

"Cheep" entertainment...

2009-04-21T10:41:00.000-07:00

If you ever need a laugh - go to your local pet store, purchase a bunch of meal worms - then sprinkle them out for your chicks to enjoy! Believe me - it's worth it - I have to go over some pretty rough terrain with a walker and a foot in a cast to see this - but TOTALLY worth it! :)

What the postman brought...

2009-04-15T16:18:00.000-07:00

Shopper's Guide to Pesticides

2009-03-20T07:47:00.000-07:00

If you haven't ever seen this - it's a must read! It's the Shopper's Guide to Pesticides and it lays out very clearly how likely it is the fruits and vegetables you purchase will expose you to - in some cases - multiple pesticides in just one bite!

There's even a printable list with the highlights of the list that you can pop into your wallet or purse so you can buy knowledgeably: http://www.fitsugar.com/2920565

Here's the link: http://www.foodnews.org/methodology.php

Be sure to check out the different tabs across the top of the header on the page - it will show you various different tidbits of info.

I'm totally bummed about peaches! Dang - I think we're gonna have to plant a peach tree!

What do you make of this?

2009-03-08T17:53:00.000-07:00

See http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:s425:

Here's the brief quip about it: S.425 Title: A bill to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to provide for the establishment of a traceability system for food, to amend the Federal Meat Inspection Act, the Poultry Products Inspections Act, the Egg Products Inspection Act, and the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to provide for improved public health and food safety through enhanced enforcement, and for other purposes.

Some are saying it will be the end of the home organic garden - and quite possibly, the home backyard chicken flock.

I need to go back and read it without post-anesthesia haze and see what I can decipher.

This has the potential to be not pretty.

Signs of Spring

2009-03-03T23:19:00.001-08:00

Look! Little wood violets - they're here! Hooray! (They didn't even seem to mind the snow the day after this was taken.)

And yes - those are daffodils thinking VERY seriously about blooming!

And this is the pole sugar snap peas package....

...and the Oregon sugar pod peas package....

...which can only mean: we've got actual seed in the ground! Woo Hoo! Garden 2009 is off and running!

We're actually feeling a little behind. Well, in some things at least. John has been hard at work expanding the garden. We've had a decent representation of seeds that we had every intention of having started by now. Last night we finally completed the balance of our seed order. Phew! Now all we need to do is decide on which variety (varieties?) of potatoes we want to grow in the potato condo that we want to give a whirl this year. I hope to have a good portion of our seed started in the coming week...

I also want to set up the AeroGarden that my AMAZING and FABULOUS husband gifted me with for Christmas and Birthday this year. (I've been interested in them for ages.) But since I'm having ankle reconstruction surgery tomorrow and will be non-weight bearing for 4 to 6 weeks - I'm not gonna rush it. Shhh.... I secretly have a goal of that being one of the first projects that I complete once I'm home from the hospital. They're saying I'll probably only be hospitalized for 2 or 3 days, so maybe before the weekend is over even! Wouldn't that be cool?

And... after much debate, much going back and forth, actual placing of orders, and subsequent canceling of orders, we've finally decided we ARE going to add new chicks to the flock this year. The order actually just went in tonight, and sometime in the coming weeks we'll be getting several of the following breeds: Sussex, Minorca, Delaware, Andalusian, Americauna, and Cuckoo Maran. You can rest assured that there will be lots of pictures when the little fluff balls arrive.

John, in the meantime, has been brainstorming and designing an addition to the coop that will allow us to adequately accomodate an expanded flock. We're also thinking seriously about fencing about half of the property - not only to keep the girls in (I'm getting tired of chasing them home from down the street!), but also to keep the deer out of the garden. We'll see...

So - I'm excited. I'm so ready for Spring!

Tree Huggers!

2009-02-23T10:14:00.001-08:00

I've lived in Oregon since I was 4 years old. When I was a kid I tried to laugh and understand when people would joke, "Oregonians don't tan - they rust!" I mean, huh? Doesn't everyone get rain? Lots and lots of rain?

I can admit that as I've grown older that the rain has begun to - well, wear on me a bit. Usually some time around February John and I look at each other and say, "We live here because????" I'm sure his memories of living in Arizona right at the forefront of his thoughts! Me - just *longing* for sunshine and warmth! We vowed several years ago - should we ever manage to scrape up enough money - we really ought to travel someplace warm come every February!

A relatively new friend asked me - after having relocated here from the Rocky Mountain region of the country, "So when does it rain?" You see, we met when it was sunny and warm and beautiful out. Without half a thought I said, "From October to July 5th." She looked at me and laughed and said, "No really!" To which I said, "Seriously."

This February I've been amazingly content. I haven't felt that squirmy feeling like I gotta get out of Dodge! I haven't been spending time looking vainly at travel bargains to the tropics.

I found out why last night. On the news they said, "And as you know," obviously I didn't! "we're 2.5 inches behind on rainfall for the month of February - so th rain we'll be getting this week will be really helpful!"

They're saying we're gonna get 1/2 an inch of rain today, tomorrow, and the next day.

Now I'm feeling squirmy! LOL!

BUT - we must ask the girls how they feel about the rain - cause it's been raining buckets this morning.

Apparently they aren't much amused, either! See them down there? Hugging that big old Willow tree? Trying to get out of the rain?

I wish I could get a picture of what it looks like when they don't know that I'm there - all 14 of them are ringed around that tree - pretty much kissing it! - trying to stay out of the rain.

They're so goofy!

You'd think they didn't know there was a nice, dry, full of brand new sweet-smelling pine shavings, coop - just a few feet away. BUT NO - they might miss out of something, so they stay out in the rain.

Thanks girls! I needed the laugh!

Spring Cleaning!

2009-02-21T19:56:00.000-08:00

Today John mucked out the coop. We do the deep litter method of chicken keeping. That means that - typically - once or twice a year it will be mucked out and started all over again with fresh pine shavings. Throughout the course of the year additional fresh pine shavings are added to the top, when things need "freshened up" so to speak.

Aside from finding a WHOLE BUNCH of chicken poo, John also found 10 - yes, I said TEN - eggs - all of varying age. Elijah, my inquisitive nephew, decided to squeeze one of the eggs to see what would happen! Yeah - rotten egg is not such a pleasant experience when you end up wearing it.

See that white egg there behind John?

This Welsummer was pretty put out with John as he worked. She'd come in - squak at him - supervise his work for a while, leave for a while, then come back and repeat!

BB - along with all of the other girls - was trying to figure out what the heck we were doing in her coop!

You see - we do have a plan! (Of course!) John reattached the door that was taken off last fall - so that we can divide the coop once again. The big girls will sleep on the side that the nest boxes are on...

and the chicks that we'll be getting this spring will hang out on the other side of the coop!

We are looking at adding chicks from the following breeds this year:

Cuckoo Maran

Ameracauna

Sussex

Minorca

Delaware

Barnevelder

Andalusian

I don't know which of these we'll actually be able to get our hands on - but I've started the process of seeking them out.

Tonight, the big girls were a little confused about all that was going on tonight when they were going to bed at first - but eventually settled down for the night just as they always do.

On a sad note. Angel, our California White with the prolapsed vent, has not responded to therapy. Even worse, her prolapsed vent seems to have gone necrotic - I believe she's been pecking HERSELF. We had her in isolation - away from the other girls - so that they would not harm her - but apparently that wasn't good enough. So we've decided to cull her from the flock. It seems the only humane thing to do.

What a Day!

2009-02-18T22:24:00.000-08:00

This morning, as I was making William's breakfast I happened to catch a flash of movement out of the corner of my eye - and lo and behold! What did I see? An escape artist!
Every morning, for the last several mornings, one of the California White's has been managing to get out of the chicken yard and have at it without competition with the cat's food. I can understand the motivation - but honestly, it can be a bit of a pain in the butt. Well, and then there's the fact that solo chicken running around the yard seems - well - more vulnerable.

So - I made oatmeal for the girls, and the minute I took it in to them - escapee wanted back in. Go figure! Yeah, I wasn't surprised, either.

So guess what! We had a GORGEOUS day today. It got up to nearly 60 degrees! Woo Hoo! SPRING WILL COME AGAIN! HALLELUJAH!

This is what Spring should look like:

And this...
and this...

and of course, this...

By the time the early afternoon rolled around, I decided it was time to let the girls out. Boy oh boy, where they happy to be out and about!

Caleb, hanging with the girls.

Pepper, running with her ball on a rope. She loves that toy!

And here's Angel. Looks fine - but well, seemed a little more skittish than normal today.

I'd been keeping an eye on the California Whites because for the last three mornings there have been some VERY large white eggs in the nest boxes - and they've had quite a bit of blood on them. Hmmm... I decided I had to get to the bottom of this!

As it happened, I noticed that Angel had a BLACK butt. Yes, my chicken pictured above - like she looked like someone had held her over an open flame and singed her fanny. So I determined that I needed to catch her and get a closer look.

Yeah. Right. Not so much.

Thankfully, not much time went by and Jessica arrived home from school. Have I mentioned that my daughter is chicken wrangle extraordinaire? If not - let me just say it here and now: the girl has a gift!

So Jess and I set out to corner and catch the not so interested in being handled AT ALL chicken. Amusing.

So - we finally did it! We caught Angel and I did a little exam. Once I got a closer look it seemed as if her butt were just CAKED - like seriously - with poo, mud, dust, and some blood. Yuck. I realized that this was going to take a concerted effort, so Jess and I worked as a team. She held Angel, I found a large bucket and filled it with nice warm water, and then we set to... yep, bathing the chicken.

It took about 20 minutes, but once I had her butt all cleaned up - it didn't take long for us to ascertain that something was more than just passingly not okay.

Warning: the pictures below are graphic! Like gross and ickey. Okay?

This, unfortunately, is a prolapsed vent. Darn it!

Poor Angel!

Anyway, eventually got her inito a second bath to make certain she was VERY clean (don't want any infection to set in!), I went ahead and attempted to gently push the vent back into it's appointed place! It stayed for about 10 minues, but then re-prolapsed. Darn it. I did get the Preparation H applied - and I'm hoping it helps her!

So - armed with excellent advice from older/wiser cihcken keepers, we're keeping Angel separated from the rest of the flock, we have her in a location where she can't hear the rest of life going on around her. It should be restful for her.

And we've also draped the crate she's in with blankets - to help keep her warm.

I think we've done all we can for her just now.

I'll keep you updated on Angel's progress.

Is it Spring?????

2009-02-04T16:53:00.000-08:00

Hey this is Jessica- blogging for my Mom. Number one because she is sick and number two because she hasn't blogged about chickens (which is what this blog is supposted to be about lol) in forever so here's some pictures of the girls who have been enjoying this weather as much as we have!

Oh BB! She's so huge- she could totally be head chicken- except shes such a chicken! lol

Now here are some pictures of me with the girls :)

Yep - chickens are funny.

But... cats are even funnier

Watch this...

So funny! lol Animals are the best free entertainment! :)

YarnFest!

2009-01-23T09:39:00.001-08:00

There are a couple of really well - I'll just say it - brilliant ladies that go to our church. They've taken some initiative and put together a really great idea! It's called YarnFest. Here's the low down:

Join us for two evenings of connecting, creating, and exploring ideas around friendship, yarn, and reaching beyond ourselves.

Come meet some new friends

Come and learn to knit

Come to hear ideas about reaching out to the homeless in our community

Come to explore what God may want to do in and through you

Everyone is welcome... young people, both men and women - who have taken up knitting as a new hobby or might like to, those with young families who would love to be able to finish a project but find no time or not enough skills, older folks who love to knit and would love to teach others...

Long story short - some knitting pals and I get to be a part of this great idea! We've decided to start out by making a very simple knit hat. It will be able to be finished in the course of the two evenings that we meet, and then it can be donated to a ministry that gifts those in need in our community with just this sort of stuff. Cool, huh?!

If you read this blog and live in the Portland area or thereabouts and want to join us - email me or post a comment and I'll give you directions to where we're meeting! All are welcome to join in!

Bad Eating Habits Can Alter DNA

2009-01-20T09:14:00.000-08:00

Bad Eating Habits Can Alter DNA

Monday, January 19, 2009 9:13 AM

Human genes remember a sugar hit for two weeks, with prolonged poor eating habits capable of permanently altering DNA, Australian research has found.

A team studying the impact of diet on human heart tissue and mice found that cells showed the effects of a one-off sugar hit for a fortnight, by switching off genetic controls designed to protect the body against diabetes and heart disease.

"We now know that chocolate bar you had this morning can have very acute effects, and those effects can continue for up to two weeks," said lead researcher Sam El-Osta, from the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute.

"These changes continue beyond the meal itself and have the ability to alter natural metabolic responses to diet," he told Australian Associated Press Friday.

Regular poor eating would amplify the effect, said El-Osta, with genetic damage lasting months or years, and potentially passing through bloodlines.

The study's findings were reported in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Copyright AFP

My chickens are hilarious!

2009-01-15T17:50:00.001-08:00

They think no one is looking... that no one knows they're stealing cat food. Oh, but we know! So do the cats! Caleb (who could be a stunt double for Garfield ANY day) is particularly unamused. But - the truth of the matter is this: the cats are afraid of the chickens - so the chickens eat the cats food! Here's sweet Henrietta. Poor baby! This morning I went out to let the girls out of the coop and give them a little treat. Everyone raced out of the coop and I opened the big door, and there's Henrietta - perched up on the roost - pretty high up, to be honest. I talked to her for a minute, then got out of her way - it looked like she was getting ready to hop or fly down. And off I went... I had a doctor's appointment this morning - a long one!

When I got home at noon I went out to let the girls out of the chicken yard so that they could free range. They went giddily running into the yard and I did a quick head count... "Where's my Henrietta?" I asked Millie. She squawked at me and then ran off to find bugs. So, I thought - "I should check the coop."

What should I find? Poor Henrietta! Stuck up on the roost - right where I'd left her - HOURS earlier! So I lifted her down and put her out into the yard.

She pretty much spent the entire day very quietly. Yesterday, honestly, she was far more active - and loud. Today she pretty much hung out close to the coop. Her closed eye does open just a teensy bit now - hooray! And her bald spots are sporting little bits of new feather growth.

Did I remember to announce to the world that Crayon is laying now? Here she is with Rooth. Crayon's eggs are a slightly pink tinged very pale tan color. And they're pretty darn big! Like 2.25 ounces. Wow! Some day, I suppose, we'll name the Welsumers. I think that would have to be precipitated by our being able to tell them apart... So - since we're not there - here's one of the five Welsumers! LOL!

Ducky is a riot - she actually poses for pictures. She's so cute!

Here's another of the Welsumers... Isn't her coloring lovely?

And here is super goofy Angel. Angel is the California White with blue eyes. At least I think they're blue. She also has the distinction of being one VERY curious chicken! When I put the camera down to her eye level she comes charging closer - trying to figure out just what exactly that thing is!

Hence, I get some truly hilarious pictures of her!

Today is one of those days when being out in the yard with the girls was just the right thing to do. Especially after hearing that I need another surgery - one that will require me to put NO weight on my left foot for at least a month. Sigh. Thanks to the girls, though, I was able to end the day with more than one laugh!

It's ALL my fault!

2009-01-13T10:07:00.001-08:00

Night before last I volunteered to go and make sure the girls had found their way back into the coop, onto their roosts, and tucked themselves in for bed. We'd just come in from running errands, so I grabbed a flashlight and headed out. I was just a few steps from the back door when I turned the flashlight on and thought, "Does this thing work?" I hit it a couple of times it got a tad bit brighter, and so I proceeded.

I went out to the coop, and tried to open the big - people sized entrance - door and because of all of the rain and moisture, it was swollen shut, and I couldn't get it open. (And John has shaved it down a couple of times already! Dang - we need warmer, dryer weather!) So I went around to the little run - where there's a window into the coop above the chicken door, and peek through - and got a head count. Only - it was dark in there - and my flashlight wasn't so strong, and I kept losing count. I finally stuck my head through the chicken door and tried counting again - but again, I wasn't sure. I finally thought, "Sheesh! It's not like they don't just put themselves to bed every night!" and so I figured it WAS 15 I'd counted and went back into the house.

Yesterday morning I went out to let the girls out into the run. I opened the chicken door, said my good mornings to them, and was just outside of the run when I spied Henrietta racing toward me - from around the end of the coop - on the outside of the run! I looked at her and said, "How'd you get out here?"

It was then that I realized she was drenched, and cold, and shivering, and one of her eyes was closed, and she looked more than just a little ruffled.

OH MY!

She didn't make it into the coop the night before! She'd spent the night OUT!

Here's Pepper giving me the "BAD chicken Mom!" look:

POOR Henrietta!

Oh my word! I gathered her up into my arms - where she gladly tucked her head against my shoulder, and took her inside. I once again commandeered Pepper's indoor bed (which she honestly doesn't give much of a rip about - she'd much rather sleep with her people!) for a temporary chicken hospital.

Once I had a chance to hold her and dry her off a bit and warm her up considerably, I was able to get a pretty good look at her.

First - her left eye is closed - for some reason - not sure exactly why, but she won't open it for anything.

Next - she's a little bald on that left side, too - around the ear.

And - she's got a couple of pin prick places with dried blood.

She was missing a few bigger feathers on her shoulder - but not much. There was no blood or injury anywhere else. My deduction - she'd hidden in the blackberry bushes and somehow managed to get some pin pricks from the thorns.

POOR BABY!

Jess and I had noticed on the weekend that she seemed to be losing some feathers on her undercarriage - and I chalked it up to a potential oncoming molt. From what I've read not out of the question.

So - here are the pictures...

She really just is loving being held and doted on - yeah, what chicken doesn't?! But honestly, a little more than normal.

I would move her back out with the rest of the girls if that eye weren't closed. I can just see them going after it and that'd be the end of that. So, she's an indoor chicken for the time being. I'm considering letting them all out to free range today and then letting her do the same - only staying close and supervising to make sure Henrietta doesn't get beaten up. We'll see...

I gotta admit - we're so fortunate, though. We have racoons in our yard NIGHTLY. We see them ALL the time. When it snowed so much -we all saw how many racoon tracks there were around the coop -they were sure interested in getting in there! (My husband is such a genius - he did such a great job at constructing the coop!) Henrietta - by all rights, could have easily been a racoon snack, or an owl snack (there's one that hangs out on the side of the house), or a coyote snack (been sightings in the neighborhood recently), or a big cat snack (one of those sighted recently, too). But she merely had a run in with a blackberry vine. Wow. She's one lucky chicken!

Shhh.... Don't tell her I blogged about her!

2009-01-07T19:04:00.001-08:00

This is my beautiful daughter.

Last evening - okay, actually late afternoon, she did something to completely change the demographics of our household. I'm still reeling a little bit...

Yes, folks, we are now - officially - a three licensed driver household.

Oh my!

How did that happen? I mean - I know I say this too often in my life - but she really was just 2 the other day... beautiful, amazing, full of life, and going a bazillion miles a minute - and TWO. How did 16 happen so quickly?

She's been hinting for MONTHS that she thinks she should be driving an adorable butter yellow VW bug - one of the new ones.

She has all of the confidence in the world that she will have a perfect driving record and never have a single mishap - may it be so!

She wants to do things like... drive to church for youth group all by herself.

When I was 16 I drove to Los Angeles from Portland by myself for the first time. Why am I so uptight about her driving the four minutes down the road to church? Okay - honestly, the trip to church doesn't worry me so much. It's the trips - well - pretty much EVERYWHERE else!

I asked a friend today - who is the mother of five children - three of whom are licensed drivers - if she ever got over the feeling of impending terror. She thought a minute, paused, and then said, "Um... no."

I think part of what makes the whole thing so - well - daunting - is the fact that she's young for her grade - and she's talking about COLLEGE - like seriously. Like, "let's fly across the country (ACROSS THE COUNTRY!) and check out this really cool college in the Spring, Mom & Dad!"

I don't think I'm ready for her to grow up quiet yet. Can't I have a rewind on a couple of the years? She is - quite possibly - the best kid on the planet, and I don't want her growing up and going away. There - I admitted it. I'm already starting to miss her.

So... don't tell her I blogged about her. I don't think she'd be amused.

I can't believe it's January!

2009-01-05T12:11:00.000-08:00

December flew past in a bit of a white blur... At one point in time we actually had two feet of snow on the ground... Looking back and remembering how slow some of those days went by - with no ability to get out and about - there really was no true sense of cabin fever. We enjoyed having the chance to do some things slowly - to be honest. But here - at January 5th (how did THAT happen?!) - with the kids back in school today for the first time in weeks and weeks - it feels like it was just a blur.

I decided quite definitively this morning that I would not allow the girls to free range today - there's a big rain storm moving in - they're saying we may get up to an inch of rain this afternoon and evening. But as I went out to let them into the run I was greeted by their sunny little faces on the back porch!

"How did you get out?" I asked them. They squacked in return.

I eventually figured out the nest box door had not closed completely the day prior - apparently - and the girls had found a way of escape!

So they're free ranging today. They love it so - it's hard to deny them the freedom! (Well, except for when it requires me chasing them back home from the neighbor's yard down the street!)

Isn't BB getting pretty? She's our Cuckoo Maran - I think I'd like to add a couple of more of her breed to the flock... We're getting ready to put together an order of chicks. Lots of thinking to do on that!

Ducky - honestly - is the sweetest little chicken. She's sweet natured and lays the coolest eggs. And she's very pretty!

I just love Ducky's stripes!

This might be Angel... there are a couple of the California Whites that I have a hard time telling apart. But this one - and Shelly - both have the super floppy comb and are kind of comical looking.

Pepper was a little jealous that I was taking pictures of the chickens, so she had to haver her picture taken as well. She's getting so whiney lately! Lord! It's about to drive us nuts!

Here's Millie - official leader of the pack - telling me all of her woes and concerns about the goings on in the flock. She is SO vocal! Maybe that's where Pepper is learning the whiney thing!

And here's our newest arrival - Crayon! She's adjusted so nicely to life in the coop with the girls. I feel pretty sure she's younger than the others... I know so little about this breed. I've done some reading - but I come away feeling like I still don't quite get it. I have noticed in the past few days that her little comb is redder than it's been thus far. Maybe she's just coming into lay. We'll see!

There is just something so right about looking over the garden plot and seeing the girls hanging out and scratching. I honestly couldn't imagine our lives without the chickens in them now. It's kind of fun how the neighbors (well, most of them anyway) are just as thrilled with them as well.

I should also report on Shelly - our broody girl. She continues to spend the majority of her time on the nest. We did end up moving her back into the coop with the rest of the girls. It was the right thing to do. She's such a grump! She will peck at anyone who attempts to take a peek under her to see if she's hijacked anyone else's eggs to sit on. We did our best to try and find fertilized eggs for her to sit on - but honestly, we're just not ready for that yet. Plus the weather is so cold... maybe if she goes broody again in the Spring - we'll see. In the meantime, we humor her.

Found - one chicken!

2008-12-24T11:08:00.000-08:00

Every morning I don appropriate clothing - this particular season of freezing temperatures and snow calls for many layers and good sturdy shoes - and go out to care for the chickens. Some might dread this sort of thing, but honestly, I enjoy it. I love talking to the girls - they're so fun - sometimes they actually talk back, in their own chicken-y ways. It's always fun to check up on them, interact a bit - they love being petted, and Millie (who is queen of the flock nowadays) always has a report to offer. I bring them fresh water, fill up their feeder, and then gather the eggs.

Today was no different from any other morning, really. My morning routine has been altered slightly since Shelly is broody and in the pantry - and this morning I planned to clean out her temporary housing (she wasn't amused, btw) and check on her overall health.

I'd gotten the flock cared for, got some pine shavings and went to the pantry to deal with Shelly - and heard a car pull up, and after a moment, a door close. I assumed this meant that John was off work early... only, he never came in. I opened the pantry door and what did I find?

A chicken.

What appears to be an Americauna.

On the top rack next to the door.

Looking, well, a little confused.

!!!!!!! Here she is... Isn't she cute?

I was worried about taking her out to the coop right away - but I figured it was warm - I could babysit - and she could get food to start things off...

Here's Rooth giving her the once over - making sure she's okay to be in her coop. Millie looks on thoughtfully... trying to figure out if she's seen this one before!

A lot of thoughts are going through my head by this point in time... Like:

Did someone drop her off?

Or did she loose her way and somehow make it through over a foot of snow and land on the top of the rack of shelves next to the pantry door?

How old is she?

Do we get to keep her?

Is she really an Americauna?

Isn't she adorable?

So, of course, I couldn't keep this news to myself, and so I went and woke William up to tell him.

He was so excited he threw on shoes and raced out to the coop - while wearing a short sleeved t-shirt and SHORTS! - to see the new arrival!

He said, "She does look like an Americauna, doesn't she?" Then, he thought an moment and added, "I think we should name her Crayon - if she lays colorful eggs, anyway. Maybe we should wait and name her, though..."

So, after a little sojourn with the girls in the coop, we brought her back inside to the newly modified dog bed to spend the day. We don't want the bossy girls to be mean to her, so will wait until after dark - after the lights have shut off - to relocate her into the coop on one of the roosts.

So - the plan at present is to make her comfortable... and quietly hope she really was a gift! Hmmm... maybe we should call her Christmas!

My, it's pretty!

2008-12-22T19:45:00.000-08:00

This is the view out our front window this morning... Yeah, we got a bit more snow!I got up - put on my long johns, pulled on my jeans, found a nice warm sweater, pulled on my warm socks, boots, coat, scarf, hat - and set out... The snow came up to my knees is some places! I couldn't even find the stepping stones!

And yes - getting the gates open was a bit of a chore! Not that lugging warm water out there to the girls isn't!

Here's the view past the coop out to the yard... isn't it pretty? That's my egg basket hanging on the fence post while I take care of other business.

The willow that the chicken coop is nestled under is beautiful with the ice and snow on it!

Oh! And we've had some really great visitors to the bird feeders the past few days! I think this is a Wood Pigeon - if the lady at the Audobon Society was correct in her identification.

It's really a pretty big bird - but so graceful.

Speaking of birds... Rooth is determined to check out the snow every opportunity she gets! Problem is - she really doesn't like it when her toes get cold! She flies places, finds herself kinda of stuck, and then waits - sometimes patiently, rarely quietly - until one of us comes and rescues her and takes her back to the warmth of the coop!

We have what seems to be a whole flock of robins that are hanging out - a lot! - in our crab apple tree. They come to the feeders for seed now and then, too. They must REALLY be hungry!

My Mom received a gift of a lovely little shrub from my friend Charissa (who used to work for my Mom years ago) for her birthday one year. Mom was adamant that we take it with us when we moved her out of the house we all grew up in - we transplanted the beautiful little shrub into two planters - and they have thrived.

Here's a close-up of the snow and ice on it. It is lovely - but oh, you should see it in summer when it's in bloom!

I should report that Shelly continues to sit on her eggs (and no! I'm not brave enough to reach under and take them away from her!) and be committed to future Mommy-hood. I'm still searching high and low for fertilized eggs. I really hope we can find some!

Pepper, the wonder chicken dog... on ice!

2008-12-21T17:37:00.000-08:00

We've got a broody girl!

2008-12-20T22:18:00.000-08:00

If you're not familiar with chicken type stuff, you may not know what broodiness is...

Here's a decent explanation: http://www.animalloversweb.com/article_chicken_broody.html

In short, what it means is that a chicken has decided she wants to be a mommy! Many modern breeds of chickens have had that tendancy actually bred out of them. Most chicks are hatched after being incubated in a mechanical incubator - not under a Mommy Chicken! (Although our Welsumers were hatched under a Mom - and had decidedly different behavior patterns as baby chicks compared to their incubated peers!)

Typically, broodiness comes on in the spring of a chick's 2nd year of life. So imagine our surprise to find that Shelly is broody! She's only 8 months old, and it's as wintery as wintery comes! (We've got about a foot of snow on the ground! The wind chill is below freezing!)

The first couple of days I thought it was just a coincidence that every time I went to collect eggs that she was on a nest - I figured she was just taking her time laying. But it soon became obvious that she was more than just taking her time. She actually started to hoard eggs! Then she started to fight back if you went to collect the eggs she was hoarding!

The problem, of course, with Shelly's broodiness being that we have no rooster - so obviously, we have no fertilized eggs - which means - no babies possible! Bummer!

To be honest, William has been talking about wanting to start an egg business in the Spring. He really wants some Americauna's to round out the flock so that we've got some really colorful eggs to offer. We've debated buying chicks in the fall, or hoping for a broody hen to be able to try and hatch some eggs. We just didn't know to think that we'd have a girl go broody this soon!

So... tonight - after checking on the girls as they were getting tucked in for the night, we realized that right in the nest box - next to the door that is certainly not weather tight - poor Shelly was covered with a dusting of snow. (There are 50 mph winds tonight - I guess it makes sense that some would get blown in!) So we decided we had to get her moved.

John and I rigged up a temporary home for Shelly in the pantry and moved her in. We'll see what the plan will evolve to be. If we can get our hands on some fertilized Americauna eggs, then we may well be trying to hatch some chicks way sooner than anticipated!

They got cold feet!

2008-12-16T10:06:00.001-08:00

When I went to check the temperature in the coop this morning it was all the way up to 30 degrees! Woo Hoo! A veritible heat wave!

So I dressed up in my long johns and jeans and warm socks and sweater and coat and hat and scarf and mittens and went out to get them some clean warm water and check the food and gather eggs.

Yesterday when I went out they wanted NOTHING to do with coming outdoors. Today, however, they seemed somewhat interested in doing some exploration. So I decided to let them out.

I got the water out, scattered some corn, and let them out to explore. The California Whites were the most adventurous - they made it all the way to the big run - and then stood there on one foot looking like they didn't know why the other foot was so stinking cold!

A couple of the Welsumers decided to follow the California Whites on the corp of discovery. They weren't amused. It didn't take them long to figure out that they could get a LOT further if they would fly places - keeping their cold little tootsies out of the cold, cold snow!

So, as I went about my business, checking on everyone, bringing out scratch, etc. I failed to realize that the girls were way not amused any longer. In fact, they were shivering like crazy!

So I quickly herded them back up, carried them one by one back into the coop, and then transferred the water to the interior of the coop.

They were so happy to be back in their little warm coop! I'm thinking they won't be venturing out into the snow again in the near future!

Oh! Interesting note. In all of the days preceding this weather event the 14 girls had been laying between 10 and 13 eggs a day. The day it snowed - 10 eggs. Yesterday - 9 eggs. So far this morning - 6 eggs (and it's still fairly early). It will be interesting to see if their production is impacted by the weather.

How cold is too cold?

2008-12-15T09:34:00.001-08:00

In most people's homes the temperature gague below would read:

Time

Indoor Temperature

Outdoor Temperature

In our home, the temperature gague reads:

Time (an hour off because we couldn't figure out how to change it after the end of Daylight Savings time!)

Indoor Temperature

Chicken Coop Temperature!

John has not only set up the temperature gauge so that we can see that it's 25 stinking degrees in the coop this morning....

But he's also stapled up old towels over the vents in the coop to keep the snow from blowing in (as you can see below). Weeks and weeks ago he put two heat lamps out there connected to a temperature sensitive plug in thingey that turns on when the temperature dips down below 37 degrees. Smart, huh? Especially since it's like 23 degrees outside right now, and with the wind chill - more like 8 degrees!

Brrrr!!!!!

This morning when I went out to check on the girls and take them some warm water ('cause everything had frozen over, of course!) - and I was surprised at how much warmer it seemed in the coop - well, you know, compared to being outside in the wicked winter weather!

And the girls seemed quite content to stay in their coop and just hang out! They didn't even make a run for the open door - like normal - in fact, they just kinda looked at me with disdain for letting the draft in!

You gotta admit, though - it's pretty!

The kids are thrilled, of course, that school is cancelled today. There is even rumor among the masses that this may be an early start to Christmas Break. I'll believe that when I see it!

But there are a couple of bummers associated with the disruption in life as we know it - because, if you know anything about this part of the country in winter time, you may well know that when we see the first snowflake the world comes to a screeching halt...

First, a certain 16 year old who had an appointment to take her driver's test on Thursday will have to reschedule. (An ice storm is predicted for mid-week.)

And second, the girls' weekend away in Seattle may have to be disrupted as well... they're saying massive snow storm over the weekend.

We'll see, though. Afterall, the track record of our weather forecasters is far from perfect!

I guess this means it's winter....

2008-12-14T20:55:00.000-08:00

We were given the forecast on Saturday evening that Sunday we'd wake up to snow. As is often the case here in the lovely Pacific Northwest - there are dire warnings of "wicked winter weather" (one news station in particular has an affinity for this phrase!). More often than not, however, it turns out to be nothing - a total bust - much to the kids' disgust.

So we awakened Sunday morning and rushed to the window.... Would there be the 1 to 3 inches of snow predicted?

Nope.

Nada. Nothin. It was stinking cold. But no snow. Bummer.

But as we were getting ready for church one of the kids yelled (it must have been William), "I see snow flakes!" And sure enough there were a few tiny little flakes descending from the sky.

Well - isn't that nice?! A few flakes to five the kids their snow fix! Thought I as I went on my way getting ready for church.

Yeah - didn't stay just a few courtesy flakes. It actually started to accumulate! Wow! Maybe they got the forecast right afterall!

By the time we left for church there was a decent smattering of snow on the ground.

The girls seemed a little puzzled by it, but didn't pay it much mind.

The yard even took on that lovely wintry look with a dusting!

And it certainly didn't detain the girls from their warm oatmeal and berries treat for the morning!
Pepper - on the other hand - was over the moon about the snow! She wanted out to run and play and jump and bark at the snowflakes!

She was definitely in her element! Jessica even went out and tried to put together snowballs to throw to the dog to catch - but the snow was very powdery and that didn't work so well!

Caleb, as it turned out, had other plans for the day. He went and settled himself on top of my sewing "basket" (which is actually just a plastic bin with a lid full of projects that I think I ought to do) to do a little bird watching...

You gotta admit - it is lovely to watch them! And there were so many that came to feed - a much wider variety than we might normally expect.

Caleb did have his moments of excitement - where he tried to climb the window sill to try and reach a bird or two out in the dogwood!

But the birdies were safe!

I think this one might be a towhee... But we even saw a few robins trying to get to the feeders yesterday! Wild!

All in all - we had quite a little bit of accumulation before the day was done. Something in the 3 to 4 inches of snow range. We are up the hill a bit with a little more elevation, so that makes sense.

Bye Bye Speedy...

2008-12-11T16:58:00.000-08:00

There's something - I don't know - kinda ishey that goes on inside you when you bring home baby chicks. You pretty much instantly love them all. They're so tiny! They're so funny! They're so fluffy and adorable! How can you not love them?

Yes, it becomes VERY easy to bring baby chicks home! You might even find yourself bringing home more chicks than you originally :ahem: mentioned to your loving and supportive spouse. Somehow talk of eight chicks turned into more... But before there were more there were the first four original Hip Chicks - Rhode Island Reds Henrietta, Millie, Hallie, and Little Bit. About a month later came what were supposed to be five California Whites and five Dominques. Yeah, not so much - more like a bit of a hodge podge on the Dominiques - which, incidentally had a bonus chick thrown in.

Our second batch of chicks arrived shortly before my second trip to Spain of the year - I felt like a horrible chicken mom! But my kids - particularly Jess - stepped up to bat and really did a bang up job of caring for, loving - and naming (at least some of) them.

Here they are as little babies! Aren't they adorable? Speedy is one of those cute little black and white puff balls.
Just a few weeks have passed here - look how big they're getting! They were sure developing personality at this point. But even way back when - on the far left you can see Speedy - kind of off on her own, and looking... well... different.

A month later I was sure something was really wrong with Speedy. She was self-isolating, eating poorly, and seemed lethargic. We were worried. I hit the net and looked up every possible chicken disease and their symptoms - but she never really met the criteria of a specific disease.

We were fortunate to get some great advice from some other local Chicken owners and after some isolation, special treatment and quarters - Speedy seemed to get back up to speed!

Her favorite treat, by the way, was organic oatmeal (cooked up with some fruit pieces in it) with some yogurt thrown on top for good measure.

And while she did better - she never actually thrived. She would free range with her peers in the yard - but would oftentimes look confused about everything that was going on around her.

And while she was different - there were always a couple of her peers who would take - what seemed to be to us - special care to keep an eye out for Speedy and just hang out with her.

Speedy was always up for a good snuggle!

This probably sounds ridiculous - but honestly, this is how I most remember Speedy - looking kinda quizzical!

There were days when it almost seemed like she needed help standing or being steadied. It was so sad!
Here in late October it was just so obvious that Speedy was declining again. And I was getting ready to head out of the country again. And this time we had a chicken greenhorn chicken sitting - and I didn't want him to have to worry about what to do for poor Speedy in the event of a crisis.

So we emailed Rancho de Kao - a little bit of chicken nirvana in the Portland Metropolitan area. We were warmly invited to bring Speedy over for a little stay at the spa while we were out of the country. We were thrilled to have chicken pros on the job!

We touched bases with Rancho de Kao while we were still in Spain and learned that one of her handicaps was that she just didn't handle layer food well - she wanted baby food! So baby food - and lots of snacks - she got. Well, and just pampered all around. She did GREAT! Shortly before we were to return home we touched bases again and learned that we'd both have really nutty weekends our first weekend back - so we'd delay bringing Speedy home by a bit.

About a week ago we learned that Speedy had been doing wonderfully one day - taking little treats from an outstretched hand - and then later in the day withdrew. By nightfall she'd gone into her bed, and shortly thereafter she died.

We were so surprised! But not.

Poor Speedy.

We subscribe to Backyard Poultry magazine. We'd just received our subscription for the month and one of the articles mentioned that when one has a chick that just doesn't thrive - it should be culled from the flock. In my Grandmother's day (she was born in 1912) that would have been a no brainer. Today? There are vets that specialize in treating poultry! Who knew?!

For us - we love our backyard flock. But feeding our kids takes priority over money that might go toward chicken vet bills. There are those who would be horrified by that... of course, they might also fall into the camp that chicken are people, too! We're not quite there. We love our birds, yes - but they are not humans. We will care for them to the best of our ability. We will provide for them appropriately. We will work hard at keeping a healthy balance.

So, while we're sad that Speedy is gone, I honestly feel a little guilty that we didn't cull her from the flock months ago. I'll be pondering that for some time to come, I'm sure.

We're not the only ones in the neighborhood...

2008-12-04T04:58:00.000-08:00

The funniest thing happened the other day. We were on our way back from the airport - having met our niece who was going to be staying with us for nearly a week - hooray! (She was in town interviewing for a medical residency program at OHSU - we're so proud of her!)

Anyway... we were nearly home - just about four or five houses down the street from ours - I glance over at the newly cleared lot that someone has purchased and I would assume will build on before long - and lo and behold! What do I see?

"OH MY WORD!" I announce.

"What?!" Dawn, Jess, and William ask in unison.

"Look! It's one of the girls!" I pointed to said cleared lot.

"OH MY GOSH!" the kids responded. Dawn wasn't quite sure what we were talking about, I'd think.

There was a line of traffic behind me, so we formulated a plan as we headed home to turn around. "Okay, Jess, William - I'll turn around, we'll go back to the lot, and I'll drop you and you'll have to catch her. Do you think it's Millie?" I asked, knowing it was a dark colored chicken I'd spied.

Both kids seemed sure it was either Ducky or BB. So turn around we did, headed down the street, and I let the kids out. Dawn and I watched for a moment, but again traffic was building so we headed home.

A few minutes later Jessica and William returned - panting and laughing.

"Did you catch her?" I asked.

"Nope!" They responded and laughed. "It wasn't our chicken!"

How hilarious is that?

So... we aren't alone in our chicken ways! Of course, we hear the rooster a couple of blocks over like clockwork... But I hadn't realized there were other chickens so close!

And, speaking of chickens... I was gone for several hours this morning and when I came home and collected eggs - here's what I came away with:
Yes! I have a LOT of eggs in my refrigerator!

While it's a little sad that it's not Spring or Summer and our garden filled to overflowing with potential - there's something just - well, right about this season where the yard's leaves are raked up and piled on... And the chickens may scratch about in without fear of what burgeoning plant they might decimate!

I wondered how they'd act during the wintertime... and you know what? Pretty much exactly the same as in the Spring and Summer. They still love the yard. They still love worms. They still come running whenever I step out the door.

They don't get to free range as much as they did during the summer months, but the girls would still rather be out and in the yard than anywhere else - no matter what the weather.

Ever vigilent - Pepper, the wonder chicken dog - watches the girls carefully as they free range in the yard.

I once had a lovely, prepared flower bed.... then I got chickens. LOL!

And I know - it's just fungi - but really - isn't it pretty?

Okay - I'm willing to admit it now. Winter isn't so bad. Especially the part where the seed catalogs start showing up again! :)

A 12 Egg Day!!!

2008-11-30T19:16:00.000-08:00

We decided about a month ago we ought to keep a tally on the calendar in the kitchen on how many eggs we got a day. We'd gotten kind of lax in keeping track, and thought with all of the girls coming into lay - well, it'd be good to know.

I will admit that we haven't been 100% faithful at recording - but we've actually done fairly well. With 14 laying pullets (excluding Speedy who is still at Rancho de Kao - we miss her!) here are our tallys:

October 26: 6 eggs
October 27: 7
October 28: 7
October 29: 7
October 30: 10
October 31: 8
November 1: 9
November 2: 7
November 3: 9
November 4: 7
November 5: 8
November 6: 8
November 7: ??
November 8: 9
November 9: 8
November 10: 8
November 11: 7
November 12: 8
November 13: 7
November 14: 8
November 15: 8
November 16: 11
November 17: 10
November 18: 8
November 19: 7
November 20: 7
November 21: 6
November 22: 9
November 23: 7
November 24: 5
November 25: 5
November 26: 8
November 27: 11
November 28: 7
November 29: 10
November 30: 12

That's a lot of eggs!

And of these eggs we've had everything from pretty tiny eggs to just a fraction shy of 3 ounce eggs. They are white, the palest blush, tan, light brown, brown, and so brown they're almost magenta. They're really beautiful eggs. And yummy, too.

Of course, for two of those weeks we were in Spain and our substitute chicken wrangler kept track for us.

So what have we been doing with all those eggs? Well - eating them. And we've got some friends who have shared some, as well. We've got a few people who are interested in purchasing them - in fact, we've actually got a couple of "customers" who have a standing order.

William is so inspired by the whole thing that he's decided he should start an egg business. He wants to buy some Americauna chicks from a breeder in the Spring and get a nice colorful array of eggs for the sampling of eggs he wants to sell. We'll see how that goes! :)

I have to say - I had a couple of occasions to see chickens from afar while in Spain. I actually asked John to stop - turn around - and go back! I wanted to see those chickens! Unfortunately, we were on the toll road when that happened and there was no turn around possible, so I had to admire from afar. I missed the girls while I was gone!

So it's good to be home - and still fun and exciting to be enjoying our chickens!

If you need incentive to vote...

2008-11-03T14:41:00.000-08:00

Here you go:

VOTE

Just in case you missed the media hype (HA!) it's tomorrow! If you life in Oregon - like me - then don't forget, it's too late to put the ballot in the mail - you gotta drop it off now!

This is one of those times when I kinda miss the old fashioned going to the polling place to vote... Oh well, I'll dutifully vote and drop my ballot in time. I promise!

I'm really not an alarmist... I think....

2008-11-03T08:25:00.001-08:00

But PLEASE - can this be for real? See this article on Frankenfood - it really is alarming!

If that link doesn't work, check out www.notinmyfood.org - it's a really interesting web site!

Also, there's a really good post at the Back Forty that is a must read - an important update regarding NAIS.

Okay - deep breath. We really can make a difference if we will only just do something, you know?!

This is kinda wild!

2008-11-02T14:19:00.000-08:00

http://www.NaturalNews.com/023004.html

I got this article via an email - oh, months ago. I had a big, bad, horrible computer crash this week, and in the process of digging out and restoring my backup - I've run across all sorts of interesting stuff. This article included.

So whatcha think about this kind of stuff?

Wild, huh?!

Interesting Web Site

2008-11-01T16:10:00.000-07:00

This in from my friend Audrey...

This is a really great website I found. Just thought I would share. You can enter any cosmetic product or ingredient and it will tell you how hazardous it is on a scale of 1-10 and tells you why it is hazardous as well. I need to throw a bunch of stuff out! You can also search to find a list products that are non hazardous.

http://www.cosmeticdatabase.com/

Thanks Audrey!

Getting Ready for Winter

2008-10-26T16:37:00.000-07:00

This is a very pretty flower I picked up at Home Depot in late Spring. I wanted it in the vegetable garden because I felt it would attract pollinators. It did. It's lovely. And, it's pretty darn hardy. Today I transplanted it out of the garden - which hopefully will get tilled tomorrow - and into planters on the front porch. Here's the info about this flower - Sunny Day Tickseed - a type of coreopsis. But you wanna know what bugs me about this plant? This little blurb on the plant identifier tag: "Protected by US Patent Laws and/or Canadian Plant Breeder's Rights. Illegal propagation is prohibited." Okay - how stupid is that?! I'm sure someone somewhere thinks it's a good thing to have intellectual property rights to the propagation of this plant - but one has to wonder... what if it accidentally is propagated naturally? Will I be prosecuted? Ugh!

I hope this pictures comes out okay... In the background - see that truly BIG pile of leaves? The boys worked hard today to amass it. They're planning on building a fort from the raked up leaves. Ummm... today was one of those rare REALLY blustery days here in Oregon. Supposed to be tomorrow, too... This Mom can't help but wonder if this plan may somehow be, well, difficult to execute fully. :)

ALL of the animals are loving the leaves. Pepper likes to roll in them. Jake and Caleb like to curl up in them. The chickens like to scratch through them... And soon, I hope, they will be moved to my compost heap - helping to make wonderful compost for my garden one of these days!

Today John worked hard to finish up pulling up all of the remnants of the garden. The chickens LOVED following behind and scratching through everything.

Wow - it's that time of year ago - time to start strategizing what next year's garden will be.

It's wild how strange it is that we've come full circle. No more green beans... This will be my garlic patch - and soon! Thanks to Danni's and Melinda's examples and excellent information - I will FINALLY - after years of feeling completely inadequate and definitely not smart enough to attempt it - plant my first garlic patch. Woo Hoo! I'll be sure to report later!

And here is my piled-high compost heap. The girls are investingating - trying to determine if there's anything worth finding in there.

And here is my new composter. Kinda wild, huh? It's called Earthmaker - it's an Aerobic Composter. It involves a three step process - it has three different compartments - see?

Interesting, huh? I like it thus far, and will be sure to give updates as to how effective it is - or is not!

It occurred to me today - Hey! I should harvest the seed from my basil! Why have I never thought of that before? So, I went out with my scissors and a saran wrapped basket (so anything that escapes a seed pod will not be lost between the slats of the basket), and went to work. Here's a peek. I'll probably get around to coaxing the seed out of the pods tomorrow - I'll be sure to report back! But here's a great resource I found online about harvesting basil seed.

So - it's true... it's full force fall with winter on the way. I find it nearly impossible to believe it's only a week until November. But I think I'm ready for it now. I think the fact that it hasn't been horribly soggy has helped. I may even be ready for the rain. We'll see!

Speedy Update

2008-10-25T22:39:00.000-07:00

I'm leaving for Spain in less than 2 weeks.

We're fortunate to have a willing and kindhearted chicken-watcher all lined up.

However, as you can see from the progression of these photos - Speedy just hasn't been well - well, since mid-June.

In fact, in the past week she seems to have weakened considerably.

She tends to stay in the coop - granted, it is warmer in there - and shows little interest in much of anything.

The middle girls will huddle around her - almost like they're trying to keep her warm and protected.

The little girls - the Welsumer's - are not so nice. In fact, they pick on Speedy quite a bit.

Interestingly enough, the big girls have taken on more of an attitude of watching out for her, as well - especially Henrietta. (Maybe that's because Henrietta seems to have been bumped out of her spot as queen of the hill and now is just a lowly follower!)

Whatever the case, it occurred to me that it would be a sad - and maybe unkind - thing if - for the caretaker, as well as Speedy - if she were to give up and die while we're away.

The kids had voiced their concerns about Speedy and wondered if there wasn't something we could do for it.

That's when it occurred to John and I that we might know of someone who might "Speedy-sit" while we're gone.

So on Saturday morning Speedy went to visit at Rancho de Kao - really, pretty much, chicken nirvana. Kao and Tonya are very experienced chicken-keepers who sometimes agree to help out in time of need. They have been so kind as to offer to help our Speedy out.

I should have taken pictures - it was a wonderful experience - and amazing to get to see up close and personal so many different breeds of chicken. They've really got a great set-up out there!

I feel so much better knowing that Speedy will get the very best care possible. I wouldn't be surprised, however, if we got word that she'd not made it. But we won't give up hope yet - here's hoping that Speedy is hearty and hale and ready to come home when we get home from Spain!

Will she make it through the winter?

2008-10-18T23:00:00.000-07:00

Speedy, as you may well recall, has not had an easy time of it. She is smaller, less coordinated, definitely lowest girl on the pecking order, and well - sad. That's her on the left.

I think it's so interesting that some of her pals - the girls who are the same age (aka the California Whites, Ducky, and BB) will take turns hanging out with her - typically making sure she's not alone much. Here she is with one of the Whites and BB.

We've talked much about the fact that Speedy may not make it through the winter. We've really only had a few nights where the low has gotten close to freezing - but I have to wonder as the winter progresses, will she make it? She's so light. She seems to have so many fewer feathers than her peers. And she struggles so to do things the other girls do routinely.

She definitely has not started laying - in fact, we'd be blown away if she did! Poor thing - she's so peeked and pathetic. We're worried.

This is Shelly. Doesn't she look hilarious with that crazy comb?

Here's one of the Welsumer babies. They're old enough to start laying now, but haven't begun quite yet. Their combs and wattles are becoming more pronounced and redder - shouldn't be long now.
And here's Ducky. Remember the big conclusion that Ducky was laying those gorgeous dark eggs with the freckles? Well - ummm... maybe not! I went back to my photo archives after some suspicions and found that sure enough - our Ducky does NOT, in fact, lay those gorgeous dark freckled eggs - BB does! Ducky lays a lighter egg with lighter freckles - much like it sounds Vonda's chick does! Just when you think you've figured your chicks out! LOL!

So you gotta see the new bigger run that my brilliant husband has put together!

It gives the girls a much larger area to hang out - while still being confined somewhat.

You see - they've developed a bit of wanderlust, these girls. I keep finding them going DOWN THE STREET toward the various neighbors yards. That had to change!

So John added this additional fenced yard. Part of it is under the big old willow, part gets sun.

Thus far, the girls seem quite happy with the new digs!

Gosh, my husband is the coolest!

I love Ducky

2008-10-08T10:30:00.001-07:00

When I first started looking seriously for breeds of chickens I found an article about heritage breeds of animals... i.e., animal breeds that have been nearly forgotten and some nearly lost, due to the fact that they aren't has hardy in large scale production. I'm a history girl... I love it. I read about it - all the time. So when found some information about Dominiques, particularly, I thought, "I want those!"

So when it came time to order, I placed an order for five Dominiques. There was a little boo boo at the feed store - my order got mixed in with a bunch of other black-ish looking chicks - and I was sent on my way with what was HOPED to be five Dominiques - plus one, just in case.

As it turns out - three of our "Dominiques" were boys. They had to go away - and they did, to a very nice farm. The other three are Ducky, BB, and Speedy. Of the three, I'm convinced that Ducky is the lone Dominique. :( The jury is still out on what BB is, and Speedy - well she's a sad story all unto herself!

But Ducky... She's so sweet! She's so lovable. When you go outside and speak - she comes running! If you reach to pet her - she holds still so you can. She looks at you when you talk to her - and acts like she really gets what you're saying! She's adorable.

And... she lays the coolest looking eggs!

Aren't they pretty? How's that second to the left one for huge-o!?

Can you see the speckles on them? They're very, very dark brown. Kinda freckled.
Here's that big one - 2 and 3/8ths ounces. Wow!
I'm so glad we ended up with Ducky - she's a wonderful chicken!

What once was our yard...

2008-10-07T15:57:00.001-07:00

We've joined the ranks of those high-falutin folks the world over who have gone from septic to city sewer. Woo Hoo!

The real plus being that one doesn't have to deal with often cantakerous and more frequently than hoped for problems with one's septic system. The drawback... what it does to the yard!

The girls don't seem to mind so much - lots easier to find worms this way!
See that thing that looks kinda like some sticks poking up out of the mud? That's what's left of the hydrangea. Yeah - really!
I will say that another big plus is the fact that my sainted husband took pity on me and laid a lovely network of stepping stones through the mud so that I don't have to get my cast all blecky when I go out to check on the girls or collect eggs.
The yard will come back eventually, I know... But something tells me we have a long stretch of winter with mud-caked shoes ahead of us.
Yep... he is a pretty cool husband. Love those stepping stones!

Aaaagggggghhhhh!!!!!

2008-10-07T15:36:00.000-07:00

My blog list disappeared! What will I do?! How will I keep up with everyone? How can I find them all again? Horrors!

See - that's what I get for being busy as all get out and not spending enough time over here to have my blog list perfectly memorized, darn it! Sigh... Guess I'll have to work at recreating it. There's just too much good stuff out there too miss!

So - how'd a whole week go by?! Oh, yeah, that's right - two nights in the Emergency Room with amazing asthma boy! Some of my time this week, resultingly, as simply been vaporized. There have been weighty things weighing on my mind - as always. Some of them more daunting than others... like, do we buy a house? Or don't we buy a house? Right now - in light of the financial state of affairs of the country - not seems to be winning out. Danni left a comment on my previous post here that resonated with both John and I... something to the effect that one should perhaps not work so hard at convincing onself that a house may or may not be the right one - that you'd know. We gave a collective sigh and said, "Of course." What a relief.

You know what? We don't HAVE to buy a house. We can take our time. There's no rush. PHEW!

Danni - a deep debt of gratitude bestowed upon your head! Thank you! Although, Madelyn, I must tell you how powerfully tempted we are to pack everything up and head toward your farm in Tennessee! We planned on doing just such a thing a few years ago - had a moving date, plans all made, etc... We love Tennessee. One of these days!

So... during the course of the past week a strange thing has happened... it's morphed into fall. I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about it - as if feeling less than thrilled with it would have any impact whatsoever! I struggle quite a bit with kissing summer goodbye... But I'm learning to deal with it.

The change of seasons can escalate the chaos of my life basically without pause is a little dizzying. So - I'm back to the time of year when over 100 miles in a day in my little car without traveling more than 10 miles from home are back. I've got to get more serious about being a little more hermit-like! LOL!

The Inside Scoop

2008-09-30T14:01:00.001-07:00

As it turned out, we were not able to go and see the house in daylight yesterday. There were some scheduling conflicts, so we left about 7:15 pm - well into the evening last evening.

So - I'll show you a few pictures...

Here's the mud room/laundry room. I like it. I like that it's big, it has two windows - so lots of natural light.

Here's the kitchen - looking toward the breakfast nook. Isn't it interesting that it has cedar ceilings? Of note, this house has been empty for three years - a business deal gone bad, from what we've learned. The kitchen - while not fancy - is nice enough, and brand spanking new - well, at least never used. The stove, dishwasher, and refrigerator - all never been used - are included.

Here's the french doors (behind Jess) that would be the "front" doors - that is if the front doors were actually accessible to the real world. I'm sure that in 1890 it made way more sense. We think this is supposed to be the formal dining room - given the pretty fancy light fixture.

There are three large-ish sized rooms on the ground floor, with a tiny little room off of one of them. The picture below is the juncture between two of those large-ish sized rooms. I should probably make note of the fact that the carpet is pretty much trashed in this house.

Here's a peek at the sink/mirror in the one and only bathroom. Interestingly enough there is a HUGE window right adjacent to the toilet. Said window is adjacent to the porch/entry via the mudroom - which would, in all reality, be the main entry into the house.

And here's a peek at the other end of the bathroom - again, so interesting having the cedar ceilings!

Here's the view from the third large-ish room downstairs toward the staircase. Sadly, I forgot to take pictures upstairs.
We were really surprised by several things...

The interior of the house is in much better shape than we imagined.
The three bedrooms upstairs were much larger than we thought they'd be.
There's not a closet to be found in the place. We shouldn't be surprised, I guess - given the era of the house, but one would have thought maybe since 1890 someone could have thrown a few in!
There are TONS of bugs in this house.
We suspect quite a lot of dry rot.

So... what to do...

It's a bit spendier than what we feel comfortable with - even though the bank says we can afford it. (The bank, however, is not feeding, clothing, and keeping healthy and hale three kids!)

It' lacks a single outbuilding... sigh. We want outbuildings. And given that it's more expensive than we hope to spend - there would be no money left over to build outbuildings in the near future...

It's completely lacking fencing... We want fencing... We realize we'll need to put up some wherever we end up going eventually - but one can't help but hope for some, can they?

And while the interior is in better shape than we imagined it would be - there are some concerning features... like the dry rot.... like - where are all of those bugs getting in?!... like all of the places where the finishing wasn't completed on walls, corners, fixture installation, etc.

We aren't expecting a Street of Dreams kinda place for what we can afford - but we also don't wanna be stupid, you know?

So - our real estate agent is running some comps... We're kind of thinking it may be a bit overpriced given the issues that we were able to ascertain with two brief encounters.

We'll see what happens - you never know!

Should we? Or shouldn't we?

2008-09-27T22:22:00.001-07:00

We've always just pretty much assumed we'd never own a home. We will be celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary in November - and - for us - it has never seemed an automatic that we should or would join the ranks of homeowners. We decided long ago that it was far more important - for our family anyway - for me to be home with the kids (where I want to be) than to be out in the work force. Yes, that means we have much less income coming in. Yes, that means we must be very intentional with every little penny.

We've been so blessed to be renting an older home - in NW Portland - on half an acre. It's not a fancy house at all. In fact, it has original a bunch of stuff - not good stuff to have original just to be clear - you know, wiring, plumbing, etc. It's not insulated. It has issues. Big issues. But it's affordable - AND - it's HALF AN ACRE IN NW PORTLAND! The reality being - our landlords are pretty committed to not improving the place. So, we must do with what we have.

For years now we've been working diligently to pay off debt - including mountains of school loans - we're exceptionally well educated but of course, in fields that neither of us ended up working in. We've put our extra pennies into savings, and done without as much as possible.

As a result, we find ourselves in a place we didn't think we'd be... contemplating purchasing our first home.

If the truth were told, we'd confess to longing for...

A home with enough room for all of us - the human contingent of our little world - two adults, the three kids, with an additional nephew thrown in for good measure at the moment.

Enough land to grow what we want to grow - lots and lots of organic stuff.

Enough land to have our chickens - and maybe even a small flock of turkeys.

Enough land for a goat or two.

Enough land for a couple of cows.

That doesn't exist in the area where we live right now - at least not in our price range. Speaking of price range - ours is pretty modest - compared to the values of the places that we can see in a five mile radius of where we live. VERY modest. It's a given that if we end up buying a house it won't be nearby.

We figure we're gonna need a place to be within an hour drive for John's commute to work. We know we won't move to a place that has schools that don't meet certain criteria. We know it's going to be a big deal - moving our kids from one set of schools to another, as well. And we know that it will be a big adjustment - going from suburbia to a more rural lifestyle. When we lived in Kentucky we lived about 20 miles from the nearest town. The places we're looking at now are nowhere near that far out.

So we've been looking. A bit passively, actually. Not many places come up that fit our criteria! But of the ones that do - it's kind of funny how many places look amazing on ads - but not so much in real life. Seen a bunch of those. But what do you expect given our price range?!

Today we did a drive-by on a place that at first blush is beautiful. See?

We were happy to learn from our real estate agent that it is vacant, so we could peek in the windows. Bottom line... from the outside it's REALLY cute. Come Monday we'll actually peek inside to see more.

But the real question is this, I guess: Just because the lender says you can afford to buy this house - can you really? Or more specifically - can we? Or should we?

There is a great yearning in our hearts to own some land... Usable land. Land that we can do something with, and that will sustain - well - not just us but our animals.

But at what cost?

I'm guessing we're not the only ones asking that kind of question right now - given the current state of financial affairs in our country.

Owning, of course, has it's advantages. Not owning does as well.

Oh - if only we knew what it was we really ought to do.

It may well be we're not the first ones to ponder that very question while standing a ways off gazing at the potential of this being our home - it was built in 1890, after all.

Hmmm.... we'll see.

On a completely different note...

We get the magazine Backyard Poultry and this month's issue arrived today. There's an article on Barred Rock chickens. Know what? I've got a sneaking suspicion that our BB and Speedy just might be Barred Rocks! But after reading this article today - I'm convinced that Ducky (below) is a Dominique. (Our only Dominique pullet - out of the six chicks we started out with!)

Wasn't it nice of her to stop and pose for me?

And here's Rooth - not to be outdone by Ducky - she wanted her picture taken, as well. Isn't she growing up?

Sigh... it really would be nice to have a place of our own...

I was wrong!

2008-09-25T21:45:00.000-07:00

Remember the mondo egg? The 2 and 7/8ths ounce one? Here's a picture:

And remember how we thought it was BB who had laid it?

Well - I was wrong! It wasn't BB at all - it was Millie! Here she is below - she's the darkest of our Rhode Island Reds - and has the sweetest temperment. Not only has she laid that one mondo egg - she has followed it up a couple of times now with others of exact same size! She's kind of coming into her stride egg-laying wise. She's laying pretty much daily now and the majority of the time her eggs are right between the 2 oz and 2.25 oz range.

Remember my late planting of the Scarlet Runner Beans? Well, they worked hard and finally filled out - and produced the most beautiful peachy color blossoms... See?

Here's a picture of the other planting on the other side of the trellis:

These ones (which I can never remember what they're called) have a pretty little yellow flower.

And this is what they look like now - after the deer came to visit my garden:

I'm not feeling very warm or fuzzy toward the deer right now. Grrrr!

On Saturday late afternoon - with the skies and the weather forecast predicting rain, we realized we ought to pull the ripe tomatoes in. When all was said and done - we picked about 120 pounds of tomatoes of various varieties...

We love the stripey yellow/orange/red tomatoes that you can see below. They are so sweet and robust tasting.

We decided to try a yellow Roma this year. Wow - they're gorgeous! And tasty!

We always plant cherry tomatoes, and grape tomatoes, and pear tomatoes, and... you get the idea. This year we planted a variety called sugar lump - here's a good picture:

Here's a couple of baskets full of the mini tomatoes. They're amazing!

Thus far we've made pomodoro, diced tomatoes, tomato basil sauce, garlic tomato basil soup, and I've got about a gallon of peeleed and seeded tomatoes waiting to be processed.

This is the pomodoro, above; and the tomato basil tomato sauce below.

John's Hungarian Wax peppers are nearly ready to harvest! Aren't they pretty?

And just a few of his bell peppers... They're nearly ready!

Henrietta - always willing to reassert her role as leader of the pack - loves to sit up on the lawn furniture. Here she is - on her throne - observing her minions!

And lest you think we've gotten all of the tomatoes that our garden will offer - THINK AGAIN!

These are from Wednesday evening.

That's a BIG tomato, huh?

Guess I've got my work cut out for me! Our tomato plants are still pretty loaded and it's supposed to be 90 on Monday - in the mid to high 80's on days on either side of Monday. I'm thinking there's gonna be lots more tomato processing!

A quiet day

2008-09-17T13:52:00.000-07:00

I don't get many of those, by the way - quiet days, that is. Yesterday I didn't have a single appointment until 6:00 pm. This in contrast to the day before when I had TWELVE.

I needed a quiet day.

And while it was a quiet day - it was not without it's thrills. Like just happening along and accidentally opening the door to the nest boxes, checking for eggs, and getting to witness our Hallie laying an egg. Standing up, I might add. Danni has a great video of her Sparrow doing the same on her blog today - you can see it here.

How cool is that?! I was really surprised - I guess I shouldn't have been - that it would be sorta slimey when first laid. And further amazed to watch it dry in what seemed to be just a fraction of a second. And how VERY warm it was when I was able to retrieve it.

A definite highlight of my quiet day.

Here's our Hallie...
And I spent some time playing with Pepper, the wonder chicken dog. I don't know if I mentioned it before, but she spent several weeks with our wonderful friend (who is a vet) up near Tri-Cities, WA while she was being spayed. I missed her!

Here she is in classic form.

I'm usually pretty driven to get a whole bunch of things done - 'cause there are always a whole bunch of things that NEED to get done. But you know what? Yesterday was amazing - quiet, restful, peaceful, restorative. Sigh. What a gift!

Now that's a BIG egg!

2008-09-14T22:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday BB laid her first egg...

That's BB on the left. Her name stands for big black - yeah, I know, not very inventive - but we were trying to keep a LOT of chicks straight - and she was just consistently bigger than the other chicks! She (and the rest of the "middle" girls) was 18 weeks old on the 1st of September. So we've been watching for her first egg.

Yesterday was the day! It was exciting - but a rather average, albeit a bit smaller than average (compared to the big girls, anyway).

THIS is today's egg from BB:

Yep - that says 2 7/8ths ounces.

DANG! That's a BIG egg!

Compared to Rooth's eggs...And in with the other eggs from the big girls - who routinely lay about 2.25 oz eggs...

By the way... Aren't they pretty eggs? I love the color variations. The kids are getting expert at being able to identify who laid what egg. Wild!

We live in an old house - and sometime shortly after the house was built (in 1946) someone planted a hydrangea right under the kitchen window. It's a very large bush! It is kind of wierd, though - the colors on it tend to wash out to almost white in late summer and early fall, and then it seems to shut down production, as I assume other hydrangeas, do. I was walking past the bush - as I do many times each day - and was shocked to see one cluster of flowers on the back to a truly stunning blue. Isn't it pretty?

Here are a few of the girls out sunbathing the other day... So much for cleaning the carpet and letting it dry in the sun!

It didn't take us very long along the road of chicken ownership to figure out that chickens make the funniest noises. Henrietta makes the funniest little chirping sound when she's on the nest box and you dare to disturb her. Here's a tiny little video clip that Jessica took of her the other day.

And here (the lightest brown egg) is the egg she laid shortly thereafter!

Interestingly enough - Henrietta is still the most consistent egg layer. We get an egg a day from her - pretty much without fail. Rooth is right behind her in consistency. Interesting, huh?

Our Rooster Laid an EGG!!!

2008-09-06T23:17:00.000-07:00

So we have this neighbor...

Well, I should back up a bit... If you remember Harlan the rooster, you'll remember the neighbor - you can get the whole story here. Suffice it to say - our neighbor does not approve of roosters.

In the past week I've had several alarming mornings... picture this... me, in my nightgown, wearing my muckers (the world's best shoes for running around a dew-wet yard), a cardigan, my hair all over the place... madly trying to coax my California White chickens out of the neighbor's (yes THAT neighbor's) newly seeded lawn. I nearly have a heart attack every time I glance out the bathroom window and see that they're THERE - AGAIN!

About a week ago the neighbor's wife came and knocked on the door to let me know our chickens were in her yard and I should come remove them... I, of course, quickly donned shoes and followed her to the sight of them scratching in her yard.

This neighbor and I have never spoken before. It was an interesting conversation. She mentioned casually that she used to raise chickens. She shared some tidbits on the best methods to raise chickens. And then she informed me that one of my California Whites was, in fact, a cockerel - not a pullet and that I should be cautious. I responded that I was pretty sure that it was, in fact, a pullet, not a rooster - we'd already gotten rid of our California White rooster - and that it wasn't unusual for the pullets to develop more pronounced combs and wattles right before they started laying eggs - just about the age of these chicks. She made certain to let me know that she had no doubts we had a roo on our hands, and that she'd be keeping an eye out.

Today - our "rooster" laid an egg!

Here SHE is... she doesn't have a name, but since she's so easily identified visually from her peers now, I suppose we're going to have to come up with a name for her! Any suggestions?

And here's her egg. It's our first white egg! Woo hoo! It was petite - only 1.375 oz - but perfectly beautiful!

How's that for a display of variety?! The darkest eggs are Millie's, the lightest of the brown eggs are Henrietta's, and the medium brown ones are Hallie's.

Oh - and Jake has found a new favorite place to nap during the day:

Yes, that's him curled up right underneath the nest boxes. The girls don't seem to mind him there - and he doesn't seem to mind them, either. He's such a goof!

It'll be interesting to see if he's allowed to continue to nap there as more and more of the chicks start laying... The middle girls are now of an age where that will begin. I'll be sure to report!

It's official - I'm outraged!

2008-09-04T15:15:00.000-07:00

May 29th, 2008 I celebrated one of the biggest milestones of my adult life: 1 year of being high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) free. (You can read a little about it here.)

I know - seems kinda weird, maybe to wholesale eliminate an ingredient from one's life, but I have motivation: my bones. I was diagnosed with osteoporosis quite a few years ago - since then I've taken big strides to improve my bone density - including losing a couple of hundred pounds, supplementing appropriately, getting appropriate exercise, etc. A little over a year ago it came to my attention that one of my - literally - lifelong addictions was fighting me tooth and nail for my bone density. My love for Coke. One of my orthopedic surgeons mentioned to me a couple of years ago that I wasn't doing myself any favors by consuming it, but I kinda shrugged the comment off as some health nut type of comment! LOL!

Shortly before I took the plunge and decided to kick the HFCS to the curb my endocrinologist casually mentioned to me that HFCS and carbonation BOTH inhibit calcium absorption.

That stopped me cold in my tracks.

"WHAT?!" I exclaimed. Why didn't I know that?

That's when I decided I had to research and decide for myself the veracity of such a statement. I put on my researchers hat and jumped in with both feet. It didn't take very long to find some alarming information. Timeline was also troubling - introduction of HFCS into the food chain and parallels to the obesity epidemic were difficult to dismiss. Incidence of spikes in the numbers of the general population developing Type II diabetes and that timeline were interesting, as well. And particularly concerning to me, the fact that there were many references to a correlation between increased HFCS consumption overall and declining bone density.

There were some really great resources available. As always, http://www.washingtonpost.com/ was offered lots of interesting articles - one in particular that I found helpful was by Sally Squires entitled, "Sweet but Not So Innocent?" dated March 11, 2003. I wish I could offer a link to the entire article here, but it's now in their archives and you have to buy it to read the entire thing - the free preview gives you a good idea, tho.

Suffice it to say - there's a lot of excellent information available for an intelligent person to make an informed choice. My choice, obviously, was to exclude HFCS from my world.

Easier said than done.

Have you ever read labels? I do a lot - one of my motivators for label reading is because I'm allergic to so much stuff, so it's a pretty important thing for me to do. But have you ever read labels with an end to ferreting out whether or not HFCS is in the ingredient list?

Whoa Nellie!

It's in almost everything! Good grief!

So why? Why is it everywhere? Why is it in Ritz Crackers? I love Ritz Crackers. Why is it in Wheat Thins? I love Wheat Thins, too! Why is it in crazy stuff that you'd never dream it would be in? Honestly, too much stuff to begin listing. It's a little bit frightening when you start to pay attention and realize how pervasive the use of the stuff is. And then you look around at your fellow shoppers and the light bulb kind of goes on.

One of the reasons it's everywhere is money. It's a cheap way to sweeten stuff. Another reason is that it's sweeter than table sugar - so your taste buds crave that super sweet sensation. Another reason is convenience - easy to add to stuff, making production costs - even marginally - lessened - which means more profit for the manufacturer.

Maybe another reason is the Corn Refiners Association really, really, really likes having the resources available to produce commercials like the ones I saw last night - over my shoulder as I was sitting at my desk working on a project.

Okay - so let me just preface this by saying - I really don't watch a lot of TV. Just not a lot of time. Usually it's kind of by accident that I catch stuff. Kinda like last night. So I don't know how long these commercials have been playing, or the web site they promote has been active - but last night was the first time I saw them.

Let me just give a brief overview of the first commercial I saw. I'd give you a link to it - but I don't want to promote the stinkers who are promoting it! Two Moms - at a party of some sort - it's summer time - happy children playing in the background. One Mom approaches the obviously hosting Mom as she's pouring some sort of juice into glasses for kids. Approaching Mom says something to the affect (and in an obviously condemning tone) "You must not care what your kids eat/drink. You know that has high fructose corn syrup in that, right? You know what they say about it, don't you?" Hosting Mom responds with a very laid back persona, "No, what are they saying?" Approaching Mom responds, obviously stumped, with hems and haws... Hosting Mom interjects, "That it's made from corn, it's all natural, and should be used in moderation like table sugar?" To which Approaching Mom stammers, "I love your shirt!"

So bottom line - one must conclude that anyone who is opposed to the use of HFCS is:

1. Stupid
2. Really stupid.
3. An idiot as well as stupid.
4. And a fear-monger as well.

Okay - yeah, I know, sorry. I'm mad. I shouldn't say stuff like that. But STINK!

I know better than to ask, "Don't they care?" Because obviously - they do - just not about the stuff that seemingly really matters to me.

Okay - I'm gonna shut up now. I'm still too mad.

Pictures of the Girls (Finally!)

2008-08-31T17:17:00.000-07:00

Today's Post Courtesy of Jessica Here are a couple of pictures of Henrietta. She's so cute!
Here's one of the little girls (that aren't so little anymore)

hiding in the trees by our house
Here's Millie, her comb is finally coming in.
She's roosting on the lawn furniture.

The little girls love wander all over the yard.
There's speedy, running like always...
Hallie and one of the white chickens searching for

snacks by our neighbor's garage
Here's my mom with Henrietta. She is such a cutie!

Here's me and speedy. Speedy is still the runt
and she is super clumsy.

Hallie has the biggest comb of all. But weirdly enough

she doesn't lay as regularly as Henrietta and Millie

Henrietta and Millie just hanging out
All of the girls love to eat blackberries out of your
hand. Ducky, BB, and Speedy all want this one.

Okay, I admit it...

2008-08-22T11:45:00.000-07:00

Getting a good downpour is GREAT for weeding. I can grudingly admit that. I will not however, proclaim my love for October weather in August! But, I can concede that the rain did, in fact, give the garden just the soaking it was needing after our long dry spell.

...but telling when mushrooms start popping up all over the place!

The bush beans are loaded! So we picked a whole bunch of them - 5 pounds of them to be exact. We ate a pound of them with dinner - they were lucious! And canned the rest... see?

We got 9 pints out of the 4 remaining pounds. Not bad, huh?

And - finally! - some ripe tomatoes! It's a good thing we've got lots of cherry tomatoes... I must have eaten about 20 of them while I was weeding!

It's interesting that the yellow pear tomatoes are so fleshy this year. Their color is so much more profound this year, as well.

And the yellow tomatoes are ripening nicely.

I'm finding that I like the bush cucumbers better this year, as well. They grow very uniformly, and the taste is excellent. My favorite eating cucumber is the lemon cucumber - but this one comes in close second. We harvested 13 cucumbers today - 1 lemon, 4 straight 8's, and 8 bush.

I know next to nothing about eggplants. Grammy used to grow them in her garden in California and I remember that they were huge and nearly black (obviously the Black Beauty variety). It wasn't until I was older that I developed a taste for them, and this is the first time we've tried to grow them. This is the Ichiban variety - it will be interesting to see how they develop. I'm not even sure how large they should be when they are harvested! Looks like I've got some reading to do!

All three of John's pepper plants are loaded - some of the peppers are actually nearing appropriate size to pick - now all they need is a little more sunshine to start to develop their colors!
The middle girls are growing up! This is Speedy and a couple of her bunkmates - the California Whites. The California Whites are so difficult to tell apart that they've never gotten themselves named. Well, they are very anti-social so a few names have been called, but not the kind one should perpetuate!

These "middle girls" are quickly nearing laying age. They will be 18 weeks old on September 1st. It will be interesting to see how they ease into that phase.

And it's time to pick blackberries again! Couldn't you just reach right out and pick these and pop them into your mouth?

That would be great if they weren't ALL THE WAY UP THERE!

I'm thinking we're gonna have to break out the tall ladder!

There's so much that I should be doing in the garden today - but it's Portland CityFest today and tomorrow. So the garden must wait! I mean - seriously - how often is Kirk Franklin in Portland?! Hello! Can't miss him! And tomorrow night - Toby Mac! We're really looking forward to the entire event... Hopefully I'll get some blackberries picked in the morning and made into syrup before we head out tomorrow. We'll see...

Glimpses of Fall

2008-08-19T00:57:00.000-07:00

I refused at the time to admit I saw it, but I did. I know I did. Not just because I saw it, but because one of the kids did, too - and had the nerve to verbalize it...

"Look! Mom! That tree... it's starting to turn!"

A perfectly innocuous thing to say, but it does not jive well with my current state of impending Fall denial!

I don't want it to be fall yet.

I'm still just trying to settle into summer and truly savor the glory of it all.

I don't want the kids to go back to school yet.

I don't want to be cold yet. (Well, but I'd also not like to be quite as hot as the past week has been either! Finicky, huh?!)

I don't want to get rained on a bunch yet.

And I'm not ready for the gray days yet.

See - it's not really Fall I'm dreading, is it? It's more winter. Fall is just the first step toward winter, of course. Fall can be simply glorious here. I love the years when we have a lingering summer and enjoy dry, temperate weather far longer than is typical. I could go for a Fall like that.

It's hard to be in Fall denial, though, when one spends hours upon hours at the high school getting the kids' schedules and yearbooks and textbooks and photos taken care of!

It's hard to be in Fall denial, as well, when the high today was I think less than 70 degrees.

And it's hard to be in Fall denial when it rained - not just a tad bit - and soaked the yard (and me!), and looked not so much like summer - gray, damp, a little bit dreary.

But, I'll survive it. I don't know why it's so profound this year. Maybe it's because I've got two kids in high school this year? Maybe cause I'm feeling like the time is short to hold them tight and love them well? Maybe because my neice and nephew started their school year today, now that they are safely back to their own home after having spent the better part of the summer here.

Whatever the case, I'll reflect on these lovely verses:

Be glad, O people of Zion,

rejoice in the Lord your God,

for he has given you

the autumn rains in righteousness.

He sends you abundant showers,

both autumn and spring rains, as before.

The threshing floors will be filled with grain;

the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.
'I will repay you for the years

the locusts have eaten —

the great locust and the young locust,

the other locusts and the locust swarm—my

great army that I sent among you.

You will have plenty to eat, until you are full,

and you will praise the name of the Lord your God,

who has worked wonders for you;

never again will my people be shamed.

Then you will know that I am in Israel,

that I am the Lord your God,

and that there is no other;

never again will my people be shamed.

Joel 2:23-27 (NIV)

It really is about perspective, isn't it? Seasons are a good thing. And once again, I'm thinking too far ahead - not reveling in the beauty of this lovely remaining season and the good things God has in store for me while it yet remains. So I'll try not to miss the present in anticipation of the future.

The thrill...

2008-08-08T00:11:00.000-07:00

Will I always feel that thrill when I open the door to the nest boxes and see this? Will I ever be able (willing?) to go to the coop and check for eggs without camera in tow? I'm sure that at some future point in time it will change from a feeling of utter delight to drudgery perhaps... maybe in the dead of winter? Nah... I don't think so!

I actually have a spreadsheet that I'm keeping that includes which hen laid which egg, what time of the day, how much said egg weighed, and the age of the hen. I'm sure some additional fields will eventually make their way in there, but thus far, these fields seem to be sufficient. I'm such a wierdo sometimes! LOL!

Suffice it to say that the egg watch has retained it's high level of importance at our house - from the youngest kid on up - we're all still thrilled with the discovery of a new egg.

Today Millie joined the egg-laying ranks! Woo Hoo! Her first egg was 1.5 ounces - just like Henrietta's first real egg. But note the difference in color! Millie's egg is on the left, Henrietta's is on the right. Interestingly enough, Henrietta is the lightest in color of our three Rhode Island Reds. Wild, huh?

Henrietta's egg shown here was 2.25 oz - thus far two of hers have been 1.5 oz, and two have been 2.25 oz. We haven't cracked the second 2.25 oz egg yet, but the first one was a double yolker. Jonathan has dibs on the second one, and I'm sure will be a part of his breakfast in the morning!

This is the first time I've raised eggplant. This is an Ichiban variety, and is supposed to be good eats. If lovliness of a plants flower has any weight for the flavor argument, this one is gonna be really good. Wow - isn't it gorgeous?
John's pepper plants seem to have gone bezerk all of a sudden. One day you can't find a pepper, the next, this!
Tonight at dinner John actually took one of these Hungarian wax peppers and diced it to enjoy with the tacos. (Yes, he was the only one interested in consuming it!) He reported that it's a very sweet pepper thus far, but he's read it has the potential to kick some serious butt!

Aren't they gorgeous?
And look! The new planting of green beans are doing their thing!

By the way... I know this is difficult to see, but if you're good at deciphering clues, you'll find as we did - HOOF PRINTS! That's not all we've found... more plants uprooted, green tomatoes with bites out of the sides of them, etc. Darn deer!

Thankfully, we've got enough tomatoes that the few the deer have gone after thus far have been inconsequential. (I could get QUITE cranky, however, if they don't watch it!)

Last year our cherry tomato offerings were a little bit paltry. That will not be the case this year!

I think one of the most astounding things in life is to find a tiny little zucchini one day, and the next come back to find a ready to pick and consume fruit!

Of course, there is no such thing as too much yellow crookneck squash, but WOW - we're getting lots of it, and it's only just begun! Isn't it pretty?

I'm watching the berry bushes daily (and of course quality control testing) the fruit to determine if it's time to start picking. I hope to harvest many, many times in the coming weeks so that we'll have plenty of jam, jelly, syrup, pie filling, and frozen fruit. I'm sure I'll find some other things to do with the berries, too - just give me a little time! :)

And our first green bean patch is growing like crazy - there are blossoms all over, and baby beans left and right - hooray! I can hardly wait to start canning these for the coming year!

We took a ride out to Ag West today to pick up a couple of things. My heart just yearns for a place that we can call our own... driving through the countryside just outside of the urban growth boundary was a call to my heart... oh, please Lord! Let there be a place for us one of these days!

25 hours later...

2008-08-04T14:26:00.001-07:00

Can you see her in there? There's our Henrietta - who for the better part of an hour hung out in "her" nest box (bottom right) - arranging the pine shavings, moving the wooden egg here or there, squking now and then, and as William observed, "looking kinda angry!"

Yesterday we retrieved egg number 1 at 1:08 p.m. Today, egg number 2 was retrieved at 2:08 p.m. According to Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens by Gail Damerow, "Approximately ever 25 hours, one ovum acquires enough layers of yolk to be released into the oviduct..."

So, makes sense, huh?

And not only did she prove to be consistent in terms of timing - the next quote from Damerow, "As a hen gets older, her eggs get bigger."

Yep! Yesterday's egg was 1.5 ounces. Today a whopping 2.25 ounces.

WOW!

That means egg number 2 is just shy of the jumbo eggs that we purchase, and nearly double of yesterday's egg!

Wow!

As William reported today, "Henrietta rocks!"

I think he's absolutely correct!

It's an egg!

2008-08-03T22:49:00.000-07:00

Today - a full week after the first (sort of) egg was laid we heard Henrietta squaking like there was no tomorrow. We were eating lunch and could hear her all the way into the house - pretty unusual - but we've heard her loud before. This time, it was pretty sustained.

After lunch William went out to investigate, and came back yelling, "It's an EGG!" To which we dropped everything, grabbed the camera and raced out to the coop - where Henrietta was smart enough to lay her egg - in an actual nest box. Good chicken!

Isn't it cute? The wooden egg on the left is pretty good sized, but this is decidedly a petite egg.

But pretty, huh?

Compared to the Jumbo sized eggs we buy (which weighs in at 2.75 oz) I don't think our 1.5 oz egg looks too bad, do you?

Here she is - the woman of the hour - Henrietta! I'm so proud of her!

Here's hoping it doesn't take a whole week for the next egg!

Pesto!

2008-07-31T22:51:00.000-07:00

It's really been time to make pesto for at least a week - but time, you know - it just evaporates and then I find myself looking down a row of basil that just simply needs attention NOW! That's where I found myself this afternoon - with a spare hour to my credit - so pesto had to happen!

Believe it or not, pesto is one of the easiest things to make. It doesn't really take much - a couple of cups of basil leaves, some pine nuts, some garlic, some parmesan cheese, and some olive oil. Being the lazy girl that I am, I really feel strongly that a food processor is high up on the list of necessary ingredients of making pesto! :)

See - only takes up a little corner on my counter:

But of course, we start with the garden - where the basil is yelling, "Dina! Get out here! We need attention! NOW!"

Ideally, you want to wait until your basil plants are at least 10 inches tall before you start harvesting the leaves. And if you hadn't heard it before, it's time for you to know that plants that go to flower tend to be bitter - so you want to harvest when they start to flower. Important note: if you deadhead (i.e., pinch off the flowering part of the plant) it doesn't actually halt the flowering of basil, it just spurs the plant to produce more flowers. Rather than deadhead, cut at least six leaf pairs down the stem. The plant will then begin leaf production again - giving you more to harvest soon! (See Organic Gardening magazine for some excellent resources on growing basil.)

So - as you can see, this plant is definitely at least 10 inches tall - in fact, it's 18 inches tall - so time to harvest! A good rule of thumb is to cut the stems just above the second set of leaves (counting from the ground up). This will cause new stems to form at this juncture. (Cool, huh?) If you trim your basil often - every 10 days or even less - the better flavor your basil will have.

Here's the same plant after it's little - ahem - hair cut.

Not a bad harvest, huh? And just to make sure we've got some truth in advertising going on here, this is harvest from TWO plants, not just one.

I typically put the collander in the sink, pull the leaves from the stems, and put the just pulled leaf into the collander. The work goes pretty quickly. I pull all of the leaves I can possibly get from a stem - avoiding any flower or seed "spikes" that are at the apex of the stem.

Once all of the leaves have been pulled from the stems, I wash them thoroughly - seriously, can take up to five full minutes to make sure they're thoroughly clean!

That was a lot of leaves, huh? Would you have guessed it was only 4 cups of leaves? Make sure to pack those leaves down pretty firmly - and don't forget to drain out any excess water that might settle to the measuring cup. (By the way, I'm making a double batch here.)

The step I forgot to take a picture of is the one where you throw those leaves into the food processor and pulse until they're pretty finely chopped.

Next, you add the pine nuts. I used about 7 tablespoons of them. Also, some people prefer walnuts - it's fine to use either, but I love the pine nuts myself. Pulse some more, until they are chopped and incorporated.

Now you add the garlic. Some people keep minced garlic on hand. See - true confessions come out there... I've got a bad attitude about the minced garlic you get in the jar - I just really don't think it tastes as good or fresh (well, cause it isn't!). I, of course, recognize that for some folks it really is the best choice for them - but for me, not. Soooo... if you add minced garlic, you don't need to pulse much here - if at all. If you add cloves of garlic, make sure you pulse until they are minced and incorporated. The recipe calls for 3 garlic cloves - being the garlic-loving girl that I am, I usually double that.

Now the parmesan cheese. Again - going back to the lazy girl thing - while I could pull out the microplane and hunk of parmesan and grate like crazy to get the 1/2 of a cup of parmy, but instead, I hit the freezer for my handy bag of frozen shredded parmesan from Costco. Hey, it works! Go ahead and pulse to incorporate the cheese.

Now, while the food processor is running, gradually add in the 1 cup of olive oil. I use extra virgin olive oil - use whatever you prefer.

Then, I do something that really isn't called for in any of the recipes that I've seen yet, but I do just 'cause I like it this way: I transfer the ingredients from the food processor into a mixing bowl and throw in about another 1/4th a cup of shredded parmesan and use a spatula to mix it in.

Now it's time to package the pesto. I pretty much make it to put in the freezer - where it will store nicely for up to a year. Woo Hoo! I use 1-cup freezer containers and fill leaving just a little head space. I've found over the years that adding a little layer of olive oil on top of the pesto works wonders at keeping it fresh tasting once it's thawed.

And - voila - I now have my first three 1-cup containers of pesto in the freezer for the coming year.

I think the best part about having basil plants in the garden is that it really only takes a few minutes to throw together a batch of pesto - whether it's a small batch to be used immediately, or a larger batch to prepare for the freezer.

And just in case you don't have a way to use your wonderful batch of pesto, here's one of my favorite ways to do so:

Dina's Favorite Pasta Salad

1 pound of orzo
3/4ths pound Italian roast beef (1/2 inch thick slice)
3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup shaved parmesan cheese
1 small zucchini (peeled, sliced thinly)
1 jar pickled baby corn
1/2 cup pickled carrots
1/4 cup pickled asparagus
1 small jar marinated artichoke hearts
2 cups fresh mushrooms, sliced
5 green onions, sliced
1/3 cup cold pressed extra virgin olive oil
3/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup balsalmic vinegar
3/4 cup pesto
1 large avocado, diced
6 small tomatoes, wedged

Dice up pickled vegetables according to your personal preference. Combine all prepared vegetables (omitting avocado and tomatoes) into a large mixing bowl. Add diced italian roast beef. Toss together.
Cook orzo according to directions. When done, drain - but DO NOT rinse. Toss the hot pasta with the vegetables and beef. (This will steam the vegetables a bit.
Quickly add in and toss with the pesto, vinegars, and olive oil. Mix thoroughly.
Cover and place in the refrigerator overnight.
Shortly before serving add in grated parmesan cheese and avocado.
Once completely mixed through, garnish with tomato wedges and sprinkle with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, as well as a few shavings of parmesan cheese. Serve.

Ta da!

Strange goings on during the night...

2008-07-30T21:23:00.000-07:00

It was a little strange to go out to the garden this afternoon (my first chance today to get out there - it was a busy day!). I was a little puzzled to approach the makeshift gate - which is simply a single panel of the decorative fencing covered with chicken wire, the wire legs get shoved into the ground and - voila! - we have our gate. It isn't fancy, that's for sure, but it is effective at keeping the chicks (and dog) out of the garden! The gate was actually bent nearly flat - as in at about a 45 degree angle. Hmmm... something is definitely amiss!

I quickly ascertained that something had been at our lone zucchini plant!

You see that? Like it's half way dug up! Dang! What would do that?

I moved on...

I don't know if you can see that, but on the bottom left side of the photo you can kinda see through the trellis... See the branches of the tomato plant that have been pulled down to the ground - and kinda trampled? STINK! What's been in my garden?

THEN... The outrage of it all...

something had the gall to take a bite out of one of MY squash! See those bite marks?!

Then a little bit later, I found that something had been in the green bean patch, too!

WHAT pray tell, has been in my garden? I am so not amused! You start messing with my squash, some serious battle has been declared!

What do you think? Racoons? We sure have them around here - a lot! We do have a lot of deer issues... Here's the baby we found leaving the yard last week:

that bite mark was too petite for deer, though, don't you agree?

I don't know, but they better not come back!

Time to Jam!

2008-07-29T21:49:00.000-07:00

Saturday mid-day we headed out to Rowell Brother's to pick berries. We really were initially after blueberries - which we did get. They got frozen within hours of being picked and have been used quite a few times since then with wonderful results. (The blueberry muffins Sunday morning were a big hit!)

Same day we also picked 18 pounds of Boysenberries. (The boys insist their real name is POISONberries - and that spies use them to battle the enemy as needed!) We ended up needing to head out of the house Saturday evening unexpectedly so the berries went onto sheet pans and into the fridge. I was sure I'd get to getting them processed into jam Sunday afternoon.

Nope. Didn't happen. On the sheet pans in the fridge they remained. Monday, I'd certainly get them done!

Yeah, not. Too much going on. Tuesday, for sure! Of course, I knew we'd be at OMSI with my niece and nephew - but I thought, we won't be there too late, I can do jam once we get home.

You know what? The best laid plans often get thrown to the wind! LOL! BUT, after dinner Tuesday - with a team effort, we got it done!

Here my lovely assistant pours 4 cups of washed boysenberries into the pot.

She's got a gift that girl - give her a potato masher and a pot of berries and she can really get the show on the road!
"That's a lot of sugar, Aunt Dina!" Yep, sure is! 7 cups of sugar go in, and then we heat and stir.

Yep - that's two batches we got going there. It's amazing how many batches you can get done in one evening if you keep the batches going! I also learned years ago that if you throw a little butter into the heating berry/sugar mixture, that the foam will be greatly reduced after the boiling stage. Very effective.
This is just after it has reached the boiling point, we've added the pectin, and it's boiled for a minute and been removed from the heat.

Now the fun part - getting jam into jars!

Two important notes... I would never ladle jam into jars ever again without having a flexible plastic cutting board beneath the jars and between the stove and the counter. They're wonderful things, those little cutting boards! AND, I simply cannot believe I had never broken down and purchased a magnetic lid lifter prior to this. All of those years burning my poor little fingers - I love the lid lifter!
And here you are - completed boysenberry jam. Yay! 34 pints and 1 half-pint from 18 pounds of boysenberries that were picked on Saturday. I worried that the berries sitting around for those couple of days might diminish the quality of the jam. Quite to the contrary - we tested the finished product and it was fabulous.

I can't recommend the Tri County Farm website enough. If you're in the Portland area and looking for a u-pick locale - this is the web site to check out! If you're in the Portland area and not doing some u-picking of some kind, then why the heck not?! Okay - I know, not everyone gets into it - but wow - we are so blessed with so many great resources here in the lovely Pacific Northwest. If you've hesitated because you didn't know where to find a place - here's your chance!

Our Garden continues to grow...

2008-07-28T22:56:00.000-07:00

You get busy with stuff and you turn around and bam! they go and grow up on you! Green beans of course! Can you believe how much they've poofed? And there are flowers forming all over the place! Woo Hoo!

Yay! An actual zucchini!

There will be squash for dinner tomorrow night! It is a little unfair, I'm afraid. Jess, my daughter, is away for the week - she's my squash co-dependent, but in her absence I promise to do my very best to savor every succulent bite! :)

I hope this picture shows up okay... It's a picture of a bumble bee - mid-flight - approaching a German Giant tomato blossom. He was so beautiful - I hoped to get maybe a snatch of a little glimpse of him in a photo - but wow - full-sized it's quite the photo!

We've got a tomato explosion going on! There are green tomatoes everywhere! And they're beautiful. I've got lots of plans for these babies!

Aren't these the prettiest little pear tomatoes you ever did see?

This is a German Giant heirloom tomato - it's the most unusual looking little start of a tomato - almost flat. With a name like German Giant you gotta wonder what kinda size this little fella is gonna develop into!You should smell the basil. It's heavenly. I'm hoping to start making pesto in the next week. I make it up, put it in little freezer-friendly 1-cup containers, and then throw it in the freezer for use throughout the year. Even if I do say so myself, it's wonderful. What a wonderful thing to thaw it out and be returned to the amazing smell of fresh basil in summer!
The cucumbers are getting bigger!

And John got the next bunch of green beans in. This side is a runner bean called Scarlet - I think they'll be a great addition to our garden. I honestly can't remember the name of the beans he planted on the other side, but I promise to try and investigate and report soon!

Here's a better view of the trellis system that John built a couple of years ago. We've used them for cucumbers and peas in the past. It will be interesting to see how it works out for green beans!

They say it'll rain tomorrow. Today is 22 days without rain. I'm ready for a little rain. It only makes sense, of course, I thorughly watered the garden today! :)

Kinda awkward...

2008-07-28T08:07:00.001-07:00

You would think a chicken would want a more - well - convenient place to lay her first egg. But on the roost?! Comfort seems like it would be an important factor... but apparently not for my big girls! Yes folks, here is our first egg from the big girls - now if only we knew which one!

As you can see - it was soft shelled. Also interesting - no yolk! - it was just egg white. It was somewhat petite in size, which we expected.

I'll admit it - we'd been waiting for what seemed so long we were totally surprised when it appeared!

Here's hoping they figure out the whole why we have the nest boxes to begin with thing soon! LOL!

Cucumbers!

2008-07-24T00:26:00.000-07:00

Do you see that? just above the flower (and the pink construction tape that I use to tie plants with) - the little itty bitty cucumber?

Woo Hoo!

I admit it - I was worried. There are green tomatoes galore, even some peppers present, squash coming on like gangbusters - but no signs of cucumbers! I worried there weren't enough pollinators. I worried that the ones that we'd seen weren't getting their job done.

Okay - I admit it - I worried it would be another dismal result with our attempt to grow cucumbers. I thought, "Great - I've gotten cocky, now they're gonna show me how much I don't know!"

But - sigh of relief - the pollinators are doing their jobs... See? There's a lovely bumble bee about his business - bless his little heart!

I honestly believe that the sight of a yellow crookneck squash plant in serious bloom is one of the loveliest sights there is... feast your eyes...

Hard to believe summer is halfway over. The kids go back to school in six short weeks. It feels like the summer isn't just passing - but evaporating!

We are on serious egg watch here. Henrietta, Hallie, and Millie are now 18 weeks old - RIR's typically start laying somewhere in the 18 to 22 week mark. So we're keeping them in the coop/run area for the majority of the day, only letting them out to free range in the late afternoons - in hopes that when the day comes that they decide to join the ranks of laying chickens that they'll decide to do so IN the nest boxes! Updates to come, of course!

Share the Memories!

2008-07-21T14:50:00.000-07:00

This is perhaps a little bit of a "different" post on this blog, because for the most part the folks who read have not know me all that long. Occasionally I get a post or email from a friend or family member that I didn't realize was reading here, however, so I've decided to pick up the challenge from my much beloved neice, Nicole.

Here's the scoop: Leave a memory about ANY or ALL of our family members. It's always fun to see what people think of first when they think of you...

As a comment on this post, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you know me (us) a little or a lot, anything you remember!
Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. And if you don't have a blog, leave a comment here anyway! :)

If you don't know our family well enough to have a memory - why not leave a favorite memory of your own family that makes you smile. :)

What Grocery Store Waste Costs You

2008-07-20T22:50:00.000-07:00

This from this week's Parade Magazine:

Food prices are rising, but your grocery bill might be lower if you weren’t paying for an estimated $20 billion worth of food that supermarkets throw away each year. Stores in the U.S. waste twice as much food annually as those in Europe, and a recent U.N. report found that total American food waste—including what we pitch from our refrigerators—is worth $48 billion each year. One reason is that, since food travels 1500 miles on average to reach your plate, some of it spoils in transit. Also, Americans are used to huge displays of fresh food at the grocery store, so some produce is piled up for decoration rather than sold. But now supermarkets are trying to cut waste—or at least find more environmentally friendly ways to handle it. Stop & Shop/Giant-Landover has reduced the number of items on display and asked suppliers to use smaller boxes, resulting in less waste. Supermarkets in Nashua, N.H., and Deerfield Beach, Fla., make compost out of spoiled produce, meat, and even flowers. Still, keeping food from the trash pile in the first place would be best. “We waste between a quarter and a half of all the food we produce,” says Jonathan Bloom, a journalist who blogs about food waste. “If there’s a silver lining to today’s rising grocery prices, it may be that they force us to value our food more.”

Wanna see what I found today?

2008-07-19T23:33:00.000-07:00

Is that not just one of the most beautiful things you've seen of late? Of course it's only *pretending* to be ripe just yet - but it's almost there. My mouth is watering in anticipation!

Know what makes it even better? It's not alone! There are berries nearly as far as the eye can see... just waiting to be kissed by the sun and consumed by me!

Isn't this just the cutest little banana pepper you've ever seen?!

There are more baby squash each day - it won't be long until I can't take the wait any longer and I'll break down and cut a whole bunch of them and race them right into the kitchen to sautee them up.
Do you see that wonderful little pollinator on the right? There are MANY in the garden. It's so encouraging to see them. We've heard so many bad reports about the conditions of bee colonies in the area. I counted perhaps six different types of bees today - not to mention butterflies, and a hummingbird.
Thistles are such a pain! But oh, so lovely! Had to snap a picture of this one before John dug it up.

For the first time since we've lived here a little bunch of Queen Anne's Lace has come up - it has the most delicate blush of pale pink to it. Lovely!

...and the hydrangea is a beautiful blue.

Jake - playing hide and go seek amongst the squash!

And... I still hate weeding, but thanks to Madelyn I've found my very favorite weeding tool! Meet Grampa's Weeder and some other really cool tools at Grampa's Gardenware.

Yes, still lots of weeds to eliminate from my garden - but I'm making progress, slowly and steadily!

I hate weeds.

2008-07-15T22:32:00.001-07:00

Yet, here you can see how very prolifically I grow them.

Late last August (2007) I had a total right hip replacement. Yes, I'm young - 44 years of age. But it was shot, and the old one had to go and the new one had to be "installed" - so to speak. In my hip class my classmates were blown away that I was "one of them." Can I just say here and how that I have a WORLD of respect for older people who have a total hip replacement. That surgery can really kick your butt. And it's not just a little recovery - it's HUGE. Here I am 11 months since that surgery and I'm still adjusting, figuring out how to deal with the hip and my limitations, and finding myself truly shocked when I have a little season of time when my new hip feels "normal" or "natural."

That all being said - let me just repeat: I hate weeds. A lot. I hated them before my hip replacement. I hate them now. Maybe a little more. Why? Because my knees both need to be replaced, my ankle is being studied for a possibility of being replaced, and I can cause myself a LOT of pain if I use the wrong body mechanics because of my new hip. And guess what - weeding is one of those "wrong" body mechanics. Yes, folks, if you drive past my yard you'll see me bent over at the waist with my butt in the air pulling weeds. I wish there were some other way to do it - but there isn't.

So, since it hurts I let them go much more than I ought to. I'm still trying to find a way to have a much less "weedy" garden. I think more mulch is part of it. Sadly, my supply for this year is dwindling and I'm not going to get another load full if it. We really are committed to organic gardening - so we continue to research and do lots of trial and error. I won't be giving up gardening any time soon - that is for certain. So I've got to find some better weeding methodologies!

Isn't Jake funny?

Cucumber flowers - woo hoo! This photo above are the Straight 8's. The photo below is a bush cucumber plant. I think the flower on the bush is prettier, don't you?

I'm so pleased to see how heartily my basil plants have taken off. It's time to start using it! Pesto here we come!

The green beans are doing it again - nearly exploding with growth in phenomenally short periods of time. Wow! It won't be long until we have beans!

LOOK! It's an actual teensy, tiny yellow crookneck squash. It is actually conceivable that I'll have squash to eat in DAYS - not some indeterminate vague number of days in the future. I find that so exciting!

Here, my friends, is the definition of pathetic:

Poor Pepper - she's gotta wear a cone right now. She's in heat and she's been tearing her hair out - and not gently - her skin is in distress. So we've put this contraption on her - much to her chagrin - and we're hoping she heals up quickly. She will be a very happy camper when the cone comes off!

LOOK! LOOK! LOOK!

2008-07-10T23:48:00.000-07:00

That, my friends, is an actual REAL LIVE tomato! WOO HOO!!!!

And there's more than just one of 'em! They're popping up all over the place. I'm so excited!

See what I see here?

Yes, these ARE yellow crookneck squash flower buds... You know what that means, right? Squash right around the corner! Hallelujah!

Amazing how much the green beans grow each day, isn't it?

::contended sigh::

I love my garden.

How do they do that?

2008-07-08T22:35:00.000-07:00

Do you see it? Here - look here... See it?
How - in only a few hours since the trellis has gone up - do they figure out to climb up the twine? It's amazing!

Then again, so are these lovelies! Sigh... can't wait until there is actual FRUIT on the plant!

The whys and wherefores of cucumbers.

2008-07-07T11:51:00.000-07:00

For years I tried to grow cucumbers. I love them, afterall, so why should I not? Well, it seemed that the forces of nature were pitted against me and year after dismal year I'd fail - yet again! - at getting cucumbers to grow. It was quite disheartening.

Then, one year my uncle informed me that his neighbors, who have a bona fide farm and grow a variety of things very well, never plant until Memorial Day weekend. Egad!, thought I. That's late! But, keeping in mind that we live in cool, often quite rainy, NW Oregon - well, I pondered that there may be some merit to this approach.

A few years ago John and I determined that we should perhaps try several different varieties of cucumbers - maybe the kinds that we'd planted previously just were not working for us based on the type that they were. That was also the year that my Mom's health was declining rapidly - simultaneous to my Grammy's final illness and subsequent death, and so we got a very late start on everything. I think it was probably June first by the time we got around to planting everything - and it was late enough that we decided we really ought to start with plants, not seeds. Because of our past failures, we reasoned that we ought to get several plants of several different varieties. We are also wholehearedly committed to planting heirloom - NOT hybrid - everything. We're just picky that way.

So we got a dozen cucumber plants and got them planted. John built an ingenous trellis to train them on (see picture below), and we made sure to mound the soil up around the plants.

We found that planting when it was warm enough (duh!) and giving the plants a nice trellis were really the key elements to successful cucumber growing. Oh, and remembering to water them faithfully doesn't hurt either!

Since then, we've tried a new thing... it has to do with the fact that we really don't like wasting water, and that I'm pretty lazy when it comes right down to it. What we do now is this...

First, we make a bit of a hill - a long hilled up row, actually - where the plants will be planted. When it's warm enough, we get them into the ground. (Some years - depending on how nutty life is - we plant seeds (and if we do, we typically start them indoors first), and other years we buy seedlings.) Once they've been planted and watered well and established a few days, then we sprinkle DE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatomaceous_earth) on the ground around the plants, then place a layer of news paper around the plants - tearing it so that the newspaper acts something like a skirt, then putting bark mulch on top of that. This process helps with pest control, weed control, and keeping the soil moist longer - so fewer waterings necessary!

Voila! It makes for wonderful cucumber plants, and even more wonderful cucumbers. We use the cucumbers in lots and lots of ways. The kids pretty much just straight up. I've got bazillions of recipes that I use them for, as well. As I said previously - there just isn't any way possible to have too many cucumbers! If I ever find that I'm cucumbered out, then I have lots of friends to share them with until I'm ready to eat them again!

I should also say that my husband made some amazing dill pickle relish the year before last that used a variety of pickles - which is nice, because we typically have a variety of pickles! - and turned out beautifully. It's about time to make some more!

Finishing Touches

2008-07-07T00:12:00.001-07:00

Today was a busy day! John got to work on the nest boxes. Below, a couple of inspectors checking out the progress...

Ducky had to get in on the action, too... Literally in!
Henrietta was actually inspector general - she stayed up on the table while John was hammering, sawing, etc. She'd squack at him pretty regularly, just like she had something really important to say. She's such a riot!
Ta daaaa.... Four nest boxes - installed in the coop. Woo Hoo!
Here's the view from outside - the egg collection hatch.
And today, John got the solar fan installed, too. We were really surprised at how little sunlight it takes for the fan to turn itself on. Wild!

And here's the inside view of the new solar fan.

That, folks is one finished chicken coop! Yay!!! It was a good day.

Sometimes the rain is a happy thing

2008-07-05T23:09:00.001-07:00

The occasional showers - well, since the HUGE downpour that came with the thundershowers the other night - have been really quite nice. They've done wonderful things for the garden - even if they do have the chicks really puzzled about those strange drops falling out of the sky!

As you can see, the Welsumer babies are growing up! Everyone has feathers on their heads now! Wow - that was fast! Looking us straight on at the center of the photo is the little roo who will be moving to a wonderful farm come later in the week. He will be well-loved there. I'm convinced he's going to be a wonderful roo - he's got such spunk and fun personality - not to mention is quite handsome!

On the left is Speedy, BB (which stands for big black) who is in the center, and on the right one of the California Whites - maybe Angel, I'm not sure - not all of them have names.

Can you believe how much smaller Speedy is than BB? And how much HUGER BB is than both the others? Speedy *is* the smallest in the flock - without a doubt, but she is catching up. She's really made quite a turn around and we're just so pleased. She is retaining her fun personality - and is definitely the most comfortable of her group (the middle girls) with human interaction. We continue to give her treats daily, hoping to help her catch up on that disparity in growth!

Below is the green bean plot. I walk out the door each day and am just blown away at how much they've grown in another 24 hour period of time. Since yesterday tendrils have shot up on the pole beans. We MUST get the trellis in tomorrow! When I look at the Squash patch I just smile - in happy anticipation of my very favorite veggie coming into fruition! We had that conversation again this year - John and I - the one we have every year. In his mind - one or two yellow crookneck squash hills will do us just fine. In my mind - there's no way it's physically possible to have too much! I will absolutely, positively eat it every single day that it is available - I never get sick of it. In fact, I've been known to eat it with breakfast (it's wonderful sauteed in an omlette!), lunch, and dinner! Okay, I confess, I've also just run out to the garden to snatch a couple of baby-ish sized squash and quickly sautee up some for a snack as well. It won't be long - and I simply can't wait! I'm so pleased that they are progressing so nicely.

I also firmly believe that there's no such thing as too many cucumber plants, either. I tried for YEARS to grow them - and never with much success. When we finally got it right, we really got it right - and it's been wonderful ever since! They've got a lot of growing to do these cucumber plants - but I have faith that they'll do very nicely. Gosh, I've got plans for those cucumbers! LOOK! They're growing! Lots and lots of blackberries! Yay! The past couple of years we've started picking them right around the last week of July. That's not that far away, is it?!
Here's another flower that came up in the flower bed with the wildflower mix that got scattered last year and did nothing. I can't seem to figure out what it is - but it sure is pretty!

The cool weather has been a nice change after the super hot days. But I'm happy to see the coming week's forcast - in the 80's and sunny. :)

Lemon Snap Cookies

2008-07-05T01:13:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty sure my kids think it's a total joke whenever they hear reference to the fact that I once was employed as a baker and even went to culinary school. They look on incredulously when I - on occasion - report just what being the baker at a summer camp entails... you know, things like working from 4am to 1pm six days a week, or making 1200 cookies a day, or making bread - from scratch - very nearly daily in any array of possible forms. I think they must suspect the veracity of these little tidbits simply due to the fact that I pretty much almost never bake! It's sad and appalling - but true.

So, I made a determination some weeks ago that I would attempt to do a bit more baking - maybe even a lot more baking. We'll see.

In that spirit, here's my recipe for Lemon Snap Cookies

Dina's Lemon Snap Cookies

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

3 cups granulated sugar
1 pound butter
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon lemon extract
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups powdered sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda

Some extra granulated sugar in a shallow pan or dish

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. I use my Kitchen Aid Professional stand mixer starting out on a fairly low setting - making sure to soften up the butter pretty well before adding the granulated sugar, lemon extract, and lemon juice. Once these are all incorporated fairly well, kick the speed on the mixer up a bit and allow ingredients to get to a pretty light and fluffy consistency.

Add the eggs one at a time with the mixer still going. Allow a little time to make sure the eggs are incorporated thoroughly.

Mix together the dry ingredients. You can sift them if you feel the need. Turn the mixer off, add the dry ingredients, and then turn the power back on - on the lowest setting. Mix just until the ingredients are completely integrated. Turn the mixer off, remove the guard (if you use one - and if you don't - why don't you?! They're awesome!) and paddle, and scrape the bowl down. Return the paddle and guard, mix a few more times to be certain everything is completely blended.

I like to use a cookie dough scooper - they're just so quick and easy. I have a couple of different sizes, and for these the smallest size is a MUST! As you can see below, I drop the dough into a dish with granulated sugar to roll each cookie in before depositing it on the cookie sheet.

Bake these at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Very important: these go from being perfectly done to burnt in quick order. That 10 minutes is really and truly all they need!

It's really important to know that these are very thin - almost lacey - cookies and spread a LOT! They're kinda crisp on the outside, and kinda chewy on the inside. Thus, spacing them out carefully on the sheet is important.

Here's what they look like coming out of the oven. Just a little word of advice. They just aren't that tasty when they're warm. They really come into their own when they've had a chance to cool completely.
Once these are cooled completely, brew yourself a nice cup of hot tea, sit down somewhere and put your feet up, and relax while you sip your tea and nibble on your cookie.
This batch makes about 120 cookies.

The boys have gotta go...

2008-07-04T08:48:00.000-07:00

It's official. We just can't have roosters here. We've tried various methods of keeping things quiet in the mornings - but it's just not working.

Its interesting, the past couple of weeks we've had quite a few of the neighbors stop by and mention how much they enjoy the fact that we have chickens now. A couple even stopped by to say how much they enjoyed having Harlan nearby (must be morning people! LOL!). But there is one neighbor particularly who is not amused - much more than not amused - by our chicken keeping. Suffice it to say that as renters - not home owners - we must tread lightly.

Our intial hope was that we'd find a place to move to (maybe even buy someday?!) with some more elbow room than we currently have where roosters are do what roosters do - including crow. We hoped our little roos would hold out on the crowing arena until then. My, we were naiive.

Of course, the boys have been practicing crowing for a little more than a week now. Amazing how far they progress in perfecting their technique each day! Equally amazing - how each morning seems to be a little bit earlier that the crowing begins than the one preceding.

We tried Danni's wonderful crate them and keep it dark enough to prolong the "nighttime" effect so that they don't start crowing quite so early protocol. It actually worked fairly well the first morning. But I think the fact that we have a neighbor rooster who starts "singing" pretty early in the day is working against us!

We came to a consensus yesterday that all of the boys must go. It only makes sense - and honestly, it's much better for the roos, too. We were fortunate to find three homes to send the five roos to. The little Welsumer rooster will go to a wonderful home with Victoria next week - thankfully, he's young enough that he hasn't found his voice yet! Sami has a more rural home and came yesterday to take our California White to be king of the coop at his place. And a young man who is wanting to raise chickens came today and adopted the three Dominique roos. All five roos will now live pretty posh - on a chicken standard, anyway! - lives on at the very least mini farms. Hooray!

So... we're left with a redefined flock. The three big girls (RIR's). The four California Whites. The three Dominiques. And the five Welsumers. If our calculations are correct - the big girls will start laying sometime 2 or 3 weeks from now. THAT will be exciting!

Now to head back to my online real estate browsing! There must be a home out there for us somewhere!

Rooster Report and more!

2008-07-02T23:17:00.001-07:00

This is El Pollo Loco - as the kids have named him. This is the guy - not even alpha roo - who is taking the lead in the crowing arena. He's gone from being a morning crower to being a most of the day all day long crower. We are not amused. Okay - well, that's not entirely true. He sounds hilarious - very much like a young pubescent boy in the throes of voice change. Loco is definitely dealing with some vocal challenges. Even so, he manages to communicate with the roo who lives a couple of blocks over. He's an interesting little chicken this one - kind of a quirky personality. He does have good Roo qualities, though - he watches out for his ladies and he is quick to sound the alarm.

This is our little Welsumer rooster. He's 5 weeks old now and boy - is he all boy! We're so happy that he will be rehomed to a wonderful farm where he'll be encouraged to crow for all he's worth! I feel confident he will be a stunning grown up.

Our rooster crowing intervention of last evening had an interesting result. First - let me just interject here that letting the boys go into the coop and roost and get a little drowsy first is a real key toward success in this enterprise. Next key to success is having teenagers on hand who are quite skilled at the art of chicken handling. That being said, we went ahead and placed our four roos in the cage/kennel type dog crate on the back porch. They had a bed of pine shavings and the crate was draped for the most part to keep it dark - and protected. (Remembering that we have regular racoon visitors.) John typically is up and getting ready for the day at about 4:30 or 4:45 each morning. Once he's gotten ready to leave for work he goes out to the coop and lets the chicks out of the coop and off he goes. So this morning he went out and let the girls out. The roos, up until that time, had remained perfectly silent! (This is all the way to 5:45 a.m.!) Once the girls were out and about they began to crow, however.

So, the modified experiment for the coming morning is to NOT let anyone out and about until the hour we feel is appropriate. (I'm thinking 8:00 a.m.) I'll report how it goes. :)
I say this every year - but I just can't help saying it again. I just can't believe how much the green beans grow in each 24 hour period of time! WOW! I just found a great green bean salad recipe that I want to try out... I wish they'd hurry up and give me some beans! (At this rate, it shouldn't be long!)

We have three different types of pear trees on the property. All of the trees are very loaded with fruit this year. We do next to nothing with the trees - other than to prune them. I think we're supposed to thin the fruit out or something - but obviously, I'm no expert on it at all! A couple of years I made a pear jelly that had cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and a hint of cloves in it. People loved it - so I'm thinking it will have to be on the list of things to can this year!

I realized today that it had been a while since I'd posted any photos of the big girls. They tend to forage a little further afield than the middle girls, so they are not often around for photos.Henrietta is on the left and Hallie is on the right. They're so funny. Henrietta is definitely at the top of the pecking order. She is large and in charge! Well, actually Millie is the largest of the three girls - and the darkest now - she's so pretty! The big girls are now 16 weeks old by all accounts that we can figure out anyway. Gosh, shouldn't be long before they start laying!

We've got plenty of projects to keep us busy over the holiday weekend - building nest boxes will be high on the priority list. I'm dying to know what people think the best nest box medium is, too. Let me know if you have a favorite and why, okay? Thanks!

Phew - it's finally cooler

2008-07-01T22:17:00.001-07:00

After all of my whining about the cool weather I'm a little ashamed of complaining about the heat! Does it make it any better that it got up to 100+ degrees here? Does that make me less of a wuss? LOL! Today... sigh.... it was a beautiful 85 degrees here. My, it was lovely. I love 85. I even love 90. I don't love humidity, though - I confess.

We've gotten so much done!

We got the chicken wire up around the rest of the garden - hooray!

We got bark mulch around the plants in the garden that the chickens had scratched the first layer away from.

We got the rest of the flower bed along the street planted and bark mulched - what a relief to have that done!

With those things done my garden is looking so much healthier, happier, and just generally beautiful. I love that.
(The green beans are growing like crazy!)

I've got to say that having the kids home to help has been invaluable. They've worked so hard - and helped in so many ways. And with virtually NO reluctance to pitch in and give a helping hand. I'm so proud of them! And of course my beloved husband who gets up at the crack of dawn, works a long day at work, then comes home to work further here at home on our various projects - well, he just blesses me like I really honestly just don't know how to adequately express. Gosh, I like him so much. Yes, of course, I love him (I mean, I did marry him, afterall!) - but, gosh, he's so cool! I love hanging out with him! I love talking to him! I love spending time with him out in the garden, or working on some project together, or just sitting on the lawn furniture enjoying the quiet of the afternoon. I'm so glad that God doesn't work on the merit theorum!
I promised more pictures of Roos. Here is Alexis - one of Jessica's friends (Alexi) named him - :) He's 9 weeks old now and nearly as big as the big girls. He's definitely the alpha male around here. [Don't panic - the stump he's perching on is the one the boys used to spray paint the bottom of William's skate board red!]

This is kind of a typical event at our place... right after I've given Speedy her special treat (still giving her preferential treatment) I let the babies a little turn at whatever might be left over, and then the middle chicks get a run at it all. They all particularly love the oatmeal with fruit and a dollop of yogurt on top the best. Note the babies (who've just eaten their fill and walked away from the treat) are looking longingly on at the middle chicks who are now getting their turn!

Tonight we are trying our junior rooster crowing control experiment. Thanks to Danni for the great suggestion. We've taken Pepper's "bed" - a cage-like dog crate (it's huge - so is she!), put it on the back porch (which is protected on 3 sides), covered it with the exception of a small corner so that there's good ventilation, and put the four oldest (and now all crowing) boys in it. We've noticed over the past few days that they are all polishing their ahem - abilities - in the crowing arena. It's time to take steps. If this doesn't work out, sad but true - they'll have to go. We must maintain good neighbor relations!

I'll report back on the rooster control tomorrow.

Disturbing development!

2008-06-29T22:07:00.001-07:00

I want to warn you - the next picture is graphic and more than just a little disturbing. It's actually pretty horrible, but I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it - and am amazed at how quickly everything went from being just fine to simply horrifying.

Our seven little Welsumer chicks are now 4 1/2 weeks old. We're pretty certain that there are six pullets and one cockerel - it's obvious who has the more pronounced comb, quickly developing wattles, as well as definitive male behavior. Funny how these chicks have remained nameless thus far - I think we're all becoming more accustomed to the fact that they are - indeed - livestock. Yes, there are some that are more bonded to us and much more pet-like, but for the most part, the majority are indeed livestock.

Our routine of late - particularly with the dramatic increase in the temperature the past few days - over 100 degrees at our house yesterday! - has been to allow the big girls (now 15 weeks old) and the middle chicks (possibly as many as four of them are roos! - and are now 9 weeks old) out of the coop to free range. We then move the Welsumer babies into the 4' x 16' run to get some "outside" time in a more controlled environment. It's been working out very nicely.

We did have one of the Welsumer chicks who seemed to be - well, for want of a better word - a runt. At one point in time we found that she was really getting picked on by the others, and went so far as to separate her out from the others for a little while. She seemed to have a slightly swollen foot, and after the separation it quickly resolved and she went back to her pals. She reintegrated nicely. So nicely, in fact, that I'd lost track of which chick exactly she was as she seemed to be catching up with the others - and they've all been feathering out so nicely in the past week or so.

Sundays are busy days for us. We checked on the chicks before heading out to church. Everyone was doing great upon our return. John and I headed out to Costco for about an hour this afternoon, and upon our return Jess informed me I'd better come check one of the chicks right away - something was very wrong - it seemed to be bleeding. I quickly went out to the run and quickly ascertained that, yes, our runt, was more than being picked on - she was being brutalized. The picture below is what we found - brace yourself:

They literally tore her apart. You could see completely into the cavity of her body and she was obviously failing rapidly. How could everything go so wrong in 60 minutes? What was the catalyst? She'd been busy, active, involved with the other chicks when we'd left. They had food, water, lots of space. There was no boredom going on here.

We've watched these babies closely - they're beautiful and fun. They've been very different from the other chicks. They were actually hatched under a Mama hen - their behaviors are so distinct as a result! They've been so interesting to watch. How could this have happened in just an hour away from them?

Our kids are pretty deeply disturbed. They were so sad to watch as this sweet little chick died. Well, so were the adults! We disposed of her body carefully, and set out on a mission to try and determine the big WHY?! Frankly, we found nothing to be a catalyst. We did pick up her tail feathers and the little bits of her that were left in the run.

I find myself feeling even more than normal paranoid Mom thoughts... Will they do this again? Can I leave them alone - at all? How can I *not* leave them alone? They're in a lovely coop with everything they could need - lots of elbow room. Do I go and check on them though the night to make sure they don't find another victim from amongst themselves? *shudder*

On to happier thoughts... although it will be some time before I am able to dismiss the above event from my mind!

Our warm weather has worked wonders for our beans. The row against the wall are the pole beans. John will build the trellis for them on the coming weekend. The two front rows are bush beans. I'm so pleased this many of them have survived the chicken mauling! I am a little disgusted, however, at the mole that came up right in the front row of bush beans - the stinker!

Here is one of our - what seem to be - many roos. Comparing him to the other California Whites - he's obviously male! He is lovely, and sweet tempered - and definitely on the bottom of the roo pecking order. He will occasionally have a stare down with the other (Dominique) roos, but always backs down and walks away. Interestingly enough, he was one of the roos that took Speedy under a protective wing when she was reintegrated with the flock.
Isn't he handsome?
I will try and get some pictures of the other roos in the coming week. It's been astounding to see how quickly the middle girls (and boys) are not just catching up to the big girls - but some of the Dominique roos are even MORE than catching up in size!

Earlier in the week - much eariler in the week (like nearly a week ago!) we heard the strangest noise. We were all out in the yard - I was working on the garden the kids were hanging out in the hammock and playing cards. We all looked up and at each other and couldn't figure out what it was - then - simultaneously - we all noticed one of the Dominique roos let forth with a very pubescent sounding crow. Oh my! And he's not the only one - it seems all of the then 8 week olds were learning the crowing ropes.

At first we thought - well, it will be ages before they get past their changing voices and figure out how to crow with the dawn.

WRONG.

This morning one of them - hard telling which one - right at 5:30 a.m. let out with a fairly polished crow. Nothing like the likes that Harlan used to belt out - but I'm thinking the junior roos took notes while Harlan was visiting!

Oh my!

Gosh, we need to move! We need a home with a couple of acres and plenty of room for roosters to be roosters and not get in trouble for it! We'll see how things progress... I'm sending up lots of prayers - trying hard not to nag God, just tell Him what my heart is feeling!

Okay - still sad. It's gonna take a while to get over the chick incident. :(

Chickens and gardens - oh my!

2008-06-28T00:38:00.000-07:00

I love blackberries. A lot. Two summers ago - the summer my Mom's illness had escalated and we were essentially home because home was safe for her - we had bazillions of blackberries. I made blackberry syrup, blackberry jam, blackberry jelly, blackberry pie filling, blackberry cobblers, blackberry muffins, blackberry cake, blackberry lemonade... Mom particularly loved the fresh blackberry protein smoothies I made for her. You get the idea. I love blackberries! Last year we knew we were going to have to trim back the blackberries - they were beyond aggressive - they were taking over the entire property! We had a friend help us - and he did a bang up job - honestly - I worried we'd have no more blackberries every again! And sadly, last year there were not enough blackberries for much more than a few handfuls to snack on on an occasional morning - but that was about it. :(
I'm starting to think the year off was a good thing. There are beautiful white blackberry blossoms all over the place. As you can imagine, I'm starting to plan... blackberry jam, blackberry jelly, blackberry syrup.... Sigh. Wish Mom were here to share - but I'm thinking she's having much better blackberry smoothies in heaven!We are so thankful for the warmer weather. Pepper is particularly happy about getting to play in water! She's so funny!The roses are loving the weather, too. Mom's rose tree is finally putting forth the kind of blooms she routinely got from it.

One of the things I'd read about keeping chickens and letting them free range was that they had a tendancy to "nibble" on gardens. As with all things chicken keeping related - leave it to me to learn the hard way! Behold...

Yes, these are my ahem - formerly - beautiful pea plants. Yes, I can say with assurance that the chickens loved my peas as much as I did! Yes, we did put up a fence around the garden - that once the chicks are big enough they won't fit through... Of course, they do now - and this...is the result. So, we're adding chicken wire to our decorative fence around the garden. Gotta love chicken wire!

The final straw that spurred us to action was when the girls realized that the green beans were sprouting - and gobbled them down in great number. Grrr....Thankfully we had enough chicken wire on hand to get the green bean garden protected before all of them were gobbled down. It was amazing today - with the heat - to see how much they progressed!Thankfully we were able to intervene while there were still tomato plants to save! Well, you gotta admit - they know yummy stuff when they see it, those cute little chickens!

Speedy update

2008-06-27T23:17:00.000-07:00

It wasn't that many days ago that we were thinking that Speedy just wasn't going to make it. She wasn't eating anything that we were able to appreciate anyway. She drank very little. She mostly just hunkered down and looked weaker and more out of it each hour. It was so sad. We were pretty sure we may have to euthanize her.

After giving some excellent advice over the phone earlier in the day, Lyn (From the Portland Backyard Chicken group) and her delightful daughter visited us Thursday evening. They brought a few treats for Speedy as well. But by the time they visited Speedy had already begun to perk up.

Here are some of the excellent gems of wisdom that were shared with us:

1. Make up a batch of Carrot Tonic - here's how:

6 carrots (leave the peel on)
1 clove garlic
Adult dose of Vitamin C
Adult dose of Echinacea

Blend this together with a couple cups of water, and then add to a gallon waterer and add enough water to fill the waterer. Give it to the chickens, they will slurp it up. It boosts the immune system, helping them over what ails them naturally.

You can offer them this in place of their regular water for a few days if they're feeling a bit under the weather, or as on occasional treat to boost them for whatever reason.

2. Add Kids' Ecinacea (2 to 3 drops) in food and/or water.

3. Give an option of meal worms regularly!

4. Offer organic, full-fat, plain yogurt.

5. Try giving some berries - blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries - whatever! (Thankfully, I still have a smattering in the freezer from last year.)

6. Offer cooked cereals - oatmeal, cream of wheat, multi-grain or the like.

7. Add some apple cider vinegar and minced garlic to the drinking water about once a week.

8. Offer cooked brown rice with a sprinkling of garlic.

9. Try giving some oat milk (available at New Season's Market or other health food store).

10. Offer corn bread!

Since Thursday evening Speedy has continued to recover - in fact, today she free ranged with the rest of the flock - beautifully I might add - but only after her morning snack of oatmeal with a big spoonful of yogurt on top. (See above.) [Speedy gets first option on the treats, then the baby chicks get the treats that are left over, and when they're done, on it goes to the rest of the flock.]

Speedy is doing so well, she's actually even sleeping out in the coop tonight - not in the pet carrier in the pantry as she had been. We tried initially to have her sleep with the older chickens (i.e., the middle girls - her peers, and the big girls), but the big girls were just too mean. So we added her into the side of the coop with the babies. She was able to perch high up on a branch that we have up there, and settled in for the night very nicely.

One very interesting effect of Speedy's illness is that she has bonded - big time - with us. Whenever I go out into the yard and speak - Speedy makes a beeline for me - and will then proceed to hang out - following me wherever I may go. It should be very interesting to see how this behavior proceeds - whether it will be passing or not.

Whatever the case - we are so relieved and have breathed a huge collective sigh of relief that Speedy is doing SO MUCH better! Hooray!

Speedy's under the weather...

2008-06-23T19:58:00.000-07:00

From June 23rd to the PDXBackyardChix Yahoo Group:

Above are three pictures of Speedy. These were taken yesterday.

She continues to reject solid food. Well, she’ll eat meal worms, and she’ll eat a little yogurt. She won’t eat the chick starter. But she does drink some water. I found a great web site with disease info: http://www.welphatchery.com/poultry_health.asp She doesn’t seem to have the symptoms of one particular disease. The things I would say she does definitely have include: loss of appetite, weight loss, seems droopy, much less vocal, doesn’t mind being picked up or handled at all (that’s a change), one of her eyes seems to close more than the other. Her eyes do look normal when they’re open (no color change or anything), so I wonder if she got pecked by one of the other chicks before we got her isolated.

She really looks not so great. Her stools are watery – but no blood. She just seems really, really weak. She does walk a bit, but mostly just huddles and prefers to sit in a location where there’s some sun. She’s lost a few (less than 10) feathers. We’ve treated her with everything we know of. She honestly just doesn’t seem to be improving at all.

We continue to keep her isolated from the rest of the chicks, day and night.

I just keep wondering if we should euthanize her – is she suffering? What do you guys think? I would very much value your input.

Our prior posting regarding Speedy below...

From June 19th to the PDXBackyardChix Yahoo Group:

When we went to pick up our order of chicks at the end of April there was a mishap and our 5 Dominiques accidentally got integrated with a bunch of Marans. It took Kelly a while to go through and try to figure out which was which – and I went home with a “bonus” chick, which he thought *might* be a Maran. That chick, we believe, is Speedy. She’s a little different from all of the other chicks – yes, she’s black and white, but seems almost tail-less. It is not at all unusual for her to kind of cry a little – almost like she’s looking for a buddy.

All of the girls are often out in the yard free ranging – they tend to travel around in two or three groups – divided either by age, or by breed. It’s really trippy to watch.

The past couple of days it seems like Speedy has seemed a little disoriented. Today it went a step further and she began to self-isolate – we’ve not seen this to this degree from her yet.

When I picked her up this afternoon I was shocked at how light she’s become! My daughter and I decided to put her into the coop with a treat of some yogurt and cracked corn, and see if she was willing to eat. She consumed the treat fine – but then went to rest – laying her head down almost like she was exhausted. When it was bedtime and the girls were arranging themselves on the roost, Speedy got knocked off and roughed up a bit by the oldest girls. My daughter and I stepped in to intervene and pulled her out. First we tried adding her to the side of the coop with the baby babies (4 weeks old) – but even the babies would pick on Speedy! We felt horrible for her!

So we’ve put her into a pet carrier with a nice bed of pine shavings and her own supply of medicated chick starter and water. She was pretty stressed out initially when we brought her into the house, but after Pepper the wonder chicken dog sat with her for a while she settled down. Right now she’s zonked out and sleeping like a baby.

Ideas? Thoughts? Suggestions? I’m worried for her!

Thanks,

Dina