We’re (hopefully) at the tail end of the second  heat wave of the summer. The house, after accumulating heat over the past days, hit 88 at 3 pm, with 70% humidity. Outside, in the shade, it reached 97F (36C) . But it seems I’ve acclimatized. I wouldn’t say that I was comfortable, but it was …
Category Archives: chickens
Chicken Work
My parents are here and two of the projects that were mainly my dad’s are the chicken coops. The new small coop needed a roof: The big coop needed an extra run: Â The new part is that still blonde wood box and the front part. Their run space has more than doubled. I hope …
New Little Chicken Coop
The two new chicks – Oreo and Nocty – are hale and healthy and growing like the weeds, a little over two months old now. They were cooped up in a large crate on the porch at night and in the “table coop” for most of the day. I liked neither, the latter not predator …
A Birds Kind of Day
The little chicks enjoyed yet another Summer Spring  day outside in their table chicken tractor. Amie was feeling better so I set up a teepee. She spent most of her time watching them and then hammering nails into a piece of wood. The chicks enjoy pecking at grass, chasing insects, and dust bathing. I shot …
The Chicks Meet the Chickens
My day of rest after Earth Day Weekend involved gardening: watering, weeding, some sowing (calendula, chamomile), staking and training the sour cherry and continuing to lay the drip irrigation (hard on the hands, that). It was pretty warm, above 70F, so the fig trees came out, as well as the two chicks. I knew that …
Full House, with Seedlings
On this rainy, chilly day I find myself alone in the house for the first time in over a week. My in-laws are here, and over the weekend we had a crazy house full of friends and family – eight adults and two kids, all sleeping over. I love extending the dining table to the …
Goings On
Spring mode! It was 72 degrees today and sunny with a light breeze. I was in the garden as much as possible these last two days. I planted two paw paws in a corner of the garden that previously held a leaf pile. What gorgeous soil I found there! From now on: leaf piles all …
Chirp Chirp
That’s the sound in the house again. Cheep cheep. Today I surprised Amie when she came out of school. The feed store called, they have the chicks we want! We went to pick them up: two Ameraucanas, the cutest things, day two of their lives. Technically they’re not ours, but belong to Amie’s friend and …
Today 12/14/2012
Today I had to go into therapy with my chickens. I sat in the sun watching  them and calmed down. They look at you without filters, without pity or fear. Their question is always: Who do you think you are?
Composting with Birds
This huge brussels sprout was pulled from one of the school gardens and on its way to the compost. I had ideas for a different kind of composting.