Build A Little Birdhouse In Your Soul

A very curious Speckles 

P-Pirdle had to check out the action too.

P-Pirdle wanted to help. "These birdhouses are way to small for you birds!"

Goodbye, Nugget.

Unfortunately, it is time to cull our poor, prolapsed chicken, Nugget.  

Here's a very sad Peyton letting her little chicken know she would soon be in a better place. 

How does your garden grow?

From recreational and aesthetic (or at least hoping to be aesthetic) to addictive and obsessive.
I can't recall exactly when I got the gardening "bug" - probably when I was a kid. I just didn't know it at the time because back then I looked at gardening as a chore. Now I realize that it is healthy, fun, healing, organic, flavorful, rewarding, fresh, sustainable, exercise.

About 8 years ago, shortly after Tom and I bought our first place and got married we dabbled a little bit in "gardening". Our new place needed a little sprucing up. It was so blaaa. We lived in a Condo complex though and there are rules against altering the common areas. A neighbor warned us that we couldn't plant a garden.

Unfortunately, I have this bad habit where, when somebody tells me "you can't" I usually say "watch me!" So we planted our first garden. Then promptly got reprimanded by the Home Owners Association and could not make any further changes. Glad we don't live there any more, I simply couldn't survive with out a garden.

Shortly after having kids I rapidly became aware of my family's environment, health and well being, what we clean our house and bodies with and and what we eat and where it comes from. Anyone who knows me well will remember my Melaleuca faze 5 years ago. Which, by the way was not a faze at all, I still love the stuff. I wasn't just trying to sell you some crap to make a quick buck. I really didn't want dangerous toxins and carcinogens seeping into your skin or wafting through my home - or yours. (check out this site to see what's in your products - Skin Deep.)

During my quest for more healthful home and body products I found there are healthier alternative medicines, essential oils, healthier ways of cooking and eating etc. which lead to reading lots of health related literature. Organic, Sustainable, Local and Farm Fresh were becoming more prominent in my vocabulary as a result money was becoming less prominent in the bank. Hummm, who knew being a hippy would cost so much money. I would daydream about one day having my very own organic herb and vegetable garden and was certain that would be both cheap and easy. Only problem at that time we were renting a house with a yard that was all cement patio and not garden friendly. (Very swimming friendly though.)

So, when house hunting (2 years ago) I was adamant about finding a house with a yard that would be appropriate for a garden. I came across this listing that claimed to have "mature, organic fruit trees" and "great soil, a gardener's dream!". With these lovely pictures of raised beds and lots of pretty green bushes and trees and grass. Sounded good to me.

This way I'd be certain of where my food was coming from and what was put on/in it during the growing process. You can imagine my excitement last year when it was finally time to break ground and get growing.

That didn't go so well..........my garden was failing miserably. The trees were diseased. My back was aching and my bank account was dwindling more rapidly than before. I asked everyone I knew what the problem could possibly be. I went over and over it in my head. What could I have done wrong? Then I took a few months gardening hiatus, watched Oprah and ate bon-bons until the first of the year rolled around. After all that rest and relaxation (yeah right!) I was full of determination to make things grow this year. I went to classes and read books, joined a garden club and watched youtube videos, asked friends what I could do differently or better this year. What I learned was that my garden should have been a success last year. I'll just blame it on the dirt cause it sure wasn't my fault. (I wouldn't admit it even if it was.) So to prove that my thumbs are not brown I decided to test the soil - Whadda-ya-know. It was extremely nitrogen deficient. I knew it couldn't have been any thing I had done. How does one fix a nitrogen deficiency? What's that you say? Chicken Poop? Excellent Idea! That means I have no other choice than to get pet chickens. That goes right along with my belief (thanks in part to my up bringing, and to Michael Pollan's books and the movies Super Size Me. and Food Inc.) of healthy eating and knowing where your food comes from and what is in it. It's settled then. Chickens it is!

This is the point in the story where recreation starts to turn addictive and obsessive.
In January I built a my very own chicken coop with just a smidgen of help from Tom. In February we got our chickens. In March I discovered that It would take a whole lotta poo and many, many months to create good composted soil. I didn't yet have a lot of chicken poo or a lot of months to spare. I wanted to get planting by March. Yep, that's right. March. Remember, when somebody tells me "you can't" I usually say "watch me!" So in order to have the ability to plant in March (or at all this year. 4 chickens don't really make that much poo.) we needed to bring in dirt. And lots of it. So we had 5 yards of Malard Plus Compost delivered to our driveway. Tom shoveled and shoveled and shoveled. All that fresh (but stinky), new, beautiful, fluffy, goodness was beautiful in my yard even before we started planting. I have a new love and appreciation for dirt. No lie. I totally dig dirt. No pun intended.

I started my seeds indoors under an aero garden light and on top of a seed warming mat. I put up a temporary chicken fence so the girls couldn't devour the tasty new leaves and in mid April (I know that is before the last frost) I planted outside.

No I'm not growing gallons of milk - these are my homemade cloches (a little trick I learned at a Master Gardeners class) to keep my little plants cozy on cold nights and to keep them safe from birds and bugs etc.

Last years garden on June 1st = lots of bare dirt and empty tomato cages.

This years garden on June 16th = Peas and Tomatoes and Beans, Oh My.

All that research, hard work and new dirt seems to be paying off.

The Easter Bunny, Bambi and Chicken Little

This year we spent Easter with Aunt Sandy in Columbia. As usual, the kids were more than thrilled about that. We went to Columbia State Park on Saturday for a late lunch at Brown's Coffee House & Sweets Saloon. Then took a stroll around the old town.

We went rock climbing.......



Tried to hitch a ride on the Stagecoach....

Then back to Aunts for some Easter egg coloring.


Easter Eve was fun filled - dinner, wine, games, more wine, entertainment, more wine, and a big slumber party.
Easter Morning the kids woke up and immediately started the search for their baskets full of goodies. This year the bunny filled watering cans so the kids could help water mom and dad's garden. (How convenient.)

We suspect that the Easter Bunny may have hired Bambi to do his job this year because there were lots of deer right outside where all the Easter Eggs were hidden.



Unfortunately, Easter ended up to be a sad day. Upon our return home from our trip we found our favorite little chicken, Foxy, dead and...well....I'll spare you the details. She had been murdered in the night by what we assume to be a raccoon. As soon as we walked in the door we knew something was wrong. The other three birds were standing at the back door staring in and were obviously shaken up. The did not want to go to their roost in the coop at sunset that night. Poor girls, poor Foxy. Poor Peyton. She was in tears. Foxy was such a friendly and sweet lil' chicken. Peyton held her all the time. I never thought I'd be upset about loosing a chicken but we are all sad that she is gone. She was a good pet.
I wonder, has city living clouded my brain so much that every thing I learned growing up in the country is no longer second nature to me? I should have known that leaving the lights on would NOT keep the raccoons away, even for just one night.
Well, I'm quite sure I can remember how to shoot a .22, and if I had one, there's no doubt you'd see me parading around town in a coonskin cap sometime in the very near future. I wonder if a 2x4 would do the trick? Oops, Did I say that out loud?
Good bye lil' Foxy Girl.

Blossom Bandit

The cherry trees are in full bloom and I'm so happy to see bees busily buzzing all around doing their jobs diligently. I hope this means we will get loads of fruit again this year.

Last year our two trees produced so many cherries I thought there would be no way we could keep up with all the picking and the eating. I figured we'd be making cherry pie, cherry cobbler, cherry jam, dried cherries, cherry bread, cherry jubilee, cherry compote, cherry clafoutis........ wait, I'm beginning to sound like Bubba from Forrest Gump, aren't I? Anyway, we had more cherries than I've ever seen. I boasted to my friends and assured them they'd be able to come over with buckets and go home with more, better, sweeter, juicier cherries than they could ever find in any ole grocery store.

Little.....did.....I.....know, the crows had a different agenda. They sat perched high in the Redwood across the way patiently waiting. They would come swooping in daily, for samples, testing, waiting until the cherries were just right. When I caught on to their plan, I thought I beat them to the punch, so I ran right out as fast as I could, to Orchard Supply, and bought some shiny, sparkly, "scary", streamers, and raced home, grabbed the ladder and up the tree I went. I spent a couple of hours tying those scary streamers to the branches and as soon as I stepped foot on the ground the crows came diving in and haughtily helped them selves to more samples and to laugh right in my face, taunting "yeah right lady"!

The very second the fruit was perfectly ripe those pesky thieves called their friends and they all flew in for a feast. Our trees were picked clean before the day was done. Well, I've got news for you BIRDS, this year I am determined not to share!

Yesterday J.T. and I were out back admiring our beautiful "popcorn" tree, as he calls it, and we discovered we were not the only admirers. There's a new bandit after our goods. As if the birds weren't enough. Tom doesn't know this yet, but, in addition to all of our other projects and items on the honey-do list, we will be netting the trees. :-)

Cluckin' Crazy

"I think my wife's gone cluckin' crazy!"~ Tom

A work in progress. Tom and J.T. help out a bit before the Super Bowl starts.

All the wood for this project was left over scraps from around the house or scavenged from the side of the road. It's amazing what people dump along side the road. (I ran a stop sign because I had my eye on a real nice 10ft. 2x6)

The completed coop and run.

The "girls" in their new home.

Peyton with Popcorn, Speckles, Foxy and Nugget.