Why Hello!

Here I am, 2 and 1/2 years later! Lots of things have happened, in the world and in my personal life. The biggest I'd say is that we no longer live on a Texas Homestead (which was really just a city plot 2 blocks south of the highway that separated the town from the wilderness and farm plots). We returned to Oregon a year ago. That's right, we have been enjoying our first home as homeowners for a year now.  We bought a 100 year old house in a small town, walking distance to just about everything in the town. The house needed some immediate attention, and still needs lots of work, and so did my extended family. In the meantime, we homeschool the girls and love on the dog and the cat. We had added new chicks to our flock (half of which were enjoyed by Hawk) but then rehoused the girls with a friend before leaving Texas as moving the birds 2000 miles didn't seem worth the trouble. We have just started talking about adding some new feathered friends into the mix this next spring. Lots of construction plans in the near future.... Maybe I'll share some before and afters in the future. I have found dance again. The Mister is enjoying his new job (still flying planes) and the girls are as busy as ever dancing, riding horses, climbing on things, swimming, catching crawdads, etc.

To be honest, I paused working with this site because of the time commitment and my priorities had shifted to other things. In the back of my mind there was also a growing fear for my children's internet anonymity and safety. I am still hesitant to tell our stories in such an unguarded way as a blog, and so have focused on a heavily screened Instagram and Facebook account. But the storytelling! I miss the storytelling. I have never wanted to be a political writer or to write about things where I have to deal with internet trolls. So I paused. I wrote my stories in journals and to specific people on messenger and group texts. I have started escaping into the woods to dance and write poetry and reframe goddess myths in my own words. I have always enjoyed growing in private and, when i feel confident, inviting people to notice what I am doing now.

So, since I have come back here, I must have finished a breathing-in growth cycle (borrowing the idea from Waldorf educational theories) and am ready to breath out and interact with people in this way again. Or at least the interface of the blog-sphere. I have noticed I take less photos because I am sharing my life with the ones I missed so dearly while we were in Texas. Instead of needing to take photos to remember the stories so I can share them with lifelong Friends, Aunties and Grandparents, they are the ones involved in the memories. I am working to shift my habit and capture memories for the girls for later, when we want to look back and remember that silly afternoon at the museum/park/coffee shop with so-and-so and how different we all looked "back then."

I have some other deep thoughts and feeling just below the surface I want to share with all 12 of you who may find your way back to this blog. But I'm not quite ready to make those permanent additions to the inter webs just yet. Which always leads me to ask: Do my thoughts and feelings really need to be blasted all over the inter webs? Can sharing them face to face with a safe person or in my journal be enough? This space helped me through that rough part of transitioning to parenting two kids without much real life help, and now...what to make of this space? I have this place, how shall I use it??

Garden Journal #8

The Beans look amazing! I've even seen flowers, on the ground. The 5 or so plants that make up this tower of greenery might start to fruit but then drop. A condition known as blossom drop. Usually a sign of poor soil quality. So I added the usual coffee and egg shell grounds, a nice dose of dry grass trimming and leaves, and waited. Besides a sudden surge in growth, no change in the edible department. Time for research. I lurked around the Farmer's Alamanac forums and found that marigolds release an antibiotic into the soil. Pretty cool! The antibiotic is said to help keep tomato worms and other pepper, squash and onion pests away and aid soil quallity. However, it interfers with the fruiting of legumes. That finding led to my immediate transplanting of the 3 foot Aztec Marigold planted 2 feet away from the bean vine! (Well, i had to wait a week because I went camping, cleaned up from camping, sprayed the house for fleas, and spent yesterday running between playdates and library-led freeplay science explorer hour - if you live in Denton, check out that last one. It's so cool!) 

Anyway - this morning, I did some weeding, moved the giant flowering bush to where my lovely chicken left an acorn squash plant out to dry and hope this helps solve the issue. Next issue, I don't think my pole teepee is gonna be tall enough...

 I am waiting with baited breath for these big guys to turn red! Pictured are the most tomatoes I have had grow since leaving Oregon. that's right: 3 in the last 5 years. The only thing I did different this year, was not buy a plant from anyone. I grew all 9+ of my plants from seed and they all are fruiting. This year, we will have tomatoes! In fact, this year, we have already enjoyed more fruit from our garden than all the years since leaving Oregon combined,

Sneaking little bites of kale when no one is looking. Little Scamps!

 as long as these guys stay on the appropriate side of the fence.

This year has been extra wet and stormy. Yesterday we had another howler blow through with the chance of hail. The Crape Myrtle in the front yard looks like someone tried to drive a truck through the middle of the foliage 8 feet in thge air. I am hoping the dry weather today helps the plant put things back where they belong, but I digress. Last night as the wind was ripping through, I did the usual walkabout to make sure all the important stuff was tied down (like climbing on the pergola and securing the tarp. That was new for me.). I noticed one of my climbing trellises in the garden was swaying rather dangerously. Last thing I want is for my pie pumpkin to die because the trellises ripped it out of the ground. As I was securing it with tent spikes for the time being, I noticed the hidden cucumber vine that encircles the pumpkins finally had an actual cucumber on it! It was half buried in mulch and I assume the horrid squash beetles pollinated it. But I am so happy to have one that i didn't squish any beetles today. I did scrap some eggs off the leaves though.

 The mornings are the best time to see all the insects hard at work. I saw so many bees I was actually giddy. I am grateful for their hard work and I hope the bowl of nectar I put out in the fall and the constant stream of flowers we have in the garden helps them survive this coming winter!

Have you ever seen corn with this much hair?

 The radishes are still flowering, so I've left them for the bees. Occasionally I'll find a pod hanging off the plant and I'll pick that. These are the radish seeds for next year. I did some Googling and some book researching and couldn't find a thing on how to seed a radish. So naturally, I experimented. I just let the bulbs flower and watched to see what would happen. Pods formed where some flowers had been and as the pods dried on the vine, I picked one and opened it. Inside was a tiny round orb I can only assume was a seed. I haven't gather as many pods as I should have so I bet the radish has reseeded itself and I may have a voluntary crop come Autumn. I do hope anyway. In the meantime, the gnarly twisted plant is keeping the ground shaded and suffocating weeds.

 Happy gardening!

Signs of Summer's Beginning

A few nights ago, after we were tucked in, Artemis started barking. She usually barks for one of three reasons. Reason 1: there is some being (human, neighborhood cat, unfamiliar dog, skunk)) lurking near the front door (or knocking). Reason 2: there is some being (human, stray cat, the neighbors dog - or rather any dog she can see from our deck which could include the dogs walking along the side street 3 houses away- or skunk). Reason 3: someone is playing with her.  

Since I was fairly certain reason 3 wasn't encouraging her commotion, I had Pete get up and see what was going on. He stumbled around in the dark a bit and came back mumbling something about our cat. That was enough to let me fall asleep peacefully. 

The next morning, I got up with the baby and found a huge, 2 inch cockroach dead in my living room. I now think Artemis, being slightly blind, could hear the thing rustling about but was unable to catch it in the dark. No worries. It seemed thoroughly dead as it was just lying there on the carpet. 

I do want to pause and say a bit about me and bugs. I don't particularly care for them. This fear is mostly based on ignorance, something I am working to change, and the visceral shock of things flying at my face or scurrying over my feet.

 When I moved to Texas a few years ago, I was warned about the bird-sized Mosquitos, the massive grasshoppers and the giant roaches. I was told it wasn't a matter of IF we got roaches but more about WHEN and knowing who to call. In my time here, I have seen 3 roaches in my house (counting the star of this story). All in May. All huge. All quickly dead. The first was in my kitchen and scared me to death. We then proceeded with a spring cleaning like you can only imagine and the purchase of roach traps. The second was seen scurrying down the hall as i opened the door to let the dog out. Fortunately, there was a chicken in hot pursuit. This year's roach sighting was a little more animated.

My first thought after determining there was truly a roach in the house, was how to get it outside to a chicken. I had the baby and didn't particularly want to risk trying to catch it, cauung it to come back to life and just disappear. (Fear based on ignorance triggers more unnecessary fears.) So I went out for my trusted friendly chicken, Ferdy. She's always trying to come in the house anyway. Time for a treat! 

She's an easy one to wrangle, our Ferdy. Almost like a lovable kitten. With talons. Those two weeks bandaged in our tub made her quite the cuddler! So I scoop her up in one arm while holding the baby on my opposite hip and bring her into the house. I set her near the roach, but she's too distracted by being inside to notice. She wanders off to my room to chat with her reflection in my mirrored closet door as i grab a handful of birdseed. I get the bird, set her back near the roach and sprinkle seed on the carpet, clucking like i do anytime I'm distributing treats. She goes for the seeds, sees the roach, and crunches it down fast! After I let her get the seeds out of my carpet, I take her back outside to an audience of the other birds. You could almost see Ferdy strut out, boasting about her awesome trip to the indoor cockroach bar.

 In retrospect, I should've grabbed another bird who isn't hellbent on sneaking in the backdoor whenever possible, but she was the one I knew I could trust to save me from having to touch that nasty thing! So much for not encouraging behavior I don't want or not allowing habits I'll have to break later! 

 I have come to call these intimate moments with nature my Spring Roach Sighting and they serve as a sign the hot season has started. Time for beings to find a cool place to move before the mercury really spikes. I honestly can't blame them. The summers here are brutal!

 Emagene's friends graduated from   preschool, we took a trip to the city pool and we had a Roach Sighting. Summer is definitely upon us!

What non-calendar ways do you have for noticing the seasonal change?

story in pictures: chicken house remodel

Sorry its been a bit quiet here recently. Our In Real Life has been unquiet and therefore keeping me away from here. Here is just a small taste of what we've up to as we move into a new season for this family: kids in school! (More on that once I get a chance to sit with it.) So on with the story in pictures! 

Last Spring, the paint job!

 

New year, New rhythms

It seems that every January, once we rest off the holidays, we end up embracing the same ideal rhythm. This rhythm usually dies by summer and while we think about instigating it again when "school" starts in the autumn, it takes us until January to get back here. I say "usually", but as you all know we've moved twice, had a couple babies, added pets and changed jobs since coming out this way. These things have a way of demanding and creating their own rhythms. What I'm thinking about specifically is my personal, ideal schedule. My waking routine with yoga, pet and garden care done before the kids wake, healthy eating habits, energy left after the kids go to bed, real life face time with my partner, handcrafting and all the other things that go into feeding my soul. How do these disappear first and so quickly when our rhythms adjust to meet the newest change?

I'm sure some of you keep different schedules to coincide with the longer daylight hours and on holidays, but my question for you is, how do you create daily rhythms for your family when every day is different?

We have a stable bedtime routine. It's as consistent as the sunset: it happens but at a different hour every day. My ideal morning practices are wonderful, but some days we have to take dad to work before dawn, others 2 hours after dawn. Some days we rush off to our morning activity after dropping off dad, others we take a nap before heading out. Some days start with letting the chickens out, others with the baby waking first. I try to squeeze in 10-15 minutes of yoga before lunch and aim to get the kitchen clean right after dinner. (I am not keen on sharing my house with unwanted insects.) 

Emagene is a rock star helper with small chores like dusting, picking up to vacuum, emptying the dishwasher and loading the washing machine. Aoife, however, is not quite there yet. I wear her during our busy home keeping days so she can be a part of things. Sadly, squatting to empty the washer with a baby on is wearing on my back. So instead I find myself rushing around like a maniac during the baby's morning nap just to get things done, often with big sis watching Disney junior videos when she's not able to help with the pressing chore of the day. I am starting to feel like Mama Bear from the Bearenstain Bears Trouble with Chores.

So, how do you do it? Are you able to balance the needs of the house with the joys of childhood? Squeeze in a little reading for yourself? Remembering to make self-care and relational maintenance a daily priority? Do you have a secret you can share with those who visit this page?

I have to remind myself everyday to be flexible. The dishes can wait a half hour while I play princesses with my preschooler. The TV will stay off when the paints are out. Dusting can be done by the Dusting Fairies, while having a dance party (momma hates dusting. least favorite chore.)

The Dusting Fairies can be a little mischievous and actually create more work in the long run, but that is the way of the Faery Folk.

Mopping is part of playing Cinderella, complimented by dress-up ball gown. Food prep will be messier with little people helping, but it will be more fun and the dog picks up most of the droppings.

If not helping mince mushrooms, at least those tiny princess toys are rubbery and don't mind being stepped on

And while I don't always enjoy being a climbing gym while stretching, I do enjoy my kids embracing yoga as a fun daily activity. The quiet meditation or soul-food reading must wait for the quiet miracle of reasonable bedtimes and daddy working late.
 

I do long for the stability of a grown-up job schedule which would grant me a couple hours a week to do my own solitary thing, but we just aren't there yet. Date night is an even more distant dream. I'm grateful that this family is in the habit of making each others dreams come true. Knowing that, reminds me that we'll get there. Everyone will have a chance to do what they need. At the moment I get 1 guaranteed night every 4-6 weeks to feed my soul with other like-minded friends (typically with kids in tow). Any other soulfood moments are a pleasant treat and thoroughly appreciated.

Feel free to share experience in the comments below or on Facebook.

The End of the Beginning

As the last of our out of town helpers leaves on an airplane, we enter the season of learning what it means to be a family of four. Three solid weeks of meals from friends, play time with Grandmas, and chores done by Aunties made the initial sleeplessness of living with a newborn unspeakably less stressfull! I am forever grateful for all the help. Emagene never noticeably felt neglected and jealous meltdowns have been nonexistent as she truly is the proudest big sister I have ever known.

And now, this afternoon, we start learning how to be just us. What will our daily rhythm look like now that we have a tiny sleeper and a busy preschooler? How will days with away from home activities work since driving to and from the airport requires 2 nursing stops? Can we convince the baby that the car seat is a safe place to nap without forcing her to cry needlessly? Will we remember to use inside voices even when we are hungry, need to pee or feeling excited?

We are also transitioning into being the owners of only 3 chickens. Some sort of freak accident claimed the life of our biggest chicken, Minerva. She was found last night by using our noses, poor thing. She came up missing Sunday night at bedtime roll call. After Pete and I searched the yard at twilight, I assumed she was the victim of an aerial predator. The other girls had seemed nervous and skittish on Monday, but we still could not find her in the day light, even though we searched every time we went outside. Finding her under the deck three days later proved my predator theory wrong as she was found whole. I now think she got spooked while already under the deck, jumped to avoid whatever spooked her -probably my cat - hit her head and never moved again. Sadly, I think she slow death is what made the other girls nervous. Her presence is missed.

Emagene is handling the loss alright. She understood about the 'big birds.' We've talked about them liking to eat chicken and that being a motivator to lock them up at night and check on them throughout the day. But having something die due to an accident is new for her. She has said she will miss our black chicken, Minerva, but is glad we still have the others.

Another end at hand is the closing of our favorite local wholesale grocer, Ken's Produce. They had the best avocados, tomatoes, and roasted pecans in town but sadly have been forced to close due the opening of yet another commercial 'organic' grocer with promises of local produce. I already miss chats with the cashier and all the secret mothering tips we've shared throughout the last year and a half. I just wish they had stayed open another month so she could meet Aoife, and I could have learned her name.

But truly all this ending fits the season. We are entering the end of Summer and the beginning of Autumn. The shift away from heat and water play and the renewed focus of learning indoors is upon us. The next Season of Awesomeness cannot start until the current season ends. While we aren't heading back to school this year, we are excited to participate in activities with our rec center. And thus continues the rotation of the Wheel of the Year, with its beginnings and endings working together beautifully and seamlessly.

Enjoy the beginning of Autumn but do not mourn the Summer for it shall return.

The battles of the seasons

I Am starting a war against the cottonwood borer! 

Last year there was one couple and they near killed a tree in the drought. This year I've seen at least 6 couples. While its been educational to watch them mate and then search for the root system and deposit eggs, I fear for the health of the trees! 

Since I dispise pesticides, I am using diatomaceous earth to dust the base of the tree. Once that had a chance to work, I will soak the root system in a neem oil spray with the hopes of defering any larva that do hatch from chewing through the root system. Sadly, this huge beattle, roughly 2" long with even longer antenna, are not interesting to the chickens. They hiss and are pretty intimidating, and i am a million times bigger than they are! 

All this comes after an interior attack on fleas and chiggers that, fortunately, did not resort to using a bug bomb. It was close though. Instead we DEed the carpet, let it sit for an hour, vacuumed. Then a few days later, vacuumed again to remove hair and trick flea eggs into hatching and then salted the rugs before vacuuming again. We have also washed all animals and bedding, neem oiled the dog and the carpet and the furniture, and resorted to frontline on the furry ones. The bites on us humans have significantly decreased, though the coating of baking soda paste for itch relief is still a daily application.

On to overcoming a bout of swimmers ear involving trapped lake water and a three year old. The miracles of hydrogen peroxide, lavender and eucaliptis essential oils and coconut oil! Now to stop the nasal drainage before we end up with a chest infection!

If all the time I've spent watching tinker bell movies hadn't been riddled with whining, itchy bites, fever and vacuuming I'd say I've been pretty lazy the last few weeks. Sleep has been nearly absent since the munchkin's fever raged in the nighttime until the clog loosened. Now she's coughing all night and requiring I sleep in her bed, while I toss and turn trying not to scratch. Needless to say, I'm tired!

 Fortunately we did get to take a break to go camping with some amazing friends! (How we acquired the plugged ear in the first place.) I'm hoping for a little break from maintaining healthy balance around my homestead for a while and find a moment for relaxing myself. 

Here's to a peaceful summer!

how we are treating our hen

Yesterday I wrote a lengthy post about how grateful I am to be witnessing the continued health of the cardinal chicks. After I wrote that post (on my deck watching the trunks of the trees sway in the wind while Emagene swam) I suddenly felt "off." For those in the know, the kind of "off" that tells you the goods have kicked in, a little more than buzzed but still in complete control of your bodily functions. I was completely sober! (I'm pregnant and regularly have a 3-year old in the pool, the only thing I'll be ingesting is tea.) During this unintentional altered state, I notice just how heavy the tree in the corner was. It had sent all its growth out to the tips without strengthening its limbs. It seemed to be struggling to hold the weight of the leaves in the strong wind. Than a branch broke. It landed on the hen house, got wedged and required Peter and a hack saw to safely bring the rest down. (No one was injured but the tree). A few moments later I heard my neighbor lady yell is disgust. Her Chihuahua-mix, Crash, was chewing on a dead bird it had stolen from the pit bull puppy. I immediately thought of the cardinal family and ran to make sure everyone was ok. It was a female sparrow, the loss reinforced by the lament of a male sparrow soon after. Then I started feeling a bit numb and noticed whenever I looked at my chickens I would slip into tunnel vision. I started to wonder if the veil between the worlds was thin. I put all my energy into watching Emagene in the pool. These things come is threes. What would be the third? Pete was flying, Emagene swimming, the cat off chasing tail for the second day in a row. Artemis was sleeping on the deck, all the chickens accounted for and the baby kicking. I forced myself to let it all go and just BE with everyone right now. The feeling returned to my hands and my vision flattened out. We went about our evening, tucking everyone into bed and not dwelling on what I had experienced.

Than morning came.

Morning came with the sharp sounds of my dog's piercing bark. I've grown used to her barking me awake at 7:30 (almost a full 2 hours after morning feeding time) to tell me our chicken, Ferdy, is in the front yard. This bark was more intense. Something was wrong. Out of habit, and following the sound of a cat (which turned out to be a booty call for Mr. Kitty - he's getting sterilized next week!) I checked the front yard first. Nothing. I heard my older neighbor speaking harsh so i went to check the backyard. Sure enough, there was Ferdy trying desperately to get back over the fence and into my yard while the older neighbor was still trying to walk off the stiffness of a night's sleep and keep his dog-sitting charge off my hen. The poor man felt rotten that he couldn't move faster, that the dog had hurt the chicken - who could not jump the fence again due to her injuries. The hen finally let the old man pick her up and hand her to me, where she slumped into my arms in complete shock. Lifting the feathers on her back revealed more than I wanted to see of an animal I had spent a year bonding with.

This hen trusts me more than anything in the world. She loves to roost on the arm of my chair when I'm "lifeguarding" in the backyard, or sit on my lap whenever possible. She requires that I pet or hold her at least once a day; she yells through my bedroom window when the bird feeder is out of seeds and keeps the other hens informed about the circling hawks. I am too emotionally attached to this animal to simply write off her injuries as too much to recover from. True, some injuries are too painful or costly to heal and it would be more humane to euthanize the animal. In this case, I called my husband and demanded he bring home peroxide, gauze and liquid bandage. He left work a little early and basically took over the chicken repairs. He has cleaned and changed her bandages every time they have needed it while I continue with a long self-imposed research project on how to best heal this bird homeopathically (which is a much healthier way to fret and worry about the hen now living in my bathtub than sitting around wringing my hands).

After all that, I wanted to share with you some interesting things I found during this research process.

We initially followed the advice found on this forum thread for reattaching her skin and closing the wound. We flushed with tepid water, then with hydrogen peroxide, followed by a liquid bandage seal, honeyed gauze and a wrap made from old bed sheets (Walgreens does not sell VetWrap).

I then found this really interesting article about healing wounds with sugar packs.

And just for fun, here's a diagram of a chicken skeleton. Her major side wound (there are 3 really bad spots) is between the scapula and the corucoid.

She is currently receiving daily baths with Dr. Bronner's Lavendar soap and water (we chose to use soap since she is laying in her excrament and is in need of a gentle antibacterial wash), the soap is added to a basin of water, soaked into a cloth and then rung out over the wounds to flush the area (there is no scrubbing!!), followed by a sugar paste application, which is then wrapped with gauze pads lined with local, unprocessed honey. I have added a general antibiotic to her water and am continuing her oregano/garlic/DE supplement in her food. So far, her color is good, she is alert, and eating, drinking and pooping normally. Sadly, she seems to struggle standing. We are on the look out for signs of broken bones, dislocation or anything "structurally" that might be off.

Since I leave town on Sunday, we're hoping she heals enough to start face time reintegration with the flock. The girls outside keep coming to the door and peering down the hall. I believe they are looking for her. She doesn't answer their calls, which confirms for me that she is not well enough to be around them yet. Hens will peck the small, sick or injured out of curiosity but sadly it can turn into full blown cannibalism if left unchecked and the victim is overwhelmed or otherwise unable to defend themselves. We are going to avoid this!!

A Day for the Making

Today was definitely a day for making. It seems that leaving the sewing machine out on the kitchen table overnight begs little girls (and bigs one too for that matter) to wake up and make something. So with a little help from my cheering section and a lot reaching around a helper literally on my knee, we created this.

Munchkin wanted to use the machine. We had made this purse for her yesterday

 

(based off a pattern I saw in this book from Cosmo we got at the library) and she proved herself able to follow directions as a very helpful backstitch-button pusher and pin-put-away-er. She wanted another go. Instead of just making lines on scrap fabric we dug around in the fabric chest and found a project I had started years ago. It was all pinned and waiting. We accepted the challenge to finish the project!

It's slightly changeable, depending where I want the ties to land, which is nice. And all made of repurposed fabric. The green in a poorly fitted bedsheet, the purple left over from the aisle runner for my sister's wedding, and the print just kinda showed up in the fabric box one day. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. (that bottle cap table in the background is waiting for a warm, dry day before I can tell its complete story.)

After a brief snack (of homemade guacamole, of course) and some inspiration from The Barefoot Kitchen Witch, we commenced Family Ravioli night. (I'm still saving my pennies for a pasta press. Any recommendations?)

It's been a while since I was required to knead anything for 10 minutes. My shoulders ached a little and I was glad that everything needs an hour rest between steps. Following the recipe in the link above and applying some of her suggestions to mushrooms, Emagene and I found ourselves here:

 

Since this happened on a whim, I was sans any sort of white cheese for this project. I do believe it would have been heaps better with shaved Parmesan or fresh mozzarella. However, we only had a minor tea spill and some. flour on the nose so i consider this a win for us in the kitchen!

Yesterday, we made this soup, which E lovingly calls "peanut butter poop." Someday her toddler speech will correct itself and I'll be sad when the cuteness goes with it! Unfortunately, I didn't know I would be posting a creative blog today so I didn't take any pictures. We had to substitute spaghetti noodles since that's all we had in the house and we added a handful of halved grape tomatoes with the cilantro and scallions. It's definitely a recipe I'll try again!! It's from The Complete Book of 400 Soups by Anne Sheasby. We have the 2008 edition.


So there ya go. Hope enjoy this ramble about my busy couple of days. I probably should spend tomorrow cleaning the house since I've done nothing except sweep up flour and thread this week. Thankfully, my husband is a rock star and vacuumed while I wrote this!

Here are a few more photos of our Day (well Days) of Making.

The Hen House Gets a Face Lift

Our girls have been blissfully enjoying a cozy home in the shade throughout this HOT Texas Summer. With the change in Seasons upon us, it became evident that vegetable oil stain and the bare roof needed a little love if we expected the house to survive the downpours.

 Finding half a package of comp shingles in the garden shed, the roofer reappeared.

When the heat and humidity became close to unbearable (early July), the girls had begun preferring the lower tree branches to the safety of the hen house. So I (sorry Planet!) ran to Wal-Mart and purchased this $7 battery operated fan and installed it with cable ties to the ceiling. It points away from the access door toward the screened, vent windows in the opposite corner. The girls roost bar, barely noticeable behind the fan, is positioned at a angle, to accommodate all of the them, between the fan and the windows. As long as it is on when they head to bed, I don't have to pull chickens out of the tree after dark! 

(That's Fluffy, being all broody and grumpy on the elevated nesting box. She's generally the only one who uses this box. We have 3 'momma approved' nests around the yard.)

Originally, E and I 'painted' the house with a coating of vegetable oil to seal the wood. I was told in Backyard Chicken Class (offered at the Zarrow Regional Library in Tulsa, OK) to be mindful that cooped chickens will peck at the wood enclosing them. Therefore it would be safer to seal the wood with food grade oil instead of staining or painting the interior.
 














Using leftover paint from various other projects, E and I gave the exterior a little face lift.

That precariously perched board is placed there to ensure the the feeder stays dry and in the shade.  The opening below is covered with chicken wire. The outside of the run is covered with 1/4 inch hardware cloth.

Still to be done: frame the outside of the windows with a matching trim and replace a few grips on the ramp.



Even with the To Do list not thoroughly completed, the ladies seem pleased with the new look of their house.

All photos taken by Sara Dalton-Busch

Chicken Egg Farming

Well, I guess it's official, we are egg farmers! The girls are all laying now and I think we've been with them long enough to have a grasp of what's going on.

The classes, books and websites all told me that I woul eventually get to know each chicken's personality, when they laid, and be able to just tell when something wasn't right. Like parenting children. This is my story of the beginning of egg production.

About a month ago, I checked the hen house for visitors (aka predators) before putting the girls to bed (as usual) and found an egg. What a surprise! Now to figure out who laid it... Emagene had a theory: the yellow one, with yellow feet, Ella. Two days later I walked in on that chicken in the nesting box. Mystery solved; we had a layer! She laid every other day for a week but then along came the 4th of July, stressing out the animals and put a halt on egg production.

A few days later, I had a perplexing day of homesteading. The day started out normal enough: teeth brushing, feeding animals, letting the chickens out, checking the nesting box for eggs, walking through the garden picking of pill bugs and looking for grasshoppers. As the chickens stretched their wings and started grazing I noticed Ella was a bit off her game. She has always taken her time to leave the run but usually hurries up to join the flock in the morning grazing. This day she was walking particularly slow and keeping to herself. When I looked closely she appeared to have waded through a bog. Since I have to no bogs in my yard I was concerned. What was matted on her belly? It looked sleek and shiny and... a little yellow??? Checking beyond the nesting box I found a soft shell split around the center sitting on the floorboard. She had laid on the floor of the hen house and then tried to nest without any padding resulting in a broken egg and a sticky mess.

Bathing a chicken is not something I recommend for everyone, but in this case it was necessary. The only way to free up her movements and not attract unwanted guests was to wash her. Surprisingly, she let me. I sat her in a shallow bucket and gently splashed and rubbed until she was done. She then rolled in the dirt, like a good chicken. Unfortunately, she had ingested some of the egg goo and had an upset stomach. I panicked slightly when Ella had an eggy poop, but after a conversation with seasoned poultry farmer and friend and a small fight at bath time, I assumed she was feeling better. The next day she was more active and chased a bug or two. I took a deep breath and relaxed. She'll be fine.

About this same time, Minerva and Ferdy began looking like they may start laying any day .A week after Ella's unfortunate accident, she started laying double yolks. That day, we found 2 eggs in the nesting box. Emagene's theory? The black chicken with yellow feet. Minerva came running at us as we took our gifts inside, begging for scratch. We obliged. She laid again two days later.

Then started the decimation of the garden. Ferdy, the Demon Chicken as Pete calls her, was stressed. She was getting ready to lay for the first time but the nesting box didn't have enough nesting material, the fire pit was full of ash and the garden was off limits. Once I figured this out and overloaded the coop with straw, she found enough peace to take care of business. We assumed we'd sorted it out: the girls were timed to share the nest and we had time until the last one was ready.

We were wrong. Fluffy was in a tizzy the next day and Ferdy was back in the garden.

When the chickens were tiny, they slept in a giant litter box filled with straw. The box has been repurposed serval times since the completion of the coop, but in between uses it lives on the porch near the straw bale. We took the lid off for one reason or another and the girls occasionally sit inside. Following this cue, I filled it with straw at left it where it was. It was immediately inhabited by Ferdy who took a bit of time on her off-laying day to fluff the nest and satiate her nesting drive. Today she left us a gift in this new nest of hers that still doesn't have quite enough fluff. Such a posh and pampered princess!

Fluffy has needed to be locked in the run the last day or two to take care of business. She seems intrigued by the porch nest but not able to focus. The garden calls her. Emagene removes her. It's only her third try at this, but she's starting to prefer spending the noon hour in the hen house. Immediately followed by Ella who is desperate for the box by early afternoon.

And, there you have it. A rough look at the transition into egg harvesting, from a human perspective. I am grateful that is has cooled down in the mornings so Emagene and I can spend the late morning hours being outside and watching the girls. We do our best to stay off the porch or watch through the bedroom window if the porch box is in use. We say thank you and gently pet the girls when they come running to tell us they are done. We keep the waterers full and the scratch ready. If the chickens weren't so focused on the garden, we'd weed and water in these cool morning hours. But alas, we spend our time carrying birds around, talking softly to them while enjoying our coffee and juice. Some times we watch the cardinals and mockingbirds fight the chickens for their grasshoppers or the hummingbirds and finches nip at the tomatoes. But mostly we get excited at the discovery of a new egg and a morning spent watching and learning from nature.