Rainy Days Don't Keep Us Down

All our rain left us with a huge mud puddle all along the way to the coop. Thank goodness for Wellies! This year we knew it would need a solution- a well drained path. So Mike dug some more dirt (to the delight of the girls who quickly lapped up the worms and frequently got in the way) and we laid down some gravel. Voila- one path completed. Look to the right for a grey gravel path and not to be left out we included a photo of the front yard herb garden.

Out next project was a more permanent fence to keep those sneaky chickens away from the garden. They kept kicking out the shells and we knew when the veggies started they would decimate them. So up went a fence.


Last week Mike went out of town and Nicole put the eight week old chicks outside. Another gate keeps the little chickens in the back part of the yard and the older girls get the side yard. They are both arms full at night when they want to love and preen with the humans. Check out the partridge penedesenca in a pear tree (no kidding).

Most of the time the young chickens hide in the raspberry bushes. Why do they call them bushes when they are really canes? In any case, they are turning ripe and giving a lovely snack while we work in the yard. And there is always work: no one ever talks about the endless weed pulling and slug hunting. The hazelnut shells have deterred many slugs but not all so Mike has captured several with cans of beer. Nicole opted for sluggo (organic of course). The few strawberries that have managed to turn red despite our endless cloudy rainy weather have been spared slug death. Not so lucky- cucumbers and okra.

Since the cucumbers are getting replanted anyway and as Father's day approaches it was time to get tomatoes in the ground and think about trellises. After much research and several "failed" experiments in past years we think this just may be the winner. It's rebar hammered into the ground about 2 feet and twine. We connected the rebar with 3/4" plastic plumbing elbows. The cucumbers are in a tepee shape, melons in a ladder, and tomatoes got the full cage grid. Parr lumber was very kind to assist us in cutting the rebar to size (it was the only place in town that has a cutting option on site) and we saved some money buying 20' lengths and dividing them into 8 and 4 foot lengths for out 8x4' beds.

The garden is slow going in general this year. Late planting and a late start to summer weather has made it a challenge but it did make growing celery outside from seed a success. Rumor has it that celery is notoriously difficult to grow so I am very proud we were able to have about 20 seeds germinate and begin to grow. We even were able to harvest 20 heads of garlic this weekend! Is there a dance that has the opposite effect of a snow-dance? Come-on its time for movies in the back yard and to fire up the bbq!!!!

The Patient Farmer

Four or five weeks ago I took stock of the herb garden and was convinced our lone week of below freezing temps had killed off several plants. Well, with my thesis near completion (woohoo, sigh) I was able to look up from my computer and see that everything except for two rosemary bushes had come back and flourished. Maybe being a lazy farmer can pay off afterall. Turns out tarragon, mint, and chives completely die and return in the spring. Who knew. The tulips have sprung and the orchard has blossomed. Soon we'll be drinking lemonade watching our new expanded flock run around. We fell in love with the Silkie chicken breed when we had Muppet and decided to raise a few from chicks. They are incredibly difficult to sex so we got four thinking we will need to re-home two roos. For those of you who were privy to the discussion of how many chicken can we really get, we were slated to also get a Favorelle breed chick but they just never came in to the feed store before the silkie chicks became to old and feisty to accept new girls to their flock.

The fuzzy girls have quadrupled in size but they still have about four more weeks inside. They need extra time to get their adult feathers and for nighttime temperatures to rise before they can be outside. And they are not all girls. We even picked out names: Stuffy, Razzle, Beaker (our definite roo), and Petri (not sure yet). They like to be petted, sit in our hands, and the typical chicken activities of eating, scratching, and sleeping. Their feathers are missing a stiffening barb on the end which makes them fluffy downy soft. I think they look more like stuffed animals than chickens. This is likely the reason they all got fanciful character names.

Well (much to my sister's concern) here are the new little ones. We sadly were required to re-home both silky roos which made room for more. As luch would have it this was the same time that those elusive favorelles came in to the store along with a new very rare breed to the US called penedesenca which lay almost black eggs (we shall see . . .) So we got two each knowing we would sell half and we did to a very nice couple living on a farm. Then mike went to get more feed and found new arrivals of polish chickens and came home with a last chick. And that is how we came to have 9 chickens (including our original four adult hens). If you're keeping up with all this that means we have 1 black silkie, 1 white silkie, 1 ameraucana, 1 buff oprington, 1 welsummer, 1 australorp, 1 polish, 1 salmon favorelle, and 1 partidge penedesenca.

The new wee ones took quite well to the older silkies. As a general rule it is disastrous to blend chicks after 2-3 weeks of age. We were concerned despite being told that silkies are the most gentle and maternal of all breeds. Turns out, once again, we should listen- if you look closely your will spot a four day old polish chick sleeping soundly under the wing of our black silkie. Current names are: Lulu (polish), Tilla (favorelle), and Penelope (penedesenca).

Shells

We've been talking about it. We've been wanting to do it. The first time we saw them we thought they were soooo cool. The chickens really dig them (literally & figuratively). The Mayor of Kenton hates them ("...don't get those damn things in my yard..."). They never decompose. But Best of all, the bazillion slugs in our yard are gonna hate them and will now stay away from our fruits & veggies because we now have them (hopefully the slugs slime over to the mayors yard). Can you say 2 pickup bed full of 100% Oregon Grown Hazelnut shells from one our favorite new places, Boring Bark. Bring on the slug free Strawberries!!

Spring Has Sprung!

I don't care what the calendar says- around here there are just too many signs pointing to spring. We've got warmer weather (third warmest January on record in Portland), the bulbs are sprouted, our girls are all laying eggs (with the exception of Gladys who is slowly finishing up her molt) and brand new baby! No. Not us. Nicole's sister had a healthy (and fast) baby boy last weekend on Superbowl Sunday. Welcome to the world Roark- we are excited for you to visit and play on your aunt and uncle's urban farm. Check out the smiles on mom, dad, and auntie nicole...

We've logged a few miles on the prius- the day before our trip to Seattle for baby Roark we visited Raintree Nursery (about half way from Portland to Seattle) and loaded up on this year's perminant additions to the orchard. We couldn't help but find a few other odds and ends. We moved the apple tree to the front yard and planted lingonberries underneath to make room for a new black mission fig tree in the back. Other additions: black, white, and red currents, a dwarf half nectarine half peach tree, non fuzzy kiwi trees that produce small oval kiwis that are eaten like grapes, marionberry, boysenberry, thornless blackberries, more strawberries. and asparagus. We should have a lovely harvest in a few years when they grow up. And we took advantage of the great sunny weather by cleaning up the yard and getting ready for new projects but that's for another blog entry another day . . .

On completely unrelated news- some friends introduced us to a fabulously crack-like board game called Settlers of Catan. Its relatively new and out of Germany. Think monopoly, stratego, and risk all rolled up together. We like the sustainable spin of trading resources and building farms with the resources of grain, ore, lumber, brick, and sheep. Check it out- its hard to convey its complex strategy and how easy it was to learn. Quite engaging! Or better yet . . . call us to play!

Ode to Muppet

It's true. We lost our most beloved chicken. She went broody (sat on invisible egg babies to hatch) for about three weeks and when she came out of it we noticed she was ever so slightly favoring her right foot. Mike took her to the avian specialty hospital and they sent him home with chicken-ibprofen to reduce swelling and reduce her pain. It got worse and turned into an all out limp. We finally took her to the local avian vet down the street from our house and he was AWESOME! He suggested Merik's disease. Merik's disease is a actually a common avian virus which all hatchery chickens are vaccinated for that eventually leads to degenerative paralysis. Unfortunately, we got Muppet from the feed store who got her from thier neighbor who hatched her in their backyard. Hence, she was never vaccinated- we didn't even think to ask. The feed store owner felt awful, we felt awful, and the vet made the best of a sad situation with jokes about taking her temp and being a muppet (use your imagination . . . ) So after a good laugh it was pretty clear when her leg and wing were effected and she fell on her face a couple times that it was time. We brought her inside and she shared mike's office for a week and when it got to the point when we would hold her, she would fall asleep like a wet noodle that we knew it was time to take her in to the vet for the last time... The vet did a chicken autopsy (necropsy) and found evidence for Merik's which couldn't be confirmed until after . . . We will miss her coos of baBuhhhh and fluffy waddle. May she be scratching around the clouds and flying without effort . . .

I do feel obligated to politically comment on the issue of backyard hatches. Hatching on one's own as a chicken enthusiast does help to keep heritage breeds of chickens around. This is important because they are threatened to be lost to more genetically bred super chickens whose legs break under their rapid growth in order to provide juicy juicy boneless skinless dinner. I do believe there is a difference between pets and food and I believe both can be chickens- I love a good stir fry or taco as much as anyone but as is the current trend it is important not to loose our historical knowledge and access to our food sources. Maybe pet chickens are one way of preservation in the same way that victory home gardens have come back in vogue. However, vaccines are made in batches of 1000 with a 12 hour shelf life which makes backyard hatching unrealistic to vaccinate. Thinking of vaccinated populations continuing the Meriks disease to infect future chickens feels irresponsible and hits close to home in seeing a poor chicken fall- literally. What do you think?

Yes we are lame but we are BACK!!!

So we have proven to be about the lamest blogger's on the blogosphere and to all 2 or 3 of our followers we apologize for being so lame, or more accurate --lazy? no matter, we sucked, we know it and that's aboutall we will say about that.

hmmmm.... now where to start? how about a quick summary on the last 5 months with more to detail to follow on future posts. Our garden was a great success, we had a huge harvest, with tomatos leading the way and a few snags with brussel sprouts causing us the most dissapointment (they were infected with a bazillion aphids and were a 100% waste). All in all, we learned a ton, had a bunch of fun and were able can about 100 jars of sauce, salsa, jelly's and a whole lot of other good stuff. We also transplanted many of our herbs/spices to the front yard to keep them out of chicken reach and for easier cooking access. The chickens were every bit as fun and rewarding as we both ever imagined and could have hoped for. we started out with 3, gave one back (rooster), got 2 more, then another, and sadly lost one to Merek's disease in early December (see future post entiteld 'Ode to Muppet' for the hearthwrenching details) so we ended the year with 4 pretty cool birds. 4 of the 5 ended up laying eggs but currently only 2 of them are producing right now. We expanded the chickens Run by about 40% and now wonder how the poor little birds ever survived prior to our expansion (they are a bit spoiled to say the least). We also started a kitchen remodel in December, dressed up as the Kardashians for Halloween and made some very good friends in our neighborhood that we hope to see much more of in 2010.

Going into 2010 we have a lot planned and unplanned -here is just a sampling: we will be getting at least 3 more chickens (YES!!!), changing up our fruit trees, adding a bunch more berries & adding a greater variety of veggies, add some flowers and other non edibles, limiting chicken access to the whole yard so we can actually use some of the yard that is free from chicken Sh*t, redo our chicken roost (the place where they sleep and lay), be a stop on Portland's Tour de Coop (a city-wide tour of backyard chicken wierdo's), brew our own beer and wine (if we get enough grapes), install a pathway in the backyard, and a whole bunch of other things we haven't even thought of yet... oh yeah, and we are going to blog the entire year!!

...and finally, here are some random photos...