bye Lester, hello new chicks

Turns out Ester was definitely Lester. The day we left for a trip up to Seattle Lester crowed, poorly, but a definite crow. So we found a new home with hens on a lovely farm through the Urban Farm Store. He will be missed . . . but not as much by anyone as by Mike. (The girls will be fine honey- promise)

Mike cut some lettuce to take to Seattle to our hosts. My sister made a very yummy salad, after she washed out some cabbage worms and soil, with shaved fennel and almond slivers. Warning- shameless sister blog plug: She just may have this salad recipe on her blog- highheeledcontessa@blogspot.com where she shares her amazing recipes with great tips and pics!!

What do you do when you're down one chicken? Get new chicks of course! We wanted many varieties but as chick season has all but expired we settled on what was available. We brought home another Ameraucana (Ester/Lester was this type) and a Black Australorp. The Black Australorp will look a lot like Elanore, only black, because the breed was bred in Australia from Orpington stock. Welcome to the flock youngins.

(left: the new chicks, middle: sometimes Elinore just needs a perch, right: here's what the black australorp will look like grown)

Well we haven't been great about updating on gardening but it isn't that fascinating to discuss little seeds popping up out of the ground. So here are highlights: new tomatoes are doing great with little yellow flowers, something ate my sage but it looks like it is returning, we added purple thai basil this week to join the green stuff, and the beds are all full. Now we are thinking how and where to add more beds- I know!

~Lessons: Seattle Tilth gives classes and a friend of my sister, Donna, said she learned that in urban gardens you can grow veggies closer together in raised beds and to use a five cluster patterns like dice rather than rows. We'll test it out next year.

CHICKENS OUT THE HOUSE!!! (warning: pics may be disturbing)

We have a lot to catch up on since the last three weeks has busy with activity on the Modees farming front. We have chickens growing up, coop finishing, a trip to the ER, and lots of planting (we will post more on plants later when it starts really coming up and getting green). So here it is with lots of pictures and more to come . . .

Ahhhh . . . warm weather has brought peace and quiet to the modees basement, the chics finally were introduced to the outside world that is our backyard and it is oh so nice. Really the only ones happier than nicole & i were the chics themselves... they love it outside. Good grass to eat, dirt to eat, weeds to eat, worms to eat, flies to eat . . . we sense a trend here.

Esther (left) may actually be a Lester, aka a rooster. She/He has some tell tail signs- her tail sticks up and out, her comb (the red thing on chicken heads) is bigger and redder than the others, and she is a little aggro. But a coworker (thanks Lis) taught me to put her on her back and pet her tummy and sure enough she quiets right down. We expect the possibility of a cokadoodledoo any day to prove her gender. Gladys' (right) feathers are coming in and showing off her pretty gold head, reddish neck, brown back, and blue/grey undercoat.

Two weekends ago we completed the hen house and chicken run for a completed chicken coop!! Mike put in a rain system fountain waterer thingy. I learned to stucco (not fun) and we put in perches, windows, screens for ventilation, a ramp up to the hen house (the house looking structure), and an easy to get egg collector which will be handy in a few months.

Warning- the next section includes pics of how the coop building went wrong and they are graphic! So last Sunday Mike was installing the gutter to collect rain for the fountain that continually provides fresh water to the chickens and managed a little mishap. Our backyard backs up to the post office and the back of the coop hangs over an awning that the post office is serious about not having people mess with. They have done this by winding large razor-ed barb-wire on it. Well Mike claims he had his leg "next" to the wire and then "forgot" about it and when he lifted his leg... you guessed it, we were on our way to the ER. It missed his tendon, he got 14 stitches, and the chickens have water. Shins heal well. Careful about the pics- they're post-stitch (left) and pre-stitch (right)

I guess we were serious when we decided to call this thing an experiment because we are learning lots about what not to do. The students I work with planted seeds and sold starts this year that we happily purchased. We planted 18 tomatoes and unfortunately all but four died. So we went with extended starts from the farmer's market. Great news is that we now have about 8 varieties of heirlooms, a few roma, 2 cherry, 1 tomatillo, and 4 early girl tomatoes.

Oh the wonders of the web- no wonder its called the information highway. Maybe you've seen the late night infomercial for topsy turvy? Our neighbors gave us a few tomatoes from their topsy turvy plants when we moved in and they had loads! Rather than spend the fortune for the commercial product I found a way to grow our tomatoes the same way, upside down, by making it ourselves. Mike built the tees to hold the buckets and the best part is since they hang upside down, no cages, no weeds, and no pesticides because slugs and snails can't reach 'em!

Did I mention yet that we love our chickens!!!! Didn't someone ask to see proof that I have recovered from my bird phobia. I've turned into the crazy chicken lady!
~ Lessons: 1) tomatoes in Portland should be planted outside after mother's day but if you don't want them to die like ours did, they need three things- lots and lots of water, some fertilizer, and to be hardened off to the cold and sun by being placed outside for small periods of increasing time until they can stay out in sun and out overnight.

2) upside down tomatoes- take a 5 gallon bucket, cut a 2-3" hole in the bottom, put moss or newspaper on the inside over the hole, place the tomato in the bucket gently pulling the leaves through to the outside and moving the moss/paper around the stem on the inside beneath the roots, fill with dirt, hang, see this site http://www.oldfashionedliving.com/tomato2.html

3) down mess with barb-wire or bring a book because the wait at the ER is long :)