maizymaizymaizymaizy

The people who had Maizy as a puppy just mailed me a disk of photos of her childhood. She is almost unbearable cute as a puppy. Right now, she's sleeping on the living room rug and her lip is twitching with whatever dream she's having. She snores and paddles her feet occasionally as well. Today we (maizy, eden, abigail, charlotte, emily and i) spent a good part of the day outside painting the trim on the house. It's turning out very purple! The house is all green now (we've pretty much finished the body) but the purple trim is extremely time-consuming. Anyway, I think everyone had a nice time outside. Abigail found a pet water fountain on one of the neighbor's porches and was having fun sticking her paws in that and eden kept emerging from dark places with cobwebs on his whiskers, wondering where his dinner was. I'm trying out a pho recipe today. I got some bones and all the right spices and things and I've been cooking the broth all day. It smells good and every time I taste it, it has a little more flavor.

Oh! And a report on Maizy, since I think I haven't said much... She is so awesome. We take her to the dog park and all the dogs love her and want to play with her. She loves to play with Jelly Biscuit next door (an english bulldog). She watches t.v. on the couch with us and sleeps on the bed on her back with her feet sticking up in the air. Occasionally she has a run-in with the cats, but they scratch her nose and it's over pretty quickly. As for the chickens, she shows pretty much no interest in them. She's really smart and she's really lovey and I'm so glad she lives with us.

sparky returns!!

The good news is that Sparky came back recently. It has been an ongoing struggle since then to get a picture of her in her newly-returned state for the blog. Since there is no picture, you will all simply have to imagine her. To aid you in your imagining, I wanted to include the messages my pa sent to his neighborhood listserv about this whole situation. I found them to be completely delightful. First:

"Missing Cat"
My little gray cat with white paws--white also underneath on chest and belly; short hair, sleek and small, a little gray 'panther' named Sparky--went missing sometime after 11 pm this past Saturday night from the 5900 block of Hampton (betw. Highland and Euclid).
I can't believe she ran off or got lost. I imagine she was kidnapped, perhaps by some of those kids who routinely walk on Hampton from Highland toward Negley in the wee hours of Saturday and Sunday mornings, walking often noisily down the middle of the street, homeward bound from weekend revels. Sparky just had her first birthday, but she's still small enough to be taken for a kitten, awfully cute and with a fateful friendliness. So I imagine she's now being held captive somewhere between Highland and Negley on, or just north of, Hampton, hopefully by kind people, but you never know. And indeed, this is all wild speculation on my part, the only certainty being that Sparky is gone and her sister Blue and I miss her most grievously.
Any information would be gratefully appreciated.

And second:

"Sparky's surprising return"
I want to thank those of you who contacted me about my missing cat, Sparky, even though the messages mostly reported sightings of wild geese. I was actually on the verge of adopting a gray-white kitten one neighbor had been sure was mine when Sparky returned by herself, trotting into the backyard one afternoon about a week and a half after disappearing, looking very emaciated, starved for affectionand quite dirty--her white paws were a shade of gray lighter than the rest of her, and, after a few moments of joyful, hyper-ventilating affection, I realized my mouth and eyes were taking in quite a lot of grit. She got a bath she did not like at all and then some rare culinary treats prepared especially to her taste. She's been meowing more than she used to, but she's still too dumb to tell us anything about her adventure. To my relief, she's been staying quite close since her reappearance. I guess she's down at least to eight lives now.Thank you again for the messages of aid and interest, one of the nicest experiences in my 37 years in this fine neighborhood.

do you have some sunflower seeds???

That is one crazy looking chicken. She really looks totally insane. It's been raining a lot the past few days, which is quite unfortunate for them since they hate being out in the rain. They've been cooped up and might be going a bit stir crazy. They're happy for the breaks in the rain when they can dash out into the yard for a quick dirt bath and scratching in the tomato bed. The tomatoes are really ripening now and we'll soon have more than we know what to do with. We had some pickling cucumbers, but we haven't tasted them yet. Hopefully they're not bitter, because they sure are cute. I remember we made pickles at Sarah Lawrence in a big jug and they turned out surprisingly well. I do love pickles. The zucchini plant isn't so productive this summer. Last summer we had some 5 lb zucchinis!

Abigail is back at the vet today :( She's much worse than she was before. She's spent the day at the vet, having some pain meds and antibiotics. I'm actually really irritated with the vet for not catching the problem on Thursday when she was there for the entire day and they ran all kinds of ridiculously expensive tests.... Anyway, it's been incredibly stressful and I feel just terrible for the little fluffy goose. She's just been having such a rough time. Poor Abigail!

big cat, tiny box...

need I even comment on this picture? eden really loves a good box.

against all odds....

Maizy gets crazy in the backyard. She runs around wildly and chases the chickens sometimes and digs holes and rolls in the dirt. We have this half-barrel that we're using to grow a water lily and one of her favorite things to do is jump in the barrel and run round and round splashing water everywhere, getting muddy and tearing up the leaves. Sometimes I think she's a tazmanian devil in disguise. Anyway, despite her romping around in the waterlily, we managed to get a flower! Here it is!

our first dozen...

This happened a while ago, but with the long vacation from blogging, I haven't posted it. This was our official first dozen eggs from the chickens. They've been laying one each per day now. They're pretty much the most perfect eggs I've seen. Such pretty shades of brown. Sometimes they're still warm when we get them. They've worked out a laying schedule. Charlotte lays first in the morning and then Emily lays at around noon or one in the afternoon. They're quite delicious and it's fun to be able to give eggs to the neighbors. Hopefully it helps them cope with the noise the chickens make at 5am!

A MISSING SPARKY!

I suppose this is the week for stressful cat situations. My dad has lost one of his beloved kittens. She's been gone since Saturday night. Her name is Sparky and she's missing in Pittsburgh. However, we have no way of knowing how far she might get. And, if she's been catnapped, she may have been transported across state lines. Keep an eye out for her. (I know I am!) She's a very small grey and white cat. Wiry and spunky. My dad is fairly devastated and Blue (his other kitten) is even more blue than usual. Keep your eyes peeled!

a sick kitten!

Abigail has had quite the week. I noticed early last week that she was peeing a lot, like 12 or 15 times in an hour and she was yowling when she was trying to pee. The vet had warned us about behaviour like this, so I called them immediately. They told us to bring right in, so I dashed over to vet (Abigail crying the whole way--poor kitten!). They said she wasn't blocked, which was a good thing, but they needed a urine sample, so I dropped her off the next morning and she hung out for the better part of the day at the vet. Turns out she had a very bad urinary tract infection. Lots of blood in her urine and she was in a lot of pain, so she's been on antibiotics and pain meds all week and she seems to be feeling better. It was very scary, though. Plus, she got out in the middle of the night the other night and Eric got quite scratched up by blackberry bushes trying to find her. After an exceptionally stressful time looking for her, Eric found her on top of someone's garage a few blocks away. It's been quite a week for Abigail. Poor little goose.

It's a Dog!

Well, much to our surprise we've ended up adopting a dog. She's a yellow lab. Five years old. Name's Maizy. Her previous owners kept her chained out in a cement yard without shade and water and she was not allowed in the house. So, our neighbor rescued her and now she lives with us. We took her to the vet and she had an ear infection that was the worst the doctor had ever seen. So, we've got her on the antibiotics and things seem to be improving a little. She also has some arthritis in her hips, which may be from lack of exercise. The vet gave us some glucosamine tablets for her and it should improve in about 6 weeks. She got all her shots, since she was long overdue. Other than that, they said she was healthy.

She's very sweet, but it sure is taking some getting used to. I think Eric and I are up to our ears overwhelmed right now with Maizy, the chickens, the kittens, the garden, painting the house, visitors, birthday parties, going away parties, etc. Our dear dear friends are moving to New Hampshire in two weeks, which has been a real downer as well... but good for them! Plus our house smells like dog now. :-( Okay... so sorry. Enough of the sorrowful rant.

Anyway, she doesn't listen very well. At one point she did know all the commands and things and I'm sure was a well-trained dog. However, I think with several years of neglect she is pretty rusty. So, we've been working on her with that. She also has a tendency to lunge at the cats, which is upsetting all around (for us and the cats). She seems to be getting a little better with them though. We've been very strict with her whenever she isn't nice to them. The chickens don't seem to interest her too much, though it will be a LONG time before we feel comfortable with her off the leash around them.

Eggs!!!

It's been quite a while since my last blog post. There's been death and sickness and busy busy days and just not that much time or inspiration for blog posts. HOWEVER, what happened yesterday could not go undocumented....... I opened the roof of the chickens' coop and lo and behold...dundundun... There were eggs. TWO! The chickens' first eggs. I felt the pride of a grandmother. That overwhelming joy that my offspring had reproduced, had carried on the family line and that no matter what else they did, this was a wonderful success. Yes, I know. They're chickens. They're not my children, but they sure feel like it. I called my dad and was so flustered by the surprise of the eggs that, when he answered the phone, I blurted out "You're a great-grand-chicken!!!" He said "I'm a Great Grand Chicken?"

Anyway, it was very exciting. They are small eggs and we assumed that they each layed one, but who knows!!! We were thinking that it might be about laying time because a couple of days ago, the chickens started acting really odd--running up and down their ramp and scuffling around in the top of their house during the day (which was very out of character). Not to mention, they'd been very agitated. Bawking extra-loud in the mornings. I would imagine it would be quite uncomfortable to have a big egg stuck up their asses (or wherever they're stuck) and they've never laid before so they don't know how to get it out.... poor poor chickens. They got lots of treats last night, though, to make up for their hardwork. Sunflower seed, kale, raspberries, and yogurt. Eric said "Wow, they really look like chickens now!" and I asked if that was the same reason a teenager suddenly looks more adult once they've had sex. He said that yes, it was. I suppose that means our chickens have been deflowered in some roundabout way.

lupin and columbine.

The front garden has been evolving nicely this spring. One of my favorite flowers in the yard is the lupin. I love how there are different shades of stalks of flowers all on the same plant. They seem so hardy and strong. There actually have been a few volunteer lupin plants in the garden from last year. Hopefully it would take over the front garden completely with all different colors. Jenn and I were at the farmers market in Columbia City last summer and talked to a man who I think was from Peru or Argentina and was telling us about the lupin there. He said that the stalks of flowers can get to be six feet tall and are just amazing. He said he'd been trying to grow them here, but they didn't do so well. Six feet! That would be glorious. You could just stand next to the plant and hug the flowers like you were hugging a person! Wow! Also in the picture are the columbine we brought in a pot from the apartment. They've been doing well too. The fact that all these flowers are blooming is the ONLY sign that it's not January any more. You certainly can't tell it was June from the weather.

So last weekend it was raining and I got a bit anxious about the status of the house painting (meaning we hadn't really even thought about starting yet). I was all gung-ho to buy the paint, grab a brush and start painting when Eric reminded me of the prep work. The dreaded prep work. Before we paint we have to scrape. Before we scrape we have to pressure wash. Before we pressure wash we have to move everything away from the house. Before we move everything we have to organize, throw away and put away all the crap that's cluttering out outdoor lives. And before we could do that, we had to build shelves in the shed so that we would have a place to put everything we had deemed as keepable. So we set to work building the shelves in the shed in order to embark on the long laborious tasks involved in preparing to undertake the long laborious task of painting...

Surprisingly, the building came off without a hitch. We had a good time doing it, didn't argue much, and the shelves turned out quite nicely. The only real downer was that the project did require a trip to Lowe's for materials. The dreaded trip to Lowe's... Good god, I hate that place.

So, there they are. The shelves. With stuff on them.

superkittencatnipmat

I was out on my Friday morning errands after dropping Eric at the bus. Today I had to go get Abigail and Eden some more food at the pet store and get some treats for the dogs who come avisiting. I picked out a big bag of mixed dog biscuits from the bulk biscuit area, which was fun and made me kind of want a cookie. I got the cans of cat food (buy 12 at once get 5% off--how can you pass that up?) and then was poking around looking for a fun toy for the kittens. All the catnip bananas and cigars and cherries just didn't have their usual pizazz. They have plenty of furry mice and pingpong balls... but then I saw the catnip play mats. It was purrfect! But $20!!! There was no way I was going to pay 20 bucks for a cloth mat I could make myself. So, I opted for the tub of organic catnip for 2 bucks and went on my merry way. When I got home I dug around in the craft bin and found some scraps of fun material (with a feather print on it!) and some muslin for the back and some cotton batting leftovers from former quilting projects. I cut out a good-sized rectangle of everything and then dumped the whole tub of catnip in between layers of the batting. Pinned it all in place. Sewed it. Yeah, I wish it was that simple... Try sewing something that contains a whole ounce of catnip with two kittens around. At one point I turned around and Eden had his whole head buried inside my sewing project while Abigail was burrowing into the batting like she was digging for treasure. In the end, I think it only took about an hour from start to finish... a golldang miracle in the land of katie-projects... They loved it! Now the kittens have had their fun and are taking a midday catnap.

we used to have cabbage.

We had quite a nice crop of cabbage starting out until.... dun dun dun... THE CHICKENS!!! They happen to like cabbage leaves quite a lot and seem to take bigger bites than I've seen them take of anything else. In seconds they demolished the cabbage population! If you'll notice the remnants of a large bite disappearing into the corner of Emily's mouth. I like cabbage. Steamed with a little butter, salt & pepper... So do the chickens apparently. Though they are not nearly so fussy as to insist on steaming it. It's been quite cold and wet recently-in the 50s and 60s and so we've been trying to keep the chickens warm at night. Eric and I were having one of our typical snacks of egg noodles with cottage cheese, so we made some for the chickens. They liked it quite a lot. There were lots of fights over the noodles. Crazycrazycrazy chickens. BAWK! They've also been getting warm oatmeal in the mornings. And big leaves of kale straight from the garden. This morning, when I took them their oatmeal Salvie (the next door neighbor cat) was pacing around our back yard looking in at the chickens in their coop. I chased him out of the yard. He has a bell on his collar, which can only mean one of two things... his owners think it's cute to hear the bell or... dundundun... BIRD KILLER! Poor chickens. They're just like sitting ducks... Luckily, they have their indestructible coop to protect them... though, it wouldn't protect them from dying of fright. Chickens actually CAN die of fright. They can get scared and their little hearts stop and they die. Poor poor poor chickens...

a rose is a rose is a...

I've never had a particular affinity for roses. Nor have I ever had a particular desire to have a rose garden. But, when we moved into our house, we were suddenly surrounded by roses. There were roses in every shade of pink. Pink roses. And lots of 'em. Last fall I was at Lowe's meandering through the pitiful remnants of their plants that hadn't sold throughout the season and what should I find but roses! A deal I simply could not pass up. The large containers of creeping roses were only $5 (normally $30-40) the small bushy roses were only $1 (normally $20), so I bought 4 big ones and 3 little ones. This spring they are COVERED in buds. Here is our very first bloom on the roses we planted and tell me-- have you ever seen anything quite like it? I mean...WOW!

painting schmainting.

This summer is the summer we are supposed to paint the house--a pursuit that seems more and more like a joke considering the completely NON-summery weather we're having. In the event that we DO get to have a summer with sunny-good-painting-day weather, we have some colors to choose. We have some paint combinations we're looking at (above). Any opinions would be much appreciated. I think we like the artichoke for the main part of the house. Everything else is kind of up in the air. Though, the more we think about it and stare at the colors, the more we despise all paint colors in general. We're thinking the green with the bluer purples for the main trim and the berry colors or grey for the secondary trim (ie doors and whereever else we can sneak it in).

and the chickens make the move...

Last night was the chickens' third night out in their coop. We have cleaned out the office, so they no longer have their cardboard box to retreat to. They seem to be adapting quite well. They've finally figured out the ramp and have succumbed to the notion that the upstairs is connected to the downstairs by it. Yesterday, we spent the entire day outside. It was 85 and sunny and the kittens and the chickens were happy as clams out in the sun. Well, I suppose clams wouldn't be very happy out in the sun, but you get the idea. Charlotte and Emily would periodically stop in their house for a bite to eat and a drink of water. We ate dinner outside last night for the first time this year and as soon as it started to get dark, the chickens ran into their coop and stumbled up the ramp to snuggle down in bed for the night! They're so funny, they sleep right on the edge of the opening to the downstairs, so they frequently lose their balance and you can see just their feet and some fluffy feathers scrabbling to stop themselves from falling. Oh, chickens...

!!asparagus!!

So, we planted aparagus this spring. We ordered it online and then waited and waited for it to arrive. It came as these little blobs of roots that we were supposed to plant. So, we planted them in one of the raised beds. In fact we built a raised bed special for the asparagus. Next, we waited and waited for it to grow. I've never grown asparagus before, so I had no idea what to expect. But just yesteday, I was crouching down to inspect the dirt where planted the asparagus (and where the kittens have decided is their new litter box) and lo and behold.... There were tiny tiny tiny asparagus spears! Exactly like regular asparagus, but miniature! This discovery has made me truly ecstatic. And even more devoted to crouching in the garden to watch things grow.

ms. bronte- how dashing you look on this fine day!

We'll see how long the thyme lasts at this rate... Just before this picture was taken, I turned around to see her chomping down on a big branch.

charlotte & emily tour their new home...

We introduced the chickens to their new home today and I'm pretty sure they like it. They pooped right away, which is always a good sign. We put the pine shavings in the top part and they got inside and ate some seed. They have not figured out the ramp yet. Hopefully they will soon... Eden loves the chickens very much. I think he thinks the coop is for him and the chickens are just checking it out. He has mastered the ramp and the little front door and has made himself quite at home.

and the coop is complete....

At long last, the coop is complete and after waiting a long week to get it down off the deck, it's out in the yard. Theresa and Eugene saved the day and helped us lift it up high enough to get it over the railing... I reattached the window box this morning (after having to take it off to move it) and planted some nice creeping thyme. Thyme just creeps along; it creeps right along until you don't know what happened to it! Abigail inspected the whole thing and it would seem that she approves.

coop troubles...

The good news is that the coop is finished. The bad news is that I built it on the deck and we can't get it into the yard. It is too wide to go down the stairs or fit through any of the openings. So, it has to go over the railing and down into the yard... Unfortunately, it is too heavy for us to lift that high without the help of some burly fellows. And so, on the deck it stays until some future time when the stars align and we have enough muscle to move it. Sorry, chickens. You almost had a home... Maybe you can find a nice cardboard box somewhere that's held together with duct tape and love.

slugs...

I think the slugs in our garden have bellies of steel. A couple of weeks ago, we planted a large variety of vegetables in the garden. I planted quite a nice crop of butter lettuce, which is probably the most delicious lettuce I've ever tasted. It's almost like candy, it's so sweet and good. Almost... Anyway, I planted the nice crop of 6 butter lettuce plants and watered them and waited for them to grow... The next day I went out to survey the garden, only to discover that two of the lettuce plants were gone. GONE! Just annihilated without a trace. I thought that was a bit odd and sprinkled some pine shavings around the remaining lettuce plants. (One of those was half-eaten). A couple of days later, I checked on them again and ALL the lettuce was gone. And there was a big fat slug just sliming along the brick wall of the bed, all full and happy and looking for more lettuce.

We opted to use the freed-up space to plant a basil plant we'd been waiting to put in. The day after planting that, it was half-eaten too! So, I covered (I mean, really covered) the ground around the base of the plant with sand. Slugs aren't supposed to crawl on sand. But sure enough, these slugs with their steel-plated-stomachs slimed across the sand and chompchompchomped away at the rest of the basil. It's time to bring out the beer...

hookin'

Normally, the next step after cleaning the fleece would be to card and spin it. However...I've been wanting to make a nice fluffy rug for the office-one that feels good on your bare toes...So, I picked up some burlap the other day and decided to give rug hooking a whirl. I really tend to have no idea what I'm doing when I start out on these projects, so it's been an experiment. So far, it's been fairly successful. Last night I started sorting out the wool I'd already washed and pulled apart little segments. Smoothing each tiny segment out between my fingers, I then used a crochet hook to reach through the burlap and pull one end of the wool through the cloth. Then I sent the hook through a second time (one or two stiches away) to catch the other end of the wool and pull that through. The result is that all the ends of the fluffy wool are exposed at the top of the burlap. It's pretty exciting, I must admit. Though, it will probably take me till October to finish it. The fleece I got has so many variations in color, it really has the potential to be interesting. So far, I've divided the coloring into two groups-lighter and darker. The lighter wool, I will use to outline the entire rug. Then I will intersperse what's left of the light with the dark in the middle. The toughest thing about it is estimating how large a rug I can make with this one fleece. Ideally it would be 5'x7', but I'm doubtful that I have enough wool for that. Maybe 4'x6'...3'x5'...who knows. Here's a picture of the beginning of the rug...Ah, the birth of a new project...

washing a fleece

How to wash a fleece:
1. Pull off a good-sized section of the fleece (maybe 2 or 3 square feet, depending on the size of your washing container).
2. Fill the sink or large bucket with hothothot tap water. I use the kitchen sink and then clean the whole area really well afterwards. Add 2-3 tablespoons laundry detergent or dishsoap. I like to use an eco-friendly non-toxic laundry soap to minimize evil chemicals.
3. Gently submerge the section of fleece in the soapy water. Make sure it all gets wet, but don't move it around very much. This process if very delicated because wool felts very easily and you'll end up with one big solid mass of wool that might make a nice compact camping pillow. Set timer for 20 minutes.
4. Carefully pull the wool out of the soapy water and set aside while you prepare the next bath. I keep a collander handy and transfer it to that so that excess water can drain out of it. Empty the sink or bucket and rinse it out.
5. Refill the sink with clean hothothot tap water (no soap in this one). Submerge wool in the hot water and set the time for 20 minutes again.
6. Repeat steps 2-5 as many times as necessary until the water is clean at the end of the rinse cycle.
7. Put in the washing machine on "SPIN CYCLE" ONLY! You do not want new water to enter the washing machine. We're just spinning the water out of the wool to help it dry. You can also use a salad spinner with small quantities of the wool.
8. Lay flat on a towel to dry. Outside in the shade works well, as does a dry room inside. Once dry, it is ready to card or do whatever project you've been waiting for!

the aroma of sheep fleece in the morning air...

Last year, I learned to spin wool in the hopes that one day we will have our own sheep and alpacas to raise and shear. Up until now, I've purchased fiber that is alread cleaned, carded, and ready to spin. It's awfully easy this way, but I know that it certainly won't be coming off our sheep that way. So, I wanted to learn all the steps from fleece to yarn. I contacted Reflections Farm in Eatonville, WA ( http://www.reflectionfarm.net ). They raise sheep and take the fleece to shows to sell. Alice was helpful and responded quickly to my inquiries about fleece. I ordered one from her and received it in the mail today. I opened the box and whoooohheee-Fleeces smell like sheep! Big surprise, right? A far cry from the tidy bundles of wool you buy at a yarn store. It's really kind of an amazingly wonderful smell... like a barnyard and earth and sheep poop and grass and who knows what else... The lanoline in the fleece makes it very greasy to touch so the first step will be to wash it....

bleeding heart...

Had to add a picture of the bleeding heart...It blows my mind that nature creates something with a flower that looks like this?!?!?

bloombloombloom

A brief sidenote on red tulips--Upon moving into our house last year, we planted lots of bulbs and other flowering plants. Last spring we didn't see much in terms of blooms, but this year our yard is an explosion of color! More red tulips than we know what to do with... Also, crocuses, daffodils, phlox, daphne (good god, daphne smells amazing), some little purple and white things (I can't remember their name), red/yellow variegated tulips, azalea, and bleeding heart... Occasionally throughout the year I think flowers are a waste of space (the space could be used for planting veggies or fruits), but at this time of year it all seems worth it...

big chickens need a big house

As the chickens grow, it has become apparent that they will not be able to live in the office forever. As you may imagine, there are several reasons for this, the first of which is that they are HUGE. The Orpington will be 8 lbs when full grown; the Barred Rock will be about 7lbs. It was time for them to have their own house. After much research, it became apparent that to buy a chicken coop already built or in a kit was ridiculously and unnecessarily expensive. Not to mention, there would be no room for customization. For instance, what if your chickens really did need that window box with flowers planted in it and little shutters that open and close depending on the weather? We decided to build one.

First we mulled over drawings and ideas for hours, finally settling on a simple house-shaped house. We have a fairly small yard, so we wanted to maximize the amount of space they would have, while conserving the amount of space the coop would occupy in the yard. We decided to build the coop with their enclosed house on top and a caged-in run on the bottom. They would have access to both areas using a little ramp that descended from the upstairs.

After enlisting the help of the men in the family, we set out to start construction. This quickly proved to be a mistake. The importance of men directing construction projects is highly overrated. Eric and I decided after an excruciating afternoon of mistakes that we would continue on the project alone. This quickly evolved into me building the coop on my own since the weather in Seattle generally tends toward rain on the weekends when we both have off work at the same time. So, I built the coop on Friday's while Eric was at work. And you know... Let me just say that there's no reason why a woman can't figure something like this out on her own, dammit.

Regretfully, I didn't take pictures of the coop until this point, when it's close to completion...

growing up

One thing to be said about chicks is they grow up overnight. One day they're fluffy babies that fit in the palm of your hand; the next they're bigger than pigeons and they still sit in the palm of your hand, but their feet fill your entire palm. Chicken feet are strange and wonderful. Their toenails are long and sharp, their skin dry and scaley--and they're WARM. At about eight weeks, they have started to sound like real chickens. They're like teenagers whose voices are changing. Sometimes they say "peep" and sometimes it's "bawk!". They've started to look like real chickens. They peck constantly and LOVE cottage cheese and kale. The other day it was 80 degrees outside, so we took them outside for the first time. They tentatively walked around the yard, pecking and scratching and gobbled up some earthworms. Speaking of earth worms, I was recently reading in a magazine that the earthworm enzymes are able to render PCB's in soil non-toxic. Once again, earthworms save the world. Back to the chickens. Every time they got scared, they would run back to us and jump on our laps. I would say that we are officially part of their flock. Can't wait for them to be old enough to be outside all the time. They seem to love it. And our office is getting pretty stinky...

first night

Things were complicated considerably when we got the chicks home. Suddenly they needed a box to live in outfitted with the heat lamp, feeder and waterer. We set their box up in the kitchen, but found that we didn't have anywhere to hang the heat lamp. So Eric stood, holding the heat lamp, fretting that the chicks were going to die. Every few minutes he'd say "Oh no, they're dying. I'm sure they're dying. This is horrible." Then, of course, the heat lamp broke. So I ran out to get them a new heat lamp. We decided that we couldn't keep them in the kitchen, since the kittens kept jumping on top of the chicken wire covering the box, and also because it was just downright impractical...

After we got them set up with water and food in the office (where the door could be closed) and had fretted for nearly two hours trying to get their heat lamp adjusted to where the temperature was in the 90's, we left them alone. Not for long, though... Every hour or so, Eric woke up and said "Are the chickens dead? They're dead aren't they? Oh god, this was a mistake... We don't know what we're doing!" Needless to say, they made it through their first night...

city chicks

We recently adopted two baby chicks from the Monroe Feed Store in Monroe, WA. Picking out chicks is an agonizing task. How do you pick just two? They're all equally cute and all equally deserving of a happy home. Furthermore, by picking those particular two you may be dooming the others to a short unhappy life that ends with roasted chicken on somebody's dinner table. These chickens were to be coddled pets, raised in the backyard in the middle of Seattle and fed the most delicious chicken-friendly delicacies (more on this to come). After finally selecting one Buff Orpington (having heard this was "the friendliest breed of bird you'll ever meet") and one Barred Plymouth Rock, we closed them up in a little cardboard box and loaded down with chicken supplies (chicken starter food, waterer, feeder, heat lamp & bulb) we scurried out to the car and blasted the heat on the box to keep them warm all the way back to Seattle...