What we've been up to...

My posts certainly have become few and far between! I thought I'd break the recent silence by posting a bunch of pictures showing what we have accomplished at home recently. Yay pictures!

First, some changes to the interior:

I made a sunburst mirror!

I solved our bathroom towel hanging problem. Our one and only bathroom is definitely a small bathroom which is fine except it isn't set up well to hang up towels.  Especially when we have a bigger family someday...  My solution to this was to take the door off of the little closet, paint the inside white, and organize the shelves.  While you can't see all of the space in the picture, we can now hang towels on hooks below the bottom shelf.  The door simply had to come off so that the towels will dry!  Problem solved!

I don't know what it is about canopies over beds, but I have always
admired them (but not the cost of a canopy bed...).  I used curtains that
were covering the close in one of the "kids rooms" and used long
thumbtacks (found randomly in a tree while landscaping at OSU) to
attach it to the ceiling.  Voila!  Free canopy! I like how it makes
our ridiculously giant bedroom look a little bit smaller, too. :)

Moving on to the outdoors... Outdoor pictures just aren't complete without chicken pictures!

Light from heaven streaming onto the lovely chickens.

Awww.  Who doesn't want to find Willow on their kitchen stoop?

Three happy, fuzzy chicken butts.

We took out a large swath of sod in the front yard to prepare  to put
in some raised beds.  We're getting ready to build them now!

Here's what used to be half of our driveway!  We rented a jackhammer,
and then we used the chunks to build these raised beds and put in
stepping stones.  All that's left is filling in between the stepping stones
with pea gravel, filling the beds with good garden soil, and setting up an
irrigation system!

Not a great picture, but we also added a contained compost pile in the
chicken run.  You can find the picture that inspired me here.  It'll show
what it looks like much better.  However, this picture is proof that
the chickens go in, each what they want, poop in the pile, and scratch
it all up.  It's a good system for us, I think!

That's it for now! I can just see in my mind all of out garden spaces lush and green in the summer with all sorts of deliciousness sprouting up everywhere. SO EXCITED!

looking back, looking ahead

I think that summer usually ends a little earlier than this in our area, but this year the warm, sunny, dry days stretched from early July to mid-October.  Today it is raining, though, and I think that we are officially tumbling toward winter.  Fall and spring both fill me with the oddest emotions.  Mostly, both of these seasons send me reeling with excitement as changes abruptly happen.  Though the seasons are nearly opposite, spring and fall bring me a sense of promise for good things.  Yet, as I feel excitement and hope, I also feel a sense of loss as I realize that another season of life has passed, never to return.

First, let's celebrate the end of summer.

These are some of my very own tomatoes.  Delicious.

What a lovely creature!  It's amazing that few months ago,
this beautiful chicken was a scrawny little fuzzball.

Never in my wildest dreams growing up did I imagine harvesting
my own sunflower seeds.  

This melon grew from a seed that germinated in the worm bin.

A blue heron surveying our pond.  The warm days and lack of rain
sure has the pond water mighty low!

While I really enjoy each season, and perhaps especially so since I grew up on the coast where seasons were less distinct, I am already looking forward to next spring when I can put the first seeds in the ground and start over again.  I am really happy with all that came out of our garden this year, and I am excited to improve next year.  Plus, we have plans to radically change our gardening space for next year.  We plan to demolish half of the driveway and tear out about half of the front lawn.  In this space, we intend to build raised beds and perhaps add some fruit trees and shrubs.  We also plan to move the raised beds from the side yard and plant a little fruit orchard there instead.  One other major addition we're planning on for next year is a grape arbor in the front lawn.  It's going to be a lot of work, and I am terribly excited to dig in and see the changes.

My professional dreams and goals have also lead me to unexpected places.  While I feel more confident with my teaching every term, I am holding onto the hope that I will have a part in starting a food co-op that will eventually have the means to employ me!  In the meantime, I soak up the days when my students tell me that they appreciate me, and I work to not let student failures bring me down.  Teaching is a good job, and I really enjoy working with my students.  There is just a part of my insides with a PASSION for bring good, healthy, local food to our city, and I also feel anticipation for how a co-op could unite people in our community to do so many good things.

And this post would be simply incomplete if I didn't mention that I love being a wife, and I still eagerly anticipate being a mom someday.  I could never express enough gratitude for the way my life fell into place.  How did I end up marrying such a wonderful person?  Matthew and my dream for our life has somehow evolved simultaneously throughout our marriage.  It is perhaps not every husband who respects and appreciates both my part-time work for money and my part-time work at home to help live our lives simply, healthfully, and with respect for our fellow humans and the world.  We are partners in our mission; he works full-time at his job so that I can have the time to use my bike to get the groceries.  Thanks to my dear husband who is simply the best, and thanks to God who inspires the passion within us and delivers the joys of our lives.

Meet Scrambled... (aka Evil)

It has really been a rough 24 hours in our household.

Remember our dear Deliasaurus?

Well, as much as we believe him to be a girl, we could no longer continue believing it once the sickle feathers and the crowing began.  I became so angry at him for being a rooster that I renamed him Stew.  He is such a sweet, friendly fellow, and I immediately felt the loss.  To be honest, it kind of feels like my chicken broke up with me, and I have been crying on and off since we found out.  I didn't realize quite how attached I was to his fluffy little white chicken butt.

The farm store where we got him allows for you to trade out your chicken if it turns out to be a rooster, so we spent the morning making a mournful trek to the store with our quiet, well-behaved rooster in a box.

The only chicken, besides chicks, available was a molting, mixed-breed hen.  We spent some time before-hand considering starting over again with a couple of new chicks instead, but we didn't want to get another rooster, and we decided that we'll probably get some chicks in the next year or so anyway.  Five chickens seemed like a good number, so we ended up getting a full-grown mystery hen.

With that, I present Scrambled:

When we got home, she was an angry, anxious little thing making the most upset of the chicken-y noises.  We were fairly anxious as well because we weren't sure how well she would assimilate with our two dear Buff Orpingtons.  We let her go in the coop hoping for the best.  She and the other two stepped outside to have a very brief kerfuffle, and then Baby Peep and Willow went running to hide in the corner while Scrambled commenced her dirt bath.

I should mention that at some point in here, I bitterly named the chicken "Evil".  Her attitude and deep black feathers along with my sense of loss over the angelic, white Stew was not a good combination.  Matthew said that I shouldn't judge her since she was stressed out.  However, the nickname has stuck in my mind, partly because I like getting a rise out of Matthew.  Good wife that I am.

Apparently Evil really wanted a long dust bath.  She bathed for a good chunk of time just outside the door of the coop.  A little while later, she finally decided to venture further into the run where the really good dust is.  There she stayed, bathing and letting us know that she wasn't particularly happy with us.  The other Peeposaurs escaped back to the coop to avoid the whole debacle.

After lunch, I noticed that none of the chickens were in the run.  I opened the coop door and looked at them.  They looked at me.  Then they decided that it was a good time to all have a good "bawk bawk bawk bawk bawk BA-GAWK!!!! bawk bawk bawk..."  I closed the door and let them have at it.  I know that they're having a tough day, too.

Willow and Baby Peep seem a bit confused by the loss of their leader.  Oddly enough, Willow seems to have quickly picked up her role as the older chicken, and she pushes Baby Peep around.  However, more in character, she is horrified by Evil, and she steers clear of her when possible.  Baby Peep is all kinds of laid back, and she is forever apologizing for her existence: "Oh, I'm sorry for being in your way (or eating your food, or...).  I didn't mean to exist.  I used to be an egg, and then suddenly... there I was!"  She doesn't seem to mind Evil, but she definitely likes to stay close to Willow.

This picture shows a bit of the chicken dynamic currently.  Willow is carefully avoiding Evil.  Baby Peep was going to perch on the branch for awhile, but since Willow didn't seem to want to be near Evil, you can see that Baby Peep is just about to hop off the branch to join Willow.

And, next thing you know, Evil is all alone again.

I'm grateful that the chickens seem to be getting through this whole thing without resorting to cannibalism.  I guess that we all just need to get over our losses, make new friends, and move on in life together.

Comforting Baby Peep with some delicious grains.

Evil finally was calm enough to come eat out of my hand instead of yelling at me.

I have to say though, our children will learn a strange expression instead of the normal, "Life is full of little disappointments."  In our house, we will now say, "Life is full of roosters."

May you be a good Peeposaur, Scrambled!  Please be kind to us, as we intend to be kind to you.  Please provide plenty of eggs, and do not hesitate to amuse us with antics.

CSA Weeks 4 and 5: Plus chickens!

 Week 4 brought about 8.6 pounds of:

• Lettuce
• Kohlrabi
• Black beans
• Strawberries
• Brocolli
• Onions
• Zucchini
• Snow peas
• Plus lavender and sage starts!

 Week 5 brought 11.6 pounds of:

• Lettuce
• Beets
• Popcorn
• Snap peas
• Cabbage
• Summer squash
• Blueberries

Also, here's a picture of chickens taking a bath!  You can see the dirt flying!

Chickens make me laugh

There's something about the mannerisms.  The frantic flapping, the funny noises, the little legs running wildly...   Amusing is the word to use for chickens.

Tonight I went into the coop to shut the door to the little run and close the window, and they were about to crash for the night.  Apparently I looked like a good place to roost because they all were pretty happy to jump up on me and go for a cuddle.  Even Willow, who is usually the biggest baby and has never jumped up on my hand before.  Usually I get close to her and she let's out her characteristic, "Rrrr rrrr rrrr rrrr rrr!!!!"  Not tonight.  It was cuddle time.

Where did all this GREEN come from?

It seems like spring was just beginning...

Where did all this GREEN come from?!

We've had roses for a few weeks now.

Pink poppy

Butternut squash seedling.  One leaf apparently became slug food,
but it seems to live on...

Lettuce and kale in a planter outside our front door!

I planted this garlic last fall.  I found the tupperware
on the side of the road with some leftover enchiladas in it.  I promise that I did NOT eat the enchiladas.

New basil plants

The chocolate mint survived the year despite the efforts of some
spider mites.

My peas are getting TALL!  Peas, please!

Mystery plants!  The cotyledon looked suspiciously interesting,
so I didn't weed these out when they germinated.  From looking
at picture online, I think that it's not a weed.  My best guess
is that these are some sort of squash.  If not squash, maybe a melon?
Anybody have a guess?

Some carrots grow here.

Onions... There's also some little garlic plants that
I put in.  I also put in a celery plant that's growing
from the bottom of a celery bunch that I bought at the
store.  It has a few little leaves...

One of my tomato seeds turned into this!

Young lettuce plants.

Another mystery plant... Squash?  Melon?  Other ideas?

Broccoli also started from seed.  I have four of these plants, currently,
and I put a few more seeds in the ground to see what happens.

The pond

Matthew and I made this trellis over the weekend from some
posts we found lying behind our shed and some twine.  There
is a bitty cucumber plant (a start I got at the Farmer's Market)
 in the back right of the bed.  We also plan to have a couple
 of zucchini plants going up the trellis.  In the front of the bed we
 planted a couple more butternut squash plants hoping that they
 will happily sprawl onto the lawn.

Pepper starts that I bought at the Farmers' Market.

Another one of my very own tomato seedlings.

My spinach did NOT fare terribly well in the hail. :(

A couple carrots that didn't get eaten by slugs.

Onions and garlic.

Apple blossoms turn into bitty apples...

Strawberry blossoms turn into bitty strawberries...

I'm a fan of irises.

Someday these Peeposaurs will be big enough to lay eggs in
these nesting boxes.

Peeposaur sister love.

Baby chickens are happy when they can wander
a bit into the sun.

Deliasaurus usually follow me around the coop.  Especially
when I'm about to step outside.  She'll just sit there and patiently
wait for awhile hoping that she'll be allowed to sneak past me and
run into the great bug-and-slug-filled world!

So far I have learned that slugs are pretty much as obnoxious as everybody says they are.  A few of my "raised" beds are barely above ground, and I have learned that slugs can and will devour plants in those beds.  Since that is the case, I'm going to try to plant slug-resistant plants there (spinach, bush beans, onions, and garlic are so far seeming alright, while lettuce and carrots haven't worked terribly well).  I also am considering natural options to deter slugs.  I have heard that oyster shell sprinkled around the edges can keep them at bay.  Perhaps Diatomaceous Earth might be an option, but I hear it might wash away each time it rains.  The chickens DO eat slugs, which thrills me, but they're still currently a problem.  Any other ideas?

Here's hoping for many fruits and vegetables this year!  Since it's my first year, I'm trying not to expect too much, but that doesn't mean I can't pray for plenty. :)