Thank you Huckleberry!

Huckleberry Porkchop
This chicken is not a rooster
Okay?
She's just a little bossy
and really aggressive
and she pecked me in the eye
and she runs across the yard to peck our toes
and when all the chickens escaped
she's the one who crossed the road
and was found
surrounded by 3 cats
clucking up a storm

But she hasn't made any sort of noise
that sounds like
cock-a-doodle-doo

I will continue to refer to her as she
until she proves herself to really be a he

Oh, Huckleberry!
Won't you please please please
lay me some green eggs?

Well, it's been 2 months of spring since i last wrote about our backyard, and that is way too long because so much happens in april and may. It's so different now!

I started....
and finally finished...

building the chicken coop!


and now the chickens live there, not in a box in my room anymore.

They hang out mostly in the bottom section when they're awake, and sometimes we let them out to roam, supervised. Then, at night, they climb up their little ladder to go upstairs where they have a perch for roosting on. That's how chickens like to sleep. I put that turtle curtain over the window, so the streetlight doesn't disturb them while they're sleeping. I don't know if the light actually bothers them, but they're my babies.

So it's amazing how big chicks get in two months. They keep getting bigger...
and bigger...




and bigger....





and they aren't done growing yet. They are 3 months old now. In a month or two, hopefully they'll start laying eggs. Then we'll have 4 eggs/day every day!


So not only did i build a chicken coop in the past two months, with the help of some very good friends and power tools, but i built an herb spiral. Herb spirals are a common technique for maximizing space and creating multiple mini-climates in a small area. As it spirals in, the elevation goes up, so on the outside, it is lower, and therefore wetter, while on the inside, it is high and dry. Also, the plants on the south side can get plenty of sun, while the plants on the top provide shade for the plants on the north side.
We have a surplus of these gray stones that made up the driveway, which we reclaimed, so i built the wall with those. This took me quite a while. But here, you can see how it ended up:


And of course, we've been doing tons of gardening: starting, transplanting, and now actually harvesting tons of veggies and fruits and herbs and flowers.

Now, there are strawberries, peas, and lots of kale and arugula. We are also eating tat soi and turnip greens from the garden. The spinach is going slow, but i've eaten a little, and i got some lettuce today too. There are also nasturtiums everywhere, and some borage flowers, both of which i like to put in salads, yes eat the flowers!
The fava plants are starting to form little pods, and the broccoli plants are starting to form little heads, if only the cabbage worms and the ants don't kill them first. We're also growing carrots, beets, turnips, radishes, leeks, garlic, onions, chard, kohlrabi, collard greens, chicory, lentils, runner beans, mung beans, mustard greens, sunflowers, jerusalem artichokes, artichokes, so much i can't even remember them all!! There are also a ton of herbs in the herb spiral. Oh, and soon we'll be transplanting tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, cucumbers, squash, melons, and green beans. And we're trying out growing quinoa!


So, between our garden, me working at the farmer's markets and bringing home free and cheap veggies from there, and other friend's gardens, and our chickens, i can't see how we'll ever have to go grocery shopping again. Okay, i guess we'll have to get our grains and beans, and condiments, and milk. For milk, I just found some people who have goats, only 10 blocks away from where i work, and they sell the milk, so we can get local, fresh, raw goat milk! It's amazing!

Oh, and i did finally get that bush out

I love growing food!

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you might know about my dream to have some land in the country, some forest, a stream, hand-built shelters, lots of food growing, and animals, and a community of groovy people. i've been meeting a lot of people who have this dream, and i'm not giving up on it. but in the meantime, i'm trying to make as much of it a reality as i can now, living in the city. It is possible, but renting a house is hard when you're trying to homestead, when you're trying to live self-sufficiently. So here's our house. But not really. We're lucky to have a pretty nice landlord. It's not that he particularly cares about what we're doing, or that he's excited about what we're doing...but that he doesn't really care what we do, as long as he doesn't have to do any work, or pay for anything, and that it looks "good" in the end.


So the major thing we've done is take down the fence and are in the process of putting it up in a different place, so we can have a way bigger yard. There was a driveway on the other side of the fence that the landlord doesn't need anymore. So now we have more room for bigger garden beds, a chicken coop, and a little pond. The pond is not for ducks even though i wish it were.
Most people are used to letting other people grow all their food, and going to the grocery store and buying it. That's just what we do. But these days, it's hard to ignore the inefficiency of this system. Such a waste of energy. I've worked on farms and seen how much work it is to grow just enough food to go to farmers markets. In order to supply food to the whole world in this way, it takes turning farms into factories, even organic agriculture gets turned into this giant, mechanized monoculture.
I won't philosophize too much more. It just doesn't make sense that we should use so much energy in the form of fossil fuels to grow and transport and process the food that everyone needs everyday. I ride my bike or the bus around town, and i see so many big empty lots just sitting there. And i hear about all the people who are unemployed, and see hungry, homeless people looking for work. I wonder why other people aren't making this connection. Not to mention so many lawns that could be turned into gardens and food forests. Let's start growing food a little closer to home. It would create work for people to do, and local food for people to eat. Ultimately, more sustainable.
Here in Portland, there are tons of community gardens. But they are expensive and there are at least year-long waiting lists to get a plot. So in the meantime, while i'm trying to figure out how to get everybody else to realize these things, that we have plenty of space to grow our food locally, i'm doing my best to grow as much food on the land that i have access to, and documenting it so that people can be inspired and get ideas for things they might be able to do.

Moving the fence: what it takes: a hammer to take down the fence boards... a shovel to dig out the fence posts and the new holes for where you'll move the fence posts... a couple good friends to help out... concrete from the store, water to mix it, and a wheelbarrow to mix it in. (the wheelbarrow you see in the picture, bought for $10 from a nice man i found on craigslist).... and just a little know-how (Ian's got some construction experience -- that's him kneeling)
Gardening can seem hard just because there's so many different philosophies about gardening, and people make it seem like there is a best way, a right way and lots of wrong ways. But the truth is, plants want to grow. They just need the right amount of water, light, and nutrients. If you've never done any gardening, even if you have done some gardening, it just takes a little reading, talking to other gardeners in your neighborhood, and willingness to experiment. And it's not like your garden is your livelihood (yet), so if some of your plants don't make it, you can still go to the grocery store and buy some food. And if you are not too easily defeated, you can learn a lot from your mistakes/failures.

I made those cold frames you see in the picture, with some old windows and wood from the Rebuilding Center, a great place close to my house that sells used lumber, windows, doors, cabinets, bathtubs, lamps, hinges, tiles, everything really cheap. Cold frames are a way to start seeds early that can take it a little cold, but can't be outside with no protection. I learned how to use an electric saw to make these.
There are some things that just take a lot of hard labor. Like when you want to put a path leading to your new gate where there are some big nasty bushes. So you just gotta go out there with your shovel and start digging, and keep digging and digging and digging. We'll get those bushes out, even if we have to take a chainsaw to them, or burn them out. We'll get 'em!
Here's a garden bed that's actually already been planted, mostly fava beans, a couple arugula plants, that actually survived the winter, and some tatsoi starts that we got at the farmers market.



And of course, the chicks are still cute. Their feathers are coming in, so i can see what they're going to look like when they grow up. Here's a funny picture of Huckleberry (her new name, the only one who really has a name that's gonna stick), checking out Babar doing yoga. They really want to jump up to higher spots, reminding me that they are birds, and birds fly and like to be high. Still hoping none of them are roosters. I guess i won't really know for a couple months.
Tomorrow i'll be going to ChickenFest at a nursery nearby, where i'll learn more about taking care of chickens and building a coop. Then next week, i'm gonna start building the coop.

I'm a mommy now! I got on my bike, rode to the nursery, and picked out 4 cute little chicks to take home:


This black one is a Plymouth Barred Rock. She is the leader of the rebel army (lora). she was the first to start jumping up to the edge of the brooder... trying to escape. She a good little chickie though.




This yellow chick with the puffy cheeks is an Auracauna. I'm calling her Tuk-Tuk for now becuase she looks like a chipmunk (it makes perfect sense to me)



Here's the Buff Orpington. When you think of chicks, this is what you probably imagine, little yellow ball of fuzz. I've been calling her Roobie, because she is as loud as a rooster. Well, not quite, but she chirps the most and the loudest.


This brown stripey one is a Speckled Sussex. You can see she's got a lot more feathers than the rest of the chicks because she's a few days older than the rest of them. She's definitely the bossiest of them all, maybe because she is the oldest. I'm not sure what her name will be. Maybe Sparrow.... but all of their names might change when they get a little older, and i get to know them a little better.



So the woman working at the nursery, gave me a little box to put them in, which i wrapped in a towel, and put on my bike. Then i rode home as fast as i could (about 5 minutes at the most), so i could get them in their brooder, under their heat lamp, which i already had on. When they're first born, they need it at least 90 degrees.

They've got food and fresh water, and sawdust to walk around on. They're pretty easy to take care of. I talk to them, and pick them up so they get used to being human friends.

The only thing i have to be careful of is Sebastian...

... my kitty... i am keeping the chicks in my room so i can keep the door closed, all kitties out! But I bring Sebastian in every once in a while, vigilantly supervised, just so he can learn that they are friends, not food or toys. Not that he will really learn, but it's fun to watch him watch them.

The funniest thing about the chicks is how they are just walking around doing their thing, and then all of a sudden, they just all fall asleep, sometimes standing up.



SO CUTE!

My next job is to build a chicken coop. I've got about 7 weeks to get it finished, i mean, started, and then finished.

i know it has been a while since i last blogged. but it's hard to feel inspired to write when i'm not travelling. that's what this blog was originally for. i went off galavanting, gardening, and hitchhiking in europe. i was in a new city, sometimes country, every few weeks. I was meeting new people constantly, and not knowing where i would be next month. This gave me a lot to write about.
Now, I've been settling into one room in one house in one city with the same 5 people for the past 8 months. I am still meeting new people and learning new things, but I just can't bring myself to write about being a nanny 2 days a week. I could, but I can't write a whole blog entry about the new words Soren is saying everyday, and that he can ride on the see-saw now, which he couldn't really do a couple months ago.
I could write about volunteering at In Other Words, the non-profit, volunteer-run, feminist bookstore a few blocks from my house, and I guess i could write about how it almost had to close, and is still struggling to stay open, but we're doing a pretty good job raising money...but not a whole blog entry.
I could write more about the baby in my house, but really all i could say is how cute he is, and that he's getting bigger all the time. Really all he does is eat, sleep, poop, and cry. But he's so cute when he does all those things. He's 12 weeks old now.

There are a lot of things I could say, but I just haven't felt like this is the right place to say them.

But:
There is a happy ending to this story.
I have found inspiration. A reason to blog.
Spring is on its way. This means my housemates and I can start gardening. We've actually already started some leeks and onions! Luckily, we have pretty mild weather here in portland, oregon.

So, we may be only renting our house, but we're putting a lot of energy into our backyard. It all started when we asked our landlord if we could increase the size of our yard by using the driveway behind our fence. It is his property, but he doesn't need it anymore since he was using it to build some townhomes next to our house, so he said we could take down the fence if we wanted to. So Ian and Thimble have been working hard moving the fence around to give us a yard that feels twice as big. This gives us room for much bigger garden beds, so we can grow a lot of vegetables and herbs and flowers. It also gives us room for a firepit, maybe a little pond, and my favorite part: a chicken coop for a few chickens!

So this is what my blog is becoming now: documentation of our backyard homestead. You will begin to see before and after pictures of our yard, pictures of baby chicks and grown up chickens, the things we build, and other general gardening pictures. I'll be writing more often now, I promise!
Hope you enjoy!