The Chicken Coop

The coop is coming along. We weren’t able to work on it on Saturday due to the rain, but Mr. Man was out there bright and early this morning. He’s really made a lot of progress. Hopefully, with good weather, we’ll be able to get it finished next weekend. Then we can pick up the chicks.


The garden is coming along pretty well too and is finally beginning to look like a garden. The carrots, while still tiny, have sprouted their first “frilly” tops. Seems like a silly thing to be excited about, but nonetheless I’m thrilled.

We planted basil, parsley, cilantro, sage, thyme, cabbage and turnips today, as well as more spinach, carrots and lettuce (butter leaf this time). We picked up the lettuce and cabbage at Farmer D’s yesterday and got caught in the greenhouse during a short hail storm. The sound of the hail on the plastic sheeting was deafening, but it gave us a few minutes to really appreciate all the seedlings he has growing. We also picked up some potatoes but will wait to plant them next weekend in pots next to the coop.


The seeds we sowed indoors are doing wonderfully. I will need to get the black beans into pots soon as they are getting tall, about 18” currently. I’m hoping to plant the sweet peas up the south side of the coop, which will serve as a trellis and the peas will give the chickens some shade during the heat of the summer.

I hand-knotted the trellises which brought back memories of hours spent doing macrame as a teenager—remember making belts, purses, and hanging plant holders in the 70’s? They may not be beautiful but they should serve to support cucumbers and tomatoes in early summer. While I was stringing them, Marley came into the garden, grabbed the ball of twine and started running. So there I am chasing him while the twine unwinds behind him. It was hilarious!

We are having the trees trimmed back tomorrow in the hope that we’ll receive enough sun on the garden once they leaf out.

Building the Chicken Coop

Mr. Man and I worked all day yesterday on the chicken coop and the backyard. The frame of each of the four walls was buildon Saturday with the help of Eric and Jack, but once we measured it out in the yard we decided it was too wide and decided to cut the coop down to 10’ x 4’, which entailed taking apart the two side walls and cutting them down to 4 feet.

It took a while to get the ground level and it was necessary to add bricks under the supports in the front to make it level. We had decided to keep the coop parallel to the fence, which is at an angle along the property line, but once we got all four walls put together, we decided that we didn’t like how this looks from the house. I wasn’t about to say I thought we should change it, but by the end of the day the decision was made to change the position so that the coop will be parallel to the garden beds and house, which we will take care of this coming weekend along with digging the trench for the rodent barrier and hopefully getting the most of the coop finished.

While Mr. Man was working the table saw and hammer, I spent most of the day weeding, mulching, planting herbs, putting up a new bird feeder and laying a path along one side of the shed that leads up to the utility area where the compost is. Hopefully by the end of the summer the small beds on each side of the path will be full of ferns, hostas, and bleeding heart, along with the Carolina Jasmine that will grow up the trellis on the side of the shed.

A Very Full Saturday

We had a very full day today: Mr. Man was joined by Eric and Jack to begin construction on the chicken coop while I took Manda shopping for her birthday. I picked her up at 11:00am and we spent the entire day walking around Lenox Mall. We first stopped into Karen Milen were she tried on two dresses, both of which were way out of our price range, but they did look fabulous on her. Then we went to Anthropology were she tried on several things but in the end decided that she would rather spend the same money and get more for the buck... off we went to Macy’s. We did manage to find several great summer tops for a 1/3 of the price at Anthropology. She then wanted to go to Target for t-shirts—she never ceases to surprise me.

I got home just in time to see Mr. Man beginning to put the frame of the coop together. He, Eric and Jack had made good progress.

The assembly will have to wait until tomorrow as we were expected at T&G’s for drinks and wedding planning at 6:30pm. Mr. Man is performing their wedding ceremony in June and recently got his certification on the internet.

Afterwards the four of us had a very interesting dining experience at 4th and Swift. We must have been waited on by every waitperson on staff, even the Chef came out to ask us if we were enjoying our meal—which we most definitely were—but didn’t seem to stop by anyone else’s table.We got so much attention that we began to think they thought one of us was someone “important,” but maybe they are just this attentive to all their guests.

The food was excellent. We started by sharing the cured meat plate: procuitto, sopresetta, speck, and salami along with paper thin slices of parmigiana cheese, tiny gerkins, and homemade pickled cucumbers and carrots, as well as a wonderful lavendar mustard and pretzel bread—yum! I can’t believe that it has taken Mr. Man and I this long to try this restaurant in the Old Fourth Ward, but we will definitely return. For our entrees Mr. Man had the lamb chops, and judging by his empty plate, they were as good as they looked. Tamara had the halibut which she reported was cooked perfectly, Gary had the grilled hanger steak and braised short rib with lentils and steak fries, and I had the diver scallops with califlower risotto. I have tried scallops all over Atlanta, as they are one of my favorite dishes. These were among the best; cooked just right with a golden brown crust, fork tender, moist and flavorable. The califlower risotto was also great with winter greens coarsed chopped on top. Did I say delicious? We washed this all down with a great bottle of red wine and finished with the white chocolate strawberry shortcake, which was so delicate and light that Tamara and I managed to eat every bite despite being full.

After dinner we all went to a Pagan Spring Equinox party at our friend Erba’s house. We were rather late but did manage to catch up with friends before we finally turned into pumpkins just after midnight.

Amanda Turns 22

It is hard to accept that it was 22 to years ago today that I gave birth to Manda—my beautiful, intelligent and, at times, frustrating daughter. I was not much older than she is now when I had her, yet I cannot for the life of me image her being a mother in three years time.

I had intended to call her at 3:30pm, the approximate time of her birth, to sing her “Happy Birthday,” a family tradition, but she beat me to it and left me a voicemail at 8:30am on her way to school to wish me a happy birthday (the way she firgures it, it’s my birthday too since it is the day I gave birth to her). So, I called her back and sang her a very, very off-key rendition of Happy Birthday.

While she was growing up, we always celebrated each of our birthday “week” in which you could have your choice of what to watch, what to eat, and other “wishes” (mine was always that she and her dad wouldn’t argue). Now that she no longer lives at home, we give her the choice of restaurant for her birthday celebration. The last few years its been Babette’s. This year she wanted to go to Chop’s as she has heard us rave about the fried lobster tails (they really are delicious). We had a great time! Rena couldn’t stop exclaiming that it was the best meal she has ever eaten, and Manda, she didn’t stop smiling all evening.

Chicks in the City

The carrots and lettuces are finally up. That’s the Romaine we sowed from seed on 2/22/09.








And the radishes and onions are doing well.


While the weather has been fairly awful all weekend, at least it’s raining. I planted more carrots and lettuce this morning in the rain (and 42 degrees). Marley joined me for a while in his new rain coat, but it was too cold for him, and he finally settled for watching me perched on the back of the couch where he could watch out the back window.

We went by Oakhurst Community Garden (OCG) yesterday and picked up some transplants: broccoli, lettuce (red romaine and oakleaf), collards, which I hadn’t intended to buy—I actually thought we were purchasing cabbage—but once home, in the ground they went. We also bought two additional strawberry plants. I also picked up a bunch of herbs, which I’m planting in pots on the patio.

This afternoon we took a crash course on raising chickens in the city, by the OCG. It was very informative and answered some of our remaining questions. Our instructor Jonathan discussed predators, breed selection, the unattractive “teenage” stage, coop maintenance...

Here’s some of what we learned:

• If the floor of the chicks’ brooder is slick (e.g., cardboard or newspaper) the chicks can’t get traction and can end up with splayed legs and won’t be able to walk
• Babies can drown in the their water, so it’s best to use a small bowl with rocks or stones in it
• You should put the light/heat source in one corner so that the chicks can get away from it if they get too hot; slowing pull the lamp higher until they move away again. Eventually you’ll be able to take the lamp away completely
• You have to use special chick feed until they are about 14 weeks old
• Rats love chicken feed (YIKES!!!) so you should keep it in a metal trashcan
• Vets don’t have any training for treating injuries to chickens
• Chickens don’t lay eggs before they are 5-6 months old and for only 3-4 years
• Once the first chicken in your flock lays an egg, the others in the flock will soon lay their eggs; chickens will make a lot of noise when they lay their first egg.
• If you get a broody hen (one who wants to sit on the eggs until they hatch), you need to remove her from the nesting box

We also got to tour his coop; he has 7 hens and a great coop with electricity for light and a fan in the summer. We are considering purchasing older chicks so that we don’t have to go through having them in the house in a brooder. They aren’t very attractive at this stage as they’ve lost their soft fuzz but all their feathers haven’t come in. Either way, we are waiting until after we build the coop before buying chicks. Mr. Man downloaded plans from the web, which we can modify somewhat to fit our needs, and bought all the wood yesterday. Hopefully next weekend will be sunny so that we can get started.

I’ll post pictures as we go...

Spring Fever

Last weekend we had snow and this weekend it was in the mid to high 70’s. We still aren’t sure of what damage the snow did to the seeds we sowed two weeks ago, but the onions seem to be fine and the radishes have germinated, but no real sign of the lettuce or carrots yet. The weather is so beautiful it would be easy to throw caution to the wind and plant all our vegetables, but last weekend is a real reminder of how variable the weather is in Georgia this time of year.

We had intended to get the chicks this weekend but Andy, “The Chicken Whisperer,” was off this weekend. On Sunday we are signed up for the Oakhurst Community Garden’s “Chicks in the City” workshop. So, we think we’ll wait until after that and then pursue getting the chicks.

We spent the weekend with more garden foundation projects; Mr. Man made a gate for the garden area to keep Marley out and put up the trellises for the tomatoes and peas. We are having a hard time finding the trellis netting, but we still have a little time before we plant tomatoes and transplant the peas. I also planted 15 strawberry plants and sowed the spinach seeds.

The seeds we sowed indoors are doing pretty good, well, the beans anyway, they're the tall plants in the photos below—they still have a couple weeks before they go in the ground. Everything else is at least beginning to peak through the soil.
















I moved the Cypress trees and cleared out the area in preparation for the coop... Mr. Man works out at the gym with this interesting fellow, Walt, who invited us to come and check out his coop and take the hutch and nesting box if we wanted. His neighbors, an apartment complex, complained about his chickens and the city decided that his coop was too close to them and he had to shut it down. He had made the coop from some old kitchen cabinets. Not exactly my vision for our coop, but we did get a great self-waterer out of it. Guess I might have to design my own coop.

Next weekend we plant more lettuce, carrots, and onions, as well as broccoli, beets, and parsley.

A Snowy Day in Atlanta

Having spent my whole life living in the South, snow is not something that I’ve experienced often. In Atlanta, we might get snow once a year and this is usually in the form of flurries without any real accumulation. But when it does snow, as it has been doing all afternoon today, I can sit for hours watching it fall. I love snow. It always gives me a peaceful feeling. Everything is so quiet, the roads are free of traffic, and everything seems so crisp and clean.

The problem for us Southerns is that we don’t know how to deal with snow. We usually have a beautiful day of snow fall that turns into rain and then freezes as the temperature drops overnight. Much to the amusement of those who grew up in the north, the world stops when it snows in the south. Schools close, there’s a shortage on water, milk and bread as everyone runs out to buy these items as soon as there’s even a hint that it might snow, and none of us “southern” knows how to drive on icy roads.

Marley Loves Papa

Yesterday, Mr. Man went up to the Ritz to have lunch with his dad while I went to the market. When I got home they were at the house just relaxing and spending time together, and as you can see, Marley really took to Arnold.

Papa's looking pretty good for 91 don't you think? He really is amazing.