Life is Busy

I can’t believe how long it has been since I last posted! I have been very busy between contracting for my former employer and painting; I will be the featured artist at a local restaurant in June.

Grant Park Home & Garden Tour
Our back garden was part of the Grant Park Tour on Mother’s Day weekend.  We spent several weekends before the tour doing all the things we would normally do over the course of spring/summer.  Exhausting, but worth it; we even got interviewed for an article in the AJC (although it only appeared in the online version). The garden looked lovely, and we spent two days talking with interesting people about plants, backyard chickens, and gardening in general. While our house wasn’t on the tour this year—you may remember we did this two years ago and it was a tremendous amount of work—we did have one person tell us they loved what we’d done inside.  Mr.Man jokingly told her that if we’d known she was coming we would have cleaned up a bit. Seems that with the backdoor open, she thought the house was on the tour as well.  She must have thought we didn’t take it very seriously as we were in the middle of doing laundry!

A Larger Flock
We added five hens to our flock a couple days ago, bringing us to nine. (This is bitter sweet, as we just lost our beautiful Ameraucana, Matilda.  We are not sure how she died; my daughter found her in the run with no apparent signs of injury.)  A good friend who is moving to Brooklyn in July needed to find homes for her flock, and we were excited to take a few.  So far the two flocks are keeping pretty much to themselves, with only Letty, our White Leghorn, moving between the two groups.  And, as is always the case, there is a little juxing for position, with one of my Reds asserting her dominance.  It is hard not to intervene when this happens, but as Mr. Man reminds me, we have to let them do what comes natural.

This is Ginger, a beautiful Ameraucana.

This beautiful lady is Beatrice, a Barred Rock, which I have always wanted.

Betty is a mix between an Ameraucana (which lay blue eggs) and possibly an Australorp (which lay brown eggs) this causes her to lay olive green eggs and she is often referred to as an 'Easter Egger'.

This lovely lady is Maude, she is a Lavender Orpington.

And this crazy-looking chick is Phyllis (those of you over 40 will get the reference). She is a Polish Crested hen who runs around like the Road Runner. 

They have spent the first couple of nights outside the coop—the first night, the above mention Red actually stood in the door to the coop with a menacing expression (I swear it’s true! She had her wings on her hips and I could have sworn I heard her whisper, “Make my day.”)—and as it was raining, Mr. Man and I had to quickly build a temporary shelter and roust for them. They slept there last night as well, even without Goldie standing sentry. They did make their way inside the coop today and things seem a little friendlier. We have some changes planned to the hen house and coop that should be taking place soon.

Goldie, a.k.a., 'The Boss'

Temporary shelter and roust

Mind-reading Chickens

After several months of receiving one egg a day from our seven hens, Mr. Man and I had a serious discussion about the cost of organic layer feed and a stock pot, and lo’ and behold the girls are suddenly laying.  Last week I was greeted with 3-4 eggs per day, and this morning there were five!  Even Letty, my White Leghorn who hasn’t laid in over a year is producing—I know when she is laying as she is the only chicken I have that lays white eggs.  I’m so happy they read my mind and are once again earning their keep.

We have had a tremendous pecan harvest this year.  Our one tree has produced so many pecans that we’ve had difficulty keeping up with them.  In all honesty we haven’t been all that interested in harvesting them in the past. We’ve had friends come over to harvest, and our old lawn guy always took home a couple bags, but for us they’ve always been more of a pain in our asses—some years the squirrels will pick them while they’re still green, take a couple bites and throw them down, making a huge mess of the patio.

The first few pecans to fall along with the last of the Shitake mushrooms and peppers from the garden

This year I started thinking about what a welcome source of additional protein pecans would have been during a hard winter to people before the days of supermarkets.  So, I started collecting them; first just filling up a bowl or two.  Then we had a good storm and the next morning the ground was literally covered in pecans.  I collected two big baskets, and between my brother and I, shelled them all, resulting in nine quart-sized bags.

After sharing some with family, I pulled out the food saver and threw the rest in the freezer.  The next storm had the same result, with big gusts of wind sending pecans down on our heads while we harvested.  Over Christmas, my daughter collected a big bag for her girl-friend’s father and I collected a big bag (about 5 pounds) for freezing.

It took me several days to shell them all, not that I mind; it’s a good excuse to watch a couple of episodes of “Friday Night Lights.”  Marley has taken to hunting out any that have cracked open upon hitting the patio—I usually leave these for the squirrels.  And, just when I thought there couldn’t possibly be any pecans left on the tree, this morning I walk outside to yet another small crop.

Off to shell pecans…

Micro-Farming

Two days away and life on our little micro-farm goes on. We returned home to a broody hen (poor thing, the other hens have really been abusing her; she is missing several wing feathers and walks around puffed up to protect herself from attack) and the collards pretty much decimated from cabbage worms. Although I diligently sprayed every single leaf with a homemade organic concoction—a head of pureed garlic and Cheyenne pepper—it didn’t work. I took great pleasure in picking them off and feeding them to the hens. Guess I’ll just have to continue this morning ritual if I’m to have any hope at all of eating collards from my garden this fall.


We also returned to small green tomatoes, green beans, tiny little eggplants, out-of-control zucchini, onions practically bursting from the soil, and a few pickling cucumbers.

Quick Update

I haven’t blogged in a while, although there has been plenty to write about… we passed health care reform—WE PASSED HEALTH CARE REFORM!, stories about the chickens, a quick trip to Florida to visit my mother and sister and three days of antiquing, a Saturday afternoon at the American Craft Council Show, and planting the first of the spring garden vegetables.

Despite these potential posts, I have been so busy in the studio that I haven’t managed to make time to share my thoughts on any of these, so I thought I’d do a quick update.

Chickens…
Buffy made a second escape recently that had me running down the alley to the front yard of the people who live on the street behind us. This was precipitated by guy who does yard work for us trying to put yard trimmings in the compost while Buffy was in there rooting around for anything of interest to eat. Guess we really will have to do something about keeping her in the yard instead of just talking about it. I also discovered that Matilda made a secret nest under a tarp covering some wheat straw—or I should say Marley discovered the nest since he led me to it—where I discovered 11 beautiful blue eggs, all of which had to be disposed of because I had no idea how long they had been there; at least 11 days! Thankfully, she is back to laying in the nesting box.

Trip to Florida…
Marley and I drove down to Florida in February for my mom’s birthday. Marley was a great companion in the car—he loves to go with me whenever/wherever he can. My mother is a serious collector of McCoy Pottery, so whenever I’m down we usually make time to go antiquing at least once. Since I was down for three days, not counting two driving days, we decided to make a long weekend of it. On Saturday mom, my sister Brenda, and I drove to Dade City, about an hour Northwest of Tampa. We had a really nice day shopping and mom was successful finding a couple of pieces to add to her collection. We had lunch at “A Matter of Taste” of Cuban sandwiches, good but nowhere near the quality of Havana’s—the standard by which I judge all Cuban sandwiches—Spanish Bean soup, and sweet tea.

On Sunday, my brother-in-law, Cal joined us for the drive to Mt. Dora for the annual Renninger’s Extravaganza. Mt. Dora is about an hour-and-a-half from Tampa, but worth the drive for Renninger’s Antique Center and weekly Flea Market. With the addition of 1000 plus vendors for the Extravaganza and well, to us, it was practically mandatory. Since the Extravaganza is outdoors, we decided to take Marley with us. Unfortunately he was a little overwhelmed by the crowd and Cal and I wound up carrying him for most of the day. Mom again found a few pieces of McCoy and I purchased this wonderful bird pitcher for $5.

On Monday, we headed for Plant City—sans brother-in-law—my sort of hometown; I went to middle and high school in Plant City and lived in what is now the historic district. When I was living there downtown was a thriving business district where we shopped and dined. Now it is mainly antique shops, and a huge Scientology Center; who would have thought? Shopping was followed by a stop at the cemetery to visit my grandparents’ grave site. Brenda and I picked up a couple of stones to place on their graves.

Why to Jews place stones on the grave stones?
According to Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, “In former days one did not mark a grave with marble or granite with a fancy inscription, but one made a cairn of stones over it. Each mourner coming and adding a stone was effectively taking part in the Mitzvah of matzevah ("setting a stone")… in our day one tends to stick a pebble on top of the tombstone as a relic of this ancient custom, and it is still clear that the more stones a grave has, the more the deceased is being visited and is therefore being honored. Each small pebble adds to the cairn.”

American Craft Council Atlanta Show
Last year my friend Heather went to the ACC show and purchased an incredible bird by artist James Mullan, which I have coveted every since. So, this year Mr. Man, Heather and I headed out to the show where I was hoping to purchase one of James’ birds. The show was great with a variety of artists; furniture, sculpture, textiles, but interestingly only one painter. I was so excited when we came upon James’ booth. This year’s selection of birds was wonderful and I took my time looking at all of them until I found “the one.”

Planting The Spring Garden
We managed to keep the garlic and onions alive over the winter. We weren’t so lucky with the broccoli though. We put up hoop houses when the weather dropped below freezing and the broccoli survived two snows and had flower heads the size of tennis balls—I was so excited. Unfortunately, while I was in Florida something got into the hoop house and ate the broccoli down to the stalks! Squirrels maybe? Who knows, maybe broccoli is not meant to be in my garden.

Last weekend I planted lettuce, more onions, and swiss chard. And I have started my Heirloom Cherokee PurpleTomato seeds, which I fermented and saved from last year’s harvest. The blackberry and blueberry bushes I planted last fall are budding/leafing and the strawberry plants look good. I’m also planning to plant eggplant, potatoes, zucchini, peppers, pickling cucumbers, spinach, beets, and green beans. And of course, herbs. Thyme, sage, oregano and rosemary are still doing well, but need to add basil and mint in pots, and perhaps cilantro and parsley.

Okay, I believe that catches me up. I’ll post about my life in the studio another day.

Do These Feathers Make Me Look Fat?

My Ameraucana, Matilda, hasn’t laid an egg in over a week and she’s not broody. I was beginning to get worried, fearing she might be egg bound (even though she isn't showing any of the signs), when I noticed that her tail feathers are gone and that there are numerous feathers on the ground of the coop. Is there some aggression going on that I don't know about? I haven't witnessed any, and she doesn't seem to be fearful of the other hens. She is skittish though and won't let me touch her—Tilly is the one I can always count on to let me pick her up—and she's not "taking the position" or squatting when I approach her.

Seems my beautiful girl has begun her first molt. Chickens molt once a year and, unfortunately, most stop laying until the molt is almost complete. Winter doesn’t seem like a very good time to shed your feathers to me, but I trust the natural order of things. I will certainly miss her lovely blue eggs for the next 6 weeks or so.

I'll post more pictures as she goes through the process.

You can clearly see her missing tail feathers in comparison to the others girls

Cold Weather Chickens

The chickens seem to be tolerating the colder weather. They are as eager as ever to leave the coop in the mornings—especially if it has rained the night before. At night they huddle together on the perch sharing body heat, and puff out their feathers to create pockets of warm air and increase insulation. Last week when the temperature dropped into the 20’s their water fount froze but there was no notable difference in the hens’ behavior. Most mornings find them on the perch in the coop calling to be let out and that particular morning was no different. They didn’t seem to feel the cold at all.

The first question from visitors to the coop is often “what will you do with the chickens in the winter?” I’ve consulted a few books on the subject, the best being Fresh-Air Poultry Houses by Dr. Prince T. Woods, and, even though some authors suggest a heat lamp for the henhouse when temperatures are below freezing, the consensus seems to be that the hens can tolerate the cold pretty well, especially in a climate such as ours. Their down feathers provide great insulation, and the benefits from the fresh air outweigh the risk of exposure to the cold.

We’re actually more worried in the summer when temperature can soar into the high 90’s; chickens are much less tolerant of the heat than they are the cold. Our henhouse is very well ventilated with an open ceiling (except for the hardware cloth) and several ventilation holes on the sides. Of course, the coop is totally ventilated with only hardware cloth for walls and the hens have free access to the run everyday.

We are still getting 3-4 eggs daily from our 4 hens, so we don’t feel the need to extend their day by adding a light to the henhouse. We probably won’t install a heat lamp either as our days are rarely, if ever, below freezing, and we can always buy a heated poultry fount to keep them in fresh water.

Fall Planting

It’s a gorgeous day in Atlanta, perfect for planting the last of the fall vegetables. I managed to get 32 late season onions planted, as well as Swiss Chard, spinach, parsnips, broccoli—you may remember, I didn’t have ANY luck with broccoli in the spring. The problem was cabbage worms, along with my inexperience gardening and general lack of knowledge regarding combating pests organically—as well as Romaine, Butter, and Maevielle lettuces. We planted peas and snap peas a couple weeks ago and are still harvesting eggplant, red, yellow and Jalapeno peppers, and tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes.

We haven’t had enough tomatoes at any one time to can, but we’ve been able to share a lot and have roasted several batches (stored in olive oil in the frig they will last a couple weeks), which are great on top of grilled fish or added to pasta, and we have been eating them in omelets, paninis, and of course salads.

We’ve had several failures along the way: carrots (only a few “short” carrots were harvested), beets (too small), beans (we just don’t have enough space to grow the amount needed to provide us with more than a meal or two), and squash. How, you may ask, can someone fail at growing squash? We are determined to learn the answer and will spend the winter consulting with Farmer D and reading (on top of the list are: Carrots Love Tomatoes, Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening by Louise Riotte and Food Not Lawns by H. C. Flores—a very thoughtful gift from our friends Bobby, Joanna and Jasper) so that we are better prepared next spring. We’ve also learned just how much work it takes to maintain a garden and that we don’t have enough space to grow the amount we’d like to.

Our success, of course, has been with the hens. They are healthy and provide us with 4 eggs everyday. We have been eating as many as we can and giving the rest away to friends and family. Two dozen eggs a week is a lot for a family of two, but they are so good. Mr. Man eats eggs in the morning and I’ve begun making omelets on the weekends—there is nothing better than eating your own eggs filled with veggies you’ve grown in your garden. Trust me on this one.

I’m hoping to extend the garden a little in the spring so that we can fit two additional 4’ x 4’ beds and plant three blueberry bushes. And, Mr. Man is building me a couple of cold frames for the beds so that we can get an early start next spring. We also need to think of an aesthetically pleasing way to section off the hens’ roaming area from the rest of the backyard, especially the patio.

Today A Blue Egg

Our White Leghorn, Letty, has been laying regularly for several weeks now and slowly the eggs have begun to get bigger, some days more so than others. Last week we began to find small eggs again, and although none of the other three hens is supposed to lay white eggs, we thought maybe Buffy, our Buff Orpington, was laying these little gems (all resources I’ve read say Orps lay brown eggs); she does afterall have white ears—supposedly ear color correlates to egg color.

Big Egg, Little Egg

We find ourselves observing our Rhode Island Red (Penny), the biggest of our backyard flock, and wondering what her deal is... she hasn’t yet laid an egg, evidenced by the lack of brown eggs in the nesting box. Today I found one small pinkish-white egg and one blue!! The blue is definitely from Matilda (aka “Tilly”), our Americana. So, we know that at least two, perhaps three, of our hens are laying. Maybe soon Penny will catch on and start earning her keep.

Blue Egg (I know it looks green, but really, it's blue)

The garden is doing well, and we have begun to think about fall plantings. We’ve planted more beets and are ready to get broccoli (yes, I’m going to give it another try), cabbage and spinach into the ground, and maybe some butternut squash, but definitely no brussel sprouts. I hate brussel sprouts. In the meantime, I’m hoping to save tomato seeds from the Heirloom Cherkoee Purple for planting next year. I looked up (thank you Google) how to save tomato seeds and found that you have to ferment them for a few days before drying and storing them.

Fermenting Cherry & Heirloom Cherokee Purple Tomatoe Seeds

Today's Harvest: Cherry, Plum, Juliettes & Cherokee Purple

Hens Without a Rooster

It’s a cool, quiet afternoon; the chickens are strutting around the yard, stopping here and there to scratch back the mulch to look for small bugs. While one may wander a few feet away from the others, they are never very far apart. And when the small flock moves on to another area of the yard, instinct takes over and the stray is quick to catch up; there is safety in numbers.

When my Rhode Island Red, Penny, suddenly raises her head toward the sky—obviously hearing something I have failed to hear—I look up to see what has drawn her attention: a hawk. The girls quickly huddle together behind the feather grass; forming a group, they take on a larger profile. The hawk squawks as he flies on toward the park. The girls slowly relax and begin to emerge from the shield of the grass to continue foraging.

Penny (that’s Buffy in the background)

Without a rooster to signal the girls of impeding danger, I worry that they are oblivious to predators. Roosters do more than just fertilize eggs. They are fierce protectors of their hens and are constantly on the lookout for danger. I have heard that when you have a rooster-less flock, one of the hens will step up and take on the role of “leader.” Is this the case with Penny or was it just dumb luck that she noticed the hawk? I certainly haven’t seen any “dominant” behavior, even though she is the largest. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Letty eating sunflower seeds

Marley wants in on the fun

Chasing Chickens

The Girls

A chicken’s day is quite boring when you live in a 9'x4'x6' enclosure. What’s there to do really—sit up on the perch, scratch around for bugs, take a dust bath, eat, take a nap in the shade.

Buffy is the last to brave leaving the Coop

The highlight of the day is when the door to the coop opens and they are invited out into the garden where more interesting dining options await them—carrot tops, cucumber leaves, tomatoes—and trying to keep a chicken out of the vegetables is impossible unless you stand guard.

Letty

While they are pretty entertaining, most of us have other things to do after work than sit in the garden and shoo the chickens out of the vegetables. Devising a gate or fence to go around each raised bed is a must.

Gate around the tomatoes, eggplant & peppers

Not to worry, there are plenty of other delicacies to be found—worms, grubs, ants...

The Girls in the Garden

And hopefully soon, they'll be big enough and brave enough to find their way outside the garden and into the yard.

Happy Cows Really DO Live in California

We took a road trip today starting out from Calistoga through the mountains to Occidental, making a large loop stopping at Bodega Bay, Dillon Beach and Petaluma before heading back to Calistoga. The drive is very scenic through rolling hills dotted with cattle (lucky cows) and sheep, and even a llama or two. There wasn’t much happening in Occidential, so after a short walk around we headed on to Bodega Bay.
We made a brief stop in Bodega, which is very bohemian with a good size artist community. We happened into an Artist Co-Op where the “artist of the day” was Annie, a 60ish, white-haired woman with braids who shared with us that the old school building across the street was used in Hitchcock’s The Birds.

Bodega Bay is incredibly beautiful. We parked at N. Harbor and followed a path to the bay through a bird habitat and marsh restoration project. Crossing over a bridge, we could hear sea lions even though we couldn’t yet see the ocean. Once we made it through the marsh to the beach we could no longer hear them and realized they were on a small rocky island off-shore. The beach has gray sand and even though is was fairly cold there were a few people in sweatshirts sitting in beach chairs with blankets over their legs and a cooler by their sides. There was even a family with two small children in swimsuits playing at the water’s edge. And a couple with their horses.

From here we headed south to Dillon Beach where the houses are not a grand as those in Bodega Bay, but the view is just as beautiful. We eat a late lunch at what seemed to be the only cafe at the beach and soaked in the view.

Petaluma is one of California’s oldest cities with a large downtown with beautiful old buildings. The egg industry started here due to high demand as a result of the gold rush, and Petaluma became known as “the world’s egg basket.” When we stopped in a garden shop Mr. Man asked if the chicken is the official bird of Petaluma. The woman running the shop informed us that they are trying to preserve this but with the passing of Proposition 2 it is hard. We must have had questioning looks on our faces because she proceeded to explain that chickens now have to be “free range,” and that her uncle has an egg business where the hens are in cages where the eggs drop onto a conveyor belt, but that people “want them to be able to spread their wings,” here she spread her arms out and rolled her eyes—at this point that Mr. Man very discretely (and gently) stepped on my foot— “and they only live... they only lay eggs for a few years,” as if the length of a chicken’s productive life is a measurement of the quality of life they should have—increased pressure from Mr. Man. She told us her uncle is loosing his business, and while I sympathize (okay, not really), I’ll be happy when all industries that profit from cruelty become extinct.

Our 15 Minutes of Fame

You may remember that we took a “crash course” on raising chickens back in March. While there we were briefly interviewed by local NPR writer/reporter, Kathy Lohr . We didn’t seriously think we’d get any airtime, or if we did, thought it would be on the local level.

On Thursday afternoon several colleagues stopped by Mr. Man’s office to tell him they’d heard him on NPR talking about chickens; since then the calls have been coming in… from a colleague’s daughter in D.C., my sister-in-law’s mother-in-law in Montgomery, our niece’s brother-in-law, and friends, all who had heard us on “All Things Considered.”

Here’s the link if you’d like to listen.

The Chicks are Here!

Saturday Mr. Man and I drove to Jasper, Georgia to pick up the girls at Hinton Milling Company. Jasper is about an hour and a half north of Atlanta, with a population of about 2,600. They sell rabbits, ducks and chickens of every size and breed. Mr. Man and I were looking for a couple different breeds (so that we can easily tell them apart) and wanted chicks old enough to go straight outside. We were helped by Robert, who plucked the chicks up with relative ease.













“Letty,” White Leghorn













“Henny Penny”, Rhode Island Red













“Buffy,” Buff Orpington













“Matilda” (aka Tilly), Ameraucana

We got them home and into the coop safely, and they seem to be settling in well. Letty is more confident and assertive than the others and they look to her for security. Buffy is the youngest and therefore smaller than the others but she holds her own and they seem to have bonded together over the stress of moving to a new home. They can be found together pretty much all the time; especially when one of us enters the coop. Penny is especially timid and tries to hide under Letty when we enter the coop. I go inside a couple times each day so that they get used to me and am picking each of them up at least once a day to get them used to being touched/held.

Marley and the cats seem to have taken their appearance in stride and after realizing that Stella can’t get into the coop they have taken to ignoring her sitting outside staring in.

Coop Update

Despite working two twelve-hour days this past weekend, we were unable to finish the coop. On the up side, Mr. Man and I work really well together, and for those of you who may doubt that I pull my own weight...



































I actually like using power tools (except the circular saw—that still kinda scares me so I leave sawing to Mr. Man). We added a window to the hen house door so that we can look in and check out the hens without disturbing them (it was my job to drill the holes in the plexiglas—fun!)

































































and added ventilation holes with hardware cloth between the siding and interior walls (I got to drill all those holes as well, but this time using a round blade on the end of the drill normally used for cutting holes for doorknobs in doors).

All that’s left to do is build the nesting boxes where the hens will, hopefully, lay eggs one day and the screen door into the coop.

We think with one more long, sunny day we can finish it and then we’ll pick up the chicks—got’a do some research to see who has some for sale now. We are hoping to get four, one Buff Orpington, one Rhode Island Red, one Barred Rock, and one White Leghorn. Regardless of what we end up with, hopefully we get them before we head off to California for a little rest and relaxation, and some wine touring, kayaking and hiking. Our friends Donna and Mary may join us for a couple days—which will be great as I’ll probably need Donna’s influence to get Mr. Man into a kayak.

We also harveted our first raddishes this weekend and the rest of the garden is looking great. The lettuces are growing bigger by the day, and the broccoli has tiny little flowerettes on them. I had to get the beans I started from seed indoors into the ground, well, actually into pots, as they were starting to sprout.