What A Busy April

It is too true.  While many people are talking about the slower pace of life during this time of quarantine, I am busier than I’ve ever been.

I stepped up my game in the garden and pushed the limits of my budget for food forest trees, shrubs, and plants.  My supply of seeds was eaten by rodents, so I needed to replenish (my own fault), and fortunately I got my seeds and plants ordered in the nick of time before things got too difficult.

One day after my seed order was filled, the company I ordered from was slammed with orders and was asking people to be patient while they tried to keep their employees safe during operations.  Another company I had an order with, stopped taking orders just days after I got my order in, so they could catch up.  I watched anxiously while their stock dwindled hoping my order would be filled (they’ve got the best yellow crookneck seeds).  And the nursery I ordered trees and bushes from were unable to fill all of my order.

Everyone was scrambling and I felt lucky to have ridden the crest of the wave.  I’ve got all my seeds, and have been planting for two months.  In fact, we started eating from the garden just a couple of days ago.

But it’s Spring and my laying flock has really stepped up production.  I’m getting between 2 and 3 dozen eggs per day.  That’s a bit of a challenge because I only have one egg customer.  Meanwhile, I’ve set up an outdoor, self service egg selling station so people can help themselves and leave their money in a coffee can bank.  But no takers.  Even with eggs so hard to find, people walk past my sign and look and then keep walking.

Fortunately for me I was able to get eggs to several family members who were missing them at the supermarket.  I unloaded 33 dozen - two weeks worth of eggs.  It’s a relief that they won’t be going to waste.  And the thing I’m finding out is that people are no longer taking things like eggs for granted anymore.

I remember a friend of mine saying that people wanted to trade eggs for massage.  As a licensed massage therapist and energy worker, she was talking about how eggs weren’t valuable enough to trade for massage, and I realized how things have changed so much in our world.  There was a time when the local midwife or herbalist or healer/doctor would take payment in food.  Food was prized and valued, because people had common knowledge about what went into the growing of food, the raising of food, the time it took and the labor involved.  Now people buy cheap food at a corporate supermarket and they are so far removed from that process that they have no real appreciation for real food.  They have no experience with what it really takes to produce food.

Anyway, my flock’s eggs were truly appreciated when they made the rounds among my family members.  My mom told me she felt rich!  And talked about all the things she would do with eggs.  Just last week she was hoarding the few eggs she had left, trying to make them last.

Another thing the layers are producing right now are chicks.  I’ve had four hens go broody this Spring.  I’m glad they are going in a cycle and not all at once.  It started with one, then a week later, another one, then a week after her, another one, and so on.  I have one mama with her chicks in the yard, and another one in her house hatching out chicks these last few days, and another one due to start hatching out in less than a week.  I’m running out of places to put everyone.  Tomorrow I will be building another brooder and putting up fencing for this next batch due.  It’s tonnes of work and while not all at once, it’s coming pretty steadily in waves.

Meanwhile I’ve been raising meat birds too.  So I was able to get my family set up with birds in their freezers for the next few weeks.  Meanwhile the next batch of chicks arrived by mail last week.  They will grow up and feed my family just when they’re needed.  It’s intense though.  The harvesting must be done daily within a two to three week period when they are at a certain age and weight.  Since it’s just me, I’ve about reached the limit of what I can provide.  I’ve committed to providing birds for four families, which includes us.  But it is worth it to me.  I’m driven to do this.  It’s the most impactful way I can connect with my family during this time of quarantine.  It makes me feel less isolated, to make sure that as long as I am producing good quality food, I can share it with them.

It’s a bit like a family cooperative.  In that they pay for the grain “their birds” eat and for the cost of each chick, and I take care of the birds, raise them, harvest them, and process them.

As for my immediate family right here, I dream of producing the majority of our food on this land.  And this time of quarantine is really putting that dream to the test.  I’m finding it difficult to get certain processed things, like flour and baking soda.  It makes me want to be more creative about how I make bread.  Without flour, I have to find new ways to make bread from materials that I can grow on my place.  Like grinding corn to make tortillas, or using potatoes, or legumes, or starchy vegetables to create a kind of bread.  Maybe not a sandwich loaf, maybe not traditional pasta, maybe not wheat cakes, but something bread like that comes from my garden.

So living in this way, fills up a lot of each day.  And meanwhile, I’m still binding books by hand for our family owned business, Pegana Press.

Grow Your Own Food - Eat Locally

My Buff Orpington layer flock (a batch of chicks I acquired in June of 2019), along with 4 Heritage Rhode Island Reds, and 3 Barred Rocks make a total of 25 laying hens.  They are watched over by 3 Buff Orpington Roosters.  This flock is about to be joined by 19 Buff Orpington pullets and 1 cockerel from the October 2019 batch of chicks.

I’m currently getting an average of 15 eggs a day.  When the pullets begin laying eggs that will  potentially double over time.

So far I only have one egg customer and am trying to use up eggs as quickly as I can.  I also give eggs away to anyone who comes to visit.  I’m hoping to get more paying customers in order to offset the cost of grain.  I see people looking at the sign as they go by, but people have gotten into the habit of buying everything in one place, in large corporate owned warehouse or grocery stores.

That’s something we need to have a conversation about.  If you’re my age, you remember that a lot of grocery stores were owned by people who lived in the community.  Remember that?  If you don’t it’s because the mom and pop stores of yesteryear are all but extinct.  That actually came about from a corporate business practice of moving into a community and underpricing products to drive smaller businesses out.  Once they have eliminated the local competition, they can now raise prices and offer products of their choice.  Not necessarily products that people in the community want or need, or are good for the community.  People get used to the “choices” that are being “offered” to them and eventually they will buy what they are “told” to buy.  That’s why we no longer have fresh local bakeries, local butcher shops, and local grocery stores in every community.  That’s why local nurseries have mostly disappeared.  Book stores...All the local businesses that used to make up “Main Street” and “Downtown” in towns and cities, are all gone.

Okay, so what?  Where am I going with this?  This is not a nostalgic stroll down memory lane for me.  There is a point to that last paragraph.  The point is, what happens when we have a pandemic (like the one we’re facing right now) that impacts the supply chain of food?  When people panic, they hoard.  They stockpile.  And that creates a problem because suddenly food becomes scarce.

So what to do now?  Plant food.  Right now.  Plant in window boxes, on balconies, on patios, in gardens and vacant lots.  Learn to forage.  Get cities and towns to plant food plants instead of ornamentals all over the place.  Trees that bear fruit.  This is really important.  When I went into town for my usual shopping trip, I wasn’t thinking about stocking up.  But I noticed the shelves were a little barer than usual.  When I started talking to someone stocking shelves at the co-op, he told me how Corona Virus was causing interruptions in the supply chain.  I hadn’t thought about it.  My response was to buy some quick growing cold weather crop seeds.  It’s still cool here, but I could get seeds started and transplant them out.  Things that grow at this time of year will be mature in 45 days.  That’s mid to late April.  I realized that there is no time to waste here.

So I want to encourage everyone who can to grow what they can.  The smaller the space, the more intensive food production you can potentially get out of it.  No space is too small.  And we can all be a bit more creative about what we think of as a garden.

Why aren’t we growing more food locally?

Spring Chick Update

On Sunday I moved 35 Cornish Cross chicks outdoors.  I had to do some repair work on their little house, because the nesting box portion of their house in falling apart.  I got the house on Amazon, one of the last purchases I ever made from them.  I had a gift card that more than half covered this house, but it’s the true definition of flimsy.  Never the less, it does the job, as long as I stay on top of repairs.  And it’s perfect for this batch while they’re still small and getting used to being outside.  They will soon outgrow it.  And as I’ve learned through experience, chickens get attached to their homes and don’t like to be moved.  But for now this will do quite nicely.

The 15 Buff Orpington chicks and 1 (smaller than the rest) Cornish X were moved into the newly vacated brooder and are happy with their new space, it being double what they were in.  The single Cornish X is starting to grow at last and getting feathers and will soon join the rest outside.  The young Buff Orpington chicks will continue in the brooder for another two to four weeks depending on how fast they grow and weather conditions.  Then they’ll go outside too, in the Birch Grove Cottage I built for the October Buff Orpington chicks, which are now 5 months old and are in the process of being integrated into the existing layer flock (Buff Orpington chicks from last June).

Everything cycles.

An Alternate Reality: Episode 3-Making A Difference?

In episode 3 (recorded and posted on 3/3), I talk about the things I do to make a difference even when I don’t believe it will.

I didn’t go into a lot of detail in what I said about voting on the recording, mostly because I was having trouble with my recording tools and so I was distracted and didn’t say all I would have liked to on the subject.  I’ve gone into a little more detail here.

On Voting?

I don’t believe my vote actually counts.  I don’t believe it matters who I vote for because I think the people who consider themselves “in charge of the political process” are going to pick for us because they don’t trust people to choose their own leaders and they think they know what’s best for us.  Never the less, I still vote as if it absolutely makes a difference.  So even though I don’t believe my vote means anything, I still vote as if it all depends on me.

Because I will not give in to those who think they know what’s best for me, or what’s best for all of us.  They couldn’t possibly know because they can’t see through my eyes, or feel what I feel.  They don’t live my life and they don’t live yours.

I will not make it easy for “an established political elite” to rob me of my voice or my right to participate in democracy.  I vote because I think we can do better.  I vote like I believe it will make a difference.

Because some day it might.

On Climate Change

Another topic I spoke on, was what I do to actively fight climate change on a personal level.  I spoke at some length about that, so I won’t say more here.  It’s about choices.

An Alternate Reality

You can listen to An Alternate Reality at this link.

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Monday Moonday

The Mamas and The Papas sang "Monday, Monday can't trust that day...."

Being self employed, I never have a problem with Monday.  In fact, I'm hard pressed to tell Monday from any other day of the week, since I pretty much work 7 days a week.  (An occupational hazard of the self employed is to learn how to draw those boundary lines between work and personal, which I haven't really figured out yet, but I'm working on it.)

Today was wonderful because I was able to pick up my life again after my marathon sequester last week.  I cleared everything from my calendar in order to make sure that the tax return would get done on time, and hooray! it did.

But not my favorite kind of work.

So today I was able to engage in my favorite kind of work, which is the business of living.  I love taking care of house and home, growing food, raising chickens and seeing clients for energy work.   I love making my own shampoo, deodorant, and toothpaste.  I love it when my skin and hair smell like fresh air and sunshine because I've been outdoors for hours. And I love cooking outdoors, then sitting around the fire afterwards, gazing at the moon and stars to wind down the day.

I'm trying to continue to find time to bind books for Pegana Press too.  Today I think I worked out a schedule where I work on book binding between 8 and 11, and then see clients in my healing practice between Noon and 3 pm.  That way I still have time to fix meals for us all and then I can crash in the afternoon.  I think it's a good Summer schedule, because it allows for working outdoors in the very early morning and the early evening when things are cooler.  I am learning to adapt my schedule to match the ever shifting seasons, especially with the changing weather patterns we are having now...It's the Pacific NW for heaven's sake...We just don't have 87 degree weather in April!

But yes, I guess that is now a possibility.  All potentials exist, and I'm feeling the need to be flexible.  So I have also adopted the practice of Siesta in the hottest time of the day which seems to be late afternoon.  And today I needed it!! And really appreciated it.

It left me feeling energized so I could tackle the super wild part of my yard.  I was just going to build the fence to bypass that area, but I got thinking about it and really, the practical thing to do would just be to clear the blackberry overgrowth and include the old rusty metal storage shed -which I never use- to maybe do something practical with it.

This evening I uncovered a beautiful Hazel (one of my favorite trees) which was being choked out by brambles.  My heart glowed to see it, and I found myself whispering to it, "Do you trust me?", because I wanted it to know I would go carefully and cautiously while I was removing the thorny plants around it.

I also freed up the tall Oregon Grape which was in danger of being covered by long thick blackberry canes.  Now it should be much easier to build the fence in that area, with just a little more work.

I also uncovered some wood and some perfectly good fence posts.  It just goes to show you that treated wood will stand up to the test of time even after laying on the ground, half covered with soil for the past 15 years at least.  I'm going to use the posts to build frames to hang a gate on, so I won't have to contort myself, to avoid getting hung up on primitive wire "gates" to get around my yard.

The fence building project is going slower than I wanted it to.  But I'm trying to keep at it because I'm anxious to plant, and there's just no point planting if I can't protect the garden from my chickens who are talented escape artists.  My goal is to have them moved by the end of this week.  Which will also require some pruning.  I realized that the willow is not only the perfect cover, perfect playground for chickens but also the perfect jumping off point to fly right over the fence.  They might not try it if they are entertained enough with their new environment, but why take the chance?

I'm crossing my fingers that I can plant soon!

This photo shows the full grown Peeps perched on branches 10 to 12 feet in the air.  The fence behind them only reaches 8 feet tall.  In this picture you can see how interested they are in the next tree over, which is outside of their yard, and located just a few feet from my raised beds.  The Peeps began flying when they were still only a week old.  And they're very good at it.

Garden Build Day!!

Hooray!  I have my garden beds.  And they're beautiful!

Three people from GRuB arrived at 10:30 am on the dot with a truck load of soil and this beautiful lumber.



Within 2 hours we had these three beds built and filled and the trellis built, too.







They also left me with these lovely plants.

They were such a pleasure to work with.  Fast and efficient and friendly.  It was a wonderful experience.


And they loved the chickens. :)


I feel good right now, but I wonder how I'll feel tomorrow after shifting that much soil.

I can't wait to see food actually growing abundantly on this land.

Later that afternoon...

I went out and walked the beds, pruning any branches away that would interfere with the trellis and putting down straw to make the paths look tidy.

It began raining in the sunshine, so I had to get a picture of that.

The air smelled amazing.  I love that smell of water in the air.

I spent a moment connecting with the spirit of the land.  It approves.

And look...Pachamama is apparently purple.

Zoë and I were sitting on the porch snuggling while we watched it rain, and I suddenly got the impulse to see the sky behind me.

Oh yeah.  Glad I checked it out.

Seems like a good sign to me.

#FeelingBlessed

The Kitchen Garden Project part 3

Pictures

Before

This is the quack grass and chicken scratched lawn that was my back yard.   You can see the large Rosemary bush and what is left of the old herb bed on the right side of the photo.  There are little animal trails still evident in the lawn, a remnant from when Ruby was raising her chicks right outside my back door.

Sod overturned in preparation for raised beds

 Looking the landscape over, I realized that the beds would be on a slope.  The ground here originally had a very gradual declivity sloping away from the patio.  Over time, and with the help of a mole infestation the ground sunk even more in this part of the yard, and became over run with weeds and quack grass.

I wanted the raised beds to be level and decided to get the site ready so on "garden building" day there would be no unexpected challenges.  I leveled the beds by placing sod from the higher side of the beds on the lower side, which evened things out nicely.  This photo shows the spot where two raised beds will go, and also the old herb bed in the back ground.

Originally, I thought I might place the third raised bed on the old herb garden site, but I decided on a different location for it.  I've been burying rotten wood and compost in that old herb bed, and hope to coax it back to productivity now that I've removed the invasive alkanet.

Alkanet growing under my Rosemary bush, looking like a harmless ground cover. If allowed to continue, it will overwhelm the entire site. This alkanet can grow to approximately 2' in diameter in all directions with flower stalks even taller.

While digging the sod, I was careful to take the pieces with quack grass and toss them over the fence to the chickens.  They enjoyed scratching through the clumps for bugs and worms, and ate the grass as well.  I've learned not to turn the quack grass in to compost, because the rhizomes continue to grow and invade the garden site  creating a mesh and chocking out all other plants.  The chickens made short work of it, as well as the large dandelion plants I also dug out.

I'm also taking the opportunity to give my back yard a make over, which is why I was so careful when deciding where the raised beds would go.  Now that I've reinforced the chicken fence, and made it taller, it has (at least for now) stopped the chickens from over running my back yard.  I couldn't blame them for wanting to keep coming back, because the chicks began their lives there.  But I have plans for that part of the yard.

Besides growing food there, I want to create an outdoor kitchen and I want to restore the yard back to a place where the cats can enjoy being outdoors.  With the advent of the chickens, the cats have been all but crowded out of their special, safe, fenced in yard.  And Buddy won't even go outside anymore, because he worries about those strange birds in the yard.  He doesn't trust that they will stay on their side of the fence.

And the chickens have attracted the neighborhood cats, making them determined to get into the yard, which they do by climbing a nearby tree outside the fence, and jumping onto our roof.  This is causing stress on my cats and I worry about fights.  My new plan of action includes moving the chickens outside of the cat's yard and into their very own overgrown part of the yard with more cover.  That part of my yard is very wild, so it will require new sturdy fencing and I will have to move the chicken house.  In it's place, I dream of constructing a small green house where I can start garden plants in the winter, but that may be a ways off.

The outdoor kitchen takes precedence because starting this time of year, I almost can't stand to be indoors.  Last summer, the only way I could get my dishes washed was to set up a dish washing station on the patio so I could be outdoors.  I want to have something more permanent and primitive/cute/rustic in design but very functional.  Instead of plastic tubs on the table, I want something more like this...





Preferably with a dual compartment sink.  These are just too cute.  If I had something like this in my yard, I'd love doing dishes.

For now, this is my yard.  Make over on the horizon.

The Kitchen Garden Project part 2

After the pre season orientation for the Kitchen Garden Project, we got into a pretty stormy patch of weather.  So I took the opportunity to go through my Growing Guide provided by GRuB to help get people started.

I made a list of all the vegetables I want to grow.  I made my planting schedule and then I made the garden map.

Today we had some really good weather, so I went outdoors and sort of prepped the area where the raised beds will be.

Because I want to put them on a spot that slopes, I wanted to make sure that the beds would be level.  I dug the grass out in some spots and filled it in at the bottom of the slope to make it level.

During this process, I got a call from the electrical inspector telling me he would be at my house in about 30 minutes, so I set the timer and kept working outside.  I was out back and listening for someone driving in, just in case he was early.

I didn't hear him drive in, but Rocky did.  The best watch dog in the world is my Rooster.  He always tells me when someone drives in.  He uses the same voice to alert me as he uses when a hawk flies through the neighborhood.  Fed Ex,, a contractor, or anyone else, if I'm out in the back yard, I can always tell that I need to go answer my door when he makes that sound.

After the electric inspector left, Mike came outside and took one look at the bed I had just prepped (a 4' x 8' patch of freshly dug earth), and wanted to know what the heck I was doing.  He was suspicious of the dimensions coupled with the fact that he's been kind of a pain lately.

By the end of the day, I had 2 spots ready for raised beds, and a third spot mostly ready.  I just need to transplant some irises and I'll be finished.  It's strange about the irises.  They've never bloomed here.  They used to bloom profusely before I moved them to this location.  This is one of the reasons why getting raised beds with good soil is so important to me.  Plants don't really thrive here.

I also pulled out all of the alkanet which grows like a noxious weed in my yard.  And here's the story about that.

I used to have tons of foxglove in my yard.  I also used to have lots of borage.  And I've grown comfrey in the distant past.  Alkanet fooled me into thinking it was one of these three plants, and so managed to get established on my land.

One year a plant came up in my yard under the birch tree, where the foxglove used to grow, and I was thrilled.  Hooray! I hadn't seen foxglove in my yard for a couple of years.  I was very careful not to mow it, and encouraged it when it began springing up in other places, including my herb bed.

Yikes! This plant was Alkanet.  (Not the purple dye Alkanet, but plain ol' Alkanet).  It gets gigantic, and spreads everywhere!  You should see the root on this thing.  And it choked out many of my smaller herbs.  I didn't think you could kill lemon balm or catnip, but this thing decimated those established herbs and put an end to my alpine strawberries too.  Only my violets moved out of the herb bed, and survived by finding new ground.  They even threatened to overwhelm the huge rosemary bush.

Last year I began removing the largest alkanet plants and it was no easy task, but I needed space for my potatoes, and since my herb bed was destroyed I decided to plant them there.  I have a feeling potatoes don't like ground where alkanet has grown, because they didn't do very well.

Another thing that fooled me, was that I let some small plants come up because I thought it was borage.  Yay! Borage!!  Well, alkanet is in the borage family, so it looks like borage seedlings when it first comes up.

It took me two years to figure out that this wasn't going to be foxglove, comfrey, or borage coming up in my yard, but by the time I identified this intruder, it was taking over.

Anyhoo, Now that I know it, I'll pull it as soon as I see it, while the tap root is still small.  I got most of it today, but I need to check the rest of the yard.  (I also need to check for scotch broom.  That stuff can really get out of hand!)

Back to the Garden Project though...I couldn't seem to stop.  After my weeding frenzy, I dug out a spot for the compost too.

The chickens loved the activity.  I threw the dandelion plants dug from the garden beds, over the fence to them.  And also large patches of quack grass that I didn't want in the compost.  Maybe when it gets hotter, but in its current state the rhizomes would probably grow in the compost pile.

Okay, I guess I have to stop writing because my computer is acting like it's possessed and doing all kinds of things I don't want it to, making it too distracting to enjoy writing.

Oh well.

House & Home

We had a new circuit breaker panel installed today.

Back in November when we were getting our home weatherized, it sort of came up in conversation (over and over) as we were getting the work done.

Not that anyone wants to make recommendations, but when people keep remarking on your electrical panel, you sort of make it a priority to deal with it.

Our Guardian Angel must be on the job.

Now we have a new panel, and it was remarkably painless.  We spent the day in front of the fireplace, because we were without electricity all day.

Last night, while we still had power, I cooked food for today.  This morning around 11 am after I got the fireplace good and hot, I reheated cornbread and baked potatoes and chicken all in the fireplace.  I meant to throw some veg into the chicken pot too, but got side tracked, so we had fruit instead.

We were only without power about 6 or 7 hours, but it really forced us to relax.  I had the added incentive to take it easy, because last night I injured my dominant hand trying to do too much to get ready for today, and I was kind of worried that it might affect my ability to bind books.  So I've been trying to watch it.

Still, it really limited my ability to get any real priority work done.  Cutting the inserts in boards before covering them with cloth to become a case binding, was definitely out.  So was any digging in the garden. I couldn't work on the taxes because my computer battery won't hold a charge, and I didn't really want to go all the way into town just to use my computer.  I had a really hard time sitting still.  Dishes were done.  Couldn't do laundry with the power out.  Couldn't vacuum.

I had a roaring fire going, with lunch heating.  There was nothing else to do, until I realized that it would be the perfect time to map out my new raised beds.

I had started it a few days ago, but hadn't gotten very far.  And the garden map is on paper...old school, so I didn't need my computer.  I spent the next two hours putting together an imaginary puzzle on graph paper, which finally became my planting map.  I had to coax my mind to remember how to think that way.  I used to "garden on paper" all the time, but it's been awhile now.

I am grateful that my injury and the day spent without power, forced me to sit in front of the fire and plan my coming garden.  It was so peaceful, for once.  Mike sat across from me reading, with Zoë on his lap.  And I had Esmerelda with me while I consulted my growing guide and mapped out the raised beds, taking occasional breaks to stoke the fire, and rearrange the foil wrapped potatoes, or turn the skillet.  (Buddy was in hiding.  He hates it when there are people working on the house and he reappeared the moment the electrician drove away.)

By 4 pm we had power back on and the house to ourselves once more.  Mike's first priority was to make coffee and mine was to pick up the newspaper we'd laid down and vacuum the carpets.  And I must add, the electrician was so clean, there was hardly a mark on the paper, and he cleaned up after himself so well we almost wouldn't have known any work had been done.  Friendly and professional.  It was such a relief to have a good experience.

Now it's the end of the day.  The cats have been fed, the chickens are tucked in.  Mike is snoozin' with the ball game on the radio (Mariners spring training schedule).  I'm winding down my day too...It's been a good one.

Buddy asleep on his face.  How does he breath??

Spring Fever

Cleaning frenzies.  Bouts of Gardening.  And, oh yeah...

This.

The egg on the left is an ordinary chicken egg.  The one on the right is the only egg I found in the hen house yesterday.

So that either means one of the Peeps laid her first egg, or that Tricksy is winding down.  (It was in the box she uses.)

And so I still don't know.

But I do know this.  It suddenly occurred to me that my Peeps might not be egg layers because of their parentage.  Rocky is a barred rock, but Ruby is a sex link (hybrid) and I just don't know.

Researching online yielded no information on the subject.  I searched 'Can hybrid chicken offspring lay eggs?'  There's a lot of info about sex link, but apparently nobody bothers about their offspring because they don't breed true.  I found one article that at least mentioned that none of her sex link chickens ever went broody.

In fact, the people at the egg farm/chicken farm I got my hens from (and my rooster), were pleasantly surprised that we got 5 chicks from Ruby.  And responded to the news with a "whoo hoo!" and then said they weren't altogether sure that the eggs would even result in chicks.

I guess, now I just wait to see if my flock is fertile.  I'm trying to keep a sense of expectant excitement about this, rather than worrying about it.  The fact is, they've given me an amazing experience just by hatching out.  I got to watch Ruby lay a clutch of eggs, hatch them, and raise the chicks.  The Peepers gave me such tremendous joy, and turned my life into a circus for awhile.  It's been a real kick!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the four pullets will be egg layers.  I just can't wait to find out!

The Garden

I've been going through the Growing Guide I got for The Kitchen Garden Project.  My garden will be built on April 7th courtesy of GRuB (Garden Raised Bounty).  Yesterday, I spent some time between downpours cleaning my backyard up a bit in anticipation of this wonderful gift I'm about to receive.

Today I took my little Growing Guide and mapped out the beds.  It's kind of slow going.  I want to grow everything we use.  I know that these 3 beds are a really big deal--96 square feet in all, but I also know that I could easily plant a whole patch of potatoes and strawberries too, beside what I'll be growing in these three beds.

It's hard to be patient.

The Kitchen Garden Project

First things first.  Sparky turned 16 weeks old yesterday, and today he began crowing.  And if you don't think that's just the most adorable and funny sound in the world than you just haven't heard anything like it.  Honestly, I wish I had a recording.

The human equivalent is a young boy when his voice begins to change.


Today was a catch up day with dishes and housework.  At 1:30 Esmerelda had another distance session with healer Sid Snider of Portland.  I got so involved with housework afterwards that Mike had to remind me at 4 pm that we still hadn't eaten.  I made a late lunch for him, and was going to finish vacuuming the bedroom when the belt slipped off and that put an end to that, so I gave in and realized it really was time to eat.

We were kind of sitting around chatting after lunch, when I suddenly realized I had somewhere to be in 10 minutes!!

I have been anticipating this meeting for weeks.  It was on my radar all day long.  But somehow between 2:20 and 5:20 pm it just disappeared from my awareness.  Fortunately, I made the Pre-Season Orientation meeting to participate in The Kitchen Garden Project -and I was only 10 minutes late.

What is the Kitchen Garden Project?

One day --January 31st to be exact--I was visiting my friend Sage Adderley.  She and her family had just moved into a house complete with yard, and she was excited because she had applied for a GRuB garden.  GRuB stands for Garden Raised Bounty.  As she spoke about it, I almost couldn't believe what she was telling me.  A local organization that will build you a garden --free of charge??

She urged me to apply and later that evening she even sent me a link.  I'm so grateful she did.  And I am even more grateful that at the end of a long day, I didn't put off exploring the GRuB website.

Because as it turned out, I did qualify for their KGP (Kitchen Garden Project), and the deadline to apply was January 31st.  It was already after 9 pm on a Sunday evening.  Fortunately, I was able to fill out the form electronically and emailed it off to them with an hour or so to spare.

GRuB Mission Statement

• We inspire positive personal and community change by bringing people together around food and agriculture.
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• We partner with youth and people with low-incomes to create empowering individual & community food solutions.
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• We offer tools & trainings to help build a just & sustainable food system.

When they called me less than two weeks later and gave me the news that I had qualified and been picked to receive one of their gardens, I was overcome.  I haven't felt this much anticipation and excitement since I was a kid waiting for Christmas to arrive.  My friend Sage is also receiving a garden.  After the orientation meeting tonight we ripped into our little brown paper sacks of seeds to see what was inside.  She said it first.  "It feels like Christmas!"

Tonight I learned that not only would I be getting 3 raised beds built (4' by 8'), and the soil to fill them, but all the plants as well.  They will be leaving me with seedlings to plant.  They also have other resources available and free classes.  And this project support lasts for two years.

At the end of the meeting, we went up and scheduled our garden building day.  We received A Growing Guide book, filled with info and a brown lunch bag stuffed with seed packets.

I've scheduled my KGP build for April 4.  That's the day when they will show up with a truck load of soil and volunteers will turn lumber into frames for 3 garden beds.  I have 3 spots all picked out and I can't wait.

And here is a picture of the book they put together.  56 pages to help you plan, plant, and maintain your garden, as well as other resources like scheduled workshops and where to find free seeds and other gardening support.

Click the link for more information on the Kitchen Garden Project.

And there is so much more to explore on the GRuB site.  For example The Victory Farm.  

Victory Farm is a safe, non-confrontational environment where veterans work shoulder to shoulder, immersed in the healing nature of the outdoors, agriculture and dirt work. In this environment, we find new meaning and purpose. Stories are shared, new connections are made and roots in community take shape.

There is also the GRuB School.  

For over 15 years, grub has been running agriculture-based alternative education, employment, & drop-out prevention programs that engage local teens in land & community-based projects, working to break cycles of hunger, poverty, inequality, and oppression. From 2001-2011, only 39% of youth who entered GRuB’s youth programs were on track to graduate. Today, 90% have either graduated from high school, are on-track to graduate, and/or have earned their GED and 66% have gone on to college.

GRuB is an amazing organization and I am really grateful for its presence in our community, and that I am now a part of it.