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.
• 
  
• We partner with youth and people with low-incomes to create empowering individual & community food solutions.
• 
  
• 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.

Springy

It's been a dark sunny day today in the maritime northwest.  Spring has displayed her ability to paint a rainbow against a dark sky.  Sun-drenched trees dazzle, encrusted with glittering raindrops reflecting their prism colors as they cling to bare twigs.

Today was a day spent noticing things.  I will never take that aspect of my character for granted again.  After months spent being too busy to be present with my environment on a daily basis...I am seeing the magic again.  I have missed it.

Where did this face come from?  As soon as I ask the question, the answer comes to me.  A sprite uses the water droplets for a looking glass.  And what made me magnify this photo to even look for it?  The beaming visage invites me to open my awareness.  I've been missing too much.

Stories have been trying to get my attention today.

It's been over a year since I've written.  Life should never become too filled up doing things you do just to get by.

Since I had the camera in my hand I meandered through the yard, taking random photos.

The first thing that caught my attention was the forsythia in full bloom.  My mom had just asked me about it the other day during a phone conversation.  I could only remember seeing one sprig trying bravely to bloom.  I just assumed last summer's drought had taken it's toll on it, as it had so many other plants.  But here it is blooming magnificently.

Magic!

Tulip bulbs and Hyacinth will not survive here.  The furry ones that live under ground love those things.  I might as well be passing out candy to children.  But the daffodils...

They just keep coming.

 In fact, they're starting to spread out.

And speaking of spreading out...

Here's a flower that spreads where ever I plant it.  A welcome invasion.

I was noticing how much my front yard looks like a forest floor.  I'm sure my neighbors are horrified, but I'm very proud of it.  This is my lawn.

However, I have planted some "mistakes".  Apologies to the Hellebore plants for calling them a mistake, but they spread like a noxious weed, and I need to hone my gardening chops  if I'm going to keep them in check.  They have taken over, where there used to be alpine strawberry.  I really miss those little guys.

And another plant I rescued, struggling for life at the side of the road, was the money plant, or silver dollar as we called it when I was growing up.  I put it in my yard...it seemed like a good idea at the time.  If only my US currency would multiply as fast as the silver dollar plant.  One plant has become hundreds, and not very pretty at that.  

I have no one to blame but myself for that.

I'm afraid they choked out the native yellow wood violet that I planted there from my parent's woods before they moved.  I looked, but couldn't find any sign of that beautiful little plant.  Maybe my friend Rebbeckah has them in her woods...viola glabella.

Next, I visited the Oregon Grape.  It grows throughout my place, and I love it.  

And this showed up all over too--Indian Plum--in bloom at the moment.

Here's one I planted.  Pussy Willow given to me by my sister.  A start from my gramma's yard.  It's gotten so big, I can't even reach those little fuzzy guys.

See that?  I nearly missed seeing them.  They love this part of my yard.  The front is East facing, and dominated by a large old oak.  It's very foresty here.  The back is mostly like a field.  But the trees are moving in there too.  Cherry and little fir trees are popping up.  The trees that were already there when I moved here 15 years ago--the birch, and fruit trees--are old and kind of sickly, but as they are winding down, the little ones come in to replace them.  Lilac is being replaced by Hazel and the pink ornamental Cherry trees that were planted 20 years ago or more, are being replaced by the Bing Cherry trees that have grown wild in this neighborhood for decades.  

And it's all Nature.  I gave up trying to plant trees around here.  Only the trees that belong here can survive.  I have a row of dying arbor vitae, which were green and healthy before last summer's drought.

Having wandered around the front yard, I decided to visit the chickens.  I see them everyday, but I wanted to take pictures.

Here's Rocky.

He takes care of the flock.  Every night when I close the door to the hen house, I thank him for the Peeps and for watching the flock.  I count heads -5 peeps, 3 hens, and Rocky- and I am grateful that we got through another day without any losses, and that there are eggs in the box.

Yes, I really am that close to him.  But I'm not crazy enough to stand eyeball to eyeball with him without a fence between us.  In order to get a full picture of him, I had to stand back because whenever I get near enough to the fence to avoid having the wire in the photo, he has to be right there checking me out.  

See, even in this picture he's got his eye on me.

But what have we here?  

One of the Peeps is a Cockerel!  This is Sparky.  So far this is working out, but I don't know for how long.  My place is too small to support 2 flocks.  I love this little guy.  And he's not so little.  He's 16 weeks old today, and nearly the same size as his mom Ruby.  Of course, they all look small next to Rocky, who is twice as big as my full grown hens.  

Oh well, maybe I can manage two flocks if I have to.

But let's face it, I'd rather not.  Maybe by some miracle, Rocky will tolerate him somewhat.  Just sayin'.  Just prayin'...

Two full grown hens and two 16 week old Peeps.  Sparky and Ruby face to face.

Okay, just two more chicken pics.

Tricksy with Daffodils.  Yes, I know daffodils are poisonous.  Apparently chickens know that too, because I've never seen them eat one. 

All five Peeps are rarely together.  I'm constantly asking, "Where's number 5?" And then I see her with the hens or with Rocky.  There's always one isn't there?  The kid that just wants to hang out with the adults instead of with the other kids.  I put this picture in because I wanted to show how Sparky stands out from the others even though their coloring is almost identical.  He's had his red comb since he was about 5 weeks old.  They grow so fast.

This is Sparky back in December, leading the flock in the great escape.  They figured out how to jump up on this pallet and then how to fly over the fence--usually landing on me as I came out the back door.  You can see his red comb and even at 5 weeks, he stands out.

It'a been a really nice day today.  I didn't get ANY work done.  I need to have more days like that.  (feeding the animals doesn't really count as work, it's like feeding a myself or a family member)

Reducing: The Trash Report

Today is garbage day in my neighborhood.

Normally, that's not something I would post in a blog or any type of social media, except now it's significant because I've reduced my pick up service with the refuse haulers.

So the first Wednesday of every month, I have to remember to bring my can to the roadside for pick up.

Tiny Trash Recap

At the start of 2016, I decided to downsize my garbage, which was already pretty minimal to begin with, by most household standards.

The plan included composting everything that was biodegradable, and recycling everything I can.  The final piece was to get even more discerning about what I buy at the grocery store, which means taking a good hard look at packaging.  Plastic sneaks it's way into all packaging.  There is no escaping it.  Even things packaged in glass jars will have plastic on the lid in some fashion, if not made entirely of the stuff.  And unless you're harvesting your own fruit or getting it locally, chances are your fruit and other produce has a plastic sticker on it.

Enter Tiny Trash as a way to remind me constantly of my resolve to reduce my non biodegradable waste.  Tiny Trash is a plastic yogurt cup which I covered in decorative scrap paper (from end papers when I bind books for Pegana Press).

Thanks to Tiny Trash I have been diligent about reducing my plastic waste.  And that means it happened quicker than I thought it would.  My goal was to not generate more trash than this little cup could hold, and to empty it once a day.  But within the first week, I had cut that expectation in half, and before the first month was out, it would take about 4 days to fill this little container.

This has allowed me to reduce my trash pick up from weekly to just once a month. 

Here is one month's worth of trash in my can when I took it to the roadside.

It still seems kind of silly to have such a small amount picked up and I'm considering other options.  I estimate that with this approach, it could take me 6 months or longer to fill this can.

For now, it doesn't make sense to do away with pick up altogether.  They won't take recycling unless I have a trash can too, and having one, means I put things into it.  

Until I get to the point where I have minimized my possessions down to where I own nothing that could ever break and be discarded, I might need this can.  Until I stop buying things that come in packaging or with labels, I will need this can.  Until I stop receiving any mail at all, I might need my recycling bin.

glass recycle bin (left), trash can (center) w/Tiny Trash on top, mixed recycle bin (right).

I've changed how I think about waste, so I've been able to reduce what comes into and what goes out of my life.  It's glass pick up today too (every 4 weeks), but I only have one oil bottle in my bin, so there's no point.  I reduced glass, by using the bulk bins when I shop, and by giving excess jars to people I know who use them.  The mixed recycling bin usually takes two to three months to fill because it's so big.  Lately, I'm filling it faster because I'm working on getting rid of old papers, and I've replaced certain items I used to buy in plastic packaging with items that come in paper and cardboard.

The cat litter is one example.  I used to buy a brand called Swheat Scoop, a cat litter made from wheat.  until one day they changed from a paper bag packaging to plastic packaging.  They insisted that it was for the benefit of their customers, when I asked them.  I thought that was pretty funny.

So anyway, I changed brands, and now I use a brand called Ökocat that comes in a cardboard box  and is produced locally at a factory in my state.  I have it shipped directly to my house.  They have several types and I use the kind made from just wood, without anything added.  It works amazing! No smelly cat box at all, plus it clumps, and I can put it in the compost.  I tried the paper version at first, but it made Zöe and I cough, so I wrote to the company and asked about additives.  The woman that replied said that they did add something that was approved by the FDA.  OH, right.  That's the agency that has approved so many chemical food additives and pharmaceuticals that have proven to be unsafe and were later removed from the market.   I replied that I didn't have a lot of confidence in the FDA, and that I would use a different version of their product.

Anyway, the cardboard boxes can be recycled except for a little plastic strap handle fixed to the top of the box.  Not a perfect solution, but far better than a jumbo sized plastic bag.  Eventually, I'll probably come up with a sawdust version of my own, but for now this is working.

Happy Leap Year

The Peepers Are Growing Up

I went out to feed the Peepers this afternoon and they clucked at me!

Yessir, the Peepers are growing up.  They've stopped talking baby talk and are using full sentences now.  And at 13 weeks they are almost as big as their mom Ruby.

It's going to be hard to stop calling them The Peepers.  That means they will have to tell me their names, finally.  And since 4 out of 5 of them look too much alike to tell them apart at this stage, it won't be easy to know who's who!  Only Sparky stands out.