Looks like we got a rooster

Last night we heard the goofiest noise come out of one of our Ameraucanas... yes, I think it was a crow of a rooster.  We still aren't sure... it tried the noise about 5 or 6 times last night and we haven't heard it again today.  But these Ameraucanas were supposed to be all female... with a 95% accuracy rate.  Looks like we are part of the 5%/

New plants, chickens happy, first mow

 New crocus bulbs are coming up.  Its so cool when all the efforts of fall bulb planting come to life.  Its encouraging and gives me motivation to work outside when its yucky and rainy.

We had 4 days in a row of NO RAIN... yippeeee.  So we got a lot done.

We got our first lawn mow of the year done.  Which is a big deal because there is always so much debris around after a winter here.  We have lots of tree branches that fall and little branches that get caught up in the law tractor.  Somehow rocks just seem to magically appear also.  So I collected two bins (newspaper bins) and one garbage can full so my husband could mow.

We also were able to get out with our chiken tractor more.  HWich makes the chickens happy.  So happy we had our first 3 egg day... where all three of our adults hcickens layed their eggs.

We also put together a composter we got from Costo... and it took about 5 hours to put it together and it almost killed us.  I have no picture of it... because it was so awful.  But the intent is to compost teh chicken manure and other things from the property.  We will see if it works!

Everyone needs a pink flamingo in their yard right???

Chick video

Here is a video of our little chicks... We gave them a small amount of lettuce and they are so cute running around chasing each other to try and snatch some lettuce for the others.

Here are our two latest chicks.  I love this picture because its like the older chicks (older by a whole 1 and 2 weeks) are scared and backed into a corner by these two small yellow puff ball chicks.  So the darker orange of the new one is a Buff Orpington and the lighter one is a Light Brahma (which will have white feathers on its feet).    So we have a total of 9 chicks now: 2 Ameraucana, 2 Black Copper Marans, 2 Blue Marans, 1 Splash Maran (the white one), 1 Buff Orpinton and 1 Light Brahma.  The Marans were a straight run so its possible we will get 2 or 3 roosters from the 5 Marans.  We have a friend who will take them.

Our first egg breakfast with eggs from our own chickens!

Our first 5 eggs... cleaned and ready to eat.  Considering the amount of money we have invested in chickens right now (coop, chickens, food, bedding, etc..) these eggs cost about $200 each.  That's okay... the cost will go down over time.  And they are fun.  The adults are getting to know us better... they want out to free range in the yard but we haven't had great weather for that yet.  But someday.  And I will take pictures when we do.

Our first breakfast with our own eggs.  Look how bright and deep orange the yolk is.  Tasted good too.

Chicken coop is done and we have 3 chickens!

We finally got the chicken coop done and painted and even decorated.  Looks cool I think!  It ended up being more complicated than we thought... I guess things usually are.  we havent really had many problems.  We have been trying to decide if we should stay with straw on the ground or go with wood flakes. 
    So we did get three adult chickens from our friend (the one who built the coop!).  Here is an iphone picture of them and our dog.  Our dog isn't quite sure what to make of them yet.  She did bark and growl a little at the begging.  Then a few days ago she chased a local cat away form them and had a great time running around the yard chasing this cat...and now she seems to be a little protective of the chickens.  We haven't let them out yet to free range... but I plan to.  And eventually I will try to incorporate the dog and chickens.

I do have to say I found the Backyard Chicken website to be fantastic and helpful (http://www.backyardchickens.com/).

Chickens

   Its unclear which one of us, my husband or I, initiated the discussion about chickens.  He had a pet chicken when he was a kid... he has fond memories.  Although he doesn't remember how long he had the chicken or how it died... but he swears it laid one egg every day.  My family also had chickens when I was growing up... I just had different memories.  Not bad or good, just different.  For example, I remember my dad and uncle chopping heads off chickens.  I remember my sister getting her eye pecked my a chicken and her having to go to the hospital.  I think I showed a chicken at the fair... I don't think it was very successful though.  Sort of like my goat ("Downy" the goat), but that's another story.    I also remember going to get the eggs one day and sticking my hand in the nest and hearing a snake hiss at me in return.  That was scary.  But it was Arizona and snakes weren't that uncommon.
   But for quite some time we have wanted to get chickens.  About 4-5 years ago we went on a chicken coop tour in King County... they had the coolest coops and everyone was very supportive and encouraging.  Then last year we went on the Everett coop tour... and the coops there were very different.  They were utilitarian and not real elaborate.  But again, everyone was very helpful and informative.
   A friend of our has to give away his three chickens... and we have agreed to take them and are now beginning the process of learning how to raise chickens in a semi-urban environment.  But I would really like to  have a variety of chickens... and to raise some from chicks.  Yes, I perhaps should remember the trauma of raising our dog Titus from a puppy.  My husband has vowed never to have a puppy again.  But chicks... they are so little and cute.  How hard could it be?  So we went to a class on raising chicks.  It was done by Seattle Tilth (http://seattletilth.org/) and was a great class.  Taught by a man named Paul Farley (spelling may be wrong) who clearly knew a lot about poultry.  It sure does sound like chicks are exactly like babies... they poop and eat, sleep and chirp.  But it was a good class that helped me remember a lot about raising chickens.  here are some of the pictures of our coop in process.  Its not done yet but I will post the final pics when its done.

This is the first phase of our chicken coop.

Phase 2 - roof and chicken wire on.

So now we have to figure out what chicks to get and where.  I really want to get these ones called Black Marans that lay dark brown/chocolate eggs.

I think they look so cool... its hard to see in the picture but they have dark speckles.

Snow day in the Pacific Northwest

So its a snow day in the Pacific Northwest... something I love a couple of times a year here.  Yes, people here don't know how to drive in the snow, but that just means its a good excuse to stay home, make a fire in the fireplace, and read or surf.  But did we do that this morning?  No... we thought we would try and go to church but after an hour of bumper to bumper traffic on the 405 we turned around and came home.  We literally saw maybe 8 cars slide to the side of the road or lose control.  People try to drive their corvettes and BMW's in the snow and then wonder why they get stuck.

But enough about that.  This is the beginning of my blog about my experiences with our property this year.  My husband and I have about .75 of an acre of property in Western Washington.  We have lived here for about 9 years.  Initially the property was very hilly and filled with blackberries.  Over the years we have beaten the blackberries down... quite literally hiring people to pull them out by hand and me working every year to keep them at bay.  We have quite a few large evergreen pine trees and some nice landscaping done by the previous owners (like the maple shown in the picture above in snow).

Last year we did a lot of hardscaping.  This was something I have been wanting to do for years and we finally had the time, money and someone to help us.  We built a garden shed and a "clubhouse".  The clubhouse is more of a glorified shed for my husband.  We'll see this year how much he uses it and whether or not he really moves much form the garage into the clubhouse.

We built a huge retaining wall.  This was the major hardscaping as it created a more level surface on our hill, and provided some definition.  But I have yet to plant a thing.  I am waiting for the soil to settle over the winter and dreaming of what I want to do there.

I also personally build a retaining wall out of the concrete retaining wall bricks you get a Lowe's.  It was a lot more physical work than I thought it would be... but it was worth it.

This year I would like to continue on with the wall, but we will see.  I did plant about 100 bulbs during the fall so we will see how they come up.  I planted some lillies there 2 falls ago and I think a mole got to them.  I hate moles.  A lot.