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.