Winter Update

It has been some time since my last update, mainly because every ounce of my spare time is either spent reading the Hunger Game series or discovering the joys (and pains!) of Zumba at my new gym, but a lot has happened here at 15023 SE Stark street!  But because this isn't a Christmas card, I'll keep it focused and simple.  

All six little mamas are growing more every day.  In this stage, they look like the token pre-teens; half downy, half feathery, loud, clumsy, and testing their boundaries... And they are finally all named too: Silkie, Souffle, Lyla, Abernathy, Marley, and Angelica.  Besides enjoying pecking at vegetable-scrap concoctions and basking in the heat lamp, the chicks have begun practicing roosting.  When chickens rest or sleep, they congregate onto a perch to keep warm in a feathery mound.  Right now, one or two chicks will hop up onto a strategically placed branch and awkwardly balance for a minute or two before hopping off.  We also added "grit" to their pine-shaving bedding.  Because chickens don't have teeth, they have a hard time digesting food.  Therefore, with their everyday diet of grass, insects, and other plants, they pick up bits of gravel that acts as a churner in their stomachs.  When raising chicks in the winter indoors though, you must provide tiny stones in their food and bedding to supplement what they would be pecking at outside.  

Usually, the first question that people ask is: What do your dogs think about the chickens??  Tasty?  Bizarre?  Entertaining?  The answer is that they are mostly just curious.  The constant peeping and flapping of wings keeps the dogs wondering what the hell these little creatures are!  Both pups have been able to socialize face-to-face with the braver chicks of the pack.  Our sweet deaf Pitbull even allowed Marley to walk all over Soma's body as she just laid there lifeless.  

The time will soon come that the ladies will get to venture outdoors and explore their new territory.  The sun has to show its' face first though!  Until chicks are fully feathered or around 4 months old, indoors it is!  And no... they don't smell  ;-) 

PDX

I have now been shacked up in the (503) for five months now.  Learning, living, basically just trying to get by.  Taking on a new city, blindly may I add, can be overwhelming and exhausting and downright lonely at times, but it has also challenged me to be brave.  I have also been forced to create relationships and break out of my (at times) introverted ways.  Of course I am friendly, I know that, but I also get freaked out by change and feeling left out of my comfort zone.  

I want to share a couple lessons (anywhere between trivial to life-changing) that I have learned over the past few months - 

1.  Portland people wear fabulous boots.  I'm not sure if there is some secret boot society that I have not broken into or discovered yet but wherever I look (and whenever I can!) there are colorful cowboy boots, quirky rain boots, sleek knee-highs, fashionable ankle boots, and everything in between.  Must. Find. The Boot-Store.

2. Loose yourself in getting lost!  GPS or Mapquest would never have allowed me to discover the hidden gems that I stumble upon when I'm turned around and off-track.  Whether it be parks, restaurants, bars, coffee-shops, or simply getting to know my way around, I find that I am often late for work or getting home because I purposely take a wrong turn.  Comparitively, rounding a corner in Portland is a lot like finding pieces of Narnia behind the closet doors. 

3. "Make new friends but keep the old. One is silver and the other is gold." Self-explanitory.  They taught us this song in scouts for a reason...

4. Enjoy the moment.   I often find that I stress about the "life" things: finances, schedules, not getting enough sleep, etc.   Learning to Instantly flip the switch in my mind from frazzle-brain-freak-out-mode to "woosa" has been a life changer over the past half-year.  "Life happens when your busy making plans" has never rung more true.  I would have missed so many incredible opportunities and memories if I was hung up on being a worry-wart than just letting go and letting life run it's course... and enjoying the journey no matter what it brings... even if I'm broke or tired.

5. Take a risk.  I have dared myself to do a lot of things while living down here that I wouldn't have necessarily done before.  One major risk was letting the restaurant industry take a rest for a while and focusing on my education/childcare career path.  It's not that I will never go back, I just needed to move forward at this point.  Another risk? Turning my home/yard into an urban homestead.  This chicken-extravaganza is something I have never been able to pursue until now.  (I was going to write "egg-stravaganza" but I decided to save my dignity...)  And just wait until you hear about my garden plans!  I am now continually looking for challenges or risks, not to make my life more hectic, but to fulfill certain areas in my life that I haven't explored before.

"There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something.  You certainly usually find something if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after."

J.R.R. Tolkein

10 Eggs. 21 Days.

They're here!  

Ten eggs are safely nesting in my 99.5 degree incubator at home.  They arrived yesterday afternoon after a seemingly endless week of waiting!  The woman I got them from kindly marked the breed she anticipates them to be.  No, she is not a fortune teller or chicken whisperer... 

The three light blue eggs were laid by an Ameraucana hen.  More commonly known as 'Easter Eggers,' these hens lay the coveted light pink, blue, and purple eggs that look more like little jewels than a future omelet.  

Another three look like the conventional extra-large white egg you would see at the grocery store.  We know that these hefty eggs belong to the Leghorn mother.  Leghorns are the classic white chicken you might find on kitchen motif and they are popular for a reason!  These hens lay up to 300 eggs per year!  

The two extra-tiny eggs belong to the Lady Gaga species of chickens.  Silkie Bantams, or "Silkies," are down-covered divas from head-to-toe.  Literally, even their feet have soft, fluffy feathers.  And forget about trying to find their eyes, their whole head looks like a poodle on a bad hair day!  But besides the future salon bill I might accrue, these little gals lay the smallest and tastiest eggs!

One light brown egg belongs to the Barred Rock mother hen.  These black and white speckled hens are large, calm, and make excellent layers.  The tenth egg might be another Barred Rock, but the egg is slightly too big and dark-brown for us to be sure.  For now, it will be our surprise egg!

Well, 20 days to go!  Though I don't expect every egg to hatch, I am hopeful! 

In the meantime, I am taking suggestions for names!

Why Chickens?

About six months ago, I had this brilliant (but incredibly wacky) idea to raise chickens.  I was envisioning a small flock of backyard feathered gals to inhabit my busy Portland corner lot.  They would peck around and lay farm-fresh eggs and even provide a laugh or two each day.  It shouldn't be too hard - people have been doing it for thousands of years!


Well now the time has come to put this vision into reality.  But the question remains - why chickens?  My response - why not!  To get started, my future flock will cost me less than my Venti Vanilla Latte from Starbucks but in turn provide me with years of Organic (and Omega3-rich) eggs.  Much healthier than the grain fed chicken eggs found in cartons from the grocery store, my free-range hens will buffet on grass, insects, clover, and garden scraps laying eggs that "are what they eat."  Chickens also provide endless entertainment and add to the clan of quirky family pets!  But most of all, why not!  I want to prove to myself that I can raise a flock of laying hens from day minus-21 (it takes 21 days for the eggs to hatch) and show others that all you need is a little passion for "bringing it back old school" and finding happiness in simplicity.


On Thursday, I'll be bringing home a variety of hatching eggs from a local farmer.  I have an inkling what the breeds will be but it will be a definite surprise until their due-date: January 26.  


An excerpt from my favorite "chicken book,"

"Collecting these small miracles right at home is what motivates most folks to keep a few birds under the trellis.  The same oval you've cracked and eaten your whole life suddenly goes from the world of the consumer to that of the producer.  Eventually you'll walk by the cooler in the grocery store, and you won't be able to wipe that smirk off your face.  Buy eggs?!  Please.  That's... well, that's just ridiculous."

Chick Days - Raising Chickens from Hatchlings to Laying Hens

Jenna Woginrich

The Experiment

" I reverted easily to my wild state, that is experimentation."  

- Jack Steinberger

Here we go - the start of something new!

No better time than now to explore and change and experience 

the fascinating possibilities that life has to offer.  

This blog will follow my journey in a new city - 

the blessings and trials and celebrations that will ensue.

Cheers - 

Megan