Update post

Wow, look at me not posting for most of March! I guess this just became an update post...

My father in law spent the better part of March here at our home in Arizona. He and my mother in law had planned to spend a week at the very beginning of March but then he decided to try a laser spine surgery. While she went home, he ended up staying for three weeks. At first I was a little concerned about having him (or anyone) in my house for that long. Turns out my fears were unfounded. He and I had a really nice time together. Since he's a photographer (and a Realtor) and an avid people watcher, we had a lot in common. We managed to go out shooting pictures one day and would have liked to have done more but it just didn't seem to work. We enjoyed our days drinking coffee and talking on the patio. Just my kind of company. I was surprisingly sad to see him go when he finally did leave.

The Flockers are no longer at our property. They are now residing at Mamoo and Papa's acreage where they enjoy several snacks a day (instead of just one), bedtime stories and constant supervision by Mamoo. One of those things is a fib, I'm not saying which one. So basically one of our neighbors had a problem with the racket the girls were making on a daily basis. The singing about laying an egg routine was one particularly annoying factor apparently. So I begged Mamoo to please take them to her home so we didn't have to give them away. Eventually she and Papa gave in and said they would take them on. Mister C and I loaded up the coop in our neighbor's pickup truck (why yes, it was the same neighbor that complained, why do you ask?) and loaded the girls up in a kennel in the back of the jeep, and headed three miles over to my folks place.

Unfortunately, since they had been free-ranging for a majority of their day at our house, they were less than thrilled at being more cooped up (literally) in their new locale. You see, Mamoo and Papa live on a acreage that is in a little bit more natural setting that our home. They have coyotes running through their property regularly and hawks circling overhead daily. So the girls couldn't just be running around loose unsupervised. Additionally, while our yard is small, we have a substantial number of trees, shrubs and plants. If a hawk did fly over, the girls would dive under the nearest plant and get out of sight. While my folks property is about seven times larger than ours, they only have a few trees that are fairly far apart, and a couple of shrub-like plants. The girls would be sitting ducks, sort of.

Last week I started searching in earnest for fencing to put around the coop so they could be loose safely during the day. I tried Craigslist with no luck and finally decided I needed to buy new. I priced out Home Depot for their fencing and then decided to try Lowes. Lowes had a ten by ten dog kennel that was six feet tall. And it was going to cost me about 1/2 the price of the same sized fencing at Home Depot. Additionally, since this was a kennel and not a fence, there was no holes to be dug for the support poles. Perfect. So I got the go-ahead from Mister C to make the purchase and Papa and I went back after he got off work to pick it up. In the meantime, Mister C had suggested using the block wall surrounding my folks place as two sides and expanding the kennel from ten by ten to twenty by twenty. Good call Mister C! Papa and I put everything together and released the Flockers, who proceeded to get even dirtier than normal taking a sand bath in their new expanded space. I haven't spoken to my folks yet but I think I'm going to try and get a few plants in the fenced in area for my girls to chew on. I'll just casually sneak them in under the cover of darkness and claim ignorance when they ask me about it.

Moving on.

Everything is leafing out in my yard. My strawberries, blackberries, raspberries and blueberries are really putting out leaves and looking good. My grapevines both look really healthy and are growing daily. The cherry tomatoes have a bunch of green babies all over them and the peppers are starting to get little peppers. We have sprouts of cantaloupe, watermelon and cucumbers starting as well. The orange tree is finally finished flowering and if even half of the currently pea-sized fruit makes it to fruition it will be a banner year for oranges. I still haven't plucked the last of the lemons off the tree yet and Mister C is working his way through the grapefruit (which I don't love). Yeah, it's looking like there's going to be some awesome fresh food in our backyard this year.

And lastly, I am now on the "Jeep Diet". What the heck is that you might ask. Well, that's when your charming husband removes the doors from your jeep and you realize that all the world can now see exactly how much extra weight you're carrying so you decide to start keeping track of your food and trying to exercise. Miserable man.

Maximum Production

A beautiful sight..



Giving credit where credit is due...
Top row, left to right: Red, Princess Laya, Cream
Bottom row: Wedge, Rocky

All of my girls produced today, Wedge and Cream for the very first time. I don't expect five eggs every day, but it's pretty cool that it happened today.

Ruckus Central

As usual this morning the Flockers have been chaotic and loud. Not as loud as when Peaches was a part of the group, but loud nonetheless. I released them from their coop around 7:15 this morning, put them up for a few minutes around 8:45 (to let the dogs out), and then re-released them around 9:15. A few minutes after being re-released all hell broke loose out there. So I went out.

It turns out that two of the girls, Red and Princes Laya, had decided to use the same nest box this morning. They do usually lay their eggs in the same box, just not usually at the same time. So this morning there were two fat chicken butts in a one chicken butt box. And they were both determined that they weren't leaving. So I did the only logical thing I could think of in this situation, I got my camera.



Now, they have settled down in the above picture and are kind of "purring" to each other. Not sure what that exactly means but it sounded much more positive than the previous ruckus.

And of course nobody can do anything without Miss Busybody herself sticking her beak in to see what's going on.



All chaos, all the time. Welcome to my world.

Peaches, but not Cream

So I had to find Peaches a new home today. She had major issues with vocal volume control and I was afraid of offending the neighbors. After checking to see if I could pawn her off on my parents or their friends, I placed an ad on Craigslist.

About an hour later I got a response from a gal named Lori who lives less than ten miles from us. After speaking with her briefly I knew she would be the right home for one of my animals. You guys know all I have are weird, odd, unnatural acting animals in my household. Everything that comes into this house or yard is abnormal. I'm also one of those whose animals all seem to get along, cats and dogs sleeping together and the like. Even Izzy, who still tries to poke the cats into running so she can chase them, was supposedly not able to be homed with any other animals at all. I guess we're just lucky that the cats are too damned lazy to run. But I digress...

Well, I think I found my kindred spirit in Lori. I got to her home to drop off Peaches and was greeted out back by two sweet dogs, alpacas, emus, a miniature horse and a rather large flock of mixed chickens and turkeys. Which, total side note here, dang but it never occurred to me to have turkeys! Of course as much as Mister C loves turkey I suspect I'd have to keep a good eye on him to prevent any premature basting of them. I'd hate to come out and find my turkeys covered in butter. Yeah, I think I'll skip the turkeys for now. Having said that though, I think Peaches found the absolute perfect home at Lori's little farm and I'm glad for that.

After I got back home I made a point to go out to the coop where the rest of the gang was getting ready for bed. I did a head count and then explained to the girls how the new number was less than the previous number. I went on to mention how if we had any additional issues with loudness that the number would likely change again. So, if they like their living accommodations, my suggestion would be for them to quietly lay eggs and behave themselves.

I think they understood me, they cocked their heads at me a bunch. Several of the rebels gave me the stink eye though, I'll be watching them.

So anyway, thanks to Lori for taking on my problem child, I'm sure Peaches will fit in much better with her flock where she won't be in trouble for doing what's natural.

The ad is below...


Loud Hen, Low Price - $5

One exceedingly loud, obnoxious, domineering white leghorn hen needs to be re-homed today before the HOA comes and kicks the whole flock out. She is named "Peaches" but I'm fairly sure she has absolutely no clue what her name is. She will come running if she thinks you have oatmeal though.

For a few days I was concerned that "she" was a "he" because of the noise. But no, she's just the loudest damn hen I've ever run across. She complains about everything, it's constant and it's LOUD! Her gender was confirmed today when she laid her first egg. Her egg laying consisted of a long preamble about how she was going to lay an egg, five minutes of quiet while she did so, and then a loud and long broadcast about how awesome she was at laying an egg. I can't take this on a daily basis and I'm sure my neighbors are even less inclined to do so since they won't have the benefit of fresh eggs.

I raised her from a few days old so she is pretty easy to handle. She will come to me when called, and to anyone if they have food. Because of this, I would prefer she was being adopted for her egg laying abilities (or as a pet) and not as tonight's dinner. Having said that, as obnoxious as she is, she probably won't put up with wearing knitted sweaters or any such thing if you tend towards that.

Born on or about 9/2/2011 so she's just over five months old. Eats Purina brand Layena, most fruits or vegetables and, as mentioned above, adores oatmeal. Bugs, spiders and flying insects are also game. Leghorns are some of the best egg producers out there, they lay an average of 280 eggs per year (and can go as high as 320 eggs a year) so almost daily. Since she just laid her first egg today, she should have many years of laying in front of her.

This girl needs to find a new home, most likely on a farm or acreage and preferably one with no close neighbors to disturb. Producing hens generally cost at least $20, but she needs to go today so I'm only asking for a re-homing fee of $5 (cash). I need to get her out of here before the neighbors figure out which house has the chickens.

Bring a small kennel or some other method of transport.

Yay!

One of my girls finally started producing eggs this week. She gave us the first one on Tuesday and has laid three more since then. At least I assume it's the same chicken laying eggs since they look the same and I keep finding them in the same spot. I'm not sure which one it is but I know I can positively rule out the two leghorns and the two Easter Eggers since the eggs I'm finding are brown. Which leaves either Red or Rocky. I thought for sure it was Rocky because I'm finding the eggs where she tends to roost. But then yesterday when I found the egg, Red had sand on her back. Which brings me to the other part of my situation, whoever is laying is doing so in the dirt. We have four perfectly good, hay-filled nesting boxes in the coop. Minimum standard is one box for every four birds, so we definitely have enough boxes. But this bird lays her egg in the dirt, behind the food dish. On the one hand I'm thinking whoever it is might be a little dumber than her flock-mates, the boxes certainly look more comfortable. But on the other hand, from where she has to be sitting to lay her egg she can most likely just reach over an grab some food. Having gone through the birthing process myself I'd say she's actually pretty smart. So anyway, somebody is earning their keep out back and hopefully the rest of them should be starting soon.

And the award goes to...

A few days ago Mister C and I clipped the girls wings, literally, and they haven't been the same since. I'm not really sure that chickens have enough sense to "act" per se, but if they can, this flock is in solid position for their Academy award (category: best roles in a dramatic series.)

Immediately after the wing clipping the girls fluttered around the yard trying out their half wing cut. They figured out pretty quickly that there would be no flying. And that is when the theatrics began.

See, every day when I let them out previously they would get a few steps running start and fly over the garden beds on their way to the grassy area. The fences Mister C and I erected made them take a few more steps prior to takeoff, but they still came out in a rush and explosion of wing flapping.

Not so much lately. Now when I open the door to the coop, they step out carefully, giving me a reproachful glare as they each pass by. And then they march slowly and methodically down the path towards the grassy area. I swear to you I can hear the drum beating slowly as they make their way along. The sighs are nearly audible for the injustice that has been put upon them.

It should also be noted that even with one wing clipped those damn leghorns can get off the ground and fly a few feet. Which means that they are probably the best actors of all since they march stoically along with the rest of them.

The Awards...

Best look of disgust goes to Red



Best "I'm too depressed to eat so I'll stare at you over my food": Princess Laya



Best "How could you?": Rocky



Best Look of Reproach: Peaches (or Cream, I can't tell the difference)



Also, when the hell are my eggs gonna start showing up? You guys are teenagers now, start producing already.

Training Your Chicken

We clipped the chickens wings today. The whole damn flock of them. All paying because one of them decided to learn to fly.

The problem is that two of the girls are leghorns, which are lighter than the other four ladies. For those not up on chickens, Leghorns are the breed that was depicted in the old Warner Brothers cartoons by the character Foghorn Leghorn (the Southern rooster known for his "I say, I say boy!")

Yesterday I had let the girls out to scratch around the yard while I read my paper on the patio. I had no more sat down than one of the leghorns, I'll go with Peaches since I don't recall seeing the other one, took a running start and lifted off the ground. Which is pretty typical, they all like to fly about two feet off the ground for five or so feet at a time. But this time, she kept climbing in altitude until she landed on top of the fence that separates us from the neighbor behind. A six foot tall block fence I might add. And then she had the nerve to look pretty damned proud of herself.

Of course, I was freaked out that my future egg supply was heading over to the neighbors house because then I'd have to figure out how to get her back. The thing is that if any of my chickens went over the fences on either side of me, that wouldn't be a problem since I could just go over and ring their doorbell and get my wayward pet back. But the neighbors behind me are fairly (okay totally) anti-social. To the point that they removed their doorbell and don't answer the door when you knock. We only know this because Master J lost at least one toy over there that we've never gotten back because they wouldn't answer the door.

Thankfully my chickens are trained. That's right people, I said the birds are trained. Remember back to when we got them how I said I wanted to handle them and make them easier to work with? Well, I have. And now I shall reap the reward of not losing my chickens over the wall.

Because I love you guys, I'm going to tell you the secret of training your chickens so that you too can keep your egg supply in your yard. Or at least get it back to your yard should it wander. Here's how it works...

Step 1: Every time I brought scraps of food to them, I would talk to them. I would tell them I was bringing them a "snack". When it got really cold (for Arizona) I brought them oatmeal in the morning and they LOVED that. I actually told them I was bringing oatmeal each time so now if I say the word "oatmeal" they get all sorts of excited.

Step 2: Once they started figuring out what it meant when I said I had a snack, I started only putting the snack into their coop when I wanted them to go back to their coop. I would tell them I had a snack and they would follow me to the coop.

Step 3: Here's where it gets into the real "training" part. I started telling them I had a snack, then followed that with telling them to "kennel up", which is a phrase our favorite dog trainer used with our first dog. It seemed easier to stick with the phrase I was familiar with rather than trying to say "get in the coop" (while simultaneously trying like hell not to let on to the neighbors that we have chickens in the first place.) I repeated the phrase "kennel up" once the food was in the coop until the last chicken got in.

Step 4: That's it.

Seriously, the girls are trained to get into their coop when I tell them to kennel up. Most of the time they head right in, I always make sure I have food with me because I want to make sure I'm always positively reinforcing the words I use.

Yesterday, when Peaches landed on the top of the fence, I immediately asked if they wanted a snack and told them to kennel up. They all ran for the coop (including Peaches, who flew down from the fence.) I ran into the house and grabbed a bit of strawberry tops from Master J's snack and brought it back out to the coop. I tossed the tops into the coop and closed the door.

And today, Mister C and I learned how to clip chicken wings like professionals. Did you know that Youtube has a video for everything? They do. Including how to clip your chickens' wings. I grabbed each bird from the coop and held their wing out while Mister C clipped the fight feathers. It took about fifteen minutes to do all six and that's for first timers. I'm betting next time we can get it under ten. Mostly I'm just happy that I won't have to worry about them disappearing over the fence any time soon. I say, I say Boy! That makes me happy.

New Years Day 2012

Can you believe 2011 is done and over with already? It's crazy how fast that went. I think I did stuff, I really don't remember all that much right now though. On the bright side, I think I've started out the year on a good note. My "Ta-Da!" list has a few things on it today, not the least of which is finally painting my bedroom.

I painted the ceiling in our bedroom almost a year ago. For at least ten months now we've had a very pretty ceiling next to walls that have an inch of ceiling paint along the top edge (I don't tape off anything) as well as approximately fifteen white patches of various size where I repaired holes from the previous owners. That's in addition to the very large patch where Mister C did some sort of wiring work around the same time as I originally painted the ceiling. That one was about two feet by three feet and situated directly across from the foot of our bed. So I could see it every morning as soon as I got out of bed. I think it will be nice to not wake up to that tomorrow. There wasn't a whole lot else going on today as the painting took up a good five hours of my day, not including the set up and clean up time.

Now, since I haven't been on here in a few days I never updated you on the great mallet incident of late 2011. Let me weave you a tale, a tale of pain and horror that will leave you speechless, unlike I was.

So on Friday Mister C and I were putting the chicken wire around our raised gardens. We didn't need to do this to keep the chickens out, although it will make that easier. No, we had to do that because our idiotic dog likes to dig. And bite strawberry plants off at the base. What dog does that? Just bites a strawberry plant off and eats it? That's not even normal. But anyway, in order to preserve the plants that survived her latest attack, we went ahead and put the wire around the gardens. As part of the project, we also wanted to put chicken wire around our back garden where the raspberry, blackberry and blueberry plants are. That is keep the chickens out because they keep going after my blueberry plants. I'm sure that as soon as the raspberry and blackberries start growing, they'll be after them too.

Mister C bought a bunch of wooden stakes to hold the chicken wire in the back garden. They'll also come in handy for brain pokes via the eye (yuck!) when the zombie apocalypse starts. But I digress. Where was I? Ah yes, wooden stakes, which needed to be put in the ground. Mister C put the first three stakes in using a standard hammer to pound them into our hard, calichi soil. Then he got distracted by having to make a run back to Home Depot for something or another and left the work to me.

Now, I know myself and I know that grace is not my middle name. Neither is accuracy. So I know that there is no way I'm going to attempt using a standard hammer to hit a one by one inch square of wood. Especially not repeatedly. So I came up with the great idea to use a rubber mallet in place of the hammer that Mister C had used. After all, I figured that with a larger hitting implement I would certainly stand a better chance of hitting the target. Additionally, if I did happen to miss the stake and hit myself, rubber has to hurt less than metal.

So with my completely logical choice of tool in hand, I head out to start the wooden stake project. And it goes really well. I was absolutely correct in my assessment of how the mallet would work and I have no problem getting the first nine stakes put in. At least as far as accuracy. Each stake takes between fifteen and twenty hits to get it into the ground to the right depth and it's definitely tiring to be swinging the mallet over and over again. With only two stakes left to install I was feeling pretty good about my getting done before Mister C got home from his shopping excursion. And that is when disaster struck.

I had hit the next to the last stake enough times that it was standing unaided, although I was still holding it for each hit to prevent any problems. I could feel that my arm was getting tired but I valiantly swung the mallet in a large arc towards the not so large target. Only I didn't hit the target. To be honest, I didn't even touch the target. No, I swung that mallet around with all my strength, directly onto the back of my left hand. And since I was hanging on to the stake with my left hand, it didn't even move when the mallet hit it. It just took the full brunt force of that swinging mallet and stopped it cold. The pain was instantaneous and intense. As was my language.

Once the air cleared and I could actually looked at my hand, I was amazed at how quickly a lump was forming. Within about thirty seconds, I had a grape sized lump growing up out of my hand and it was only getting bigger. To make it worse, the pain was radiating from the point of impact (which was about an inch directly below the knuckle of my pointer finger) up into my finger as well as into my thumb. Over the next thirty minutes or so the swelling got less grape-like and more spread out until it covered about half of the back of my hand. I decided at that point that I was done working for the day.

Today, two full days later, the swelling is down but still covering a full third of my hand. There's still a very hard lump the size of a grape at the point of impact, and the whole thing has a blueish tinge to it. The bruising goes above the knuckle as well. And it still hurts if I touch it. Also, note to self...hard rubber being swung at full speed hurts like hell. I'm almost sure it doesn't hurt any less than the metal hammer would have. As far as I can tell the difference was that the mallet spread the pain over a larger area.

So, overall, a tough end to 2011 and a good start to 2012. Hopefully things will continue to improve from here.

Happy New Year's Day!

Finishing up the Backyard

So if you remember back a few posts you'll remember that I promised to take pictures of the big pile of dirt on my patio. Well, I've waited long enough that now I can just do the update for the (almost) grand finale of the backyard project. That "almost" is there strictly because we haven't actually put all of the plants in. We're still missing our vegetables. But anyway, pictures!

Here's the pile of garden soil on my patio. It's not as full as it was because the day I planted the berry bushes I took about seven wheelbarrows out of it for the berry gardens. Also, the smaller pile in the background is the stuff Mister C pulled out of the berry garden so he could redo the irrigation. Which is somewhat messed up due to over abundance of sprinkler heads. But that's a story for another day. But anyway, look, dirt.



Here are the raised garden beds that Mister C and I built with our own two hands. Ignore that they are not lined up correctly and look lopsided. We hadn't lined them up and leveled them at this point in the process. I was just taking pictures as we went along. As you can see we built three beds, each one is eight foot by four foot for a total of...I'm not doing math so assume a lot of room to plant.



And here's Mister C admiring his newly filled in raised garden beds with their (over abundant) sprinkler system. What a beautiful sight, a freshly filled garden bed, ready for planting. But hang on, it looks like something IS already in the garden...



Ah hell, guess who found the nice soft dirt in the raised garden?



Mister C was not impressed with the girls antics. The dirt was flying for a few minutes while they all dug down little holes in which to bath themselves and then settled in for a nap. Like we spent building the beds, putting together the sprinkler and hauling three yards of dirt over just so they could have a place to hang out in style.

Wait, we didn't build this for the girls enjoyment? I'm shocked!



More pictures eventually, as soon as I move the strawberries from my kitchen window out to the garden and put some actual vegetables out there. Currently? Still a chicken playground.

Latest Backyard Projects

Last weekend Mister C invited a friend over to hang out. Okay, not really. What really what happened is that his friend drove over sixty miles across the valley just to help Mister C build our new pergola. His friend was even kind enough to bring his fourteen year old apprentice, aka his son Wes. Mister C has nice friends.

Anyway, here's a picture of the before...



And here's the end result.







I think they did a fantastic job, especially since I didn't have to lift one single board.

Today on the other hand, Mister C and I put together three raised garden bed frames and I did have to lift many heavy boards. But in the end it worked out pretty well since here's our final product (sans dirt currently.)



It should be noted that we moved the three boxes around several times (more heavy lifting) and ended up right back where we started. I guess I can't complain since I'm the one that had grand ideas of how they should be arranged. Sadly, I'm also the one who originally suggested the configuration that we started and ended with.

The girls found very the boxes very appealing.



The plan is to fix the irrigation tomorrow after church and then start filling them in with the three and a half yards of dirt that was delivered Monday. I had a picture of the pile on my patio but it disappeared so I'll retake it tomorrow as part of the garden finishing post.


At the end of the day I sat down on the front box and was almost immediately approached by Rocky who was looking for a place to roost. Unfortunately for her I had to get dinner ready so she was out of luck tonight.



And finally, there's been a lot of feathers floating around the place lately. I suspect there's some kind of molt going on. There's certainly a lot of fluffing and cleaning of feathers going on. Like this...



I'm fairly sure Wedge is giving me the evil eye for my lack of sense in taking pictures of her backside. Ah well, I'm sure she forgot about it less than two seconds later.

The Flockers are Growing

Either Peaches or Cream. I can't tell them apart unless they are standing next to each other.



Red



Rocky in the foreground, Leia behind.



I believe this is Leia.



I just like their little tail feathers