Chicken Pictures

Today was a good day to photograph the chickens. The sun just peeked through the clouds for the first time today. It is going to be a wet week...These ladies are about 5 or 6 weeks old. We got them February 14th.

Update: Auction Project & Chicks

I bet you're wondering where I've been. Been here. Things were a little nutty this week. There was Max's auction project that occupied a full three days of my life (and Chris'). Then there was all the other stuff. Mostly chickens, kids, a short visit from a friend from afar and house stuff. We were busy this week!

Max's Auction Project:

Max's school auction happened on Saturday. Chris and I worked like mad to get the mirror completed this week. I think the last time I made one for an auction I said I would do it differently and more efficiently. Clearly I have forgotten all I learned the first time around because it seemed much harder this time. It was a little complicated by the fact that the tiles were round and I was encrusting sea glass in the grout (and all just 24 hours before it was due). I missed my Laundry to Landscape gray water workshop class because I planned so poorly for this project. I'm disappointed in missing that class, big time. But the final result was splendid, actually and it fetched around $550 for the school. The money goes towards scholarship funds and things like PE, music and art. All important causes in my mind.


The Chicken Coop Project:

All 17 chickens are living outside! They seem to keep themselves segregated by age group right now. Hopefully that won't last forever. I've got lamps in the coop to keep them warm on our chilly California nights. Bob, our architect and Luke, one of the carpenters built the coop and run in about 3 days - give or take. They did a great job. The chickens are safe and secure and in a multilevel coop. They only seem to be spending time on two levels, still have to check out the top two floors. As you can see, Kitty would love to get into the coop with the rest of us. But her intentions are questionable at best. Happy to have a fence between the Cat/Dog and the chickens! And Max is officially known (to me) as Chicken Boy. He adores them and they are getting used to him. He climbs right in with them. Coleman is a little grossed out by all the poop in the coop. Plus, one of the chickens pooped on him today! I expect a serious lag time between that visit and his next. :)

Introducing Night Ninja: 

Today Coleman and I would like to introduce you to one of our 17 chickens. Night Ninja is our nicest chicken (says Coleman). She got her name because she's black, oh and she's super fuzzy. She enjoys being held. She's also one of our larger ladies. We believe she is a Dominique. We will not know for sure what she is until she's fully grown in a few more months. For now we're going with Dominique. We'll introduce you to our others eventually, one at a time.


The House Project:

The house! The kitchen counters are in, oh yes they are. The tile in the bathroom is complete. The trim and doors have been primed (a wee bit stinky). Left to do: install appliances, install sink/vanity in bathroom, install toilet, install shower fixtures, final coat of paint and the decks and front step! That's all that is left!!! It is possible we'll have a final inspection on Friday of this week. This better be the case, because Nana Rose is flying in on Wednesday at noon-ish. We're all looking forward to Nana's arrival as much as we are looking forward to moving into our remodeled home.

Here are some other fun shots from this week:

I'll let you know how it all works out later on this week. Ciao for now.

Saturday Pics

We're having a lazy Saturday today. Similar to our lazy Sunday of last week. Here are some shots from our day today. We're looking forward to having Chris home tomorrow night.

These are some seriously dirty feet. A pair from each child. Coleman on the left, Max on the right. They have been dirty for about 6 months now. Less frequent foot cleansing (or any kind of cleansing) going on since we moved into the trailer. Just one more reason to be thankful we'll be moving in soon. Clean feet.

Movie Night

Friday nights are our movie nights. Some are more successful than others. Last night the boys and I watched Ponyo, a movie by Hayao Miyazaki. This was a super successful movie night. We all love this movie, we love all of Miyazaki's movies. But this may be our very favorite. Highly recommend watching it if you haven't already.

Getting There!

Progress and Green Smoothies

Trench for chicken run fencing. I would love to say I did it. But, for $100 I got someone else to work on it. It took just over 4 hours of a pretty diligent laborer. Much more work than I could have accomplished this week. Wait, I guess I did accomplish it. I just delegated.

Boy's loft cork floor and trim. This was done last week but I don't think I showed you guys. The kids absolutely adore it. It's a very cool space, their whole room. Little bummed am I about that little pipe sticking out of the baseboard. I think it may be venting for the bathroom...

Pretty upper cabinet with seed glass.

Lower cabinets with some hardware on them. This kitchen feels so big to me - though to you all it may not. It's huge compared to the closet of a kitchen that was in the house before. Let's look at what it was like not that many months ago:

See that little piece of tiled counter in the foreground? That was the extent of my counter space. Very cute space. Totally impractical for us, though.

For St. Patrick's Day we had green peach/banana/strawberry smoothies. The color was exciting, and the fact that it was St. Patty's Day, but the boys had only a few sips. They were green, after all.

In the above picture Max is saying how delicious it is. But look at his face, doesn't it sort of look like he's grossed out? Well, Coleman is across the table saying it tastes weird and that was the final word. No more was consumed. I thought they were good. I gave Luke, one of the carpenters a big smoothie and he liked it! They didn't seem to mind the green milk.

Max's Class Auction Project

I volunteered to work with Max's class on a project for the school auction. It happens on March 27th which gives me exactly 9 days to finish it as of right now. The kids each made 2 tiles, I had time only to glaze one from each child. But that's all I need for the mirror frame (which is the auction item I'm making). I'm excited for the final piece. It's just that there are many steps between now and the finished piece that have me a little harried.

The children made round tiles with a mandala design using sea themed stamps. I'm thinking about using tumbled glass in the spaces between the tiles, since they are round and the frame will be rectangular. It's actually an exciting project, it's just that there are a few other things going on around here right now...

Chicks! Nay, Chickens!

Here's a picture of the first batch of chickens we got four weeks ago Tuesday. They are growing and growing! There are 7 from the original group (we picked up one spare :)). These ladies are almost ready to go outside. They certainly need to spend time in a larger space very soon. They are all so different from one another.

The picture with the blurry baby chicks, below is of a newly opened box of 26 babies shipped through the mail! I picked them up on March 8th. We kept 10 out of these and sold the others to neighbors and random people through craigslist. These are called americaunas - aracaunas - easter eggers. I don't really know what I got, as I think they are not technically americaunas. But I do know they lay blue and green and possibly pink(!) eggs. I like that they aren't afraid to be different than all the other chickens out there.

I guess we're going to be sort of swimming in eggs around here. That is about 1.3 dozen eggs a day on a really good day and maybe 9 on a not so good day. I'm already designing my "Fresh Eggs" sign for my mail box post. So far this sign lives mainly in my brain. And Coleman and Max are adding up their chickens before they hatch (meaning they are counting their $$$). Hm, I smell a college fund coming on...$5/doz we could have 20k in ten years...they have the $ allocated towards legos already. How shall I break it to them?

Today's Progress on the House

It seems like there will be enough progress each day to actually post pictures every day this week - I think. It was a super sunny day here today, in the mid-high 60's. I spent time in the yard working on the chicken area. But not as much as I thought I would. I spent too much time looking for an egg incubator for a project for Max's class. That's done now. :) Yes more chickens. We won't hatch too many eggs, and we likely won't keep the ones that do hatch. We'll either sell them on craigslist or give them away to people in Max's school who may want them. :)!

Oh, I guess this post is supposed to be about the house. I'll just post pictures so you can see for yourself.