Sizzlin' Chickens

Today is an update of the urban farm we live in. Hopefully the pictures of my garden and chickens will load today! My little garden is busy growing beautiful sunflowers, fennel, green beans- both standard bush and some interesting Hopi beans. The Hopis have much smaller leaves, almost look like a pretty flower bush- with tiny blue/purple flowers. They are setting beans on now, small but firm. I can't wait to try them as green beans, and they can also be dried for later. fun!

The tomatoes and peppers are rocking- I'm picking mild peppers now, and eagerly watching the tomatoes for the least sign of red in there. I sprayed fish emulsion on everything last week, and now the cantaloupe, watermelons and cucumbers are looking much stronger. We've eaten beets and radishes for a while, and the fennel seeds look ready to pick. I left the fennel from last year in the ground, and this year they are setting seeds like crazy! Fennel is good for stomach distress, so I plan to save the seeds for more plantings, and also for my food storage.

The chickens are doing a good job of keeping the bugs down, but I can't let them in the garden to pick bugs- they'll eat all the good stuff too! They love beet greens, swiss chard and beans. I let them out daily, and they catch everything that wanders outside of the fence- at least I hope so.

Even though fibromyalgia slows me down and keeps me from doing many of the things I enjoy, I refuse to allow it to suck the life out of me. I know many people are dealing with much more serious health issues, and my heart goes out to them. Mine isn't cancer, I'm not fighting for my physical life exactly- fibro won't kill me, but it certainly colors everything I do. The choice really, is how to balance my energy to the best advantage. Sometimes I blow it all on a big project, and then I'm in bed for days. Most of the time I carefully consider the things I want to do, then plan how much to do per day so as not to 'hit the wall'. Most of the past 20 years I've fought it, pushing through the pain and fatigue, determined not to be affected by it's symptoms. My wise friends keep telling me to stop fighting, find acceptance and embrace who I am now, not wish I was still the person of 20 years ago. Honestly, that is much more difficult for me, but I'm adjusting my perception of myself, and I practice acceptance every day. I am always, always grateful for the blessings in my life- especially my family and friends, but also for the health I have, our great country, my home and community. I'm grateful for the little things, listening to the birds sing in the mornings, the flowers, the sunsets. Life is good, albeit painful! The pain just reminds me that I'm still here, and I'm happy to get up every day.

Weekend wanderings

We went to Phoenix Saturday, David had a couple things he needed to do. We met Jon, Kathy and her son at Rei, a sporting goods store. Wyatt found the craziest 'shoes'! They are like latex toe socks, really. They have a good sole, but are more of a slipon footie, and fit like a glove instead of a shoe. He got the camo-colored ones, they are pretty wild. Good for running barefoot, but with a sole.

We had lunch there, then went to Costco to pick up a few things. That's where I gave out, and my hip froze up pretty bad, so we left. We went to Trisha's to say hello and drop off a couple things. We had a nice visit, then went to Maricopa and spent the night at my sisters. Sunday morning we went to Mom's, she's doing well. While looking at her garden, she gave us a bunch of fresh vegies and some strawberry plants. We were there to pick up chickens though, and we soon got to that task.

She doesn't plan to be home much this summer, it gets too hot there, and so I talked her into giving me some of her chickens. She had 9, with no-one to eat all those eggs, so I took 6 of them, leaving her 3 hens and a rooster. I plan to give a couple to Jenny, and then I'll have 9 hens and a rooster, which should give me enough to sell eggs every week. I know, I know "Elaine and her chickens!" But I enjoy them and they are sure keeping the bugs down around my house.

We were using the GPS on the way home, trying to find a JoAnn's store before leaving the city. The GPS kept telling us to turn off the freeway at every exit, but didn't tell us why until we hit the heavy traffic! The freeway was being paved or something, and 4 lanes were crammed down to 1. It was a massive parking lot! We were finally able to get off at Pinnacle Peak, and took a side road up to New River. I guess there's no good time to do road work in the Valley, and the weekend makes more sense than during the work week, but next time I think we'll listen to the GPS! If it had said- Traffic ahead, earlier, so we knew why it was taking us off the freeway, that would have helped, but oh well.

Snow on the Hills

Well, here we are at the end of March, 2010. That seems like an accomplishment, for some reason. As I look out into the back yard, Mingus Mountain is still sprinkled with snow, even though the temperature here has been in the 70's. By the way, that's exactly the way I like snow- in the view, up in the mountains!

I finally finished the book "John Adams" by David McCullough. It is long and detailed, but fascinating. The steadiness he showed, with passion, is incredible. It really is a peek into the lives of amazing, brave and brilliant minds, including Adams, his wife Abigail, son John Quincy, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. Much better than my high school history class, that's for sure.

The weeds are getting knee high in the back- we bought a weed-eater yesterday to remedy the problem, but didn't get out there yet to tackle them. I put the chickens in the front yard every day, and they are doing what they can to eat the weeds and bugs there, but I can't put them in the back with the dogs! The eggs, by the way, are delicious! They are laying 4-5 daily, enough to sell a few to friends.

We got the roof fixed, thank heavens. We probably don't need to worry about leaks for a while, the rains have really slacked off, but at least it's done. Home ownership is great, but there's always so much to do...

Just Chickens

Well, I've annoyed my local friends endlessly with tales of my new, improved chickens, so now it's your turn! A couple weeks ago our friend Ben called me from Queen Creek, very excited. Seems a guy was selling off most of his poultry; game birds, turkeys, ducks, geese and of course chickens. He wanted to sell them off, and offered a better deal if he bought 10, so would I be interested in some grown hens? Well, of course I would, I love chickens!!!

So now I have 2 New Hampshires, 1 Americauna, 1 Rhode Island Red, 1 Wyandott and maybe 1 Australorp. The Americauna lays green eggs, I love that. The rest lay brown, or will. Only a couple are laying right now, the others are molting. The hens get along pretty well, but it's funny to watch them. Lucy is my only hen left from my original group, and when I brought the other hens in, she immediately picked a fight with each of them, and let them know who's boss! The Australop is beautiful, she is black and white, very striking. I scatter chicken feed in the pen every morning, and she will chase all the doves and other birds out of the pen when they come in looking for free food. It's so funny to see her cackle and race after them!

I've been working with them, and several will eat out of my hands now. It's tempting to wear gloves, because they will peck pretty hard, but I don't know if they would like the color and feel of it, so I haven't yet. I let them out into the garden in the afternoon, they are the best bug-zappers around!

Ok, it's true, I'm a schmuck for chickens. My kids hate them, and I'm sure it's my fault because I made them feed, water and clean up after chickens all of their childhood. They just can't understand my fascination, and neither can David. I don't know either, I just like fresh eggs and natural bug killers. Plus they chatter and talk to me, which is so cute. The New Hampshire's especially like to chat, they follow me around clucking about the neighbors, very intent, and I'm sure what they're telling me is very important to them. So I cluck back, (hope the neighbors aren't listening), and we visit a little while I feed them and check for eggs. Well, it may not be an exciting life, but I love it!