The Chooks...

I love that name for them; Chooks. I learned that phrase from reading a bunch of Aussie blogs and I think it's just a fun name for them. And here, as promised are "The Chooks":

They saw the camera coming and huddled together. They do this everytime we put a hand into the brooder. I try to make sure that I move slowly to not frighten them, but it doesn't always work. The boys have been handling them at least once a day, so they are slowly becoming hand trained. Any one out there have there birds trained to not hate being touched. Any suggestions?

Here's one of the Ideal 236's. They are by far the fastest maturing birds of the group that we ordered. I haven't been over to my neighbors house since he got his birds, so I wonder how the Reds are doing. Of all the birds, these Leghorns are the flightiest though. They get very skiddish and bee bop around the coop everytime I have to reach in for anything. They'll get there though, I have not doubt.

Sorry that this pictures a little fuzzy, it's one of our black Minorcas. I was surprised today to mind out that the black Minorcas are considered one of the Endagered Classic breeds. So, I guess I am doing my small part to help preserve the rarer breeds after all. These Minorcas are shaping up to be the lovers of the bunch though. They always come over to check me out when I reach in. If I have a bit of feed in my hand they will jump right up there and perch on me and eat it. Polar opposite of the leghorns.

I hate to say it, but we lost a bird early this week. "Buffy" the Buff Minorca was pasting up (another chicken term, basically it's the chicken version of being really plugged up if you get my drift.) and although I was on top of it, cleaning her and making sure she got some water, she just wouldn't eat or drink on her own and left us on tuesday morning.

I thought a little Chicken cam video might be fun. Hmm.. Chicken cam? I may have too try this one again some time.

P~

Bookcases finally finished.

Well? Whattya think? They're all in and stocked. Click on the picture to open the image and view an animation of the install process. Start to finish they took me roughly a month and cost approximately $600.00. For custom cabinetry I'd say we came out ahead considering I was estimating around $2100.00 if we had bought bookcases, and then they wouldn't have been custom fit like this. All I need to say is that Momma's happy so I'm happy! (Well trained aren't I?) This is a picture of the book cases that we had seen at the furniture store and picked up a brochure for. I modeled them after these, and am pretty happy with the result. I didn't put any doors on the bottom, but I can add those any time if I feel I need to.

Now, I am happy to say, I have finally finished all the big projects IN our house. Time to move to the outside. This weekend I am going to figure out a way to construct a temporary green house under our south facing covered porch. It is washed in sun from about 10 through sunset so I can't see why it shouldn't work to get my cold weather crops started early. As always, I'll detail my trials with this here on the blog.

Another big thing coming up this weekend is to spend some time working with my fifth grader K~ on his science fair project. He came up with the idea of doing a project about comparing earth sheltered homes with traditionally constructed homes. I guess I've been rubbing off on him. We found an earth sheltered home on accident last year, and he's been talking about it ever since. Phelan, I'm sure you'll be interested.

Finally, the chicks are a little over being a week old now and they're feathering out so nicely. It's like they were just delivered yesterday... they grow up so fast... I'll post a bunch of new pics of them tomorrow. Hope you'll stop by.

P~

Revisiting Alternative Fuels

One of my first blog entries was on alternative fuel sources. In it I stated that I felt that bio diesel would be the best alternative to wean us from fossil fuels. In some ways I still agree with that, but in so many others I have changed my mind greatly. I think that if getting off fossil fuels were the biggest issue, to me at least, then bio fuels would be a pretty acceptable solution. But over the last year, since I made that statement, I've learned a lot about how that solution could impact other areas of out lives. Take for instance the fact that I learned today; wheat prices have risen to record levels. This may not seem like an issue to a lot of people that don't buy wheat (we do.) but I think everyone buys either bread or flour, cereal, or any other number of other products that are grain based and are being pushed aside for bio fuel and ethanol production. Add to that the fact that the ratio of calories of fossil fuels energy used to the created calories of bio diesel energy. If it's not a flat curve, it's very close. Is it one of those damned if you do damned if you don't scenarios? Perhaps we would be putting less CO2 into the atmosphere, but with everything going up in price and reducing in availability, we won't be driving as much anyway. What do you think?

It's interesting to me to look back at my opinions and ideas as they progress. It's one of the things that I love about blogging. I get to share and watch myself evolve, as well as receive input from you and learn about your opinions and ideas. Thanks for the time you give me it's made my life much richer.

Tomorrow: A big bookcase update for those aspiring DIYers out there. If I can do it you can too!P~

Busted!!

I had to share this. Caught red pawed with his head in the chicken coop. Our little chihuahua, Marcello is very interested in these little peepers that he can hear but generally can't see. Sunday I had them out of the big coop while I cleaned it and changed it over to "big bird" bedding of pine shavings. Well M~ got a good peek at them, in fact they were pretty interested in him as well and kept jumping on top of their feed dish to get a better look at this "thing". It was so cute, how could I not take a pic.

Eat what you can..

and Can what you can't, that's the old mantra from the Victory Garden era of our parents and grandparents. We dug into the cold storage and brought out some of our homemade homegrown pickles and pickled beans this weekend to enjoy with our sandwiches. (HM bread too, but I didn't click fast enough and it was gone... better luck next time.) I also finished with another jar of sprouts. These have really become a sandwich staple around our house. Especially during the cold winter months when we have literally nothing growing in the yard. So much in fact that I am now keeping my eyes open for a new, larger container to sprout them in.
This jar makes approximately the same amount as you would get from the small plastic containers in the grocery store and it's just not cutting it anymore. We go through one of these in one Saturdays lunch.

A~ and I were driving home from a trip to town this weekend and were talking about our progression from really just an ordinary family, taking our lifestyle for granted and being totally disconnected from it, to really paying more attention and building habits that could sustain us if/when the current climate of plentiful food, cheap energy and easy transportation changes. I'm not a defeatist, but I am a realist. There will come a day when we as a society will have to answer for a very long period of very unsustainable living. I think we'll get through it, I mean if Cuba can we can, right? Well as we were talking about it, my thoughts on the subject gelled into a pretty clear idea; we were lucky to become aware when we did.

In effect by accepting the fact that changes are going to happen, we have seized the opportunity to prepare ourselves and to mentor our children in a way of living that will be much less impacted in the future, purely because we are beginning to provide more and more of our own sustenance. We have the opportunity to make mistakes, and take the time to find out what works for our particular family. Time that many people won't have in the future. We are not, at this point, very different from most American families. In some ways we are, but in many ways we're just not. But I do think that one of the main differences is the fact that we are trying. That's really what the 100 ft diet comes down to for me, trying to make the biggest impact in my diet and my families self reliance that I can.

Namaste~
P~

Family ~ Isn't it about...time

Our church has some commercials on television that say that, and honestly, church or not, it's a good idea. We don't do it enough, with projects and day to day stuff, but it's really what I think makes a strong family strong. It's these times when we get to talk, and laugh and sometimes get a little raucous. Oh yeah, and as you can tell from the pictures eat some really tasty, not so healthy treats.
We played Monopoly tonight, it's one of those games that we try to dissuade the boys from, since to date we have never managed to actually finish a game. That aside, we had a good weekend, got a lot done and ended with some quality time together.

Today was also my oldest sons birthday. D~ is not with us, he lives in Washington state with his mother. Today he was 15 and growing right up. It's hard to believe that I'm old enough to have a 15 yr old. I don't feel that old?! I miss him every day; but that, is a topic for a much longer post.

I hope you all had a great weekend. Check in tomorrow for a 100 ft diet update from this weekends meal.

P~

This and That

I was thinking about what I wanted to post today, and as things are a bit slow, I thought I would give you a little bit of "This and That".

When I introduced you to our new house hens the other day I was going to show and tell about the setup I'm using for my brooder for those out there who might be wondering or are looking into getting some birds of their own but didn't have time or the room for it. Basically what you have here is your standard re-purposed Dell computer box from the office. I took a piece of scrap PVC and made it into a cross beam to hang a 150 watt heat lamp from. The Chicks need to have an approximately 95°F temperature. I hung the lamp about 18inches above the floor of the brooder and the chicks love it. So much so in fact, that when we turn the light off for more than about ten minutes (Which we were instructed to do by my new book 'Living with Chickens' that my wife got for me and I love!) they gradually start to chirp and squeal louder and louder until they are down right vociferous. So what happens when the light goes back on? Well, then it's lights out for the girls. They suddenly quiet down, take a couple gulps of food and water, and then crash, they're out cold for a nap; obviously exhausted from all the commotion.

In other developments, I can finally see my yard. Well, at least part of it. Somewhere around the end of November or the first week of December '07 I lost my yard. Literally! And I didn't see it again until last week when the current melt off began.

Now I can see at least a third of my garden beds, and a good 3/4 of the back yard. So, Pro's and Con's? First of all, it's great to see a little ground in the back, and Lord knows A~ and I are both tired of shoveling snow! Those are Pro's for sure. But now I'm starting to smell spring in the air. It's not here yet, but it's around the corner. This means I'll get hit with spring fever any time now, and yet not be able to get out and work the ground. That and the fact that we'll soon be in the season here where we could potentially have to shovel our driveway, and mow our lawn in the same week. Definitely a Con!

Also, I've updated my to-do list with some Spring items that I need to take on. This weekend, I hope to finish getting the bookcases into the basement, perhaps not stocked with stuff yet, but down there nonetheless.

Till next time!

P~