Our chickens

November 15, 2010

Kristin

I simply couldn’t resist.

Chicken Drama: Part 2 — the vacation home

July 10, 2010

Matt

In my last post, I noted how we were introducing three new chickens into the coop. Our lone remaining chicken from the original four was given them a hard time, chasing and pecking at them. After three days of this nonsense (and three days of the smallest chickens burrowing under the coop into the “basement”), we decided to separate the big one from the others. (more…)

Chicken Drama: Part 1

July 3, 2010

Matt

As you can see from this post, Kristin, Whitney, and Lucy purchased three new chickens from the good folks at Eden Farms: a grey Ameracauna, a brown Welsummer, and a tan Buff Orpington. The Ameracauna is about 10 weeks old, and the other two are about 7 weeks old. Our Red Star, Marcia, is over 20 weeks — a sizable difference. (more…)

First egg!

June 29, 2010

Kristin

Chicken supplies, $461. First egg in our farming project, priceless.

Wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles! Our one lone chicken, a Red Star who I call Marcia B., laid our first egg today! As excited as Caleb and I were to find the egg in the nest box this evening, it was also a little bittersweet, knowing that the 3 chickens that were killed last week could have been laying this week.  (more…)

Remember the Thomas Farm Coop!

June 16, 2010

Matt

Thomas Farm Project Nation, we have a problem! Starting last week (as noted by this tweet), our chicken coop has been under attack from an unknown assailant. Over the course of almost every evening, our little nemesis has pushed and pulled at the plastic panels that protect our egg-bearing, feathery friends. (more…)

First Crop Out, First Crops in

March 23, 2010

Caleb

This weekend we took advantage of the fine weather, which began in the middle of last week with the arrival of Carl “Bringer of Spring” Bear,  to get some work done. To make room in the beds, we divided and potted some garlic chive plants. Garlic chive plants prolifically reseed if their flowers aren’t chopped off, so they had gotten a little out of hand. We spread some of our garlic chive wealth at church the next day, selling some plants for an average of $0.83 a piece. We probably could have made more if Kristin was doing the selling rather than me. I’d much rather grow the crops than market them. Luckily, Kristin would rather market than tend to the crops. (more…)

Broccoli Sprouts! Chickens! Soil Samples!

February 28, 2010

Kristin

Our broccoli sprouted this week, and we transplanted it from the vermiculite to potting soil. Here are some pictures.  We’re excited to see our first crop go from seed to sprout!  Next step – transplanting it to the ground once it thaws!

Also, today we went and visited Wendy & Jerry Custer, a family in our county that breeds chickens, to get an idea of how many chickens we want and what breeds.  We’re interested in getting at least 4 chickens.  Our top choices are (more…)

Meat! Glorious Meat!

February 25, 2010

Kristin

I think I’m the only person in the house that feels so jubilant about meat.  In truth, if we want to live in a truly sustainable way concerning protein, we wouldn’t be eating meat at all because of the sheer amount of resources most meat uses in comparison to other vegetarian sources of protein.  However, my food allergies to soy, wheat and dairy limit our use of vegetarian proteins.  Thus, as long as we’re eating meat, we want to make sure we do it in a sustainable way for our local community, the planet and our health.  And, since I’m the one who prevents us from going vegetarian, I volunteered to look into the pros and cons of various meat sources in our area. (more…)