Patrioticandromantic.com started as a wedding website, but since we had the domain name and the wedding has come and gone, we've now merged it with our work-a-day-world blog, Northwardbound and here we are.
Today I Tried is simply what the name implies, a log of new and challenging experiences. It's open to posting from anyone, so tell us what you tried today.
Anchorage Gourmet is a collaborative effort among friends who meet monthly, except in the summer, to share good food centered around a theme that the host picks. We're starting our third year and hope to use the site to share recipes and other foodie tidbits.
Tonight we picked up three more lovely ladies to add to our coop. They are Red Star Reds. Let's hope they survive the night with the other two. The silver and buff were pecking on them a bit.
Zach and I have been busy keeping bees, chickens and garden starts. Zach cleaned out the greenhouse yesterday (it was housing an extra motorcycle) and the salsa garden - purple and green tomatillos, hot wax peppers and jalapenos - was moved in along with some large pots containing different newly planted seeds that will hopefully germinate with the added heat. Today we need to get some of our garden starts into new homes, either in the ground or a raised bed of some sort as they are quickly exceeding the space of their start up containers.
Zach and I have been busy with work and house projects. Here's a quick update:
All of the easy to get to wallpaper is down in the kitchen and the walls have been painted. Now we're working on getting rid of the hideous yellow trim.
The garden continues to grow and we were able to finally get some of the starts outside the last two days to start to harden them off. Unfortunately, the weather doesn't seem to be cooperating again today.
We were also able to relocate the chickens back outside. Yeah, we get our garage back!
Update - Both chickens are now laying, so we're getting an egg a day.
Today we finally had success. One of our chickens laid an egg. You're probably saying, of course, chickens lay eggs, its no big surprise. But, this endeavor has been challenging with two chicks falling victim to Honey, the chick that became a rooster and was later attacked and butchered and finally the cold and relocation of the chickens into a portable coop in the heated garage.
Another Update: RIP Rooster. Zach did the dirty work of butchering the rooster on Sunday. Although alive, he just wasn't doing very well. So, now we're down to the two ladies, which will hopefully, some day, start to lay some eggs.
The rooster is still kickin' following his traumatic encounter with Honey. He's eating and drinking, but not walking. That leads to two problems: one he poops all over himself and two he's becoming like jabba the hut.
As Zach and I prepare to host all of you wonderful people and of course, most importantly, get married, I find myself thinking about the larger issues from time to time, like the value of family. Well, today those thoughts were underscored by an email that Zach forwarded me from his uncle Chris in Montreal. The pertinent part of the email is as follows:
I think Tender and Juicy are very good names for the chickens. However, not all chickens are tender and juicy; some are tough and taste bad. Believe me, I know! When I was a kid, we ended up with a chicken. Dad fed it dog food. It flourished. It crowed very very very early in the morning to the distress of the neighbors. Dad killed it - and they served it with two other chickens for Sunday dinner. It didn’t work. We knew which one was Dirty Bird (we were inventive little buggers) because it tasted like dog food. Moral of story - don’t feed pet chickens to your kids especially if you’ve been feeding the chickens dog food.
So there.
Chris
Now, who else but family can relay stories like that, stories with sage advice like don’t feed the chickens dog food. Only time and life experience can garner that kind of wisdom.
So, I leave you with pictures of our happy chickens, which to date, would taste like rolled oats and corn.
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