I love derby

Here's why.    The person in the photos isn't me.  She's not on my intraleague team.    This Saturday I wholeheartedly want to destroy her and her team.    But tonight she finished her 27 in 5.  Tonight we were able to be there for each other,  and help each other excel.  Tonight was wonderful.

Milestone:eggs!

Aren't they gorgeous?   These are our first eggs.

How do we keep the chickens?

Both creatively and flexibly!  

Our coop is made entirely from recycled materials -- mostly wood and screen from other projects. 

We know from experience that chickens love having a place to scratch,  and that we can boost the warmth in the coop by using the deep litter method.   What we didn't know is that building a vertical coop with the scratching and composting pit in the bottom,  through a hatch in the floor,  would go against that somewhat because convection pulls most of the warmth up and out.   Unfortunately,  this means the coop is only about 10 degrees warmer than the outside.  Right now that's fine,  but when it gets seriously frigid it'll be a problem.  

And how do we know the temperature? We use temperature and heat monitors.    We have a very modern chicken monitoring system.  

They also have a run,  devised from a very rough alley that runs to the basement window from their coop.  I often find them watching the cat -- as the cat watches them back out the window.   There's a second compost pile, straw,  and I toss scratch grains and vegetable scraps out daily for their entertainment.

Anyway,  it's a work in progress.    The chickens seem thrilled with a cozy house that gives them everything they need to be happy.  

Meet Alices

Meet Alice.  And Alice and Alice and Alice.   These are our fine feathered friends.   They live in an ugly but functional coop at our house. 

The worst of times

Remember that photo I posted of all the delicious canned tomato sauce?    They all exploded!

Live and learn,  right?  And at least we didn't try to eat them.

The Best of Times...

And also the worst of times.  Not really, but this time of the year, I feel like I'm drowning in produce. And yet I wouldn't have it any other way.

Last week was the last week of my CSA, and as much as we love it and feel it's the right thing to do, we're always a little  relieved when we get the season-ending email.  Part of the issue is that it comes to an end at the end of October, a time that for both Chris and I is insanely busy at work.  Every counter top was full earlier this week with produce we hadn't yet processed.  And then our neighbor brought us a bag of peppers and Chris brought home a tray of very ripe tomatoes.  So over the weekend we cooked and canned and roasted and so on.  It was great, and I know that when it's cold and dark out it will be wonderful eating these delicious foods, picked at peak ripeness.