Meet the Chickens!

They're so big now and they look like real chickens! The other day Clara and I hung out with the chickens together and it was really nice. Its fun to have them hang out and act reasonably alert. Just for the record, chickens are not the brightest animals in the world but nevertheless, they are enjoyable companions.







My chicken, she's a Black Australorp.



Joe's chicken, she's a Buff Orpington.



Clara's chicken, she's a Delaware White, a rare breed.



Marie's chicken, she's Salmon Faverolles, she has feathered feet and five toes!



Kevin's chicken is a Gold Laced Wyandotte, lovingly called Dottie.



And this is where they live. Finally Joel's Habitat skills have come in handy! :0)




And the garden is coming along fast and big. We put some organic fertilizer (ground linseed, kelp meal, bone meal and blood meal mixed) which seems to have actually helped. I'm not generally one to think fertilizers work but this one actually seems to. Apparently gardening west of the Cascades is a whole different game than the East Coast, obviously, it just never occurred to me (I know, how could I be so blind? Truth is, I'm surprisingly oblivious to obvious things -- details though, that's where I'm at). Joel got a book from Powell's recently, aptly titled, Gardening West of the Cascades by Steve Solomon. I like it and its been helpful with all of our garden troubleshooting. He has the recipe for the aforementioned fertilizer mix. The one thing I like about the fertilizer is that its not full of all kinds of creepy shit you're afraid to breathe in. It just smells good and real, ergo, I trust it. And now, without further ado, the garden:







And the result of living with a household of five (and most of us eat lots of vegetables). Our very large compost pile.



We also happen to have black and raspberry bushes in the backyard: pie time! Today there were enough raspberries to make a good pie. We also had some strawberries, black berries and blue berries that I cut up and froze from the Food Church (they give away free groceries every week and the produce is often pretty bad but totally salvageable!).




And those promptly turned into this:






Which was enjoyed by Clara and Joel.




I also made Vietnamese spring rolls. They had tofu, basil, spinach, rice vermicelli and enokitake mushrooms in them.





Lastly, I made my friends' wedding invitation illustrations and I really liked the way they turned out. By the way, if you or anyone you know needs wedding invitations let me know (I really need a job! I'm shamelessly selling myself here.)