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.)

Clara's Parents

This last weekend Clara's parents came to visit from St. Louis. It was a lot of fun, I felt like a sub-in sister to the family (Clara has two sisters and one brother who didn't get to come). We went to the coast and visited Seaside, yes there is a town called Seaside, it's very commercial and touristy so we didn't stay long. Then we went to Canon Beach and had a lunch of local cherries and smoked oysters and clams (so delicious!), and then on down the coast we went to the Tillamook cheese factory. There were a lot of good meals that were had while they were here.

Their first night here Clara made a large piece of salmon, I made baked asparagus, chanterelles and shiitake, and some creamy basil pasta. Joel made a delicious devil's food chocolate cake.

Their second night (I actually have pictures from this one!) Clara's mom made us a delicious Chinese meal. Clara and I were the sous chefs and Kevin made a fabulous lemon pudding (the lemons were purloined from a friend who now lives in Idaho, we figured it would be okay).

Here's the spread Clara and I prepared.







The magic makers.





Delicious dinner with the make-shift family that we've become. I love being part of this family!




The dessert!



The coastal visit to Canon Beach. It was kind of overcast but warm and pleasant. There were a lot of funny people about, though I'm not sure that we were truly exempt from the "funny people" category. But while we were here my mind started flying off to wonderful ideas of being a biology photographer. I'm pretty proud of the fourth photo from the top. I don't believe I will ever get any kind of field-guide photo, or biological documentation job but it was a lovely dream.










And then on to the Tillamook cheese factory. The drive on Hwy 101 down to Tillamook was beautiful. If I could settle there somewhere in the Tillamook State Park or along the Bay my soul would be satisfied. But the unfortunate part is that there are no pictures of these beautiful places. But never the less: the factory. Where men with facial hair have to wear hairnets on their faces.





And last week I finished a baby blanket for some friends who are having a baby in July.




There will be some pictures coming in the near future of our roses in the front yard. Today a little four year old girl rang the door bell and asked if Joel would cut a rose for her. He said yes and went outside and cut the rose for her. Then she looked at him in a strange way and her mother said to him, "She wants to give you a kiss." So he bent down four feet to her and she kissed him on the cheek!