I'm In Love with a Chick

Here's Cole with his choice - a Speckled Sussex.

We're having way too much fun with our new baby chicks.

Emerson went with a Sussex, too. 

Mommy and Soli lovin' on a little Dominique. 

Evie chose a white Silkie. 

Soli and her black Silkie. 

Silkies grow up to be super fluffy with feathers on their feet.  And they're a bantam breed which means they'll be smaller. 

I let the kids choose from breeds that are known for being good pets and are known for being quiet.  This is a Speckled Sussex and she'll grow to be a normal size hen. This breed is also known for being good "layers". 

We ended up with 2 Speckled Sussexes, 2 black Silkies (like this one) and 1 white Silkie.  Because the Silkies are a Bantam breed they can't be sexed. So we may end up with a rooster (or two or three) which we'll have to find a new home for. Against HOA's. It is an URBAN Farm after all. 

Here are the girls making use of their doll slings from Guatemala. I'll give you one guess as to what they're carrying around. 

On my Urban Farm all pets are required to get along. Here's Zona meeting the Sussex twins.  Do you see the other one nestled under her chest? So stinkin' cute. And she didn't even try to eat them. 

Jett, on the other hand, was licking his chops immediately. See his tongue and how Dave is keeping his hand between it and the chickie?  He'll be so busted if he eats one of my chickies. Forget that whole "Circle of Life" thing. 

Soli and I enjoying our sunny farm. You can't really see them, but my little brood is cozied in behind my back. 

We've been taking our babes out to the garden to let them scratch amongst the veggies.  They're completely contained in the raised bed and they are so stinkin' cute pecking around for....I don't really know what they're pecking for. We have to keep them in a box with a heat lamp in the kitchen until they are a couple months old. So it's fun to get them out of their box and into the sunshine. Hopefully the dogs will be used to them by the time they are ready for the coop and to be "backyard chickens". 

And here's our newest addition to the family. We should have named him Rowdy.  Or Naughty.  

And it's a good thing he's so cute because he is Trouble with a capital T. 

Here he is "herding" Soli. It's hard to tell from the picture, but he's actually moving her with his body. He is a cattle dog after all. 

Urban Farm

Dave thinks I could be going through a mid-life crisis. He said to me the other day as I was unloading the third fruit tree from the back of my car, "Maybe you should think about what void you're trying to fill with all of this." He may be on to something. Or it could have something to do with my oldest starting high school and my youngest starting kindergarten this year. (I'm not sure exactly what about that makes me lay awake at night -- the fact that they're growing up so fast or the fact that I'm raising an adult and a baby in the same household.) Or it could simply be that I want an urban farm in my tiny backyard complete with a cattle dog and chickens and blueberries and beets growing in the garden and maybe a goat. Or maybe it's a combination of all of those things. And because my husband loves me so much and because a farm is a much better choice than a Lamborgini or a new baby (I really don't want a new baby -- just to be clear. A Lamborgini could be fun...) he's given me a tentative yellow light. So naturally I'm pedal to the metal, full steam ahead on my urban farm.

Here's the progress:

*We picked up the cattle dog at the shelter a few months ago. His name's Jett. We don't have cows so he herds the kids...and Zona. Maybe he'll learn to herd chickens...if he doesn't eat them. But, hey, that's farm life, right?

*The girls and I put the vegetable garden in this past week. We planted zucchini, basil, beans, peas, two heirloom tomatoes, a serrano pepper (I had one in Mexico last year), carrots, beets, strawberries, green onions, and something else that I forget.

*I planted a fig tree and the apple tree is ready to be planted (the exact location is still under advisement). The blueberries are fruiting, the olallieberries are blooming, and the avocado tree is burried in beautiful shiny green fruit.

*And we're planning to go today to pick out our baby chicks.

Stay tuned...

Laundry Folding Party...Tonight...My House...Be There!

I should be folding laundry, but I thought just to take a picture of said laundry and write about it on my blog. An entirely more proficient use of time, I think so.

So, the repercussions of having been out of town for 3 weeks are mountainous quantities of laundry upon arrival home. Now, I realize that I have been home for a solid week, and, really, I should be entirely caught up. But...you see...well...um...

I guess I really have no excuse, especially since it was almost all clean when we packed it up in Mexico...

Now, you may notice from the picture that our laundry facilities share a room with our two small daughters. You'll perhaps recall that this was not listed as one of the top ten things I love about my small house. And, I daresay, if ever I start to feel sorry for myself about this arrangement (which is almost never, as I scarcely have time for feeling sorry for myself over such frivolity as laundry rooms) I simply send up a "thank you" to the Laundry Gods who make it possible for me to "do" laundry in the comfort of my own home as opposed to the nearest river and scrubbing rock.

I had to chuckle when I saw the state of all our clean laundry looking as if it had been rooted through by a herd of little piggies, looking for clean panties in the barnyard. Ahem.


I hope this picture makes you chuckle and makes you thankful for your washer and dryer (and laundry room), should you be so lucky to have such heavenly pieces of machinery. Amen.

I'm off to fold laundry.

Scratch that.

I'm off to have cocktails with my girlfriends. Laundry can wait, I say.

Continue rooting, my little piggies.





*Addendum: My dear friend Angie asked, quite nicely, if I might explain exactly how the laundry facility came to find itself in the girls' room. So here you are:

When we first bought our house (remember - it's a hundred years old) there was a laundry room attached to the kitchen. This "laundry room" was originally a back porch that had been enclosed at some point (probably in the fifties) to accommodate the washer and dryer. This enclosure made the kitchen very dark as one of the exterior windows and the window in the original back door no longer brought in any light (does that make sense?). So we opted to tear down the wall between kitchen and laundry room making a big, beautiful, bright, sunny kitchen (now there are big windows on both ends of the kitchen). But, this left the question of what to do with the laundry machines. Well, at the time we had only one, very small boy named Coleman who was just two years old. And being that we practically had a mansion, what with three entire bedrooms and all, we thought to put the laundry in the "extra" bedroom with the guest bed and the office, like a utility room. This arrangement worked very nicely until we had our third child of the baby girl variety. So the guest bed and our desk got the boot and the "utility" room became the "pink" room. We have no garage (they didn't have cars a hundred years ago, you know) so we really have no where else for our laundry machines to go until we do a major house remodel. And the truth is, it just doesn't bother us...until Mt. Laundrymore gets out of hand, that is!

Top Ten Things...

...that I love, love, love about my small house.

Number 10: The way the walls curve into the ceiling.

Number 9: It's age. 100 years old this year!! Built in 1908. Imagine the births and the deaths that these walls have witnessed. Fantastic.

Number 8: The original wood floors. Covered and preserved by carpet for the last 30?, 50?, 70? years. Then uncovered and brought back to life by us (as in, Dave).

Number 7: The original buffet and china cabinets in the dining room and the original cabinets in the kitchen (so very glad we didn't let anyone talk us into tearing out those fabulous cabinets when we remodeled our kitchen.

Number 6: The size. It's a small house (comparatively speaking, of course) - 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom and only about 1550 square feet. But, I have to say it feels very perfect to me. The boys share a room and the girls share a room which I think is really wonderful for kiddos. Some of my best memories are from sharing a room with my sister. And even after we had our own rooms we would often end up sleeping in one of our rooms or the other (this went on well into high school).

Number 5: There is only one bathroom...to clean. Silver lining, people, silver lining. Yes, there are certainly times when I have to pass out numbers to use the pooper or send someone to pee in the backyard. But, truthfully, I love the exchange of information that happens in the bathroom. I pretty much know what's going on with everyones' poop and who has hair growing where. There is absolutely no privacy and therefore there are almost no inhibitions. Which I love - usually. My kids are none-too-shy to bend over, hands touching floor, to show me "this", "that", or "the other thing". And they've learned a lot about LIFE in the bathroom. ie; the difference between pads and tampons. And this is an important distinction because I figure someday my girls will be women and my boys will marry women (who will surely send them on a night run to Vons for a package of one or other. God help them if they bring back the wrong kind). As I see it, I'd really be an irresponsible mother if I didn't teach them the basic difference between the two. Just the other day Emerson asked me, in the bathroom, of course, "Mom, do they make pads to fit underwear or underwear to fit pads?" Anyone?

Number 4: The playroom. A few years ago Dave remodeled our attic into a 480 square foot playroom. That is where the majority of the toys are, and, often times, where the majority of my kids are. Ahhhh. Breathing room. (Did I say 1550 sq. ft. was perfect...well, I guess 2000 is a little more perfect).

Number 3: The avocado tree. And here's the story:

Once upon a time there was a tiny avocado sapling. One day a darling couple spied this avocado baby at the nursery. They instantly fell in love with the little green eyed youngster. So they took it home to their new (old) house and planted it with the utmost love and care in the perfect spot in the backyard. The sapling looked healthy and happy for a few days. But then, one day, a leaf fell. And then another, and another until all of its beautiful green leaves lay on the ground amongst the dog poop. The darling couple was very, very sad that their herbaceous baby hadn't made it. They were so sad that they couldn't bring themselves to yank it from its roots and cast it aside in the compost pile*. So they let it be, naked and alone, in the back yard with the dog poop all winter long. And then in the Spring, a miracle happened. A small green leaf sprung from a naked branch, and then another, and another. Until the youngster was once again covered in a healthy green coat. And the darling couple cried happy tears. It would be OK. And it would grow to be very tall and very handsome. And it would bear the most delectable fruit that the darling couple (or their neighbors) had ever sampled. The end.

Number 2: Our delightful neighbors. What a difference a good neighbor makes...

Number 1: Location, location, location! Across the street from the park and 'round the corner from the school. Our little, hundred year old house sits along side 5 square blocks of other fabulous, historic homes of the same age. Our little town was an original company town started by Claus Spreckels, as in, Spreckels Sugar. The sugar factory was a primary producer in its day, and the buildings are still in tact (although no longer used to process sugar). We have about 375 people, a post office, a park, an elementary school, a volunteer fire company, the coolest old fire house, and a hundred year old corner store (I'm pretty sure some of the candy bars are that old, too). We just love it, and we feel very lucky to be able to raise our kids (and our avocados) in such a charming little town.

Thanks for checking in! ~Heather

*We don't actually compost. Just sounded good in the story...