Adventures of an urban homesteader growing greens, preserving the harvest and tending a backyard barnyard
I just have to share the random chicken adventure from this morning. Here’s how it went down… The chickens were free-ranging in the backyard and got excited when they saw me come in with a huge load of cardboard for our sheet mulching project. They ran over, probably expecting food treats, and Winnie got out because the gate was open. I was trying to lure
The girls are molting! I noticed tons of feathers inside the coop over the last week or so, but I assumed there had been a skirmish of some sort within the pecking order. Saturday I was cleaning out the coop though and noticed the ladies are starting to shed their feathers to grow new ones for the cold winter days ahead. Are they going to
I was at an extended family function this past weekend and there were lots of curious relatives asking about those backyard chickens of mine. One aunt in particular has been mulling over the idea of bringing in a small backyard flock, but she started worrying about the maintenance and upkeep. There isn’t a whole lot to backyard chicken maintenance, but I thought it would be
Having a small backyard flock of urban chickens seems like such a normal, everyday thing for me now that I haven’t really posted a lot about “the girls”. But some of my readers have asked that I share more stories on the blog about the latest chic news. Now that I think of it, there is usually some funny urban chicken musing I have to
I recently had a reader share with me some of the important benefits of incorporating mulch into permaculture gardens, to which I readily agreed. Then I realized, although I have been doing so in my garden, it’s something I haven’t really talked a lot about here. With Portland’s summer finally on it’s way, and reading the news about the longest drought in 100+ years in
As you may know, I was lucky enough to travel through South Korea for a couple weeks in June. I took some lovely pictures that are either garden-related or livestock-related and I thought I would share. I am trying to keep the descriptions breif since there are lots of pictures! Click on the actual photo for a larger picture. This is a lovely ceramics idea
I had a wonderful trip to South Korea for two weeks and I am looking forward to sharing some interesting gardening-related photos soon. I got in late Saturday night and woke up bright and early to squawking chickens at around 7:00am. Not exactly the ideal situation for a jet-lagged traveler returning home. Upon bursting into the yard to throw scratch at them in an attempt
My sister, Anne, moved into her new house recently and decided it was finally time to get her own backyard chicken flock. Not knowing what I was getting myself into, I decided to go with her to pick out the chicks at a local feed store. Who could turn down a trip to see such adorable fuzzy animals? I watched her pick her different breeds
I remember very vividly that cold winter day when I came screaming into the house with muddy clogs. It was the day of the first egg… As I’ve mentioned before, I adopted my girls off Craig’s List, and unfortunately they had decided to take a winter break from laying shortly before I brought them home. I had all but given up when one day I
