Run Away Chickens!!!!

During lunch yesterday, I gave Chris a call. I like to do that sometimes when I'm having a bad day, or just want to say hi.

He told me he was at the house.....

Apparently, around 7ish in the morning, he received a call from a neighbor....our chickens were in the front yard!!! Chris had unhinged part of our fence so he could get the huge tractor in the backyard. The fence was still there, just not very secure. It was a windy day...and needless to say, the fence blew down. And our chickens went wild!

Did I mention our chickens have names?

Q-Tip (the white one) Optimus Prime and Megatron (they are both black, and we can't tell them apart)

Barbara is the distinguished looking chicken and finally Cheyenne is the red one.

I don't know why, but I think Q-Tip is my favorite. She likes to get into things. When Chris was working with the tractor, Q-Tip was right there, digging in the dirt to get all of the fresh worms. I was scared Chris would run over her!

Anyway, back to the story. Well, the neighbor was kind enough to put the chickens back in the yard...Chris thought it was over...

Later, he got a call from Mr. Dai. He is our older Vietnamese neighbor. He is very kind, and has a super thick accent. He lives with his wife who speaks little English. Last Sunday, I was working in the yard and Mr. Dai yells across the street "You, Chris, lunch at 12:00" So, Chris and I went over to their house for lunch. We had Pho...homemade Pho soup. It was suburb. But I digress....

Mr. Dai called Chris and said "Your hens! Your hens are out!" (Imagine a heavy Asian accent...) Chris asked Mr. Dai if he could get them back in the yard. Mr. Dai replied, "Me??? Ok, I try." A few minutes later, Mr. Dai calls back..."Chris, your hens are safe!"

Both Chris and I have been trying to cultivate a 'community' feel in our little neighborhood. Thank goodness we have made this effort, or who would have called us about our runaway chickens??? Besides watching over each other's houses...it's been fun to get to know our neighbors. There are a lot more young people moving in...we are going to throw a block party and really get to know the neighborhood around the time school gets done. Exciting!

Anywho, Chris was at a job near our house at this point and stopped by to fix the fence so we wouldn't have anymore runaway chickens.

Chris is currently making dinner and attempting to make cheese. I will update later on that adventure!

Demolition...and Progress!

So, we have lived at our little house for almost three years now. The first summer, we didn't worry too much about the backyard, the second summer we started our chicken coop, the third summer we planted our berry bushes and started thinking about a big garden in the back....

We are on summer number four and are in the process of totally redoing our backyard (we redid the front yard previously...and boy was that a nightmare, I have some pictures detailing the process, but I'll save that for another time.) This first picture is our backyard right after we cut down a very large tree. You see, we do enjoy trees...we aren't tree haters. In fact, I was very sad to see the tree go....BUT...we needed sun to grow our own vegetables. And in today's world, we'd rather know we are eating good, healthy food then have a nice tree giving us shade.

The next picture here is of Chris digging up dirt. You see, half of our yard is going to become paver patio. There are a few reasons for this. The main one being: We enjoy backyard fires, and with us having fires, the grass can't grow and becomes a muddy mess. Therefore, we will have pavers! Yay! Solution!....but very expensive solution, so the actual pavers will probably go in next year. This year we prepared the way for the pavers by laying gravel....yes, gravel isn't beautiful...but a) there is no muddy mess now and b) we are preparing for pavers. Problem solved---for now. This picture was taking on April 18, 2009.

This next picture is of the tractor Chris brought in to help dig up the dirt and the surveying equipment he was using to make sure the gravel would be at the right elevation (I learned a bit about surveying at this point...this little instrument makes really annoying noises...tells you when you are too high or too low. I was sick of beeping by the end of it!) This was also taken on the 18th.

I took this picture today....wow has our backyard changed! The dirt is going to be all garden and the gravel will eventually be pavers. I am continuously amazed at how hard Chris works to make his dreams come true. It took so much work and time to dig out the dirt, level it up and then bring in gravel. I have complete confidence that our visions of a nice big garden will become a reality...because I am working with my best friend and partner and between our hard work and God's guidance...we can accomplish anything!

Our Seeds

Our first year of gardening was the summer of 2007, the summer we were married. I attempted to plant tomatoes and peppers in our backyard along our garage. It failed miserably. I don't believe we had one tomato or pepper! I started to develop a feeling that I would not be able to grow vegetables.

I have always loved raspberries. I do believe raspberries are my favorite fruit. I also really enjoy blueberries and strawberries. Chris's Grandpa Bud had a very large raspberry patch in his backyard. It was tradition that Grandpa Bud and the kids would pick raspberries and then Chris's mom Nola would make raspberry jam. It always sounded to me like such wonderful memories. The next summer (2008), Chris and I decided to make room for our own berry batch! We made a little garden on the side of our house. We then went to Grandpa Bud's house and transplanted some of his raspberries. We also bought some blackberry bushes and three blueberry bushes. Yummy!!!! I am too overeager though..I expected lots of berries that first year...boy was I wrong! All of our berries need a few years to get established. I am hoping that this year we will have lots and lots and lots of berries. I am so eager to make some delicious pie!

Also, in the summer of 2008, we planted quite a few tomato plants, a melon plant, peppers and squash. On our porch we also had a few tomatoes and some Thai chili peppers and all of our herbs. The tomatoes on our porch flourished. However, the tomatoes in the garden never ripened. Could it have been over or under watering? Lack of bees? Nutrients in the soil? Or because we bought weird varieties? This summer, we will definitely be sticking with the normal array of tomatoes...


We are being more adventurousome this year. We have started our own seeds! We have about 60ish starts in our spare bedroom. Acorn squash, butternut squach, zucchini, cilantro, swiss chard, spinach, black seeded lettuce, lavender, thai basil, lemon basil and marjaram. As I drive home from work, I am full of anticipation. How are our plants doing? Did the butternut squash spring up yet? How tall is the zucchini? We planted our seeds about the first weekend in April, and boy are they doing great! Now, all we need is a garden to plant them in....that story will have to wait for another day.

In the beginning.....

We have decided to start a blog to chronicle our craziness. So, we must first say how it all started.

Chris and I bought a house the year before we got married. Because we finally had a place to call our own, we started to dream big! Chris wanted to raise chickens in our backyard....I was totally against it! We had a pretty backyard and I thought if we had chickens it would ruin it all. I was completley concerned about how pretty our yard would be.

Chris made a beautiful chicken coop and my dad was kind enough to put a nice little copper roof on it. We were all set to get some chicks.

This was in the summer of 2007. We had a few chickens, and two ducks. The ducks were named Charlie and Pickles. They were noisy but a lot of fun. Unfortunately, we went on our honeymoon (we were gone only one weekend) and the poor ducks and chickens were killed. We are unsure what killed them but it was quite sad. However, we were not to be deterred! We wanted fresh eggs! (Below, we have Charlie and Pickles)

Chris then ordered more chickens--some to be butchered and some to be laying hens. Chris had never butchered chickens before, but quickly learned. He and a lot of his friends became butchering fools. Some people say that we are crazy...but isn't it more crazy to eat the mystery food from the grocery store? (Below is Chris butchering one of the chickens!)

During our first year of marriage, we had a lot of projects going on. Right before we were married (like the weekend before) we realized our basement bathroom was leaking and all moldy so we had to fix that. Also, we were fixing up our front yard. We cut down two big pine trees, tore out our front lawn, put in a new sprinkler system and new lawn, built a side yard to plant berries and veggies, a new paver walkway and oh yeah, had his friends help us build a new porch.We were quite busy that year! In addition, I was in my first year of teaching, very difficult classes at a pretty challenging school. I am so glad I survived! At the end of the school year, I needed to reward myself with a little present. I bought myself a very nice bread machine! I wanted to be baking our own bread...we had chickens laying us eggs, why not fresh bread as well? Since then, we have only bought bread a handful of times...when I was sick and couldn't make it, or I just plain forgot and we needed bread for sandwhiches that week.

My first summer off, I took a quilting class. I have always wanted to learn to quilt, and Chris, being the amazing husband he is, bought me a sewing machine for our first Christmas together. I enjoyed the class so much, but have not had the opportunity to take another one yet. Hopefully this summer!

Also, I decided I wanted to try making soap. My first attempt was okay. Not great, but not bad either. In fact, we are still using some of that soap! It did last us a long time!

Overall, our first year of marriage was wonderful. We were very busy, but loved every moment of the business, loved each other and most importantly, loved God.