The first egg!

I just came running and screaming into the house-I just could not believe my eyes! There were two very small brown eggs in the coop!

This is not supposed to happen yet! Everything we've read has said that chickens will start laying eggs between 20-24 weeks old. Ours are exactly 15 weeks old. I am really hoping that this means that we have a few over-achievers in our group!


Which chick laid these eggs? We have no idea. Will this mean that we'll be getting eggs regularly now-I really hope so! These are very small eggs, which is normal since it they're just starting out. In the pic below the small, light brown egg was laid by one of our hens and the large speckled brown one was from the grocery store-hopefully ours will get that big eventually!


We took one egg and left the other-so they keep laying in the same place. But now I'm wondering if we should take a look under the deck, since that is where they spend most of their time during the day-I'll have to check it out!

BJ, I promise we will never do this to you again

or How we rafted the Grande Ronde river in 3 days.

So, right now the Grande Ronde is flowing crazy high-10,000 cfs (Cfs is the measurement by which water flow is determined. It literally means "cubic feet per second" and for the Grande Ronde that is HIGH!) and there really isn't a choice but to run down it in a raft-or a cataraft  that we borrowed from some friends. We borrowed pretty much everything for this trip. One thing we will not take on this trip ever again-BJ. Nope, we will never do that again!

At this flow, no way does it actually take 3 days to raft down this river! Maybe 8 hours-tops. But, so what! Keith had three days off in a row! That never happens and to be honest I really didn't feel like backpacking for a few days so I suggested a river trip.

We got started super late on Sunday evening. We didn't take off from the take out in Minam until about 7 pm. At least it was still light out! But around here, as soon as the sun goes down the temperature drops from about 80 to the 40s. This isn't too bad but the water is only about 50 degrees-pretty cold! Especially when you're in the front of a boat getting hit by big waves and rapids, like I was. Needless to say we had not been on the water very long before I begged to stop and camp for the night. At least it was a pretty nice place to camp.

When we decided to stop for the night, we noticed a little boat doing fishing around in the big weeds on the other side of the river-we had no idea what was going on. A couple minutes later a (kind of odd) kid walked up to us and explained what was going on. He was in a drift boat that had been taking on water and flipped in the rapids that we had just gone through. What!?! The boat had just been fished out and everyone was OK. This better not happen to us!

The first day was short but full of the biggest rapids we would see the whole trip. And BJ wanted OUT of the boat NOW!!! He had two speeds on the boat-velcroed to my lap or desperately trying to escape the whole situation-into the water. I had a Mama-death grip on him most of the time-he hated me and the whole trip. But only until we got on land-then everything was just fine!



The second day was very relaxed. There is only so much river and we were going a little too fast. We had an about 2 hour reading/nap break at about 11am. At about 3pm we found the best camp site ever. It was so incredibly peaceful and quiet that it seemed a little magical. More hours spent reading and napping-we were all in a little slice of heaven!

The third day was short and beautiful-as all the other day had been!


We only had one slight accident that last day. During a particularly still part of the river, I was going to paddle a little bit. Keith and I were switching places so I could sit where the oars were. During this switch, BJ freaked out a little (a lot!) and some how just slip off the boat and into the river. He was fine, but freezing and not happy at all!


We will absolutely be doing this again! But next time there will be no dogs allowed. If anyone would like to join us next year we would love it. May or June would be the best time to raft the river-even though this year we could even do it in July!

RIP: Stella and Sofia

Please be warned: this is a tale of two chickens becoming dinner. While there are very few details, if you are squeamish about this sort of thing, please don't read on.

Sofia and Stella, what adorable chicks they were! Our white crested Polish chicks were always the most fun and funny looking. As chicks they escaped their box constantly, sometimes just to roost on the baby gate that was supposed to stop them from escaping and sometimes to run around the house. This early cheekiness should have been clear foreshadowing for us as to what they were to become, but we're new at this.

As soon as we put them outside, we began to wonder if we had named them improperly, maybe they were roosters?!? Still we weren't sure. Then all the sudden everything changed. One morning we let them out and both Stella and Sofia had huge bloody wounds on their heads and most of the feathers from their crests had been ripped out. Of course at first we thought a predator did it, but then we realized they were probably doing it to each other. As the first wounds started to heal I started to notice how aggressive the two crested chickens were and when I saw them pecking at the hens I stopped thinking of them as Stella and Sofia and started thinking of them as Lucifer and Hannibal.

Watching things get pretty vicious, we knew it was just about time get rid of them. I am not sure, but I think their attacking each other is to literally figure out the pecking order of the two roosters was and I don't think anyone was winning. Then we got home from the San Juan's and the head wounds had gotten worse, as did their aggressive behavior to the other chickens. And then on Monday morning they started to crow. This confirmed they were roosters and for the best of the other chickens it was time for them to go.

So Keith, Hugh, and I took care of what needed to be done. Keith and I caught the chickens. This took about 20 minutes of running around the yard and we will not use this method of catching them every again! When Hugh came over we killed them-as humanely as possible. Then we de-feathered, and butchered them. (For photos see the photosteam on the right of this web page.) And in no time they went from looking like chickens that had been terrorizing the yard to chickens you buy at the store.

Keith roasted the chickens and made a leek and sausage stuffing along with a salad from the greenhouse. It was delicious! The chicken tasted-well, like chicken!

This will only happen to one other chicken this year and I am not looking forward to it. I think killing mean chickens is going to be a lot easier than killing one of our sweet hens.

These currents pull us

Vacation! 2 days in Portland were fast but fantastic! We got to visit friends from near and far and eat and drink delicious finds-as always! After that, Keith and I drove up to northwest Washington to Anacortes, strapped bags on our shoulders that were just about as big as we are and boarded a ferry over to start our adventure in the San Juan Islands.


5 days in a kayak on the ocean, yup I was more than a little nervous and I am still sore! Keith had contacted Tim at San Juan Kayak Adventures. Keith informed him of our original plan which was  paddling around San Juan Island. This we were informed was terrible idea due to currents and such, so we followed the itinerary he set up for us. The plan was this: start on June 6th on Jackson Beach on San Juan Island, just south of Friday Harbor, paddle over to Jones Island to camp for the night, the next day paddle to East Sound to stay at a B&B for the night, then paddle to Obstruction Bay for a night of camping, with the last night camping on Shaw Island, then back to where we started on June 10th. It sounds so easy!

Looking back, the first day was incredibly easy, which of course did not stop me from complaining from time to time. The water seemed so calm that is felt like we were on a massive lake instead of the ocean. There was that time that we almost got run over by a giant ferry-but we didn't! And that ended up not actually being really scary-scary was the next day! The constant sight of harbor seals eased the pain as they did their best impressions of rocks in the water. At times it seemed like they were everywhere. Their heads were always popping out of the water in front of the boat-it was really adorable! With their white faces and big black eyes peering at us from the water, they reminded me of the friendly tree spirits in the movie Princess Mononoke.


The second day, oh the second day! What was actually a pretty short distance paddle from Jones Island to East Sound turned out to be a little crazy. The wind picked up pretty early in the day and we were fighting against it and the current all morning. As the day went on, the bigger the waves got and the more I started to panic. And poor Keith, as I did not hide any of my crazy fears all day. We stopped in a Doughty Point for a lunch break and a brief break from the waves. Keith hiked around the point to try to get a good vantage point of what we were facing next and the report was not good: Two currents met at the point so the waves were going every which way and the waves were pretty big and the wind was not stopping. So we had to decide, do we take a break for a few hours and see if conditions get any better or do we just go. We just went. Damn it was scary. Keith thinks the waves were 3-6 feet, but sitting in a kayak they seemed more like 10 to 20 feet. While Keith had part of the Beatles song Revolution going through his head (Don't you know it's gonna be all right, all right, all right), I was talking to myself, repeating 'You are no panicking' aloud over and over and I did not panic! I just paddled at hard as I could. And we got through it! Keith had noticed a space very close to the point, where the waves weren't quite as big as they were a little further out, but kept us far enough away from the point that we would get smashed into the rocks. We threaded that needle and made it. While it was not the end of the rough seas, it was the worst of it and it was over. By the time we made into East Sound it was time to check in our B&B, The Kangaroo House. As I was both emotionally and physically drained, I took the best nap ever! I can not say how happy I am that we chose to stay in a B&B and not camp that night. Napping and hot tubing, I did not really need anything else (except maybe not to eat camp food)! I already thought that the Kangaroo House was a wonderful choice, but really fell in love when they gave us some very delicious warm, fresh cookies before we left.

As we were out on the third day (the never ending third day!) we got to see a lot of the wildlife that the San Juan's are known for. There are 50 bald eagle pairs in the islands and it feels like we saw about half of them! But this particular afternoon was pretty cool. We watched as a bald eagle dove down from amazing heights to catch a fish. It then dragged it through the water back to shore and started feasting. This was all pretty amazing to watch-but then the show really got started! Another bald eagle came out of nowhere to attack and steal the fish from the other eagle. Up to this point it had been kind of hard to get a good shot of the eagles because they always flew away when we got close or they were too high up in the trees. These two were not going anywhere!


The fourth day on the water was Keith's 31st birthday! That day a attempted to give him a day with very little whining-I think I did a decent job. We had a relatively light day of paddling and even stopped near the ferry terminal on Shaw Island for an afternoon chai. After a much needed warm up (it is always cold on Keith's birthday!) we made it to Indian Cove for our last night of camping at the only campground on Shaw Island.


The last day on the water was another cold day, but since we barely got rained on the whole time it really wasn't too bad! We met Tim back at the beach where we had started at noon and in no time we were back in the Friday Harbor waiting with an incredibly loud gaggle of middle schoolers to get on the ferry. The whole time we were kayaking, we wished it was all a little more remote, we could have done with less massive mansions and motorboats, but waiting for the ferry made me realize just how peaceful and quite the last few days had been.

Before we knew it, we were in Seattle gorging ourselves at Pike's Place market surrounded by more people then live in Wallowa County.

Now we're back home and the crested chickens started to crowing this morning. Since they are now officially roosters, we may be having very fresh chicken for dinner this evening-more about that to come!

Good morning, chicks

Every morning when I get up, I open front door and the chickens are ready and waiting! I let BJ outside, while I stop the chickens from trying to get inside. So far none of them have gotten past me. I have no idea how this got started and I think the only thing that will stop it is moving-which is fine with me! And if they decide to lay eggs on my front steps, I'm not going to complain!

The Greenhouse Effect

Oh, Memorial Day, the start of summer. Is it ever actually nice out on Memorial day weekend? Here, it has been a rain/snow/hail kind of weekend. I have been told by a number of people that planting anything outside before June 1st is a terrible idea. I thought they were pulling the newbie's leg, but now I am a believer!

Fortunately (for many reasons!) we are moving this summer and I had already deceided not to plant anything in our massive (at least an acre) outdoor garden space, but I have been planting as much variety as humanly possible in our section of the greenhouse.

While it's been frigid outside, the greenhouse has been producing! I think a greenhouse here is worth its weight in veggies! So far this is what is planted in my section of the greenhouse: kale-that has been producing for months, it's really amazing!, sugar pumpkins (hopefully for brewing a pumpkin beer!), 2 kinds of summer squash, broccoli, beets, carrots, green beans, (at least) 4 kinds of lettuce, spinach, arugula, leeks, 4 kinds of tomatoes, and in planters that will be taking with us when we move: more tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and and eggplant. Wow, that seems like a lot! I've planted pretty much everything 'too early'-but clearly it wasn't too early because everything is alive and growing! I guess a pro on not knowing what I'm doing is that I have no rules to live by!

I am most excited about the green beans. Oh, my little green beans! I am thinking that by the time we get back from our kayaking trip, we will actually have some to eat! I only wish I had started more, but I will be starting some to plant outside in our garden when we move. (I want to move right now!)

I am second most excited about all the greens. In this row I have romaine lettuce, red lettuce, and little baby winter density lettuce. I also have little baby spinach and tango (a curly leafed) lettuce right next to them.

As I said, I really don't know what I'm doing, but that makes everything more fun. What I have learned so far is to water everything more that you think they need and to just try whatever you want-because really it's just veggies, not rocket science! And I am jealous of you Midwesterners! With all of your thunderstorms and tornados-at least you could grow all of everything I'm growing in the greenhouse outside with less work or worry!

Out and about!

What a beautiful day! After days, weeks, months, (years?) of long cold, cloudy, snowy and rainy days -the sun is finally out today! What else is there to do on a beautiful Tuesday but let the chickens out to play and clean the coop.


The question for the chickens was should they or shouldn't they. It took them a while to decide if they should leave the safety of the coop.



One flew out, then scrambled back up the chicken wire. I didn't realize this was possible and it was pretty impressive to watch!


Once they were out, they were out running and flying around!


BJ had to get into the action and say hi to all the chickens. They didn't seem to mind getting their butts sniffed at all! BJ was very curious, but very cautious and I was very impressed!

As you may have noticed, these ain't chicks any more! We know that we have one rooster-a black Australorp. The big question is what in the world are the crested ones!?! We have no idea. The bigger they get the more they look a like, we really have no clue!

Rooster: