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Did you all have a happy pie day yesterday? It was an extra special pi day because it had the most accurate decimals of pi in the entire twenty-first century. To celebrate, Bookman made us a delicious apple pie with apples that came from our own tree (preserved as pie filling). We also had pizza for dinner. A double pie whammy!

The weather this weekend has been absolutely gorgeous. It feels more like the end of April than the middle of March. No jackets, open windows, sunshine. Bookman and I took our new bikes out for a spin today and I wore my bike shorts and t-shirt with a windbreaker on top and was almost too warm (except when the wind was blowing across the still frozen lakes, that was a bit chilly). It seems like the rest of Minneapolis was out today as well.

It was my first time out on my new bike and I love her silly. She is so light and zippy. I practiced clipping in and out of my pedals for about half an hour before venturing out. At first I was terrified to be so locked on to my bike but after making a few stops and not falling over, I started to relax and really have fun. I’m still hyper-alert about releasing my feet before getting close to a stop, but after a few more rides I expect it will become more natural and less thinky.

We did an easy 18 mile/28.9km ride. I’ve never had a road bike before so it was very much a get-to-know you ride. Did I say how much I love my new bike? My city bike (affectionately named Ninja) is going to be so jealous. I am searching for a name to call this bike but nothing has come up yet. I was going to take a photo but forgot. Giant has a fine photo though with the same exact colors including saddle and handlebars in case you care to go take a look. The only additions I have made are silver fenders over the front and back wheels, a cage for my water bottle, and a holder for my iPhone which I am using as a bike computer.

Happiness is also more seed starting. The onion seeds I planted last week have begun to sprout. I would have taken a photo but they are so tiny yet you wouldn’t be able to see them in a picture. Friday night Bookman and I spent about an hour making paper pots for the next round of seed starting and beyond. Today we filled another tray with pots, filled the pots with soil, and planted:

• pepperoncini
• golden cayenne
• leutschauer paprika
• etiuda bell (orange sweet)
• red mini bell
• purple jalepeño
• tall Utah celery

The celery was a last minute addition to the lineup. Bookman decided he wanted to grow some so we picked up a packet at our food co-op when we did our grocery shopping recently.

The seed trays reside on top of the refrigerator for the time being for warmth and out-of-the-wayness from

curious cats. Since the weather has been so pleasant these last few days the onions got to sit out on the deck in the sun for several hours. The week ahead is going to be ten to fifteen degrees cooler so there will be no deck time. Next weekend we will be setting up our mini greenhouse on the south side of the house and move the onion sprouts into it to make room for another seed starting tray of tomatoes on top of the fridge. The last time I did seed starting, about ten years ago, it seemed like one big hassle. I’m not certain what has changed, but at the moment I am having a great time.

For all of you out there who are new to the whole thing and want to try your hand at gardening, whether it be outdoors or indoors, in containers or in the ground, lettuce, herbs, or something else, check out Start a Garden (via). The site will give you easy, step-by-step instructions on how (for example) to grow thyme in a cup on your bathroom windowsill, tomatoes in a pot on your deck, or corn in your yard. Unless you live in a dark, cold cave, this site will help you find something you can grow.

And of course I had more fun reading about chickens this week too. A Chicken in Every Yard turned out to be a practical and informative guide to urban chicken keeping. When it gets closer to the time of having my own chickens I will definitely be buying myself a copy of this book. One thing I learned about chickens is that they can see color and when let out to free range they tend to stick to other flock members of the same color. This piece of information has me rethinking what kind hens I want. Do I go with two orpingtons (brown) and two australorps (black)? Or do I totally mix it up and go with one each of orpington (brown), ameraucana (brown), australorp (black) and barred rock also called Plymouth rock (black with white)? If I go with the one of each it will certainly be easier to tell them all apart. Thank goodness I have plenty of time to figure it out, and plenty of time to keep changing my mind! You’re going to get so tired of hearing about chickens before I even get the chicks next year!

As I mentioned before, we will be tearing down our old garage at the back of our lot. We will be installing a shed instead, this one to be exact This will happen in May or June. The tear down that is. The shed building will happen not long after that. We will have plenty of room for the chicken coop alongside it. I’ve been doing lots of coop plan browsing and have decided ours will look something like the red and white number in the photo. We’ll be making modifications, but this will be our foundation model. What do you think?

So much work ahead, but all of it good!

Filed under: gardening Tagged: chickens, seed starting

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What a busy weekend it has been! It’s been chickens and bicycles and not much time for reading which stresses me out a bit but I suppose I will survive, it is only one weekend after all.

Yesterday I took Bookman to work so I could have the car to go to my chicken class at Egg Plant Urban Farm Supply. I got there a little early so I could buy some seed starting things. Hauled that out to the car and then returned for the class. I had hoped there would be chicks to pet but they had all been bought already. There was a full-grown 8-year-old chicken named Goldilocks that kept us company through the class, however. She was a big girl, I don’t remember what breed, and quietly clucked and cooed, let us feel her crop (that sounds naughty but it isn’t) and give her some seed.

I learned quite a lot about chicken keeping. There is a bit of a start-up cost with building the coop and run and feeders and all that, but after that it seems like it’s not a while lot of work for quite a lot of satisfaction. As Bob (co-owner of the store and chicken keeper of 8 years) said, chicken care is not as much as dogs but a little more than cats. I can handle that. We talked about health problems and expectations and feed and city permits and coops. In Minnesota it’s a good idea to insulate the coop and provide a heat lamp. Bob said while we should be concerned about keeping chickens warm in winter, they are pretty hardy birds and generally do just fine as long as they are protected from wind and damp. It’s summer heat we have to worry about more. So he talked about the importance of good ventilation and keeping the coop free from moisture and making sure the chickens have shade.

I learned that three is the smallest flock. Bob recommended four with the fourth so if/when one bird dies there are still three. I had only wanted three but having four makes sense because chickens are social and death is an eventuality and I do not want a flock of two being stressed out over not being much of a flock any longer. However, when applying for a Minneapolis permit, you have to say how many chickens you are going to get and when your neighbors give the okay for that number, that is all you get unless you go back to them later for their signatures on additional birds. So, ask for as many as you think you might ever have.

The class ran a little over the scheduled two hours but no one minded because we were all learning what we needed to know. Like me, there were several people there who came because they thought it would be neat to have chickens but wanted to find out what was involved. I think we left wanting to go forward with the process. I just had to convince Bookman.

Bookman has gradually softened from absolutely not to maybe and when I picked him up from work yesterday and told him all about the class he said he couldn’t get as excited about it as I was but that he thought chickens would be ok. Woo hoo! We’re gonna get chickens!

But not this year.

This year we must deal with the garage. The photo (click to enlarge) is the back quarter of our city lot: a concrete slab and a garage that is out of square. The plan is this summer to have the garage and all of the concrete removed. We never park in the garage even in winter because our car is too low and light to get through the snow in the alley before it gets plowed. We have enough difficulty on the street sometimes and getting stuck in the snow in the alley is a close to nightmare scenario. Since we do not use the garage we are not going to rebuild it. Instead we are going to build a small shed for garden tools and bicycles. This will leave plenty of space for a chicken coop and run as well as additional space for gardening. I have already begun imagining what I want to plant and I don’t even know what the final configuration of it all will be!

When it comes to the chickens, we’ve decided to get a permit to keep five. That means, even though we are only planning on having four, we will build the coop and run to accommodate five. I can foresee a future when one of the hens dies and we are left with three, getting two new chicks because it just seems wrong to raise one chick by itself. Thinking ahead!

Also in the category of counting chickens before they have hatched, I’ve already decided what kind we are going to get. When it was only three in the plan I had decided on three Buff Orpingtons, quiet, docile, friendly birds. I have it in mind I will name them after three literary sisters. Now that we will have four birds, we’ll add a Black Australorp to the mix, an equally docile, quiet bird of a similar size. Bookman will get to name this one. He is saying he might call it “Noodle” as in chicken noodle. I wouldn’t put it past him. He named our first cat together Kamir ( say “come here” fast) and our dearly departed cocker spaniel was Godzilla. So a chicken named Noodle would be quite in line with his naming tradition. Stay tuned.

Because of all the pre-work we have to do to make chickens happen, and because we want to hand-raise chicks so they will imprint on us and be used to being handled by us, and because the chicks are only available from Egg Plant from now until June, we will not be getting them until this time next year. But that’s ok. We want to do this right which means not rushing. I’m sure there will be plenty of chicken preparation stories to tell!

One change we will have to make in our main garden is filling in Amy Pond. I was looking forward to another season of trying to make the pond work, but since it is such a big raccoon attractor and raccoons will eat chickens and our raccoons have already demonstrated their determination and destructive powers in catching very small goldfish, the pond has to go. And it has to go this year so the raccoons will learn it no longer exists and won’t come looking for it after we have chickens to worry about next year. Maybe in the future we might be able to find another location for Amy Pond, but for now it has to go.

Enough about chickens. Bookman and I spent several hours this afternoon at the fantastic Hub Bike Co-op where the marvelous AK helped us find the perfect bikes to propel us to our goal of riding a half-century (50 miles/80km) in October and a century (100 miles/161km) in summer 2016. Bookman decided on a Giant Anyroad cyclocross bike and got a great deal on a 2014 closeout model. I had a hard time deciding between a really nice women’s Jamis model that has a steel frame and a smooth ride or a Liv Avail women’s model that has an aluminum frame with a carbon fork and a bit more vibration than than the Jamis. In the end after taking each for a test ride, I went for the Liv Avail because the bike fit me perfectly and since I will be spending hours and hours on this bike, the fit is very important.

I also got clipless pedals (clipless on one side, platform on the other) and bike shoes (they didn’t have my size so I had to order them), a new helmet because mine is well past its prime, and a small, lightweight fender. Bookman got a new helmet too and is getting the pedals that came on my bike put onto his because they have adjustable foot straps on them already. Bookman decided to go with straps because he has clonus in his right ankle due to his MS and he isn’t sure he’d always be able to get his foot unclipped from the pedal quickly enough.

We left the bikes at the Hub for them to add the fenders and do the pedals and make sure everything is tuned-up and ready to go. We’ll pick them up Thursday. Now, if only it would warm up enough to actually make riding a comfortable endeavor without having to don winter gear. With any luck, that could be next weekend. The long-term forecast is predicting 40F/4.5C!

One last thing. The wonderful Colleen of Jam and Idleness interviewed me for her Brain/Food series. Check it out!

Filed under: gardening Tagged: chickens

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I took a punt ordering children’s picture book Chicken Cheeks while on my everlasting quest to find great books about chickens. I am, after all, far from being in the book’s target audience. It was the title and the cover image that sold me. I mean, who can go past the words ‘chickens’ and ‘cheeks’ […]

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So, I think I can safely say that today, I was one hot chick!

Anything over 75 degrees is too hot for me. So let’s just say today’s weather topping off at 109 really ruffled my feathers!

I don’t want to count my chickens before they’re hatched, but IS IT FALL YET?!!

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Anyone who even vaguely knows me knows I recently adopted some former battery hens. (If by some fluke you’ve missed it, you can follow along via the #OperationChooken hashtag.) We’re coming up to celebrating one year of Randall and Coo (as I’ve named them) being cage-free (on 3 October it’ll be one year with me, […]

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Mabel has a spa day

I have a backlog of sketches. I did the above sketch at Amy's house in Amberly Village in my new, beautiful sketchbook made by Vanessa and the other at Miami Whitewater during the long Memorial Day weekend.

I am heading to Chicago this weekend for an urban sketching workshop. Expect many posts soon!

The swan paddle boats at Miami Whitewater. I so want to ride one!

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Have you and your kids ever attempted to grow your own vegetables and failed miserably? Maybe the weather’s contrived against you? Or the slugs have slithered wild and destroyed your crops?

If so, perhaps Findus Plants Meatballs by Sven Nordqvist will put a wry smile on your face.

Pettson, a crochety but ultimately kind and charming old man lives on a small homestead in the countryside, with a mischievous cat, Findus, as his only real family. Spring has arrived and it’s time to plant their vegetable patch.

But try as they might, the odds are not in their favour. First the chickens dig up the newly planted seeds. Then a neighbour’s pig escapes and runs riot. Should Findus and Pettson just give up on vegetables altogether? (Many a child reader/listener might well cheer at this point!)

Slapstick humour abounds in this seasonal tale full of optimism and utter chaos. It’s is also great for starting discussions about where food comes from (tying in with the primary school ‘field-to-fork’ topic rather nicely).

Fans already familiar with Pettson and Findus (this is the seventh Findus and Pettson book now translated into English and published by Hawthorne Press) will delight in familiar tropes; the threat of the fox, the problematic fellow farmer Gustavsson, the crazy DIY projects and the mysterious mini magical folk. If you’re new to this utterly delightful Swedish import the ramshackle illustrations teeming with life and laughter will quickly win you over.

You’ll be infinitely richly rewarded for spending time pouring of the illustrations; even in choosing just a few cameos to share with you today, we’ve discovered many more visual jokes, even though this must be the 20th time we’ve read the book.

Charismatic characters, high jinks, and heart-warming friendship combined with witty, surprising and satisfying illustrations all add up to another winner from Sven Nordqvist.

We’ve been reading this funny book down on our allotment in between planting our vegetables and flowers for this year.

And just like Findus, the girls said they wanted to see what would happen if they planted meatballs. So I called their bluff, and said that of course they could plant meatballs (along with carrots, onions and beans)…

And thus a new family dinner was created! A field of mashed potato made the most fertile ground for planting sauted onions, carrots, steamed beans, and – of course – some extra special meatballs.

Whilst planting our meatballs we listened to:

On top of spaghetti (all covered in cheese, I lost my poor meatball when somebody sneezed), here sung by Tom Glazer

One Meatball by Fred Mollin (from the film Ratatouille) – here’s an older version (lovely, but not quite a jazzy as the Disney version):

My Favorite Meatball by Danna Banana (Meatballs the world over unite!)

Other great activities to go along with reading Findus Plants Meatballs include:

Exploring the garden activities over on NurtureStore. Cathy produces handy month by month guides to getting planting, playing and harvesting with your family.

Making some bird houses to put up in your garden. Pettson and Findus’s world is full of little cottages up in the trees and you might find inspiration to add one or two to your outdoor space on this Pinterest board.

Creating your own flock of chickens out of old plastic pots. Pettson’s chicks are white, but I do think these from hellokids.com have the right sort of attitude and funkiness to be friends (?!) with Pettson and Findus.

Reading How to Grow a Dinosaur by Caryl Hart, illustrated by Ed Eaves. After all, if you can plant meatballs, why not dinosaurs?

Have you any vegetable planting horror stories you can share with me? Or enormously successful tales of child-friendly seed sowing?

Disclaimer: I was sent a free review copy of this book by the publisher.

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Grow up with the Chickies in this adorable board book series! Cheep cheep cheep! What does it take to get the Chickies to sleep?

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I’ve opened up a store, and am selling  note cards (1 sided, like a postcard) of my chicken breed images! I hope to be adding many more things to the store, but here we go!

Here are the images:

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Seriously. Seriously.  I so wish i could have one of these adorable girls in my flock. I would get nothing done. I would just watch it walking around, bumping into things, being adorable…. I would live a blissful, stress-free life….ahhhh. However. I have some serious meanies in my flock, who would take great joy in plucking her bald. So, she’s not for me, but…. i can dream.

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I currently have a Buff in my  teeny flock, and i would definitely consider getting another one. She’s a great layer, will patiently sit on my lap and let me hug her, and fat and pretty. The only thing I don’t like about Buffy, is that she’s wormed her way to the top of the pecking order and can be a bit of a bully to my favorite, Polly. 

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So lovely, so velvetty, such good egg layers… definitely a contender!

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I just love these! and check out the chocolately brown eggs! I think she would be a nice addition to our flock.

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Here’s contender #2.

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Next spring, we’ll be adding a couple of new cuties to our micro-flock. i’ve started the research… mostly using My Pet Chicken (it’s where we bought our first girls, so we’ll be going here again.) The different breeds are all so pretty, I’ve decided to illustrate all the top contenders. Here’s Lady # 1.

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Hooray for chickens!
They know everything.

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I’ve been so lucky to have been kept incredibly busy over the last 7 months. Between illustrating a number of books for publishers that I’ve always wanted to work with, and   doing book store appearances and accompanying food drives for local food pantries, and attending book shows and DIY book and comic shows like MOCCA and TCAF— I haven’t really had time for much else. Happily, because we homeschool, our kids were able to go with us to all of our events, either selling their own books at shows, or just getting to know a new city. And I won’t complain- I swear, we had a blast. The last book store we visited was the way way cool Librarie Drawn and Quarterly in Montreal, and we had an awesome turn out. Here are some pics from the event.

But now we put our suitcases away and  things will get quiet. We’ll get reacquainted with friends, chickens and weed the already unruly garden.  And soon start working on some new books, inspired by all the beautiful work we’ve seen, people we’ve met and places we’ve seen!

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Because drawing these is making my brain really, really happy.

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It is little secret I love chooks and pigeons. So when I noticed this lovely new picture book featuring a little black hen and her feathered friends, there was instant grab appeal.

Peggy, a beguiling little black hen, lives a contented albeit somewhat isolated life in the burbs until one day she is unceremoniously whipped up by a fateful gust of wind and dumped in the middle of a strange new world, the city.

Peggy embarks on all the things an out-of-towner in the big smoke might be expected to do; she shops, dines on new cuisine, feasts her senses on curiosities of all shapes and sizes; thoroughly enjoying her big adventure until homesickness suddenly strikes.

When she spies a familiar sight, a sunflower like the one from her yard, she pursues it tenaciously; her only tentative link with all that she knows and misses. But the sunflower soon disappears. Alone and forlorn, Peggy waits in an empty train station until salvation appears; the pigeons, the very same ones she used to observe from a distance. They show her the way home.

Peggy passes her days now as before only now she shares her existence with the pigeons, even taking the occasional outing with them – via train to the city.

Anna Walker has deftly created a simple little tale of a brave chook on a big adventure with the use of ink and photo collage. Her economic of words ensures we keep turning the pages, keen to keep up with Peggy’s exciting explorations.

The use of photo imagery adds marvellous depth, and warm authenticity to the lusciously thick pages in spite of the chilly damp of autumn the illustrations suggest. Muted background colours ensure details are highlighted with sensitive playfulness: the bunch of bright, yellow sunflowers, brown, wind-blown autumn leaves, and cherry-red umbrellas.

I especially loved Peggy; plucky, stoic, simply black, with that inquisitive look that only a chook can wear. A look that wonders; Can I eat this before it eats me? Peggy gently suggests that it’s worth expanding your horizons from time to time, and that this is not as scary as you might think it is because there are always friends around to help you, if you keep an eye out for them.

Recommended for pre-schoolers and appreciators of avian.

Peggy is published by Scholastic Australia 2012

 

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Apropos of absolutely nothing apart from it just made me laugh, cackle and cough, here are some preview pages for issue #4 of IDW’s Popeye miniseries. Released next Wednesday, the creative team for this are Roger Langridge, Tom Neely, Luke McDonnell,and Vince Musacchia.

Chickens are great.

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Prairie is unhappy when her grandmother up and announces that it's time she moves home.  After all, Grammy is much more than simply a grandmother to Prairie; she is her friend and her teacher as well.  Especially since they moved up to New Paltz, NY from North Carolina.

Prairie's family inherited the farm from her mama's side of the family.  New Paltz is where she grew up, and now the Evers family are trying to make a go of life by living off this small portion of land.  Folks in town seem to have lots to say about this whole situation.

When Prairie and her mama are in town to pick up Prairie's new chicks, her mama leaves her in the malt shop while she runs some errands.  While Prairie is sitting at the counter top, she overhears some women mention her mama's name.  The women go on to talk all kinds of foolishness about her family-- how Prairie probably can't even read and isn't in school -- how her family probably doesn't have two pennies to rub together -- and it is everything Prairie can do to sit put and not give those women a piece of her mind. 

One of those insults, however, is soon unfounded.  Prairie's folks tell her that she has to enroll in school.  Grammy has always taught Prairie before.  They were explorers, learning about things that are interesting.  How can she ever go to a school where she is trapped inside all day?  How can she ever learn to raise her hand when she has something to say?  Or not to blurt out an answer?

School is only made bearable by the one friend that Prairie sets on making.  Her name is Ivy Blake.  She's clearly a loner and a pretty quiet one at that, but Prairie seeks her out and soon they are spending lots of time together, and Prairie actually starts to feel happy.  But as she slowly peels back the layers of Ivy's existence, Prairie realizes that things are not always as they seem.

Ellen Airgood has written a story of family, friendship and loss that while sad in measure is buoyed by an overarching feeling of hope.  Even though Prairie and Ivy are misfits on their own, together they are strong and they even each other out.  Ivy's family story is an intense one and is buffered by the Evers' family's cohesiveness.  There is a Southern feeling to this story despite the setting, and while the idea of the importance of making family is loud and clear, the story never gets eclipsed by it.  Prairie is a strong protagonist and readers are likely to admire her even as they cringe at her adjustments to school life.

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