We have an EGG!

The circle of life!

Can you guess who laid it?!  The gals are a week shy of 5 months so we weren't really egg-specting any so soon!  I went out to feed the girls some cherry tomatoes and couldn't find my Tweety Martini!  She's the Speckled Sussex and is ALWAYS the first to greet me...and here I was feeding Layla and EggBerta and she was nowhere to be found.  I panicked.  I called in the house to Cameron and told him I couldn't find her.  I asked my neighbor who was in her backyard if she had seen her (her response was that she had and she tasted really good...which wasn't very comforting!) and Cam calmly walked over to the coop, opened the door to the nesting box, and lo and behold! 

Thatta Girl!! You did it!!

There was Martini crouched in her nesting box :)

What an amazingingly great day :)   We celebrated, gave Tweety Martini some milk and chicken scratch, and went in and tested it out!  They yolk was so orange!  I'd heard that it would be since they are allowed free range and can eat bugs and worms, but still it was a nice treat :)

Carton Egg on Left ~ Backyard Egg on Right



The Proudest Hen :)









Happy Friday the 13th!!

Had a pretty crappy start to this 13th...I failed my written Oregon drivers license test....DOH!  But nothing a little 5 mile run can't cure, and a deep clean to the house ~ and of course my Hens, Husband and Dogs. 

They will make mostly anything better :)



I love the crazy Portland weather.

 I'm training for a half marathon in Eugene at the end of this month on the 29th.  Went out for a little 5 mile run today and on the way back got nailed with hail and completely drenched with rain ~ while the sun was shining?!  Having recently moved from the desert this totally amazes me and I love it.  I've always been one to enjoy the cloudy rainy days.  That being said I was a litte bummed that it happened while I was 2 miles away from my house lol and then I saw this!  I must've taken 15 pictures of it.  I was cold and wet and tired but I forgot about it all.  What a beautiful city I live in...can't wait to see what Spring has in store!! 

 "Some people feel the rain.  Others just get wet."

Smarty Chicks!

I can't belive how smart my lovely ladies are!  They may be food motivated but they sure do have little personalities.  Sometimes I think it's not only the food that motivates, but the human company :)  Especially my Speckled Sussex named Martini.  She will do anything to be by my side.  LayLa and EggBerta follow me around as well, but they get sidetracked by works and non human things sometimes.  Today all 3 ladies were in their coop but kept sticking their beaks out for the food that they had availably\e all day (since 7am).  I'm pretty sure they just wanted me to hang for a bit so I did :)

Time Management!

I want to publish to my blog more frequently but never feel like I have enough time.  I've been unemployed for 6 months and don't have any kids...but I still don't have enough!  I don't necessarily want more in a day (well okay of course I do :) )  but I feel like i'm not sure if I want to live the day or come in here and write about it!  I mean do I come inside from sitting in the backyard with my husband and the dogs and beautiful chickens while I'm watchin the garden to come in and write about how relaxing and rewarding it is?  But if I don't, then how I am supposed to remember all of the joy that it brings when I start losing my marbles :)
Questions questions.  SO how is it that I am writing now?  The chicks are not yet in the coop because the sun hasn't set, the dogs are on the bed, and Cam is in the living room.  I used the bathroom and decided to pop in really quick because although I may be missing a minute or 2 I think it's special to pop in and write about our simpleton lives (at the moment).  We built a cage (took about 2 hours but it FLEW by..no pun intended) to keep the chicks out of our newly planted garden (carrots, beets, red onions, green onions, and radishes), learned how to "blow out" the Duck and Goose Eggs that we bought at the Portland Farmers Market yesterday (we're about to make a spinach goose egg casserole for dinner!) and had some brews while enjoying the sun and wind on our deck little porch...  Really looking forward to the spring when everything is in bloom. 

Shamrock Run ~ My First 15K

I've always wanted to run a marathon or participate in a race but never quite got past the "wanting to" stage.  Luckily for me my best friend Rebekka has been training for a half marathon, so upon moving to Portland I had a built in training buddy :)  Bekka has a full time job and the cutest little 1 1/2 year old son and I admire her devotion to running!  She doesn't have much spare time but always manages to fit in a run - which makes me feel like I can't make any excuses because at the moment I'm unemployed and don't have a little kiddo on my hands!
Running is great.  Like they say, Getting out the door is the hardest part!  Once you're out there all that matters is the run and everything else fades into the background.  I love monitoring my progress and seeing how I've improved each day and week! 
Last Sunday was my first official race - The Shamrock Run!  I signed up for the 15K which is 9.3 miles and from what I'd been hearing it was a pretty aggressive route for my first run.  It began at Waterfront Park and went up through the middle of downtown, near the hospital, and back along the waterfront.  I was nervous for my first race so didn't want anyone at the finish line besides my husband Cameron (and at the time I wasn't even sure if I wanted him there with his big ole' camera!) but next time I'm definitely ready for a big cheering section!  The weather was Portland, so gray and rainy, but before I knew it I was past all of the hills at the 6 mile marker!  I had no idea - it flew by!  I must say that the last 3 miles down were definitely the toughest especially because I had sprained my ankle at the Humane Society a few days prior.  I finished better than I had expected at 1:28:30!  What an accomplishment!  Afterwards a bunch of up met for brunch at Besaws on NW 23rd and it was delicious.  Rebekka and Damien were there with Elias, Lauren (who has been training with Bekka since before I moved here) and her husband Dusty, and Cathy and her daughter Sopia. 
Although I'm still limping I've already signed up to achieve my next goal - the Half Marathon in Eugene on April 29th!  Me, Rebekka, and Lauren are all going to run with our husbands cheering us on on the sidelines. 
Wish me Luck!

We have a Speckled Sussex!

I'm new to Portland and everything that comes along with it...and I'm in LOVE!

Less than a month after we moved in November I got baby chicks, and being that I'm new to chicken keeping I read up and learned as much as I could! I went to the store with 3 birds in mind...a Plymouth Rock, and Americauna, and a Silver Laced Wyandotte. The gal who worked at the store steered me away from the Rhode Island (not sure why I hear they are great birds) and talked me into getting a Barred Plymouth Rock who we named "Lay-la". They had Wyandottes but only Blue Laced Red and we named her "Tweety Martini", and the Americauna we named "Egg-berta" (since my maiden name is Egbert!). The were all so cute such little balls of fluff! I loved so much watching them grow!

A few weeks ago though I was looking at Egg-Berta and she just wasn't turning into what I thought she would look like but she is SO PRETTY! And Martini was confusing me because Wyandottes are supposed to have such a pretty pattern and hers wasn't coming in. I had also read in a few places that people who own Wyandottes consider them great layers and pretty to look at but not very social with humans and Martini is the exact opposite of that! She runs right up to me when she hears my voice and is the only one of the three that will tolerate me picking her up! I went back to the store and showed them pictures and Egg-Berta is the Blue-Laced Red Wyandotte and Martini is..yup, a Speckled Sussex! I was a little disapointed at first because without the Americauna we won't be getting pink, blue, or green eggs - but the description of the SS fit Martini to a T!  So now I call them my "imposter" chickens.  Out of the 3 breeds I wanted I only ended up with one, but I love all my ladies!