Holiday Card and Outtakes

Every year for the holidays my photographer husband comes up with a creative way to include the entire family in our Christmas card.  Since our newest addition to the "Smith Farm" is our kitty that we fostered, then adopted, he became this years highlight!  When we first brought Blue home his name was Wren, but it just wasn't sticking.  "Blue" is such a great name because we get to use it so many ways!  "You're my boy, Blue!" (for those who don't know it's from the movie Old School) or "Big Blue" because we are avid NYG fans and he happens to be big...and blue!  And now "We're having a BLUE Christmas without you" (c'mon everyone knows Elvis)! 

Time of the Season

Sauvie Island Pumpkin Patch 2012

Summer is officially over! I've always loved season changes and fall has always been my favorite. I love the change in temperature, the occasional drizzle, and of course my favorite is the beautiful colors on the trees! That being said I am definitely going to miss being out in the garden and hanging with the chicks! It's sad buying tomatoes in the store, and our egg carton is running a little empty. Baby Bird (Shelly) is almost full grown and she is gorgeous, and the shorter days and chilly weather has started Martini's first "molt". It was alarming to go in the yard afer a few days and see her featherless neck and missing tail feathers. She is supposed to be even more beautiful when her new feathers come in but right now she looks sick! Egg production stops and all of her energy is put into making new feathers so only Layla is laying currently. Eggberta never started back up since she became a mom, and Shelly has 2 more months until her first egg.
We have a couple fall crops in the works ~ brussel sprouts, peas, broccoli, lettuce, arugula, turnips, spinach but they aren't looking too promising. I actually didn't realize we had the much left until I just wrote it! The garden looks so empty compared to how it looked just a month ago. I'd say the cherry tomatoes were the biggest hit. They grew so big and produced so much! Cam's never been a tomato fan but he is now after eating them off the vine. 

Last week we planted some orange and yellow mums in the front yard, along with ornamental kale in purple and white to celebrate renewing our lease. Yup, that's right we're in PDX for another year! We love it here but who knows what's on the agenda for 2014. Hopefully our credit will be back on track so we can look into buying a home again. I'd love to live on a farm with chickens and goats and cows! Maybe even a pot-bellied pig?

 

Martini's first MOLT!

The bright side to the chillier weather ~ seasonal brews!!





EggBerta is a Momma Hen!

She's a stressed out mom...as I would be!  She's a worry wart!

I couldn't resist, I had to make our broody Wyandotte a mom!  I'd toyed with the idea of getting a half dozen fertilized eggs and putting them under her to hatch, but we're not quite ready for that yet!  We only have room for 1 more full grown hen, and I wouldn't know what to do with the extra chickies...and what if one hatched a rooster?!  One of these days we'll have a house with a big yard and coop and for sure a handsome rooster, but currently we're only allowed 3 hens. The only other option was to get a 3 day old chick from the Urban Farm Store and pull the ole' switch-er-oo!  When we originally got EggBerta she was supposed to be an Americauna so we thought it fitting for her to mother one :)   I did some research and called the Farm Store and the babies were arriving on Friday.  The only problem was that I work until 7pm and the store closes at 6pm, so I put the idea out of my mind and figured we'd just wait until her next period of broodiness ~ it just wasn't meant to be. As luck would have it, right before I went to lunch that very same Friday my supervisor asked me to leave 2 hours early to make up for OT.  It didn't even hit me until the ride home at 5 that we could make it to the store! It was a sign! I called Cam and told him I'd be pulling up shortly and to meet me out front, and off we were to get Shelly!  There were a lot of different breeds at the store but we only looked at the "Easter Eggers" and picked out the newest member of our flock, headed home, and waited just a little bit before we made the move. 

Oddly enough when we went in the yard EggBerta was out and about and I feared that her broody period was over. The chick was cheepin' away and when EggBerta finally went back on her nesting box we got the chick and placed it under her!  Shelly took to her new mom right away but EggBerta wasn't sure what to do!  She was pecking the chick to keep it underneath her and kind of started to purr, or coo.  It was cute.  We stayed outside until dark to make sure everyone was well behaved, and I was up at the crack of dawn next morning anxious to see how the night went.

We weren't too sly about it!

It's fun to watch EggBerta come down the ramp and that little ball of fluff peepin' and cheepin' to keep up!  During the day mom and baby have been staying in the chicken run with their own food and water, but on my lunch break and when I'm home in the am and pm they graze around the yard under our supervision.  Right now I'm gazing out the kitchen window watching them in amazement. Shelly will be able to fend for herself and be on her own in 6 week.  I hope EggBerta looks after her until then!



Shelly grazing on
her own.

I think my birds gone crazy!

UH-Oh!  I've heard of it but thought it was just a myth!  EggBerta's maternal instints have kicked in and she is determined to sit on her (imaginary) eggs and hatch them into babies!  I've tried explaining to her that we don't have a rooster so none of they eggs are fertilized...I've even removed the eggs from the nest but she still sits in her roosting box all by her loneseome ~ and she is ANGRY!  We noticed that she was missing a lot one day (longer than it takes for her to lay an egg) and when we went to the box she squawked at us!  She sounded like a dinosaur so we were calling her the Jurassic Park chicken.  She's stopped laying altogether because in her mind she already has her "clutch" and she's even slowed the others production because they are afraid to go lay next to her!  It's very tempting to buy her some fertilized eggs and let her carry out her motherly roll...stay tuned!

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 :)