Lazy lasagna garden, two months later

Remember my lazy version of the late to the game lasagna garden I created?

Well, it's been two months.  Nothing is really planted in it yet (soon.  I think.  I hope.), but the soil is absolutely gorgeous.  Black, full of worms, and healthy looking.  Luscious almost.  A girl could get spoiled by this kind of dirt.

Also, as you can see, I'm incredibly easy to buy a present for.  If it contains dirt, worms, or chicken poop, I'm a happy girl.

Yes, Troy is a lucky man.

Back in March, there was a part of the garden bed that I only covered in straw because a few tulips getting ready to bloom.  This is what the soil looks like now in that patch:

Here is the soil under the layers of cardboard, shredded paper, leaves, and straw looks like:

Um.  Yeah. 

I am a believer in lasagna gardening.  Less than 45 minutes of work for amazing healthy soil?  I couldn't haul and spread bags of compost in 45 minutes and get those same results.

Next test?  If stuff will actually grow in it!  Stay tuned.  I know you're on the edge of your seat.

A quilt for Violet

One of my best friends in the world, had her third baby recently.  Little Violet joined two older brothers, and inherited absolutely nothing of use from them. Well, nothing pretty at least.

Auntie Sarah simply couldn't allow that to stand.

The quilt is similar to a few of the last ones I've made.  It's from the book, Patchwork Style, which is worth the $13 just to see the crazy photos of the woman in the book closing her eyes in almost every picture.  Oh, and she is posing while eating an apple with a spoon.  Good times.

Megan loves bright colors, so I wanted to make sure little Violet wasn't bored to tears with pastels and muted tones.  The camera equipment, and cassette tapes honor the sacrifice that Violet's dad gave up by replacing his photo and music man-cave, for a baby girl's room.

The Star Trek is an ode to Megan's family tradition of watching the show every night growing up during dinner.  The Beatles show Megan and Ethan's love of music; one of their first dates was to a concert.  The Charlie Brown fabric is to reflect Megan's love of all things Peanuts (she walked down the aisle to a song from Peanuts), and the rest is just colorful fabric that I enjoyed and thought Miss Violet would enjoy spitting up all over.

I firmly think that girls in our society are "over pink-ified" and covered in glitter, sparkles, and "princess" monikers as soon as they are born.  The back of the quilt reflected that a pretty blue can be "feminine" and just as lovely as something that screams "I need a man to rescue me".  Boom.

Little Violet was so excited by her quilt, that she spent majority of the time snoozing in my arms.  Jack was a crazy busy infant - which has followed him in to childhood - so I am not used to a quiet and peaceful baby resting the afternoon away.

I'm in no hurry to be a single mom to two kids, but lawd have mercy, my ovaries were barking today.  Maybe some day Troy will have a steady job that allows us to have another one.

Until then, I have little Violet in my life.

I've shared this over at Back to the Basics, Backyard Farming Connection, From the Farm, Homestead Barn Hop.

Homemade Mondays week 29

Homemade Mondays is a series for people that are on a journey to better living, via healthier eating and a more natural lifestyle.  We realize that there are different paths that we all take to get to that place, and this bloghop celebrates that.  Whether you’re a seasoned raw foodist who has banned all things unnatural, or a rookie who is starting out by cutting out junk food, we’d love to hear from you! Link up with your favorite recipes, projects, crafts, or rants and raves.

The Hosts

Sarah of Being Frugal by Choice, Cheap by Necessity

Aubrey of Homegrown & Healthy 

How to

Homemade Mondays will open every Monday. You have until Thursday to make your submissions. We will share our favorite posts on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and shout it from the rooftops.

• Link up. Use the submission form below to add your blog posts to our gallery below. You can add as many links as you’d like, as long as they’re on topic. What’s eligible? Recipes, crafts, DIY projects, gardening, fitness, green ideas or just plain old advice. We’re pretty open.
• Tell us about yourselves. Leave a comment telling us a little about your site and what you’ve shared. Of course this isn’t mandatory, but it’s a good way to stand out.
• Link back. Share the love by adding a link back to this party with your readers so they can see all of these great ideas as well.

The most clicked post from last week was "Agave Syrup is Bad For You" by Small Footprint Family.

Meal plan for May 19th - 26th

My sister and brother-in-law are keeping Jack next Saturday.  We took my nephew last weekend, so it is a bit of a swap.  This week, Troy and I had the following conversation about our "free time":

Me: hey sweetie, I have a great idea for Saturday afternoon.
Troy: oh yeah?
Me: yeah.  It will take about 2 hours. :wink:
Troy: :eyebrows raise:
Me: it's something we can't do when Jack is around...
Troy: :eyebrows now up in his hairline:
Me: we, can...
Troy: :looks at me expectantly:
Me: finally clean the garage!!!!
Troy: :shoulders sag, and he walks away:

Needless to say, our garage is finally getting cleaned out this coming weekend.  Yippee!

Chicken Naming Contest results!
I'm pretty sure that anyone who read the comments kinda instantly knew what her name would be.

Of course.  Of course.  OF COURSE I would pick "Mother Clucker".  Around little ears though, we're going to call her "Momma".

The girls are hilarious, and we're so pleased to have them here finally.  We'll be more pleased when they get around to laying eggs, but all in good time.  We added more sand this week, and then last night I added a bunch of white wood shavings (word on the street is cedar is toxic for the chickies) to the floor.  When I started dreaming of a coop about two years ago, I really wanted to do the deep litter method, but with the coop design I chose, I was worried about the shavings getting all wet and clumpy.  Now that we've have the ladies in there for a week, I can see where the rain comes in, so I tried to place the shavings in the drier spots.  I know they'll kick it everywhere, but I can only do what I can do!

The shavings were a welcome distraction for the girls, as I could tell they were a little bored.  They were starting to pick feathers out of each other and were having a game of chase around the coop with them in their beaks.

One two separate occasions, 5:30 and 11 am, I've caught a raccoon watching "chicken TV".  Le sigh.  The coop is solid and Troy did a fab job securing the hardware cloth, but a mama always worries.  I eventually want a chicken tractor so that they can be a bit more "free range" in the yard, but the 11 am raccoon visit has me a little stressed about letting them out of the safety of their strong coop.

In other news, my chickens are morons.

They can't figure out how to roost, so every night at 9:30 pm, I have to go out and pick them up and put them on the roosts.  Within seconds, they're on the divider between the coop part and the rest of the run, and they stay there until morning.  Yesterday, I caught them all in a cluster sleeping on the stairs up to the coop.  Dummies.

Meal plan time!  Reminder, I only plan dinners, because breakfast is always smoothies or eggs with something, and lunches are always leftovers.  We rarely eat dessert during the week, and our dinner drink of choice is water kefir soda.

Monday:: Organic hot dogs from Trader Joes, coleslaw, and grilled asparagus.

Tuesday:: I'm working late.  Booooooo.  Let's say leftovers or cereal.

Wednesday:: Grilled shrimp kebabs, grilled asparagus, and an Asian noodle salad that I just found the recipe for in my homemade recipe book.

Thursday:: Breakfast for dinner.

Friday:: Popcorn dinner.  Yes, seriously we eat popcorn for dinner.  It's popcorn, leftovers, cheese slices, fruit, and cut up veggies.  Everyone gets as much as they want, and no one leaves hungry.  I adore Fridays because it is the easiest night of the week for making everyone happy!

Saturday:: Chicken salad on pretzel rolls, and whatever veggie I can find on sale.

Sunday:: Family dinner at my parent's.

I didn't track my spending this week, but I still have cash leftover, so I know I was under budget!

What are you guys having?

Name my chicken!

Alright folks, my chickens are named.

All save for one.

I left one unnamed intentionally. Why?  Because I wanted to let one of you name her.

Golden Star chicken

Boom!

Chicken naming contest time!

Rules
1) Leave a comment with your name suggestion in the comments.
2) Post prior to 8 pm PT on Saturday
3) I will pick my favorite name, and announce it Sunday during my meal plan

As you can see from previous names, I am pretty ok with almost any kind of name as long as it is creative and fun!

Welcome to Downton Eggey, my cute coop tour

My father-in-law dubbed this the Taj Mahal of chicken coops.  I wouldn't go that far (I've seen a chicken coop with a chandelier in it), but I love it with all my heart.

We could have gone simpler.  We could have gone cheaper.  But, good golly, we did not.  As a result, the coop has been formally named, Downton Eggey.

We live in a neighborhood with very small lots - I live on less than one-fifth of an acre - and because the houses are so close together, many various neighbors would have this coop in very close proximity to them.  Also, our town doesn't have any laws about chickens, and I didn't want to put up something that would cause them to create some!  Basically, I wanted this to be visually pleasing, and neighbor approved.

Also?  I wanted to be able to stand up in this thing.  I'm 6 ft tall, and didn't want to be stooped when cleaning.

The coop is based on this design, and we stayed pretty true to it. The original link has better building step by step photos.

Troy found some plexiglass in the garage, and built an egg window.  I know, right???

He pulled a rock from the weeds in the side yard, and added it to the coop for a chicken "zen garden".

Instead of spending time digging a trench to bury hardware cloth around the coop to prevent predators from tunneling, we got smart and just laid it across the floor and attached it to the floor beams.  Troy used an air compressor to do all the stapling, and said that if a raccoon can pull those staples out, he deserves to eat a chicken.  Ahem.

The floor is sand so that I can just rake it to clean up the poop.  Kind of like a giant litter box.  We are in a rainy area, so the idea of sand was appealing as it drains well and fast!

The paint is leftover green from Jack's room, mixed with leftover white from god knows where.  The stain on the beams is leftover from when we stained the deck last summer.  Almost all the latches, hooks, and hardware was free, thanks to my dumpster diving spouse.  Many of these things came from movie and TV sets in Los Angeles, back when we lived there and Troy worked on various sets.  At the end of each production, the odds and ends would be thrown out.  Troy was always happy to take them instead of letting them be put in the trash.

Total cost?  I have no idea.  Probably about $600ish.  I've been saving my garden budget money ($30 a month), and I used every rebate we've received in the last year.  This is the coop that contacts, fridges, and energy upgrades built.  The most expensive items were the hardware cloth, and the gutter system that Troy really wanted.  All the work was done by Troy and my father-in-law.

Chicken Details
I started out wanting mainly Buff Orpingtons, but I ended up with only one.  Due to Troy's allergies to anything adorable and covered in fur or feathers, we couldn't do a brooder with baby chicks (boo).  I found a local farm that raised their chickens organically, and had older coop-ready ones for sale.  You just had to roll the dice that they had something you wanted.

What I got was one Buff, and five Golden Star (two of those goldens are gingers, i.e., redder goldens).  The two breeds are known for their friendliness, and the Stars are egg laying machines.  All my girls are about 10 weeks old, and should start laying in about two to three months.

They've yet to realize there is a nesting and roosting area in the coop, and they sleep in a little pile of chickens on the floor in the corner.  Silly birds.

Shall we meet the ladies?
In a really rookie move, last year we told Jack he could name two of them.  Really, giving carte blanche to a (then) three year old was pretty stupid.  That being said...this is Poo Poo Sandwiches:

This is "A Chicken Knocks on a Door, whaaaaaaaaaa?":

Thanks to my friend's nine and six year olds, this "Yolk-o Bock Bock":

I fell in love with the book The Power of One earlier this year.  As an homage to a character in that book, please meet "Grandpa Chook".  Yep, it is a female chicken, and I've named her "Grandpa", but oh well.

(Hold me) Troy named this one Egg Shen after a character in Big Trouble, Little China.:

This one doesn't have a name yet either.  Stay tuned for details.:

The coop was a two year dream for me, and took months to complete because of Troy's crappy work schedule, but it was so worth the wait.  I'm so pleased and overwhelmed to finally be a chicken owner.

Best.Mother's.Day.EVER!

I've shared this over at Homestead Barn Hop Backyard Farming Connection, Back to Basics, An Oregon Garden Cottage, and From the Farm.

Homemade Mondays, week 28

Homemade Mondays is a series for people that are on a journey to better living, via healthier eating and a more natural lifestyle.  We realize that there are different paths that we all take to get to that place, and this bloghop celebrates that.  Whether you’re a seasoned raw foodist who has banned all things unnatural, or a rookie who is starting out by cutting out junk food, we’d love to hear from you! Link up with your favorite recipes, projects, crafts, or rants and raves.

The Hosts

Sarah of Being Frugal by Choice, Cheap by Necessity

Aubrey of Homegrown & Healthy 

How to

Homemade Mondays will open every Monday. You have until Thursday to make your submissions. We will share our favorite posts on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and shout it from the rooftops.

• Link up. Use the submission form below to add your blog posts to our gallery below. You can add as many links as you’d like, as long as they’re on topic. What’s eligible? Recipes, crafts, DIY projects, gardening, fitness, green ideas or just plain old advice. We’re pretty open.
• Tell us about yourselves. Leave a comment telling us a little about your site and what you’ve shared. Of course this isn’t mandatory, but it’s a good way to stand out.
• Link back. Share the love by adding a link back to this party with your readers so they can see all of these great ideas as well.

Our most viewed post from last week was "10 Ways I Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle" from My Epicurean Adventures.