MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - Three Mexican minors detained in California on suspicion of smuggling drugs stole a U.S. Border Patrol car while still wearing handcuffs and drove it back across the border to Mexico...(oops)
Ahmadinejad visits NYC and is treated as Bush should be
Navy to mask Coronado's swastika-shaped barracks
CORONADO, Calif., -- The U.S. Navy has decided to spend as much as $600,000 for landscaping and architectural modifications to obscure the fact that one its building complexes looks like a swastika from the air...(why not just stick with honesty?)
Sunday we planted three beds of vegetables for our winter garden. Everything from broccoli to kale to lettuce and carrots. I have high hopes for this planting for a couple of reasons. The first is that with the help of Chris, Megan, and Jonathan we dug two completely new veggie beds that are no longer under the looming shade of the large Chilean mesquite tree in my backyard (which incidentally is fabulous for the summer beds). Last year the veggies definitely suffered from too much shade and not enough warmth, so hopefully this will be the solution. Also, I was able to add some lush, dark beautiful compost to all these beds. Between the large amounts of food scraps, weeds, shredded documents from the office, and the occasional load of food scraps from the local co-op, not to mention the chickens own special fertilizer and their help digging around in the compost, this was by far the best concoction of natural, home-made compost I have ever been a part of.
Supposedly the seeds I planted on Sunday will grow into food that one day this fall and winter we will cook, fry, steam, and eat. I have seen this work before. I have been a part of it and even responsible for it, but I never cease to be awed at the magic that takes place under that dark warm soil, only to poke its head out and eventually make its way to my mouth. There is always a bit of a question mark hanging in the air after such acts of believing. And really in the end, there is so much that has nothing to do with me. Very strange indeed. But satisfying. Really damn satisfying. Especially when it works.
There are some friends of mine who think that having chickens in my backyard is strange. Seriously. Everything from blank stares to uncomfortable pauses followed by a "wow..." that trails off into some other discussion. The number of times I get asked "what do you have chickens for?" is quite astounding considering that each person in this country consumes 250 eggs per year(two eggs every third day) and 53 pounds of chicken (that's about a drumstick a day). Regardless of the (unenlightened) crazed looks I may sometimes receive from friends and acquaintances, nothing compares to this. ↓ This family in Syria keeps hyenas as pets. Now, I once spent the night on the Serengeti in Tanzania while studying there. Me and 26 other people were camped out in a circle, only to be woken to the most devilish cry from the depths of hell I have ever heard in my short three-decade life, coming from a full-grown smiling, big-eared animal seen above. I can't imagine waking up to that on a regular basis, and if my neighbors and friends knew just how terrible that sound was, they would be overwhelmingly thanking me for my choice of backyard chickens. But from now on when I get strange looks about raising chickens for eggs, compost, and entertainment, I will say, "well at least I don't have hyenas for pets." That'll make 'em think.
This saying will surely join "it's hotter than the inside of a live chicken!" in its place as a colloquial, well-read opinion on the general state of things. I now give it to the blogging world as but a small contribution to an ever growing sea of knowledge that helps us get through our day. You're welcome world.
It is no surprise to anyone that I am a helpless/hopeless romantic, but this is one of my most favorite new films (somehow Will Ferrel is endearing), and this scene and song has been stuck in my head for days. Now it will be stuck in yours. Enjoy.
In case you were wondering how we know which chicken gives which egg, here you can see the obvious difference between the darker Rhode Island Red (Hayduke) eggs and the lighter egg from the Buff Orpington (Cracker). The Araucanas (Sally, Maria Algo, and Al Carbon) have yet to start laying, and once they do they should have blue-ish green colored eggs. In any case, pretty soon we will be swimming in eggs (mmm...nice thought huh?) of all colors. And if you have never had the experience of walking out of your house each morning and finding eggs just waiting for you in the chicken house, then you should come visit and you too will able to make an omelette with the freshest of eggs and basil from our garden. It will be one of the most satisfying meals you can ever eat - until you do it again.
So the really cool, non-technical, and not so boring reason that us residents in this here Menlo Park household care about this chicken aviary, is because we get to go away for long weekends backpacking in places like Aravaipa Canyon just outside of Mammoth, AZ and not worry about the rebel hens in our backyard and if they are bringing about the revolution right under our noses. And if you don't know where Mammoth, AZ is you are not missing that much and even though it is "home of the Mammoth burger" the name of the town is decidedly a lie.
Beginning of the Canyon.
Old wise tree.
Action shot of me being a boy and throwing rocks into a big cave.
If mud dries up and no one sees it dry up, is it still mud?
Thank you all for your many wonderful suggestions and solutions for the chicken menace that has roamed my yard freely and with impunity over that past couple months. I finally settled the matter once and for all with an enormous piece of shade cloth that has been effectively tented over the "chicken area" with posts and rope. The effect is a more shaded space that fully contains the chickens and their powerful flying ability that even allowed them to roost on the roof of my house one night. They seem content enough, though they regularly make clucking noises at me as I work around in the backyard, which is considerably more than before. Yet at least one chicken is laying eggs daily it seems and the compost is getting the attention it needs from my hens. There is one tree that I have enclosed in this "chicken aviary" and at one point it will become tall enough that a different strategy will need to be employed, but that is also part of the convenience of this solution, as I have the flexibility to easily remove it should I want to.
Anyways, here is a picture of it:
The chicken aviary also doubles as a filming location for the set of M.A.S.H.
For all you nay-sayers and skeptics out there who thought my short-term love affair with chicken herding was as last year as the atkins diet and democracy, well here I am, and this time with huevos...
It has been a full summer with many technological challenges including a non-functioning camera that mysteriously healed itself like Benny Hinn himself touched it, a burned-out computer hard-drive that crashed after Tshilo touched it, and then the lack of appropriate technology to properly contain the small platoon of hens armed with their very own fertilizer IEDs. Finally, everything is back up and running, and the chickens are on indeterminate large group lock-down thanks the wonders of a petroleum based shade cloth that currently encapsulates the entirety of the fenced-in chicken area. Not only are the chickens eagerly rummaging through the compost as they were always meant to do, they have after only one week of confinement began producing eggs. That's right, all it took was some penal incarceration in order to properly exploit these hens reproductive powers for our nutritional enjoyment.
And though we already had the official "coming out" party (interpret that as you wish) for these illustrious hens of ours back in July, I would like to dedicate the following youtube video to the loss of their egg-laying virginity...
...tending chickens and gardening in his little slice of the sonoran desert, meanwhile musing about the general state of things and telling you all about it (and more) as he goes - because having a blog means people care, right?
