How did you use your extra day?

Well it's the day that mostly does not exist. At least 75% of the time. I hope you used it well and didn't squander it like all the rest of your days with so much laziness and sloth. I know I didn't. In fact I just got back from stuffing myself at my favorite local Mexican restaurant, El Minuto, with more abandon than usual simply because it was an extra, special day. And now I have updated Chicken Diction. (Whew.) All very important things. Don't you think that we should all be paid overtime for working an extra day this year? Time and a half is definitely our due, I say. Tonight I think I will cut my hair. Wow. What would I have ever done without an extra day like this. This is your day to make a difference. Don't frack it up. That's right, I'm addicted to Battlestar Galactica, and I'm not afraid to say it. And I'll use my extra day however I please.

Happy Leap Year Day from an old The Who poster!

Chickens in the News! #6

Consider this your first Public Service Announcement mixed with the News!....

Beware people in chicken mascot suits! One minute they will be protesting alongside PETA in Manila, Philippines against some horrible abuse of the International Declaration of Poultry Rights...


...and the next they will biting the heads of your children! You never know what will come over someone dressed in a giant chicken suit. Don't let this happen to you or someone you love.


This has been a message from your local Chicken Diction broadcasting network. You now may return to your regular scheduled programming.

The Inside Coop #2

Second only the fact that I am now into the triple digits of blog posting, is what took place on Wednesday: ALL FIVE HENS laid eggs! And if that wasn't fantabulous enough, I made the startling discovery that one of the Araucanas is masquerading as a Buff Orpington by laying not green, but beige colored eggs. That's right, we have a South-American-Cracker-wannabe-Araucana-in-drag chicken in the hen house. While this may have skewed the daily egg count in terms of which delegates are assigned to which variety of chickens, I think the most important lesson that is to be learned in this week's edition of The Inside Coop, is that chickens are indeed very talented and crafty little beings. Yeah. There are many many layers that make up a chicken, especially in this Menlo Park backyard of Tucson, Arizona.


Please join me next week for the third installment of The Inside Coop (brought to you by Chicken Diction Inc. and created by our good friend and neighbor, Caryn).

BIG NEWS.

This is the 100th post on Chicken Diction and that is BIG NEWS. Big like this...

So it calls for some BIG celebration. Like this...

For the record.

Occasionally I find the need to stray from the not-so-subtle object of this blog and address matters of near equal importance to the goings-on of my backyard brood of hens. So for all you folks out there who are caught up in the fantasy world of dynasty-love, regurgitated go-get-'em politics, or the cult of personality, here you go. Being better than Bush does not mean they are better than each other.

Ode to Quoits.

For those lost souls out there who don't know what quoits (pronounced quaits) are, here is a quick tutorial of this wondrous sport. It's similar to horseshoes but a shorter distance (21 feet to be exact), shorter pegs, and instead of the open horseshoe shape it is a brass doughnut shape thus making "ringers" that much more difficult and therefore emotional. For more detail than you would ever want and some slightly awkward pictures of mostly overweight, middle-aged, white men, see the website for the United States Quoiting Association (really). You can even purchase your own set there. Here is evidence of the hours of enjoyment one can have playing quoits: we had to set out outdoor lighting to keep playing after dark! My set did not in fact come from the USQA website, but but from our dear friend Phil in Virginia, who is currently up for sainthood in our household due to his enormous generosity and strength of character for parting ways with this most beauteous set of quoits. Our dear friend Andrew also deserves a round of well wishes and prayers due to his self-sacrificing nature and allowing me to take this particular set when offered by Phil since as he said, "they make them right across the street from my house in Lancaster, Pennsylvania." That's right folks, this is me getting back to my Mennonite heritage and my only form of proselytizing - encouraging others to play this ever versital game of skill and technique, while most likely drinking beer.

Chickens in the News! #5

This is one of the best chicken stories I have ever come across. I wish I had thought of this when I was still in school...

85 hens close Phila. high school

By Sam Woods and Robert Moran
INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS

Who let the birds out?

A fowl prank closed a Philadelphia high school today, canceling classes for 3,600 students.

Eighty-five "full-blown live chickens" - identified later today as Rhode Island Reds - were discovered roaming the halls of Northeast Philadelphia High School this morning as faculty arrived before dawn.

"They've created quite a mess," said Fernando Gallard, spokesman for the school district. "It's going to take us at least a day to clean up."

The flock was let into the school on Cottman Avenue over the weekend. (Read more...)

News of a planting.

We got all excited and busy today, mixed up some compost with the soil, dug some little trenches and dropped in some seeds. Now some of you might say that February 10 is pretty early to be putting seeds in the ground. And you have every right to say that. But we still did it and I can't wait to see everything grow. Here is the list of what we planted and seeded today in no particular order...

Chives
Green Zebra Tomatoes
Big Red Cherry Tomats
Bull nose bell peppers
Miniature yellow bell peppers
Lettuce Mix
Arugula
Kale
Silverbeet (Chard)
Radishes
Purple Basil
Thai Basil
Sweet Basil (there is never enough basil)
Jalepeno peppers
Black Hungarian peppers
Cantelope (Amish melon)
Yellow Hopi Watermelon (actually a few days ago)
Rocoto hot peppers (from Peru)
Egg plant
Mint
Spearmint
Double yield Cucumbers
Empress Green Beans

I also spread a ton of grass seed I had collected from hiking and other random places in the back behind my fence along with some wildflowers and other stuff just to see if it will grow or not.

Then we watered in all the seeds we planted and I sat there wishing I could see it pop up then and there. The tomatoes, peppers and eggplant are only seeded and will have to be transplanted in a few weeks or more. You should all come over in a couple months and I will cook you some food from the backyard!

Saturday in the backyard.

Today was amazingly beautiful outside here in Tucson and I was able to catch the last rays of the afternoon in the backyard with a book. It was fabulous after working most of the day inside. Today when I collected the eggs (three of them!) this Araucana egg had little balls of what seem to be calcium deposits. They felt very hard to the touch but when I washed it, they all came off individually. I have never seen anything like this. Have a look...

Beautiful flowers growing in the basins.

We have broccoli going crazy right now. It is some of the sweetest broccoli I have ever tasted straight off the stalk. The carrots have amazing flavor as well. Tomorrow we will seed as much as we can for the spring/summer gardens.

The Inside Coop #1

Let us begin a new chapter in the Chicken Diction library of knowledge so that we may further educate all the faithful readers of this holy book of fowlish lore...The Inside Coop. After hearing the cries of the local masses I am giving you what all of you want: a probably-weekly but definitely-regular update of the goings-on of life in the near famous backyard of Menlo Park.

1. The chickens have survived the freezes quite well, however Cracker decided to go on a very long sabbatical from egg laying. Fortunately she has come round as of today.

2. One of the Araucanas got loose on Sunday, which was not anywhere near as exciting as one would have expected or even hoped for as he was writing a blog about such an event. It appears that the chicken aviary has become quite a fulfilling home for the five feathered friends in the back, as she hustled right back in as soon as I could manage to open the door and chase her in.

3. Most exciting was what I found in the chicken house today...

...Granted, we hadn't checked for two and a half days.

Chickens in the News! #4

If only our choices were as fun as this...

Oh Groundhog Day...

Happy Friday!