More on chicks...

Since I'm not getting around to posting any pix/updates of my own - check out our dear friend Jason's entry on his blog, The Real Garden, about our newest members of the household.

Damn, they are cute.

Oh - we got our first egg of the season yesterday from the new adult chickens (we're still settling on names - they are eerily identical looking to Mabel and Leota) - a sure sign of spring!

A trip to the feed store...

Can you take a trip to the feed store to look at baby chicks and come home empty-handed?

Apparently not:

We brought these little darlings home from the Bothell Feed Store on Saturday afternoon, they're 6 days old today. They're cheeping and peeping away in the garage under their brooder lamp as I write, having managed to tear myself away for the evening not long ago.

A flock of 6 chickens in the city - are we crazy? Time will tell.

More on this topic in the coming weeks, no doubt...

March update

Spring is slowly emerging in the NW, soggy and grey for the most part with occasional patches of color...We're looking forward to the equinox this weekend - can it be that we're already halfway to summer?

It's been a wild month - earthquakes, nuclear catastrophes, and widespread misery for our neighbors in Japan, and the impacts ripple out from there touching all in its path to our western shores. This global web of ours is tightly woven, and it's hard to fathom the enormity of what's happened. The world anxiously watches, prays, grieves, mobilizes...And life carries on, albeit somewhat more gingerly.

We decided to acquire some companions for Amelia, after a month or so of pondering what the next move would be. Despite her age (8), we decided that it's no good to have only one chicken - such social creatures can't be happy alone for long, and she was showing signs of solitude. But since she's also the dominant hen, very young chickens wouldn't be able to hold their own against her. So after perusing craigslist for a couple of weeks, we happened upon a pair of 2-yr old Buff Orpingtons that needed a new home, and brought them home the other night.

They were introduced today, and so far it seems to be going ok. Started by putting them in the coop this morning, separated but able to see/hear each other. After a couple hours of that, we let them out in the yard all together under supervision. Minor bullying/pecking by Amelia - but nothing awful. After several more hours, we put them all in the coop together - and the establishment of the pecking order continues.

We're considering getting some baby chicks at the end of the month, and establishing a more age-diverse flock that will provide us with eggs every year while staggering the old-age end of life scenario we've had the past year with our original 3. Seattle allows up to 8 chickens per household now, I think we'd aim for 6 this year, and maybe add a couple each year or two?

Here are the new girls - they look just like Mabel and Leota, I know. No names yet.

Back from the coast

We had a great weekend out on the WA Coast, stayed in La Push and were delighted to encounter several days of brilliant (if frigid) sunshine...I've posted some photos from the weekend, we hiked the beaches (1st, 2nd, and Rialto) as well as the Hoh River (upper and lower) during the days, lounged about our swanky beachview cabin in the evenings and played cribbage, drank margaritas and regaled each other with our disparate memories of the past 20 years together.

We sent feathers and ashes out to sea one cold, brittle night under the full moon and the milky way, saying our farewells to Leota and Eleanor - and on our way back to the cabin stopped by a recently banked beach fire that we revived for an hour or so while we drank to the ladies and our good fortune.

To the coast

We're off this morning for a long weekend at the WA Coast, staying at a favorite spot on First Beach. It's one of the very first places we visited together - so we decided it would be the perfect place to celebrate our 20th anniversary. We've gone many times over the years, bringing our joys and our sorrows to the ocean at the farthest western edge of this continent.

We'll bring a few feathers from Leota, and Eleanor's remaining ashes, and our enduring love for each other, and stand once again on the edge with the tide at our feet.

And then there was one

A rough day today...A raccoon killed Leota this morning, right in the spot where she lost a fistful of tail feathers to a another one (or perhaps the same one) last spring. We let them out most mornings before we leave for work, while we have coffee and breakfast. They always alert us to trouble if there's any lurking, but today we heard not a peep until it was too late.

Leota was the bravest and most affable of our flock, with a raccoon-be-damned attitude that served her well the last eight years - she'd always come running out at bedtime for just one more worm or bite of green grass, with Amelia scolding away from the roost.

We are heartbroken, but think she'd have preferred this ending to a slow decline like that of her sister Mabel... So here's to one last worm, and our dear Leota.

c&b

Urban Hiking

We decided to be tourists in our own town, and hiked the Cheshiahud Loop around Lake Union in North Seattle today... It's a 6.2 mile trail around the lake, and offers glimpses into the working side of this urban amenity that we usually only see from our cars as we skirt it on our way to somewhere else.

The Seattle Times ran an article about a public art project that's been installed around the trail - which prompted us to check it out today. Alas, we never found any of the sites - but it was a great day revisiting parts of town that we haven't been to in years, and we were comforted to see that there are still large swaths of Seattle that haven't been utterly gentrified and overdeveloped...Just have to get out of the car and bus and go off the beaten trail a bit.

I shot photos as we looped around, and have to say the revelation of this set is how colorful a city it is, even on such a completely dreary day (compare sky and water to boats and buildings)...So lovely, we're very fortunate to have this at our doorstep!