summertime

(Note: Hen update below this post!)

The very first day the neighborhood kiddie pool was open, we went. And the next day, and the day after that. When they're not in the pool, they're imitating fish or asking to go to the pool. I think these boys are going to like actually swimming when they get that far! We have two kiddie pools and a lake beach within walking distance, and meet up with friends 2 or 3 times a week to either go to the playground or the pool. These days, I even get to sit on a bench and chat with the other moms. I know, it's rough...

We got a bit of sad news this past week when we learned we're going to lose our giant backyard elm tree to Dutch Elm Disease. It will cost a pretty penny to remove, and it's loss will change the landscape of our yard and surrounding yards dramatically.

It's the largest elm in the immediate neighborhood by far, and it's a good 25 or more years older than our 1926 house. We'll plant another tree or two right away, and hope that we have at least some shade again in a few years. It's so sad that the city is losing all these trees to this disease, but also a reminder that planting pretty much only one species over an entire city is a terrible idea. At least we are slowly rebuilding the arbor the Midwest is known for and replacing the mono-culture with a diverse, and therefore less vulnerable, assortment of trees.

We recently had a nice family meal together at a local cafe, celebrating all the fathers and one father-to-be. We end up at this hippyish place kind of by accident, as the place we'd intended to meet at was closed, but the outdoor patio worked really well for our group. I've actually been coming to this particular cafe on and off for about 15 years! In all that time, the menu has remained pretty much the same.

Somehow, Oliv*er always ends up trying on Uncle Scot*t's hat.

I love the picture above, because it depicts the wonderful chaos that our family gatherings are becoming. Emi*ly's holding Zo*e so that Jenni*fer can eat, Jennif*er is going to get some forgotten item, and I'm not even at the same table as everyone else. Everyone stayed happy, and everyone eventually got to eat. That's all that matters, right?

I don't exactly understand why, but whenever we take the boys to a restaurant, they eat like they have hollow legs. Should I be taking this personally? I'm going to choose not to, because they eat very well in general, and if they'd just keep their rear ends in their seats and quit trying to touch toes under the table, mealtimes would be golden.

It was a very busy weekend. Jo*el hosted a very nice piano duet recital that involved 17 of his students. He and a friend who plays the clarinet played five preludes at the end. The parents got together and gave him a huge gift certificate to a local cafe and a bunch of babysitting money - very thoughtful, I'd say. After the recital, we went out for dinner while Meag*an babysat. Yesterday morning, the boys and I went walking around the grounds of Theodore Wi*rth Park in the early AM to kill some time while Jo*el rehearsed at church a few blocks away. It was our anniversary, so it was an odd coincidence to be there exactly seven years after our wedding took place there, yet without Jo*el. The garbage truck came to pick up the garbage from somebody else's big event, and the boys enjoyed watching that. Someday they'll understand the significance of that place for us, but yesterday it was all about the "Beep! Beep! Beep!" of the garbage truck backing up. After our walk, the boys and I met Jo*el at the church, I dropped the boys off at the nursery, and attended services. Afterwards, we went to the all church picnic, where the boys again filled their hollow legs.

Introducing the Ladies

They're here! The coop is finished (thanks mostly to Jo*el's Dad and a whole lot of reusable stuff we found in the rafters of our garage), and we are the proud owners of 4 pullets (young hens).



This is our henhouse. It wasn't quite finished in this picture. It sits in the garage, and has an old kitchen cabinet mounted on each side for a nesting box. The whole bottom is accessible, making it very easy to clean. It is pretty funny to sit in the garage and hear the hens clucking as the boys play on their train table. We did that this evening, and every few minutes, both boys would run over and look at the the hens and say "Hello, ladies!"

This is the inside. The box you see there is the framed opening to the outside run. The big red hen, one of the four we picked up on Sunday, had some possibly serious issues with her feet, so we actually brought her back and exchanged her for a different bird today.

This is the run. It is made from a dog kennel. The birds are learning to get in and out, and are doing a pretty good job of it so far. Next summer, we'd like to add a couple of panels to the run to expand it and raise a couple of chicks. We'll probably put a nicer roof on it then too, and enclose it in lattice so we don't have to look at the kennel walls. We'll leave a cutout for viewing, though, because watching them is a lot of fun.



This is Marcy. She is a Silver-Laced Wyandotte we picked up today to replace the red hen. Marcy is our oldest bird at 17 weeks, and she could lay as soon as a few weeks from now.



This is Fanny, our Buff Orpington. She's a sweet, docile bird who is probably going to be on the bottom of the pecking order. These birds are slow to mature, but lay well in cold weather, and Fanny will probably be our biggest bird at about 10 pounds.





That leaves Clara (in front, a Barred Plymouth Rock), and Susan (in the back). Susan is an Ameracauna. These are also sometimes called "Easter Eggers" because these hens lay green or blue tinted eggs. Susan loves to sit on the high branch, and would have flown right out of the coop had there not been a tarp. I'm thinking we'll clip both her wings instead of just one. Clara is very friendly and tame. She sat on Mea*gan's hand for a long time today and this morning she sat on my foot and ate right out of my hand. She and Fanny were hatched at the same time and were in the same pen. They're the youngest, at almost 11 weeks old, so it will be a while before they lay.

The boys are very excited! "Soooo cute!", they say. N is a little more cautious so far, but very interested. Ivy is very interested too, but she's been pretty good so far. We aren't letting her in the backyard by herself, but she can't get to them regardless. We have chicken wire dug into the ground all around the run.

O has no hesitation in petting a hen. He's Mr. Fearless in everything these days, it seems. He slides down the slide at the playground, then stands up and jumps straight off the end.

Taking care of the Ladies has been pretty simple so far. Every morning, I need to replace the water and add a scoop of feed as I let the Ladies into the run. Every evening, they go back into the hen house and I latch the door. Once or twice a week, depending on how much rain we've had, I will replace the straw and make sure the coop is clean. They get compost scraps, scratch, and grit in addition to their feed. It's no harder than taking care of a cat or parakeet, and we'll soon have our own fresh eggs, laid about 25 feet from the stove they'll be cooked on. Ste*ve and Kath*y get first dibs on extra eggs, of course.

Tonight after the boys went to bed, I made a summer potato salad with green beans and walnuts, and Mea*gan, Jo*el and I sat in lawn chairs next to the coop, watching the Ladies do their thing and listening to their companionable clucking. I think we're going to like having a backyard flock.

Here are some images of full-grown hens in the breeds we have:

An Amerecauna hen (like Susan)


Blue Amerecauna eggs


A Barred Plymouth Rock (like Clara)


a Buff Orpington hen (like Fanny)


A Silver Wyandotte hen (like Marcy)

Chickens in the city, part II

(NOTE: there is also a new N and O post below this one)

We are making progress on our henhouse project. The permit has been filed with the city, and Ste*ve has the hole into the garage almost cut and ready for framing, and we have the area cleared on the outside of the garage and plotted on the inside. Probably at least 2 of our hens will be winter-hardy Buff Orpingtons like the ones above.



We had to move the whole project to a different area of our yard because of a neighbor who had some ( rather paranoid) concerns, but it actually worked out for the best and resulted in a lovely new garden area, though we had just made a garden along the kennel before having to move it.





The boys still have some garden space though.



We moved the kennel back to make room for the perennials displaced by the coop, and one thing led to another…

BEFORE: This is after we moved the dog kennel straight back behind the fence, but before we put in the new garden beds. The dirt was totally dead from being under the kennel all this time, but we added a ton of compost and water, and it seems pretty good now.







AFTER:


We also put up some bamboo screening.



So now our perennial beds are nicely thinned and pruned, and we have everything edged in the extra bricks I had. While we were at it, we did the South side of the house too.



J busted all the sod, which was a huge help, and I did all the edging and dividing/planting. (I keep telling J we make a nice gardening team, but I’m not sure he wants to hear it. ) Meagan and I have carrots, beets, kale, chard, tomatoes, peas, arugala, and peppers in, plus a heap of lettuce and herbs. St*eve is coming by this weekend to make some more progress on the coop, and I’m hoping that we’ll be making a trip out to the Anoka Farm Store to pick up 4 young hens in a few weeks. Maybe next summer we'll add a couple of chicks. the boys will be at an even better age to enjoy it, and we'll have more chicken experience then. Wait till I tell my neighbor we're thinking of getting a goat to mow the lawn!*

*Not really! I think a few hens should nicely balance the gender distribution in my favor, and we'll leave it at that.

Things I want to remember:

N laughing at O’s sticking black olives on his fingers by saying his very first pun:

“Olive! Errrrrrrrr!”

N’s response to a handful of Veggie Booty as I was getting dinner on the table:
“This is a good beginning!” (I think he may have been quoting Omie?)



Last week O took a good look at our clematis, which was in full bloom, and said “Many, many, purple stars!”

I love the conversations they’re beginning to have. They say the darndest things to each other in their cribs after I close the door for the evening and they’re supposed to be sleeping. Their latest game is for one boy to lie on his back and move himself feet-first up the side of the crib as high as possible until his brother can see his feet. Then brother (usually O) yells “I can see your feet!” as loudly as he can, and then both boys giggle hysterically. I am so glad we’ve decided to wait to move them into beds. I think it would be an all night party in there right now, and they need a little maturing before they can manage staying in bed and actually going to sleep in the same room together. Though I’m sure they exist somewhere, I’ve never met a twin parent whose kids share a room that didn’t either wait until as long as possible (using crib tents for safety like we do), or regret not doing so.

Other random things I’ve heard on the monitor lately:

“Daddy is working. He brings his seeds!” (N, talking about J’s trail mix)
“Mama is a biiiiig girl!” (O, who doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Everybody knows I’m a big mama).

Oh, and just now, as I write this, N said, "Mama is very dirty in the backyard!" It's true, I was weeding barefoot while they ran around in the sprinkler, and I got mud all over my legs. Now N is singing "twinkle, twinkle, little bugs!"

Yesterday was our last day of our Wednesday Early Childhood class, and I was sad to see it end. J and I gave the staff a card and a bag of needed items for the Fall class, but it wasn’t nearly enough. The program has been such a help for us this year. The mom’s support has been great for me, the boys have learned skills like learning to sit together in a group for singing, learning to wait their turn (an area in which they had a bit of a head start), to separate to someone other than a family member, all kinds of things. I really hope we get in again next year, but lots that apply don’t win the lottery as there just aren’t enough spaces. I think that a year from this Fall, the boys are really going to love preschool.

When we got home from class, we took a walk around the block. A rather heavyset teen jogged by in very tight jogging shorts, and N said “her bottom wiggles!” Thankfully, she didn’t hear him. It can be interesting having a very verbal little boy with no filter whatsoever…

The boys have been seeing their baby cousin quite a bit, as grandma is taking care of her when Jenn*ifer works and brings her by to visit. N told me this week that “Zo*e is not a grownup. She is a baby animal!” I wonder where he thinks she sleeps at night. Maybe in a dog bed like Ivy, or the basement like Orbit?



Maybe she sleeps in this handy infant car seat.











As you can see, the boys (and Aunt Me*agan) like Zo*e a lot these days. They were a teensy bit jealous at first (actually, N once suggested that Jenni*fer come over without her!). She is a very smiley, happy baby, and we’re lucky enough to see her quite a bit when grandma brings her over.



My mom was over here for a whole week, and had a nice visit.





No*ah waking up from his nap in Omie's lap.



After nap hijinks on the couch.



The boys remember Omie well by now, and really enjoyed their time together. Here she was saying her goodbyes before their naptime on Sunday, reading a book about airplanes and explaining where she was going.



They were a bit somber that afternoon.

The next day, we were in the backyard, and a plane flew over the house. N said “is that Omie?”. O said “nooooooo!”, and N said “she went home to make Opa happy!”.

If you’ve notice that I tend to quote N more than O, it’s because O is not quite as forthcoming with the sentence long funny observations at this point. He’s more likely to chime in with well-timed but less quotable exclamations, but he has plenty to say and lots of words to say it with. So, a little more about my wonderful O: he loves to water “his” plants in the garden, mostly marigolds, nasturtium, lettuce, and herbs.





He knows exactly which ones he may eat and which ones he needs to leave alone, though when I cut some lettuce for supper tonight, he started to cry and asked me to "put it back together". I hadn't thought about what it would seem like to him to just hack away at the plants he's been watering for the last few weeks. He notices all the bird calls, and recognizes the sounds of crows, seagulls, pigeons, cardinals, and sometimes chickadees. He so loves going to the church nursery and to the Early Childhood classes that he gets a disappointed look on his face when I come back,then grabs a favorite toy, and hides. He always has a big smile for me when I find him, but he’s sad to leave. O loves musical instruments, and loves to tap along to the music with pretty decent rhythm. He insists on copying every single thing N does, even if N was just disciplined for it, and at least once every day I say to him “make your own choices, O!” He has a very strong sense of fairness and independence. He has a poetic touch with words sometimes – his first two-word phrase was “sky ball”, describing the moon. A flashlight is a “make-sun”, and a swing is an “up-down”. He is my big hugger, and often requests “eggssa hugs!” (extra hugs).