Urban Farm

Quick photo update:  Since a few people have asked, our DSLR is a Canon t2i, in a bundle with two lenses and a camera bag.  As for why we chose Canon over Nikon, it was seriously a toss-up and David carefully weighed prices, consumer reports, various online ratings, and word of mouth recommendations from family and friends.  I seriously think we could have gone either way, but I'm happy with what we got (or I will be, you know, as soon as I figure out all the fancy features).  I used it to take the pictures for this post, too.

Now, let me introduce you to our newest family members:

Meet Dixie, Loretta, and Wynona

Yes, friends.  THEM ARE CHICKENS!  Well, they are cute baby chicks that will eventually be big, sassy, egg-laying chickens.  

At least, we hope they lay eggs.  That's kind of the idea.  In the meantime, they are adorable balls of fluff that live in a big rubbermaid container in our garage.

We had a lot of fun coming up with names.  I was really pushing for Madonna, Beyonce, and Gaga, but David was not on board.  He says they are country girls.  My mom suggested Dixie, and I chose Loretta.  I also suggested Dolly, but David though that Loretta would be left out if the other two were D names.  So he named the other one Wynona.  Wynona is the biggest and the sassiest of the bunch.

Dixie is the one with the dark spot on her head (back, right).  She is the sweetest of the bunch.

Having a girls-only pow-wow in the corner.

Fluff ball!  I think this is Loretta.  She has a little black spot on her head, not as much as Dixie.  

Chowing down on chicken feed.  Loretta, Dixie, Wynona.

I still can't quite believe that we have backyard chickens.  Even though I grew up in a small town, I'm kind of, well... I'm not a tomboy and I don't really like things that smell bad (Cooper is occasionally the exception to this rule).  I've never thought of myself as the backyard chicken kind of girl.  My mom has two chickens, and they kind of make me nervous with their eyes and their beaks and their grody legs.  I really have no experience with chickens other than the chicks we hatched in my third-grade classroom.

But I love the idea of fresh eggs with low cholesterol and lots of omega-3's!  My parents have had much success with their backyard chickens (one terribly sad incident with a hawk notwithstanding).  And the more we researched it, the more do-able it seemed.  So we decided to go for it.  I'm still a little nervous about the whole thing (and it was really not cool of Dixie to poop IN MY HAND yesterday) but my husband seems to have morphed into Farmer Duckworth these days, with his gardening and chickens.  So overall, I'm pretty excited about this little project.  I fully expect that I will grow to love Dixie, Loretta, and Wynona, just as I grew to love Little Mac.

OMG DID U SAY CHIKN?

WUT?  I LUV CHIKN!!!

No, we have not introduced the dogs to the chickens.  The wee baby chicks are still so tiny and skittish and the mere idea makes me nervous.  When they get big enough to move into their coop and pen, and defend themselves from nosy dogs, then we'll make introductions.  Mac and Coop have been around chickens at my parents' house and at David's dad's house, and they actually haven't demonstrated much interest in them.  That may be different now that the chickens have moved in to our yard, but we shall see.

Here's a view of their coop and their pen:

We bought the coop from a local farm supply store, way out in the county.  David built their little pen himself.  They will have full access to the pen all the time, and we'll let them out in the backyard when we can be there to supervise them (and scare away hawks, cats, etc.).  I think I'm going to paint the coop to match our house.  Won't that be the cutest?

back of our house - this picture was taken standing just in front of the garden

This view better shows the position of the coop and their pen.  Tucked away to the side, but easily accessible from the concrete slab that meets up with our deck.  I think it's awkward to have the grill so close to the coop, considering we occasionally grill chicken, but David just stared at me like I was a lunatic when I mentioned this concern, so the grill stays.  FYI...  The big blue things are actually a barrel that David cut in half and uses for planters.  The gray cabinet houses a radio and other yard/deck/bbq supplies.

I've been amazed at how many of our friends have been SO excited about the idea of backyard chickens.  It's like trendy these days.  Of course, one friend called us "hippies," but I think he'll be singing another tune when we're living off the grid, post-zombie apocalypse.  AM.I.RITE?

In just a few months, we should have plenty of eggs and a shitload of fertilizer for our garden!

the garden

So there you have it.  Our little urban farm.

The only thing missing is a clothes line with cloth diapers flapping in the breeze.  Hopefully we'll be installing that in July.