Gratitude Overload

i realize that nearly every post of 2012 was about chickens.  that's funny!  if i were an alien reading this blog, or even just some other random human (hello aliens and random humans!), i might think that pretty much the only thing going on in my life in the past year (and ever!) is with regard to chickens.  which is certainly not a bad thing; chickens are funny and cute and interesting and i pretty much love them.  i've sure learned a lot about living with chickens this year...there have been many successes/gains and a few failures/losses.  and as of this moment, this 60th post, we are getting the best egg production we've ever had...in fact, just the other day, we had the FIRST FIVE EGG DAY.  seriously.  like a couple weeks ago.  the TUF holy grail!  every hen actively laying!  we haven't had another one yet, but there are consistently between 2 and 4 eggs in the coop every single day for weeks now.  so 2012 has most definitely been a powerful personal poultry year.

however, MUCH has gone on beyond chickenry.  so much, in fact, that i didn't instantly write about the 5 egg day!  i know, i couldn't believe it myself.  so on this last day of this year, i find myself contemplating past events and on-going processes that have filled the non-chicken aspects of my life, and i find myself to be Unbelievably Grateful. in the name of documentation, and at the risk of extreme self-indulgence, i will use this space to ruminate upon these things. (if you are not into the personal ruminations of random humans who are not you, now would be a good time to run away! i won't be offended. remember that "ruminating" literally means "chewing cud.")

WORK.

i haven't discussed my job on here at all!  my current professional incarnation is teaching 7th grade science.  this was my second year to teach science; the previous two years were spent teaching theater at a different school.  when i started out thinking about becoming a teacher, i kind of figured i'd be teaching language arts (NOTE: i do understand proper capitalization, grammar sticklers!)  but my whole career thus far i've been taking opportunities and learning experiences as they come, and i've felt very successful in the professional growth i've made, no matter how mad-lib-esque the process.

i feel pretty complicated about teaching right now, and the complications could fill a-whole-nother blog all by themselves.  it's a challenging, draining, invigorating, intellectually-stimulating, anguish-causing gig that takes up a lot of my mental spacetime.  2012 has been much more successful-feeling than 2011, and i have done a lot of growing and learning and working toward becoming better.  and i can see that i AM becoming a better educator, which makes me really happy.  i like doing things to the very best of my ability, so for a while i was discouraged when my teaching experience ranged from less than successful to really hard to damn near impossible.  but this year my perspective changed a bit--i've found that the thing i can do to the best of my ability is grow, and keep growing.  teaching is a process, and a practice, just like learning.  i strive to be the best student of teaching that i can possibly be, open and curious and observant, willing to try new things, continually evaluating my experiences, above all paying attention to the myriad needs and incredibly varied personalities of my students and classes.

but i am not gonna lie; just maintaining that perspective is its own studied practice.  this year i also found the words to tell myself this truth: i am not one of those amazing people who glean the majority of life satisfaction from the practice of teaching. i know incredible individuals who embrace the long hours and emotional drainage as the natural way toward personal fulfillment via their highly successful career in education.  my personal fulfillment comes from the availability of many different experiences, as evidenced by my mad-lib style career and multi-interest life. my optimal identity would equally balance chicken farmer/wife/cook/writer/musician/poet/pet enthusiast/philosopher with /teacher. often i find that these identities are not optimally balanced, and pretty soon there is going to be another REALLY BIG new identity to balance with these others. so i wonder what 2013 will bring in that regard.  more on the new identity shortly.

i will say this about teaching, though: i am extremely grateful that my job has built-in time during the year to take big brain breaks and work on re-balancing my various identities.  for all teaching's less-desirable aspects, getting paid to do things other than work for weeks at a time is a great, great gift.  this is not lost on me as i consider other possible career tacks for the upcoming year.  plus i love those dang kids.

ADVENTURES.

i love them!  we had a big one to korea, several smaller ones to the beach (twice), ft. worth (anniversary), houston for dear darling sister's wedding, and any number of home-based ones regarding pets, holidays, food, friends, and new experiences. we also started the process of a brand new kind of adventure, which goes with the new identity, which deserves its own discussion.  here is a pictoral recap of many 2012 adventures!

first time beach dogs!

seoul romantic!

snake charming!

xmas tortilla soup attempt!

gorilla bonding!

sister's wedding makeup!

xmas eve party!

PEOPLE.

twenty twelve was a really good year for the relationships in my life.  my sister got married to a wonderful man at a spectacular party, and we did some very grownuppy holiday management together.  i am so thankful for my close and powerful relationship with my brilliant, loving, considerate and hilarious sister--she is an amazing listener and has such spot-on insight about things.  we are very different, complementary people, and her energy is both grounding and uplifting.

i deepened my friendships with several women i met through work at various points, and now i am so grateful for each of them in my life.  one helped me fight off a snake and introduced me to raw kale squished salad, and also can linguistically nerd out in a flash.  another lets me come in her classroom and scream and storm and rant and rave and then geeks out about gross sciencey things with me.  yet another is going to be present at the birthing due to her big calm energy, invaluable experience and blissful prenatal massage techniques, which she is willing to TRADE for various sundries, as well as being a fellow aquatic invertebrate dork.  yet YET another lives down the street and has a toddler of her own, and is always available for support and advice and opinions and toddler practice and baby stuff.  i am so lucky to have these friends!

i am so thankful that dan and i have a couple amazing couple friends, and that we have our individual friendships within the couple friendship. c and j have been our friends for a long time, and j is an invaluable ear and inspiration for me.  she is articulate on subjects ranging from food to music to life etc, and has great perspective on all kinds of things.  c is hilarious and full of interesting ideas and thoughts.  plus they play music and cajole us into being social even when we're in full-on homebody mode.  aaaaaand, j's sister b and her fiance d have become our good friends too, and we've even had all sisters and husbands together for rousing karaoke fun!  can it get any better?

i connected and reconnected with many friends through various media and for various reasons this year, and i hope to build and maintain these relationships, new and old, in 2013.  one thing i'd like to work on about myself is friendship maintenance, and it's fun to have so many awesome people to practice on.  i am grateful for people who have visited from far away, for dear ancient friends getting engaged to wonderful new friends, for people who have moved away but stayed in touch and visited, for meeting new friends through old friends and expanding circles, for friends of unique circumstance (like having the same due date and doctor, as well as mutual friends).

i am always grateful for my parents--they are endlessly supportive and now very excited about the new addition coming right up here.  mom has been visiting from dallas, since i can't seem to ever get up there (i know, bad daughter!!), and has been a source of advice and comfort always and especially lately.  dad just moved a mere 30 minutes away, and i'm so excited to hang out with him more often. i am grateful for his calm insight and willingness to talk about anything and everything.  and my mother in law and father in law are also unbelievably supportive and generous, and i am ever thankful for my relationship with each of them.  we're also so lucky to have my aunt and uncle in town, and a new year's resolution is to make more time to spend with them--uncle  p. has been a major influence in my life since i was a baby, and i don't see him nearly enough.  and i also want to make sure to get to san antonio to see uncle r. and my incredibly tough grandma, who made it through open heart surgery and rehabilitation practically unscathed at 89 years old.  i'm so glad that the new addition has so many amazing family members...he doesn't even know yet how lucky he is, but i do.

and finally, i am so thankful and grateful every moment for dan.  my life is so full of delight and creativity and humor and adventures because of him.  i could write for days about it, but really there aren't enough words, so i'll just say here that i love him so much.

AND FINALLY....PREGNANT!

i still kind of can't believe it, but we are expecting a baby boy in early march.  that's really soon.  i wish and hope and think and wonder about so many things regarding him.  i have insomnia dedicated just to thinking about conversations we might have as he grows up.  i can't wait to see what he looks like, what he sounds like, what he IS like, what he likes.  i sure hope he likes us; i sure hope we are "adulty" enough to do this crazy next adventure.  i think we are; i have a lot of faith in us.  and, i mean, there are nine billion people on the planet, it can't be TOO hard to raise a kid, am i right?  i just hope we do it right. and by right i mean...well, i don't even know what i mean yet, i guess we'll see.

as of today i am 31 weeks along, and i've heard that the last weeks of pregnancy serve to ensure the mother is willing to do JUST ABOUT ANYTHING to get the little one out and on his physical own!  there have been discomforts, but they have been blissfully minor (heartburn, insomnia, early food aversions), and all in all i've had an easy and comfortable pregnancy.  so thankful, so lucky.  though the idea of birth is a little daunting, i'm going to be with people who are positive, loving influences in my life, and i'm going to be in a safe place with a doctor i like.  i am going to be able to focus on empowered openness to do whatever it takes to ensure healthy him and healthy me.  so, crazy as it all sounds, it's going to be fine!

i also hope he likes chickens.  and here we are, back to chickens. there was definitely a lot more to 2012 than just chickens.  and i am thankful for every chicken, every person, every experience that has taught me something about life this year.  so happy new year! 2013 is really going to be something!

Poultry-markable

i find many things in the world to be miraculous, though most 'miracles' have some kind of logical explanation. for instance, the new human creature growing inside me right now is certainly miraculous, although it's also perfectly scientific...cells are dividing and differentiating along a predicable path, and reproduction is one of life's most fundamental properties.  the exquisite rainbow and sunset i saw last weekend were miraculous, but also completely logical--light was refracting through the atmosphere in measurable ways, and my brain was perceiving the colors and reacting to them...all very explicable.

it is rare, therefore, when one encounters a real life actual miracle with no scientific explanation, an event that is the least probable outcome of a given situation with no perceptible base in logic.  WELL FOLKS, THIS HAS HAPPENED ON THE TUF.

Bolo The Chicken Came Back!

a couple of weeks ago i wrote about how bolo had disappeared without a trace--no feathers, no kerfuffle, no nothing.  i looked for her to no avail, and hoped she would find her way home.  but after a few days, i was certain she was gone for good.  this neighborhood has confirmed sightings of nearly all possible chicken predators: stray cats (always), stray dogs (often), kids with bb guns, hawks, snakes, skunks, raccoons, possums, and other chicken keepers.  to comfort myself i had decided she had been bodily assumed, or even that some other chicken fancier had seen a huge black chicken with feather pants walking down the street and had thus captured her for their own purposes.  her disappearance from the run happened tuesday, september 18th.  by that weekend, i was sadly sure she was gone forever.

fully TWO AND A HALF WEEKS later, on thursday, oct. 4th, i went outside to check on the flock and there she was. back in the run.  a little bedraggled and dirty, but eating and scratching and clucking like nothing had happened.  how is this possible?  i have no logical explanation.  it is the least probable outcome of the vanishing chicken incident. a real, actual, unscientific miracle.

the day of her return

she got the right-wing clippage that i have visited upon the other birds to reduce the chances of further chicken vanishments.  of course, wing clipping doesn't prevent worm holes, or alien abduction, or trans-dimensional quantum jumping, or random space time fluctuations, or any other theoretical event that might result in a chicken disappearing from and reappearing to the exact same east-austin chicken run over a 2.5 week period.  at any rate, i'm just glad she's back!

Gains, Loss, The Future

ah, the beginning of fall.  when the temperatures drift down into the balmy mid-nineties, and there is a chance of rain sometimes.  actually, all facetiousness aside, the mornings and evenings have been beautiful!  and enough rain has fallen that the back yard is full of chickweed and egg production is ramping up again. i'm excited about the change of seasons, and fall air is some of the best air.

sadly, we have lost another chicken.  this time there was no disease or predation involved...earlier this week bolo vanished without a trace! there she is to the left, the big black one, having a roll in the dust with pearl last sunday.  by tuesday, however, she was gone. just gone!  no feathers, no yard kerfuffle, everyone had been in the run all day.  all other fowl were fine and normal. but when i went out to the yard after work to give the ladies and gentleman their yard time, she simply was nowhere to be found.

i keep hoping she might come back, but i think it's been long enough that such hope is lost.  my best thought is that she's been bodily assumed into heaven, rapture-style.  at least that's my favorite theory...several others make perhaps more sense but are far more depressing.  she was a non-flyer, but had accidentally hopped out of the run once a long time ago--she was never one for adventure.  

needless to say, all remaining chickens now have flight feathers 1-8 clipped on their right wing, like i did sammo a couple months ago, to prevent further chicken raptures.

i wonder if she accidentally hopped out again, went for a mosey, got lost....and then was bodily assumed.  at any rate, wherever she is, i hope she enjoyed her life here and is enjoying her next life.  if not, i'd like it if she would come back.

in other, better news, we recently acquired two new girls to bump up egg production and add some new feathers to the flock.  introducing tony parker and scotty pippen!

tony parker

tony parker is a lovely young barred rock hen, a classic breed. true to her name, she is especially quick and agile, and does not seem to like to get picked up yet.  however, once caught, she will happily sit on the available lap for pets and chicken talk.  she should start laying big brown eggs any minute!

scotty pippen

scotty pippen is a beautiful red star chicken who, unlike her new sister thus far, is quite friendly. she seems to enjoy being picked up and cuddled, and even hangs around waiting for such attention.  her breed is also an egg-laying machine, and so we are much anticipating her egg scene debut.  in fact, she was destined to go to an _actual_ egg laying machine--a big production chicken house--which explains why her beak was cut.  but here on the TUF, her beak can grow back in all its glory and she can party in the run and yard all day.  i look forward to seeing her beak back!

all chickens have made the adjustment seamlessly, both to the new additions and the loss of dear old bolo.  the flock numbers six once again--tumblr (the rooster), sammo (easter egger), pearl and ninja (original silkies), scotty pippen and tony parker.  we pause to remember the TUFlock chickens who have gone on to the great free-range in the sky: soft grey twitter, baby lil' bitz (we barely new ye!), and big black ol' bolo.  thanks for all the eggs and fun.

milk snail enjoying a fall morning

and finally, a bit about the future: dan and i are pleased to be expecting a new HUMAN addition to the TUF to join us in early march 2013!  all is well so far, and of course we will appreciate another TUF hand around to help care for all these crazy creatures. that's why people originally starting having kids anyway, right? more help around the farm?  maybe we can actually start that garden i've been screaming about since the beginning of this whole experiment!

speaking of experiment, and as a final note, here is a picture of the fantastic carrot soup i concocted the other day.  i had also (true to TUF philosophy) used a bunch of farmer's market vegetable odds and ends, and the frozen carcasses of a roasted local duck and chicken, to make a killer-awesome no-waste stock as the base for this soup.  i basically used this recipe, with lemon juice but no zest, a zillion cloves of garlic, and only 1/4 cup of cream, and it came out pretty dang delightful.  and healthy! mostly!

anyway, there is much coming up to discuss, what with the changing seasons, new girls, new food, new future prospects and all.  thank you for reading, Dear Reader, and though i'm clearly not the best at it, i'll renew my efforts to keep y'all posted and document the process!

Total Bummer

it was my idea to go back and get the snake pole, which was a dumb idea.  i kinda wanted to go back and see...what? that the snake really got away?  if we could recoup our highly effective snake capturing device? i don't know, but going back was a dumb idea. anyway, as we came back from running some normal summer monday errands, we happened to stop at the intersection where we had pulled off to release the snake the night before. there it was:  the pvc pipe, with the snake next to it, tangled in the rope. i had thought that his head was free inside the pipe and he was backing out, and therefore would be okay, but it looked like he tried to slide out forward and got trapped.  total relocation fail. the snake died.

i feel really bad about this.  i love snakes. we have two pet snakes for goodness' s(n)ake, a ball python and a corn snake.  i was so thrilled that we had managed to deal with the egg-stealing snake problem humanely, but turns out, not so much.  not for lack of trying! mostly for lack of experience. i guess it's good that we saw what really happened, instead of assuming super success. i am glad we tried to do the right thing, and i definitely feel like i learned something.  i can't quite say what the something is, exactly, but it has to do with nature/domestication, ancient struggles, good intentions, fear, and decisiveness.

anyway, sorry about that, texas rat snake.  we really tried to do good by you. and i trust and hope you had a pretty easy snake life up until that last bit.  if there's reincarnation, i hope you come back as something awesome.

(i had a dream monday night, after all this...i was holding this snake gently, like my pet snakes. i could see his pattern, and he was shiny and healthy.  i put him on the ground and he slithered off.)

The Serpent Siege: The End of an E(gg)ra?

photo credit: W.v.W

tonight, the war was won.

we had dinner guests this evening, and had reached that genial point when dinner is over but wine is still present and conversations flit from one subject to the next.  remembering that the chicken ramp was still down, i headed outside to put the ladies and gentleman to bed.  in the half-light of the porchlamp across the yard, i counted the birds by giving each a gentle touch.  i reached into ninja's normal corner of the nest box to count her, when i noticed she was sitting on the floor of the coop--not in her normal spot. at the same time i noticed that my fingers met something distinctly unfeathery.

could it be? i looked around at the ladies and gentleman. no one seemed particularly alarmed. bolo even sat in her regular place, which would be next to ninja, except that ninja had politely surrendered her spot to the cool coiling shadow.  was i just half expecting the snake to be there, and so had imagined that i touched it? with my bare hand? in the dark? i secured the ramp, closed the coop, and hurried inside, vowing to test my theory tomorrow in the daylight.  but when i related my experience to my companions inside, dan got up and retrieved the industrial-size flashlight from the garage.

we all marched outside, flashlight and pvc snake lasso close at hand. the chickens blinked at us in sleepy confusion as w. held the light, dan wielded the rake, and i held the lasso at the ready.  the snake was a bit sluggish in the cool of the evening, and sated by his daily egg feast.  after hay-removal and a bit of prodding, he uncoiled and started to make a break toward the back of the coop.

dan pinned his middle with the rake. i slipped the loop of nylon rope over his head and pushed the pipe forward, trapping him.  he coiled and uncoiled his 5 foot long body, very nearly dislodging himself from our double grip.  finally, he stopped thrashing for a moment to assess his situation, giving us a moment to assess ours.  w. took a turn at the rake, dan held the light, and we maneuvered into a siege position. we had left the pillowcase inside.

photo credit: W.v.W

(the chickens watched all this with varying degrees of mild interest to mild alarm. the rooster even seemed vaguely entertained.)

"d," i asked, trying to sound brave, hoping the snake's head didn't slip into the pipe and come flying toward my face, "could you please go find a pillowcase? you can check in the linen closet, the second door in the..."

"just pull one off one of the bed pillows," dan said, ever practical. d. came back with a pillowcase in short order.

at this point, the snake figured the only way out was through, and so he slipped his head up into the pipe (toward my face). dan quickly tied the open end of the pillowcase around the of the pipe, hoping that the creature would slither straight into it. this would have been successful, except the snake reached a point at which his middle was barely too big for the pipe.  thus, he got stuck--two feet of him in the pipe, the other three hanging out the end.  winnie the poo style, sort of, except longer and scalier and less cute.

photo credit: W.v.W

i reached down and grabbed his body where it entered the pipe, keeping him stuck. he writhed healthily, wrapping his tail around my arm and releasing a putrid defensive musk. at this point, we were confident that he could not escape. it was time to relocate the egg thief across the highway.

d. and w. agreed to hold down the fort as dan and i hopped in the car for the final chapter of the snake battle. i held him steady inside the pipe, his tail wrapped firmly around my arm, until we got across 183 and down a convenient side street with an empty lot.  dan untied the pillowcase, and i started to loosen my grip; the snake sensed freedom was imminent, and started thrashing anew. on a count of three we threw the snake, pipe and all, in one direction and retreated in the other.  i think i saw him slither off, freed of his pvc prison.

and so, the texas rat snake war has ended--i hope. could there be others? was that one just one of many? i respect you, texas rat snake, you are strong and nimble and quick and scary. but should you or any of your kind come back, we are now seasoned snake battlers. we shall defend our eggs and our (rather complacent, to the point of snake room-mate welcoming) flock. you will be relocated!

some final thoughts:

1) it took four grown ups to deal with this snake. Four! Grown Ups! (thanks to d. and w. for moral support, pillow case and rake support, documentation, and coming over for dinner)

2) i'm glad we didn't have to kill it. there was a moment there where it seemed like that might be the only option.  i am thankful that we were able to drive it across the highway and let it go be a snake someplace else.  catch some rats or something, rat snake!

3) so much for the big mean rooster defending his hareem. what a..........chicken. oh.

4) snake musk = stinky and sticky, and unlike any other smell i've ever smelled.  noted!  that's a pretty good defense mechanism.

5) the snake fought bravely, and we fought bravely.  we have had TUF success.  now....Five! Egg! Day?

Garden/Snake

when i first started writing about our TUF attempt, it had a lot to do with coop construction...that was the first step toward ultimately becoming a Totally Urban Farm. another one of our original goals was to build and start a vegetable garden, and almost exactly a year ago, we built the boxes for it on the day we got our first egg. this is what it looked like back then:

then we got focused on the chickens all summer, and it was really hot, and then i was a science teacher for nine months (time consuming, that!), and so the garden boxes filled with weeds and turned into a chicken playground/hot dog wallow...UNTIL THIS WEEKEND.  design revamped, enthusiasm renewed, the TUF garden is within a few weekends' reach!

the 3 original 6'x6' boxes got a 2'x4' inset for easy harvest access. each inset got 2 18" square patio tiles, and the rest of the growing area (84 square feet!) got dug up and covered with hay to get all the weeds out of there.  shortly we will lay down some landscaping cloth, cover it with gravel, cover THAT with local topsoil enriched with our delicious compost, and we will be ready for a fall garden. for real this time!

this space on the side of our our house gets direct morning sun from about 9 am to 3 pm, then is shaded by the house for the rest of the day.  i'm hoping that will be enough sunshine to grow tasty tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers...we are garden virgins for sure, so this will be a learning process. just like everything about the TUF!

speaking of learning experiences: last early june we had a brush with our first Texas Rat Snake, which resulted in the snake making him/herself scarce for the rest of the year.  well, s/he is back.

and now it is more than a brush. it is WAR.  this snake has been stealing the lovely ladies' eggs for the past month, ever since the beginning of may.  "may's snake month," our neighbor once averred, and at the time i was skeptical. no longer.  i am certain that this snake is a significant factor in hampering the as-yet theoretical five-egg day.

my thought is to carefully capture it, constrain it to a pillow case, drive it across 183 and release in a woodsy area. it has probably devoured like a dozen eggs at this point!  i'll go out there, check on the birds, see the carefully crafted deep egg-nests they like to make, but they will be empty.  the other day i caught it in the act of eating one of sammo's eggs.  i made ready to do battle, but the snake dropped the egg (!) and beat it.  and two days ago, as we were putting up the chickens at dusk, we saw it curled in the nesting box.  tumblr was peering at it with great suspicion, and the other ladies were as far away as they could be inside the coop.  we made a heroic joint attempt to capture it, to no avail. snakes always turn out to be surprisingly strong and nimble.

thus, the battle of the rat snake continues, and i will update you, Dear Reader, as developments develop!  and summer is coming right up, with all its time and promise...cooking! grocery store adventures! gardening! more writing!  it's almost, almost here........