All good things must end

We have had a bumper crop of green beans this year. Here is the last little picking from today. At the peek we were picking 6 times this much. Our fridge is full even though we have been eating and giving them away. It is a good problem to have.

The bean plants still look great but they are pretty much done producing.

I took down the frame and move the chickens over them. It will take a while but they will help turn the plants into nice soil for next year. When they are done with the beans they will help me take out the zucchini and yellow squash, then the tomatoes.

Posted by Nathan

8/17/11

Armageddon of Snow

An Armageddon of snow (2 inches on the grass, slush on the roads) hit Portland last night. Our first (and likely only snow) this year. We have closed everything to celebrate (officially schools are closed for safety).

Our kids have had no problem figuring out what to do. In fact, friends were calling our house at 7:30 this morning. They have been outside all morning making the best of it.

Our chickens, on the other hand, are not so sure about all this white stuff.

Posted by Nathan, 2/24/2011

No luck mixing chickens

We decided to separate our two groups of chickens. The older ones just picked on the younger ones too much. Our Blue Andalusian named Dorian got the worst of it. You can see the blood on her comb in the picture below.




Our youngest boy wrote this note to tell Dorian that we are sorry.



Here is a video clip of the big chickens doing what we hoped they would do under the trees; looking for bugs. They have been very active scratching and pecking. Hope it helps the fruit this summer.



Posted by Nathan 2/2/2011

Chinese Yoyo

Chinese New Year is just around the corner, 2/3/11. This time of year our boys' Chinese yo yo team gets lots of invitations to perform. They performed today at a Japanese grocery store. They did great.









Published by Nathan 1/29/11

Chickens

Today we put all of our chickens together in one big space with a fence around them. This is the first time our two groups of chickens have been together. We are putting them under our fruit trees. We hope they will help control the bugs that got into our fruit last year.




They will all shared the big chickens coop because it is big enough for all 9. When we first put them together, the older chickens pecked the younger ones on top the head and chased them around. That didn't last too long. They spend most of the day scratching and looking for bugs. They seemed happy. Tonight the little chickens seem nervous about the new coop. They keep going in and out. Hopefully they will get used to it soon.


On the positive side. With 9 chickens all laying eggs we have more than we can eat. They are producing over 2 dozen eggs a week. It is a nice problem to have. Our friends are very happy to take some eggs off our hands.


Posted by Nathan 1/29/11

Match Rockets

Had a great time making match rockets today.
Here is a link to the directions we used http://www.instructables.com/id/Match-Rocket/
... and here are the results.


Posted by Nathan
1/17/11

Haloween

We had a great time trick-or-treating with some friends in the area. The weather was perfect, high 50's, no rain, no wind. The kids had a lot of fun. We had Juliet, a dinosaur, a ninja, and a negative political campaign add. You can't see it that clearly but the political campaign add accuses our two governor candidates of being a vampire and a zombie and concludes with ...and I approve this message.
Posted by Nathan