Loss.

My parents have been taking care of my chickens since we moved to Salem.  My mom is just as careful as I am about keeping them safe - locked up at night, checking on them several times a day.

Well this week they were out of town and I messed up.  They have an automatic door and I set it to close 15 minutes earlier due to shorter days.  Normally when they are in my backyard (or when my mom is home) they are checked on to make sure everyone is in. 

Tonight I went over just after dark, because of daylight saving and when I opened the back door I could hear Buffy.  That's not good I thought, that means they are locked out.  I went to the barn, saw Buffy and Camilla outside (my favorites, yes, I have favorites).  Inside I saw Bert and Mabel.  I didn't think too much of it, quickly opened the door for them - they came running in.  But Olive didn't come.  I shined the light out into the run and saw her in a heap.  

Shit.

I went outside and found her disemboweled.  Most certainly a raccoon.  I think she got locked out the night before and was killed, because she was fine yesterday afternoon.  

I feel guilty.  I am happy that Camilla and Buffy are okay, but I'm so anxious to get them moved out of there before it can come back.

Aaron was super nice and came over to take care of her body for me.  

Ugh.  I've seriously been so careful the last three years.  

Rest in peace Olive.  I'm sorry I let this happen :(

Chicken Coop

It was time to tackle this awful green room this weekend.  Really the pictures don't do it justice.  It was radioactive green.

I primed the walls and I think we have decided on a color...test patches are up.  If they are good in they daylight, we'll get the walls done tomorrow.  Then we can paint all the trim and move back into this room and out of my sewing room.

But our big project this weekend was to get a concrete pad poured for the chicken coop.  Our new concrete mixer and bags of concrete ready to go:

The chicken coop spent 6 months in my parent's driveway while we were busy buying a house.  We moved the coop to the south end of our yard, then used the pickup to pull/push it to the north end closer to where it will stay.
We staked out an area the size of the coop, then dug it out and added gravel.

While Aaron finished putting the mixer together and building the forms, I raked up the leaves from the two big maples in our yard.

He tamped down the gravel.

Then it was go time.

Aaron would pour in the 80 pound bags of concrete while I added the water.  Then he would rake and smooth as we went.  He worked concrete construction to put himself through college, so he had lots of experience with this.

I, on the other hand, had no concrete experience.  It is messy business.  Sometimes the concrete would fly out of the mixer, at one point into both of my eyes.  I had to go inside to dig the rocks out of my eyes.  Safety glasses all the way after that.

22 bags, 1,760 pounds of concrete later we had a 5 x 8 pad.

Aaron leveled, smoothed and brushed it to make it look nice.  

We're hoping the rain holds off so it can cure tonight.  The next challenge will be getting the coop onto it without destroying the edges.  Getting closer to having my girls here!

His and Hers Pickled Eggs

Right now we have an overabundance of eggs.  I decided we needed to knock our supply down a bit (just a bit - they've already slowed down, and Camilla and Bert are molting and not laying at all).  So I made some pickled eggs.  I used this website as a guide.  There are lots of variations there.  I used a straight forward recipe for me, and a spicy one for Aaron.

This was super easy - except for peeling the eggs.  The one bad thing about having your own eggs is by far the fact that peeling them after hard boiling is nearly impossible and frustrating.  I used the oldest eggs I had, at least 4 weeks old, they were still a pain.  Just how old are those store eggs...?

Erin's Pickled Eggs:
6 eggs - hard boiled and peeled
1 cup of beet juice (I didn't have quite enough so I added enough water to get 1 cup)
1/4 onion sliced thin
2 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 tsp peppercorns
1/3 cup cooked beets

Heat everything but eggs, garlic, beets and peppercorns to boiling.  Turn down heat and simmer for 5 minutes, or until onions are translucent.  Put rest of ingredients into a quart jar.  Then pour the hot liquid over, if it doesn't cover the eggs, add some water or vinegar.

Aaron's Pickled Eggs:
6 eggs - hard boiled and peeled
1 cup of beet juice
2 cloves of garlic
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp peppercorns
1/3 cup cooked beets
1/4+ tsp red chili pepper flakes
1/2 tsp peppercorns
2 jalapeno peppers sliced

Heat everything but eggs, garlic, beets and peppercorns to boiling.  Turn down heat and simmer for 5 minutes, or until onions are translucent.  Put rest of ingredients into a quart jar.  Then pour the hot liquid over, if it doesn't cover the eggs, add some water or vinegar.

Into the fridge and now we wait!  At least 5 days, but up to 3 weeks.

We Bought a House!

This is old news but, still exciting.  We bought a house in July!  The main reason for my lack of posts has been said house.  Once we got the keys we went to work.  Most days until 9:30 at night.  Our rental lease ended about 7 weeks after, so we did as much as we could with the house empty.  We washed and painted all the walls and ceilings, ripped out carpet, had all the wood floors refinished, gutted the space above the garage (full of every carpet that had been in the house since the 30's and a bunch of gross dusty garbage), made multiple dump runs - the owners left a lot of their personal belongings, took down wallpaper, ripped the ceiling tiles down from the upstairs, and a million other little things.  I have tried to take photos along the way.  

Behold the pink bathroom complete with mother of pearl toilet seat.  It's hard to see, but that window is set out about 3 feet from the wall.  How stupid is that.  The plan is to push the whole wall out to give more space and make the window useable. 

Taking down the pink tile was one of the first jobs.  We left it that way for a while when we were busy moving and doing other projects.  

This week Aaron began tearing down the plaster.

Then the lathe.  Today he removed the tub.  Wondering how we were going to get this insanely heavy tub out of the bathroom, we decided it had to be broken.  It was too heavy for two men and all I could think about was it dropping on our newly refinished floors.

Luckily we can scrap it.  Even if we don't get much it will be better than paying by the pound at the dump.  Aaron put the truck right outside the window and made a chute so we didn't have to track all that nasty stuff through the house.

It's going to be months until we're done, but some day we are going to have a nice bathroom downstairs. 

3 Sisters Wilderness

We went backpacking in the 3 Sisters Wilderness area this weekend with our friend Gary.  Lots of gorgeous views of the Sisters, alpine lakes, meadows and streams.  I was surprised how many wildflowers were still in bloom - lupine (which I didn't know was fragrant until we passed large patches of it in the sun), columbine, cat's ears, paintbrush, asters and many more I didn't know the names of.  We hiked in 10 or 11 miles the first day.  Then hiked all around the next.  Relaxed in the sun next to lakes (Eileen, Husband and one other).  Then back out on the third day.

A spring close to our campsite.

Relaxing with Middle and South Sister in the background.

Fun around camp in the morning.  It was around 80 during they day in the sun, but got below freezing at night, definitely fall weather!

Aaron and Gary

Aaron and I near a pretty stream

Paintbrush

Unknown flower

The huckleberries must have been late this year, and we were a bit early for them.

But we still managed to find some ripe ones.

Aaron at Husband Lake.

We hiked somewhere around 30 miles - 20 of them with packs on.  It was a long hike in and out, but definitely worth it.  We have more adventures planned for this month!

Deep Sea Fishin'

We went on a chartered fishing trip with Aaron's co-workers this weekend to go fishing for lingcod and rock fish.  I knew that it was going to be rough waters, and that I do get sea sick.  I just didn't know how sea sick I could get.  I took all the precautions I could, but I still spent the 5 hour trip puking over the side of the boat.  It was pretty miserable, and I wish I could have enjoyed the whole thing a little more.  Aaron did catch two rock fish.  Luckily he grabbed this picture of his first catch, a black rock fish. 

Once we got back to shore and I felt human again, I managed to get these photos.  Men at the dock will fillet your fish for .50 a piece (worth every single penny and then some), and clean and cook the crabs for $1 a piece.  Our boat caught 153 crabs split between 16 or so people.  The man in red is filleting Aaron's fish. 

I am not a seafood fan, but we did batter the fish and make fish tacos and they were pretty tasty.  Recipe here.  I could not get behind the crab in any capacity.  I think Aaron is going to make me some California rolls with them, and I'll try them, but man they gross me out.  So what did we do with 20 crabs?  Spread them amongst our generous friends and family, and (one of us) enjoyed the process of catching them. 

One Dozen

Our little chicken Camilla has been busy laying eggs!  For the first time I have a full dozen of her eggs at the same time.  My chickens have been staying with my parents and Camilla gets special treatment.  She and Buffy have their own pen that they spend a few hours in each day.  The other chickens are pretty mean to Camilla and she has trouble getting enough to eat with them around.  The special treatment seems to be working!

With one of Mabel's larger than store eggs for comparison.