Rainy Sunday...ahhhh!

It is only 11am, and I am already back in flannel pajama pants, under my snuggie! We haven't had a rainy weekend day in ages, but Jon and I were ready! 2 days ago we planned to have brunch at one of our favorite spots, followed by finishing/starting our Christmas shopping, and the Redskins game.

Mission accomplished on line item 1:













The Asheville Public is a restaurant close to our house...wonderful service and food, but best of all, a very cool ambiance. We drank coffee and listened to music- and stuffed our faces. A perfect rainy day brunch.

Around the house:










A weekend find!
Yum!





This chicken, Mabel, is broody right now- meaning she sits in this spot, sleepy, about 23 hours a day. I force her out to eat and drink a couple times a day. Her instincts/hormones are telling her that she should be sitting on some eggs, as though she were hatching some babies. There are no eggs, but her mommy urges are so strong, that she just sits....and sits...and sits. Her breed is very prone to this. Her sister did this a few weeks ago, and eventually snapped out of if. She is pretty cute!




Some paws shots:




Older photos...we fostered this pup, Amos, for a week while he was waiting to go to a rescue in Vermont (believe it or not, many shelters and rescues in New England actually have a shortage of puppies and hounds, so rescue groups in southern states will transport dogs to the groups, saving those dogs from certain death in overcrowded shelters). He is such a love! I am sure he was swiped right up and is now with his family :).

Tour of our little UH

Google the term "urban homesteading" and you will find a gazillion blogs, books, websites, articles, and photos. The movement encompasses acts from growing tomatoes in a pot on the balcony of a Manhattan apartment to literally living off the grid and only consuming what you produce from your own piece of land. We happen to fall in between this, and are much closer to the tomato-in-a-pot lifestyle, although the pioneer girl in me (I don't know where she has emerged from- I mean, I never even really liked watching Little House on the Prairie) would like to be more off the grid. Urban homesteading has become so popular that even Williams-Sonoma now has an agrarian line, which carries products for raising backyard chickens and making your own cheese.

So, I'm not sure if our small attempt at living off of our land (bolstered tremendously by Earthfare, Ingles, Tractor Supply, Lowe's, and many other very un-hard core urban homestead like commercial entities) makes us crazy or trendy. As I think about how I get up each morning around 5:30 to feed 10 animals, I think I know the answer, though.

Enjoy a photo tour of our little nuthouse, er....homestead, yeah, our trendy, oh-so-practical homestead.


Before:


After!!:




My usual morning routine, post paws and claws feeding...coffee on the deck. In my usual outfit of flannel pajamas and rubber boots. Did I mention how sexy my life is?



Pepper sighting!




Baby tomatoes!! I'm just waiting to wake up one morning and not be able to open the back door because the house is wrapped in tomato branches...these suckers are going nuts!



Zucchini on the plant...





Zucchini waiting to be breakfast in a zucchini homefry concoction I am attempting:




The girls!







Meet Agnes: she is a golden laced Cochin. Notice her amazing feathered legs and feet. She is super soft and when she is fully grown, will be quite fluffy. She is a chatty gal, making sweet honk sounds and does whatever her sister, Gertrude does.




Gertrude is the leader of the pack. She is a buff Brahma and will get quite large, probably around 10 pounds. She and Agnes are only about 4 months old now, and will begin to lay eggs in another month or 2. She is adventurous and affectionate- in the evening she will hop up on my shoulder or lap.





Funky Mabel (named for the John Lee Hooker tune). She is just hilarious to watch roam around doing her thing! She is a buff Silkie, although we call her a muppet.




Po Black Maddie, or Maddie ( another Mississippi blues tribute, for the R.L.Burnside song). She may be slightly cognitively challenged, but that's okay...all ones' chickens can't be geniuses. We actually won't know for a while whether Maddie and Mabel are hens or roosters....we are hoping hens, because we can't keep roosters in the city here. We have to wait until they crow or lay an egg!





Some paws...










Orchard Row: a peach and cherry tree live here, although only the dogs have enjoyed any fruit so far. These trees are only a few years old and have created a nice tunnel on this side of our house.




So, it's sorta urban, it's sorta a homestead....whatever it is, we love our little world!

I see a coop!

Folks, we have the beginnings of a chicken coop...
Day 1:





Day 2:



Hoping to have the ladies all moved in on Saturday...yippee!!

Here is a preview of the types we're probably getting:
Silkies!! They are a small variety of chicken, that make great pets because they are friendly and docile. They also love to sit on eggs ("go broody") and are often used to sit on eggs that still need to hatch, even duck eggs or other chickens' eggs.




Tori Spelling has a pet Silkie, Coco:




I think I found our Halloween costume for next year....




This is a young Brahma hen, they grow to about 9 pounds, while the Silkies above only weigh around 3 pounds. Both have feathered feet.



In other non-chicken news, I could finally upgrade to a new phone and joined the iPhone generation. The Mister joined the smartphone generation ( I think he has had the same flip phone since I've known him), too.



On Thursday our crazy hound dog, Tanner, began limping...no surprise since his favorite past time is tearing around the yard at about 45 mph to bark at any passers by. When he still wouldn't use his foot the next day, I took him to the vet (we pretty much go to the vet once every couple weeks with somebody around here). An x-ray revealed a broken toe. So, he's on a timeout from yard racing for several weeks. Poor guy!

Here he is being brave and standing on it:




Okay, one more Silkie photo because they are so ridiculous!

I Wish

Here is my list of a few things that I think would make the world a much better place:

1. A special horn or other noise- making device that could be used to "yell" at drivers who do not use their turn signal. I find the regular car horn to be too ambiguous, as the other driver may not understand why exactly you are honking. The special horn would be reserved exclusively for informing someone that they failed to use their blinker.

2. On the flip side, a different horn should also be available for telling people their signal is STILL on...or, perhaps turn signals should have an auto turn off function.

3. Gyms should be free. Do some countries do this, I wonder? I realize not everyone would use them, and I go to my gym partly because I am paying for it- but I really think if gyms were available for no cost and in more rural areas, our obesity crisis would improve. I think too many people are never exposed to physical fitness...and you can watch TV and work out at the gym.

4. There should be mannequins outside courtrooms that showcase appropriate ways to dress for court, job interviews and other 'fancy' occasions. There should be some "what not to wear" mannequins, too. I find that the majority of individuals who don't know what is appropriate to wear in formal or business settings also are frequently in court, so it would be a great way to catch their attention. Of course, the bonus is that they could use their new dressing skills in the courtroom. Thrift shops could set up trunk shows to get folks their new duds, too.

Some examples of some shirts I've seen in court being sported by the type of person mentioned above:

- T- shirt that read: "Don't piss me off, I'm running out of places to hide the bodies". On a side note, this same gent, had a jury trial in which he started off the day with yelling out randomly his displeasure with his attorney, then slept through the afternoon of his trial, and failed to come at all the second day, being found guilty in absentia.

- Seen this week in court: Wanna Lick?

- An airbrushed T- shirt that read: Gangstas Only. This stylish young lass was a witness in a trial I had in which my client and Gangstas Only had a disagreement that involved pulling over on the side of the road and scratching one another's cars with a hammer and a screwdriver, respectively. I also used the term 'baby daddy' in earnest during this particular trial.


If anyone is looking for some ideas for making the world a better place (or just some free entertainment), I recommend stopping by your local courtroom.

See our garden grow

It is finally all done! Our garden is filled with dirt, plants, and dog proof fencing.



Can you see the elusive Coonhound in this shot?




Farmer Jon hard at work.










We even have a teeny, tiny baby cherry tomato already!



Can you see it?!






This is Jack's Happy Tomato dance!




This is the future site of the Coop...breaking ground next week- woo hoo!

Here are some shots of Trip and Jack practicing being good chicken shepherds.









Okay, Jack is probably actually planning how to eat all the veggies from the garden.