Moving to Bramblewood

Life got really busy there for awhile after my last post. Even with some relaxing down time, I got out of the blog habit. I have been writing in my journal, which is satisfying in a different way than blogging, but I do miss the very visual aspect of the blog.
July and August saw the final building of the house, which was incredibly exciting and stressful beyond most projects I undertake. Not only was there all the paperwork and last minute well issues (who is going to come up with $5000 quick?!? Builder? Owner? Lender? etc.) but we had to paint the entire interior and exterior of the home. That was a seriously huge undertaking on our part, yes indeed. Not only did we save over $4000 doing it ourselves, it was something we got to physically contribute to the building of the house. Sinse I had the dream of building my own home for over 15 years, I think I needed that involvement and control physically and emotionally.
We spent the last half of July painting the interior, meanwhile maintaining 3 4x15 community garden beds, 3 4x8 garden beds at the upper meadow that needed water hauled in (yes, it's true), 10 chickens and 2 cats that needed looking after, 2 kids that were under a lot of stress themselves (but they did awesome, those guys!), keeping the ice cream business afloat, and working on my resume. After a completely grueling 5-day stint scooping ice cream at the Hood River Fair (Columbia Valley Cone's official last event...sniff) I was out starting on the exterior. Bless the boys; they really did a lot of work. Ealom and Gil pretty much did all of the interior ceilings, and Aidan and I painted walls. Outside, we all pitched in, working our butts off in blistering hot weather to get the paint done before closing. The timing was excellent though; painting in extremely dry weather is a true blessing around here.
Things got really crazy when on August 22, I took a new job as the Head Cook and Food Manager for Skamania County's Senior Services Food Program.
We did our final walk-through with the builder and signed the closing papers with USDA on September 1, and we spent Labor Day Weekend moving in. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday we moved most of our belongings and Sunday was the big day of bringing over the beds and cats. So, September 4 was the official starting day of living at Bramblewood. The cats are happy here, and of course, so are we.

Here are the garden beds at Bramblewood:


And here are the guys with our community garden bed that won "Best of Show" at the county fair:

Two Flocks of Chickens

Aidan and Athena, 14 1/2 months old:



Aidan and Back-up, 4 1/2 months old (I would give her a better name, but she was the one with the neurological problem when she was a baby that made her back up and roll over and the name stuck. Btw, she completely healed after a week of Vit. B, Vit. E, neck rubs, and isolation in the house for a week. This was when she was 4 weeks old and we think it was something called wry neck because that was her other symptom; she tucked her neck under to the point that it was twisted nearly all the way around. You'd never know by looking at her now.):


It's not easy integrating two flocks. We are keeping a barrier between the two until the younger hens are eating the same feed blend as the layers. The older one's are aggressive enough that the younger ones will just stay in their coop and not come out during outdoor time if the barrier is down. I know they need to have their pecking order and get that established, so we take the barrier down for awhile every day, but I want them outside also, so we'll put it back up after Athena (the warrior name, go figure, lol) chases them all back inside. If we walk away, she'll even go in and eat up their food, so that's reason #2 to keep them seperate for now. It's interesting to me that Snowball, who is the most skittish around people, is completely accepting of the younger chickens, even sharing scratch with them, which none of the other hens will do.

In a month or so, we'll be building yet another coop (good golly, the FIFTH time) closer to the house and they will all be eating the same feed rations, so they'll just have to get used to each other.

A Few House Updates

The kitchen after sheetrock:


After we painted and they installed the cabinets and sub-floor:


Here are some of the appliances being stored in Aidan's bedroom before they get installed elsewhere:


Ealom's bedroom:


The boys sitting on rolls of carpet padding in mine and Gil's room:


Master bathroom:


Living room with rolls of carpet and trim:

Interior paint

The sheetrocking was completed on June 30, and then it was our turn to work on the house; interior painting. What a job! It's nice to have a strong young man for a son who doesn't even need the extension wand to paint ceilings. (I did recommend it nonetheless, but he enjoyed doing it this way also):


Aidan takes a break from painting to make a cleaver belt:


I will have to post more pictures later. :)

Doe With Twins

House update

Things are moving right along with the house. The crew worked right through Memorial Day weekend to lay the floor joists, some plumbing (mostly drainage) and get the frame up:

June 1st saw the rafters and roof sheathing go up. It's starting to look like a real house!

This past week has seen the rain gutters added; they are all connected and attached to a huge drainage pipe directed several yards away from the house, which I think is fantastic. In the future the pipe will either get hooked up to a water storage container or empty into a pond.
The shingles were put on, and Aidan got to assist the builder, Darin Baker, staple a few areas of Tyvek wrap with a staple hammer, which was quite the thrill for him.
The electrical and plumbing both have been roughed in, and the following have been installed: the heaters(zonal fan type, which I'm really happy about and hope they are as neat as they sound), shower, tub, and exhaust fan piping.
We visited today and Darin had finished the wrapping and was installing the windows.

We are responsible for clean-up and the boys have been a huge help sorting through piles of rubbish and sorting it all out. I hate all the trash, but we were able to recycle quite a bit, used the cardboard to supress weeds in my future garden area, and we have a huge pile of solid wood scraps for future projects, namely a tree house. I even used quite a few scraps to make a chicken coop extension and the building superintendant, Eric Sundby, came out and used leftovers to build us a shed/well pumphouse. It's not in his contract to do so, but he did. I was quite surprised to see him out there contructing and grateful to have such a great guy supervising our project.

Aunties!

A few more pictures I should've posted a few months back. :)
Bonny came to visit in February and the day after she left we got a visit from Molly. The weather was partly sunny, gorgeous and felt like spring for Bonny (I guess that's why they call it "false spring"), and then Molly got our last winter storm. It was wonderful to see them both.

We had just finished a picnic at a Hood River park:

The boys were sledding on the elementary school hill behind us:

Easter with cousins

I know Easter is well behind us, but I wanted to share a couple of pictures of the boys with their cousins.
I am cracking up that they all wore camouflage to go hunting eggs.

Afterwards we went to the park and I got this shot, which I just love:

Concrete!

We were pleasantly surprised today by the presence of cement mixing and pouring equipment, as well as a whole crew of workers out at Bramblewood. They poured the footing for the house and the foundation for the well pump house.

We came back later after they had finished. They did this all in one day. Pretty amazing.

Property Improvements

We were told on Thursday that the building permit is ready and will be picked up by Adair (our builder) first thing Monday morning. 7 1/2 months after filing, it better be ready. I never would have imagined it could take the county that long to get their stuff together and I must say I remain unimpressed with their abilities down at the planning office.
Nevertheless, building should get started soon and we have a few improvements to report on, namely; a much nicer driveway that you don't need 4WD to drive on:

We also have electricity, a well liner, our water report shows good, healthy drinking water (woo-hoo!!!), and they've started to dig out the foundation. You can see the former and the latter in this picture:

New coop

We worked really hard on the new coop and are now starting the expansion to accomodate the chicks when they move in. The expansion will remain separate for a week or so with just chicken wire separating the two flocks before we remove it and they get to interact after having lived next to each other, seeing and hearing each other for a little while first. Hopefully it will make the transition easier, but who knows? I'm just hoping it goes fairly smoothly and nobody gets terribly victimized. I love chickens and am constantly impressed with their antics and cleverness, but they can sure be cruel to each other and could care less as long as they get what they want at times.
They've never picked on each other badly enough to cause any real concern though, and are a pretty darn contented flock most of the time.
Peck still sings everyone to sleep and their instincts are in excellent working order. An example: we've had a hawk fly over a couple of times and I was struck by how quickly they ran for cover before I even noticed it up above. The second time it happened, Peck was still scratching and the others were huddled under a tree hollering at her to get to safety. She looked up like, "what's all the fuss about", then realized what they were bawking about and ran over to join the group. Then they all just waited quietly together for a couple minutes, then back out to peck around some more.
It was actually quite neat to watch, I just hope they stay safe. I know hawks don't need much space to swoop down and grab some dinner.
Here's the coop, done enough to move everyone in:

And here it is a few days later, looking a little more finished:

New Brooder

The chicks were getting a little big for their plastic tote brooder, and I knew they wouldn't be getting into their outdoor space for at least 4 more weeks, so I decided to turn our old utility trailer into a huge brooder.
This was a few weeks ago when they were 6 1/2 weeks old. They are now almost 10 weeks and still have plenty of space; I just want to get them outdoors soon!
Here they are inside:

And here it is from the outside:

.

New Chicks!

We have been busy building a chicken coop at Bramblewood, the first structure to grace the new farm. It's coming along nicely, but taking longer than it should because of all the rain. I read that this area averages 17 days of rain in March, and we've had at least 19 so far. The area of excavation and building (all by hand) around the coop is a sticky muddy mess, so I headed out to the feed store for a couple of bales of straw. I got the straw, but I also came home with chicks. :-)
We have been planning on getting 5 new chickens; 3 Barred Plymoth Rocks and 2 Rhode Island Reds, but I figured we'd get them in a few weeks. Well, the feed store had just those two varieties, with other breeds coming in over the next couple of months, but no more of these particular two. It seemed rather fortunate, and since Aidan was begging and making promises of all the work he will be doing if we could just get the chicks today, I figured now was as good a time as any.
It was pretty nice just having to buy food and grit, knowing that we have everything at home from last year. We brought the chicks home, scrubbed and sanitized everything, and they are chirping away merrily. I think they are about six days old.

Here they all are:

And here is a close-up of the tiniest of the flock:

Chicken Waterer

A few months ago I read on a blog about how to make a chicken waterer with a bucket and poultry nipples, but now I can't find the blog, so unfortunately can't give proper credit to the inventor of this ingeneous little waterer.
It's pretty simple, so at least I remember how to do it. Theirs did involve two buckets, cutting the bottom off of one and then sliding this completed one inside with a little glue so that you can fill it easily and not crush the nipples on the ground, but I figure we can just set ours on a couple of scrap pieces of 2x4 while we fill it. In our climate, mold is a real concern, and I didn't want cracks I can't get to and clean.

Here is how we made ours:
First I ordered some nipples from www.farmtek.com, STK# WC1030
and a food safe bucket lid (I ordered mine from Azure Standard, but unless you already order from them as a co-op member, you'll have to find one somewhere else. I already had a food safe bucket scavenged from a friend who works at a natural foods store.
The nipples were only $2.05 each & you only need two for each waterer, but the shipping was $11+ whether I ordered 2 or 4, so I ordered 4, figuring I'll be making another waterer eventually anyhow.

Here is what you need:
3 or 5 gallon bucket with lid
2 poultry nipples
drill
11/32 drill bit
silicon (you can buy a small squeeze tube and you won't even need the caulking gun, but I happened to have both of these latter items on hand already)
scissors or in my case wire cutters to snip silicon tube end

I also found these items handy during the process:
pliers (to tighten nipples; looks like they can be tightened with a socket wrench, but pliers were closer and worked just fine)
paper towel to wipe excess silicon and popcicle stick to smooth it:
:

First, drill two holes in the bottom of bucket:

Screw the nipples (from the outside bottom of the bucket) in by hand and then tighten with pliers:

Apply silicon around the base of the nipples, on the outside bottom of the bucket (I smoothed mine with a poscicle stick, but it's probably not necessary:

Let dry for 24 hours, then wash everything, fill with water, put the lid on, and hang from a chain, which is attached to hooks installed in the coop frame. The actual making of the waterer was less than 10 minutes, but of course there is the gathering of supplies and subsequent clean-up, but all in all a very easy project that my 10 and 14 year old sons put together all by themselves with my assistance and direction.
Apparently, some people's chickens catch right on and other's don't, so I can only guess that like many animal "issues", the problem is with the people. One blogger mentioned clicking the little nipples and showing the chickens what to do, and they went for them right away. I'll let you know how it goes and share a couple of pictures of the completed project, as well as it in use.

Silver Lakenvelder

The Lakenvelder has laid nary an egg for the last several weeks, while the Black Stars and Light Brahma continue to lay one every day or every other day at least. Her eggs are very pretty though, they are a white egg called "tinted"; we like to call it "pearl". My picture just doesn't do them justice.

Snowball loves to fly up and hang out on the pole fence, nibbling at pine needles. Of course, that's her favorite spot to escape the yard also.

We have a rare bird

While we were moving our chicken coop from our house out to Sharon's farm, the chicken's had a good time in their temporary home; under the trampoline. It took us two evenings and since it wasn't all that secure under the trampoline, we made a little area in the back of the garage and carried them in there to sleep at night. It was quite an ordeal transporting all five chickens back and forth that night and morning, but all was well. We spread straw all over the floor and provided cardboard boxes and pet carriers in case anyone wanted to get cozy, and they just slept until I got them out in the morning. Gratefully Snowball was in one of the pet carriers, so I was able to just pick up the whole thing and move her to the trampoline area. She is the most flighty and easily startled bird, while the rest are quite mellow and tame. Interesting, because she was hand-fed and raised with lots of holding and petting. Well, come to find out, there's a biological reason she's so wild acting; turns out that she is a "Silver Lakenvelder", a chicken breed that hails originally from Germany and they are known to be less sociable with humans. She gets along great with the other birds though, lays beautiful tinted white eggs, and is a handsome bird that loves to be outdoors with the other chickens. Her breed is rare, but not critically endangered. She has inspired me to check into other rare breeds and potentially raise mostly endangered chicken breeds. Peck is a "Light Brahma" and is a sweet and friendly bird who has kind of taken over as the leader of the flock. She lets everyone know when it's bedtime; when the Black Stars were smaller, she would gather them up and literally sing them to sleep. I had no idea that chickens did that, but Peck sits in there cooing in the sweetest little voice that sounds just like a type of singing until everyone settles down.

Here is Snowball:


Peck:


Their temporary under the trampoline digs:


Snowball and Peck with two of the Black Stars getting their daily outdoor time. The Black Stars are named Matilda, Venus, and Athena:

First Eggs!

How did we end up with chickens? I have been wanting chickens for several years, but hadn't found or had the opportunity. Last April, there was a chicken show at the fairgrounds over the weekend, and when we came into work Monday morning, found that a chick had been left behind. She was running around the barn frantically and one of the ladies caught her and put her in a box. She called OHSU and they asked her to find someone willing to take it home, as they weren't driving all the way back out from Portland for one little chick. Nobody could or would take her and I figured, why not? Yes, I can think of a few reasons now why not, but it seemed like a fine idea at the time and even though it has been an ordeal, I don't regret the decision.
We brought her home, made a little pen out of a rubbermaid tote, drove to the farm store in Carson for some food, bedding, dishes, and a heat light, and set "Snowball" up in the garage. Sharon took pity and offered her a buddy, as chickens are flock animals and really do need other chickens to be with, and she had 15 chicks. We gratefully took in "Peck" to keep Snowball company. Peck was just a few days old and Snowball was about 3-4 weeks, the 3rd week of April. They got along immediately and hunkered down together at night from day one. I started reading about chickens and learned that while 2 chickens do okay, 3-5 is really the best minimum for a decent flock. On May 5th, Dickey Farms had another round of chicks come in, so we went out and picked up 3 Black Stars, or Black Sex Links, 2 days old. I don't know why I didn't take more pictures, they were just little balls of black fluff, so cute.
We set up a 2nd brooder and raised them separate from the 2 bigger chicks, since they needed a little more heat and I wasn't sure how they would all get along.
By the middle of May, we were taking the big chicks outside everyday for some fresh air and exercise, they had a bigger pen in the garage, and it was time to build a coop. We scavenged materials around here and bought a few things like chicken wire, screws, poultry tacks, and plywood.
To make a long story short, everything went great for a couple of months, the chickens all got along after we introduced them, and we were all enjoying the new additions, when we got a visit from a city planner who told us we couldn't have the chickens and they would have to be removed. It is the most ridiculous thing, but quite common to have ordinances against chickens, many people in towns and cities are working to change the laws, but not here yet. We were given until August 20th to move the chickens, so we moved the entire coop out to Sharon's place. I am hoping to get the law changed here, but the city told me that it will take at least 6 months and by then we will be moved out to the property where chickens are allowed. I will still help folks here, but in the meantime, the chickens live in Carson, and we have to drive daily to care for them and collect eggs. We let them out into the barn yard while we are there and they have a great time running around, scratching, pecking, and eating bugs and weeds.
The first eggs were a real thrill for everyone, they came the 2nd week of September and we have been getting eggs daily since then. We have gotten five eggs in one day twice, and a double yolker 3 times.

Here is the coop:

And here are the boys with the first eggs:


I will make another post later with better pictures of the chickens and describe their types and temperaments.

Ealom's Art

Ealom had a fantastic opportunity last month to attend a class on creating characters for comics taught by a professional comic book artist. The kids got to submit their comic book covers to The Maryhill Museum of Art for display in their "Comics at the Crossroads" exhibit. We went to the opening event of the exhibit, where the kids got to present and talk about their art pieces, and attend the social event afterwards. Here he is, his cover is on the lower right:

As an added bonus, which was probably even more fun than the event itself, was the attendance of COUSINS! Maryhill is in between Yakima and Stevenson, and we were thrilled that Katy was able to come and bring 3 of the kids. Here are the boys under a sculpture entitled, "The Taco Bell":


I had gotten out of the habit of blogging last summer, so I am going to share a couple of photos from another class Ealom took a year ago. This class was "Claymation" and was held at OMSI, all day long for a week. The class was incredibly inspiring and Ealom learned a lot, still using skills he learned at that class in his current projects. I am disappointed that he couldn't go again this year, but we plan on sending him next year.
Here he is outside the studio holding the DVD he made, entitled "Gump":

And inside:

I will try to upload the claymation he made at that class to Youtube and link it here.

Property History

My job does have some perks, such as asking around about local history, and someone is sure to know something. I asked Jeananne Wiseman, who was born and raised in Stevenson, about our property. She actually remembered the folks who owned the house on our property, but couldn't remember when it was torn down. Her aunt used to live just around the corner and Jeananne remembered walking around the area. I'm going to be asking more questions and talking to more people, but I want to write down what she told me so far.
The house was built by Miles and Mildred Stevenson, relatives of the founders of our town. According to Jeananne, Miles was an enormous man with an equally matched appetite for alcohol and fighting with his wife. Rumor has it they were both fighters when they drank and had some rip-roaring times. Miles was a logger and lived to a ripe old age, but not sure when he died. Mildred died about 4 years ago at age 98. Jeananne recommended visiting the local museum and asking them about the place. She also said she'd bring in some photos of Stevenson from the 1940s when the road through town (now Highway 14) was gravel and the sidewalks were wooden. She has pictures of the house she was born in, which is now the Marylin Bolles Art Studio downtown.

Wildcrafting at the Property

So, the previous property owners were telling the truth; there are indeed apple trees down by the creek, and while I had thought there wasn't any fruit, we found some. It was nearly three weeks ago when we found the apples, gleaned about 2 gallons from the ground and picked a few from the trees. The trees are old and neglected, but we got enough apples to make a crisp combined with blackberries. Yum!
Here is our harvest, along with gift veggies from our next door neighbors garden:

Here is the crisp:

Black bears love apples also. This picture was taken yesterday. Yep, that's black bear scat chock full of apples. The fellow wildcrafter was spotted on the neighbor's property the night before. Wishing we had a really big dog.