Four Part Harmony

Today was a really beautiful day in Portland, which more than made up for the past week (or more) of rain. I usually think of February as the month that we really start to see signs of spring, but today it seemed they were everywhere. The picture above is the tree just over our back fence, in our neighbor’s backyard. I think it’s a cherry, or some sort of crabapple, it’s been blooming for a few days now. Most of the alders and hazelnuts have their catkins out too. Ah spring!

Our fava beans are coming up too. We’ve never grown them before, but we’ve loved getting them from our CSA. They’ve come to be synonymous with spring for us…I hope we get a decent crop.

Here’s some exciting news, we’ve officially got three egg-layers in the flock! Sol, started laying about 2 weeks ago, and has been laying like clockwork. Her eggs are lighter in color than Kimchee and Rosie’s. We’re so proud of her, and thankful too, as we hadn’t been getting that many eggs recently until Sol started laying.

Part of the reason we haven’t been getting that many eggs is because Kimchee is molting, (and looks really funny these days). I first noticed her losing some feathers on her neck about a week ago, and started to freak out that there was something wrong. The internet had me nearly convinced that we had some kind of mite infestation or something equally horrible, but after reading for a while I realized that she must just be molting. Chickens molt, usually once a year, but not usually during the winter. She’s mostly lost all of her head and neck feathers and her tail feathers. Her comb is also shrunken and lighter in color. In the picture, you can see the quills of the new feathers, which have already started growing back. She should be back to normal in no time.

Also, I’ve realized I never put up a photo of our newest family member. This is traderjoefish. Traderjoefish is a betta that we inherited in a white elephant gift exchange last month. He came in a little box with some little rocks and a little fake plant. It’s been a long time since we had any fish, and to tell the truth, we really didn’t know what to do for the little guy. But, we changed his water, cleaned his little box and rocks, and keep him fed. He seems reasonably happy, so I guess we’re doing ok. We asked Anna what his name should be and she said “traderjoefish”. Hey, who am I to argue?

Not much else in terms of news…here’s a few more photos:

Sol and Kimchee taking a dust bath after I cleaned the coop and put down a bunch of fresh straw. It’s been raining so much lately, that their coop has been pretty wet and muddy. They were very happy for the sun today.

A cool picture Nicki must have taken this afternoon. Shadows on our back fence.

A recent loaf of sourdough bread. I haven’t been using the sourdough much lately, and I should be. This loaf, although it looks a little weird, had a nice flavor, and a pretty good crust. I didn’t have the dough right though I don’t think, which caused the top to crack apart. Still, it was pretty tasty.

And lastly, this is the squirrel who quickly found the bird feeder we just hung up. At first I tried to shoo him away, but he was pretty persistent. Anna gets the biggest kick out of watching him try to get up on there, so I guess for now we’ll just let him have his share of the seeds. Hopefully we do get some birds coming by too though.