Crazyville Zoo

(A brief break from Frugal Feasting. I'll post
Last Thursday was not a good day. I was in a great mood until I got a call from my daughter.

"Mom, can you think of any other reason for a bunny to pull her fur?" Rabbit's pull their fur out to create a nest when they are about to give birth. That is how we knew our bunny, Thumper, was going to have babies four weeks ago. But pulling fur again? No way, I kept them separated! There was no way she was having more babies - her other babies were only 4 weeks old!

"No, I don't. But I take a look at her when I get home. I'm sure it's nothing." Please let it be nothing.
I arrive home an hour or so later to a crazy house. Did you know that four children can make a lot of noise when they all work together? I went down to check on the bunnies.

"Oh crud!" It was obvious she was preparing a nest. And she was frantic - the "big" babies were all over her (she was snapping at them to get them to leave her alone), the daddy bunny, RCookie was, ahem, all over her also (he was "fixed" two weeks earlier, but still, give the woman a break!!). I put the "big" babies and RCookie on one side and put the wall in to give Thumper her own side. What was I going to do with even MORE baby bunnies??

I came back upstairs. Same daughter greets me with, "Mom, what is all this stuff all over the couch and windowsill and floor?"

Sigh. "Looks like someone has let the bunnies play here a little too long." Droppings were everywhere.

"No one had the bunnies up here. Plus, that doesn't look like bunny stuff." She was right. It was different.

"Oh great! There is something living in my couch!"

At this point, I went to bed. Really. I just went to my bed and shut the door and turned on the TV. Maybe if I ignore it, it will go away. Besides, I suddenly had a raging headache.

Hubby came home a little while later to find me still on the bed. "What's wrong?"

"I have a headache. Thumper is going to give birth again, and there is some critter living in my couch!"

"What do you mean, 'critter in our couch'?"

"Go ask you daughter." He did and she showed him, and he said, "oh." and went on with his night. I got up to fix dinner.

After dinner I went to check on the bunnies. Sure enough, she had given birth to five more baby bunnies. Now I have eight. Eight baby bunnies that I have to try to find homes for. Sigh.

I call my sister to complain. While I'm on the phone with her I decide to pull the couch out and check behind it.

A SQUIRREL! "Oh great, there's a squirrel behind my couch!" Hanging upside down from the windowsill. How do they do that?

"Hang up and call me back when you deal with it." My sister doesn't even want to listen about squirrels in the house, let alone see them.

Now, I have to explain that we live near a green space and we have lots of squirrels around. We've even had them in our house before so this wasn't earth-shattering news. But still, Hubby had left again by then and I was all alone to deal with it. Would this day ever end?

I got the squirrel out by building a "path" to the open sliding glass door. We pulled the other couches out and then "swept" the squirrel out with a broom. He or she was not very happy with me and let me know it! Squirrels are almost as loud as four kids.

By night's end things had calmed down. The squirrel was gone, babies were born. I would have a great story to tell at work the next day.

Then I came home from work the next day.

The squirrel was back! Build a path again, sweep it out with the broom, again. I really need to steam clean my couch.

We think we've fixed the problem. They were coming down the chimney. We put wire mesh over the top of it. But if I find another squirrel in my house today . . . . !

Anyone want a baby bunny?

Jill

Baby Bunnies!

Please welcome the newest additions to the Crazyville household - three little baby bunnies! We bought our two youngest children pet bunnies back in May for their birthday. I told the pet store guy "I need two males or two females -I don't want baby bunnies." I was assured that the two we got were two boys.

"If we get babies, I'm bringing them back to you." I said. He just laughed, "Don't worry, it's two boys."

Three months later, our "boy" named Thumper gave birth to three stillborn babies. We were surprised (although I had seen some "behavior" - ahem - which made me think twice), and my children were heartbroken that the babies didn't survive.

Because I am a wimp, and because I was as disappointed as the kids, we decided to let them have one more litter and then take a trip to the vet to make sure it doesn't happen again.

It took a lot longer than we thought but a week ago we were surprised with three baby bunnies! The mom is grey and the dad is all black and the babies are one white, one grey and one black. They are SO cute! They are tiny and still in their little nest. Their eyes are closed until about 10 days old so they are blind right now. We are trying to only look at them once or twice a day because it seems to stress the mom out a little bit (although she was less stressed today than she has been, maybe she's over that "new mom" panic stuff!).

The plan right now is to keep the white one (which Tali has named Buster - even if it is a girl!), find homes for the grey and black ones, and get them all "fixed" so we stop at three bunnies! I work for a school district so I'm hoping some elementary teacher is looking for class pets and will take the other two.

If not, I'm going back to that laughing man at the pet store. Ha.

Jill

Wish Me Luck

In my ongoing quest to bring my chickens home, I am speaking to half of our city council members Thursday. I will be speaking to the full city council on September 2.

I will be explaining how ecologically smart owning chickens can be.

I will tell them how much it helps financially to have this versatile, cheap, healthy protein source available.

I will show them pictures of my children enjoying their pet chickens.

I will explain how allowing chickens will bring them into line with all the other cities in our area.

I will try not to blabber.

I will try not to appear like the "crazy chicken lady."

Mostly I will try not to faint.

Wish me luck.

Bringing My Chickens Home

I have been posting less than usual and my posts have been lackluster at best.

Where have I been? I've been fighting city hall!

As many of you know, I have pet chickens in my backyard. Before I ever purchased a single chicken, I called the city of Gresham (where I live) and asked what the rules were regarding chickens in the city. I was told, “The technical code states you must keep your coop 100 ft from any neighbor’s house. But the reality is that the city isn’t going to come looking for your chickens. As long as your neighbors don’t complain it is fine. So, keep your coop clean and don’t have a rooster.” With the size of my yard I can't keep it 100 ft from every neighbor but I took their word that they wouldn't come looking for my chickens. For the last three years I have followed their advice. I have kept my coop clean, kept my chickens quiet, made sure there were no pests (mice, flies, etc) and gave fresh eggs to my neighbors. For three years I have never heard one single complaint from any neighbor. Then my neighbor, who I will call Mr Grouch, called in to Code Enforcement because he was mad about our cat crossing his property line and called on our chickens to get revenge. This neighbor has "issues" with every single neighbor in the neighborhood. He complains about people's dogs, about how loud our kids play, about how fast people drive, I swear sometimes he's mad 'cause we breathe too loud!

I got a notice from the city - I was given two weeks to remove the chickens from my property.

Now these chickens aren't just a source of fresh, free-range, amazing eggs. They are also my children's pets! (Well, my pets, too, I love my little feathered girls!) They also eat all my kitchen scraps and turn them into fertilizer and eggs. They also eat the bugs out of my yard. They are pretty useful - a lot more useful than all the dogs in the neighborhood and a lot quieter! (Please note that I have nothing against dogs. I'd have a dog if I wasn't married to a man who was bit by a dog and isn't a big fan of canines!)

So, did I roll over and say "Yes, please take my chickens away. I really am interested in keeping the neighborhood grouch happy by taking away my children's pets."? No, I did not.

First, I found a place for my chickens if they need to move for a short time. Actually, they will be moving to the neighbor on the other side of Mr Grouch. Their lot is the last one next to a green space and they are able to keep the coop 100 ft from every neighbor. In a strange twist which we can only credit to Divine Order, she had decided to get her own chickens about two weeks before this whole thing happened and had started to build an enclosure for a coop. So, my husband is helping them with their coop (actually building for them), which will look just like ours.

Second, I got a two week extension. So now I have some time to work with.

Third, I set out to change the code. Portland, right next door, allows hens as long as coops are 25 ft from neighbors. I'm trying to get the law changed in Gresham to reflect that. I've gotten statements of support from Seattle Tilth, statements from Portland State University sustainability professors, statistics regarding the "nuisance"-ness of chickens versus dogs (only because dogs are an example of an animal allowed under the code), and statistics on the healthiness of free-range eggs. I know who I need to talk to and who I need to convince.

I'm going to change the laws. I'm going to legally bring my chickens home.

Jill

The Case of the Missing Chicken

The day started out like any other day. Any other day that was incredibly busy and included things like my husband going to Urgency Care for a nail stuck in his foot, my family coming over for a family birthday party, and getting ready for Father's Day. We had worked hard in the backyard getting ready for the family barbeque and the yard looked great. So picturesque with the green grass and the three chickens grazing amongst the flowerbeds. You see, we have pet chickens. Three of them (and three baby chicks that are in a box in the garage currently). We call them "pets with a purpose," the purpose being fresh eggs. We love our chickens (and their eggs) and treat them truly as pets. They are spoiled rotten and we dote on them. We have lost several over the years to raccoons and are very protective of the ones who are left. They are only allowed out during the day and are locked up tight at night.

We had let them out this day because the cousins who were coming over enjoy the whole "farm feel" of Auntie Jill's house. I say farm feel because we live in a suburban neighborhood and have a larger than average yard, but not a farm by a long shot! But we have chickens, bunnies, a little red barn chicken coop, grapes, blueberries, raspberries, gardens like crazy, and it feels like a farm to someone who doesn't have that.

The cousins had fun playing in the backyard and the weather was beautiful for the barbeque. At the end of the day I was going to show my sister (who lives far away and doesn't see my yard often) all my pets. But we couldn't find Jellybean, my black Austrolorpe chicken. We searched everywhere - the bushes, the coop, the green space behind our house, everywhere we could think of, but she was gone. When dusk came and the other two chickens went back to the coop for the night, she still wasn't there. She just . . . . vanished! (cue scary music!)

We went to sleep thinking the worst, she had been grabbed by a raccoon or a hawk and we had seen the last of her. But the detective in me wouldn't give it up; how could she have disappeared in a yard full of kids with adults watching from the deck? Wouldn't we have heard or seen something? It bugged me and when I woke up this morning it still bugged me! I wanted to go search the yard again but I had a Father's Day breakfast to make, kids to get ready for church, things to do!

After church, and after the Father's Day dinner (we go all out on holidays here), I went to take my baby chicks to the backyard for some "sunshine time." While they frolicked and pecked and flapped, I watered my garden and did some tidying up. When I came to the hay storage area I noticed the lid of one of the boxes had gotten knocked part-way off, when I lifted it to straighten it - out flew Jellybean! She had somehow gotten herself trapped under the lid and couldn't get out. She was very thirsty, very hungry and is walking with a limp right now, but otherwise seems ok. It is still a mystery - how did she get under there? Why didn't she make noise? Did she and we didn't hear her because of the kids? Whatever the case, I'm glad she's back and the mystery is solved!

Jill

The Joys of an Off-Set Spatula

(Updated: The above picture is of an off-set spatula. Some people (ahem, Jenifer) said they didn't know what one looked like, so here it is.)

There are certain things in life that aren't neccessary but help make life so much sweeter. Right now I'm sitting out on my deck overlooking my backyard (thank you husband for the wireless laptop!). The grass is that amazing green that it gets only in late spring when the spring rains and the first warm days collide. My flower pots are full of pansies which are running riot, much to my delight. My chickens are wandering the yard, nibbling grass and clucking softly to each other. My neighbor is mowing his lawn which makes for some noise I could do without but is also generating that heavenly fresh-cut grass smell which says "Spring!" to me. I don't need any of these things, but man, do they make life better!

There are some kitchen gadgets that are a lot like fresh-cut grass and foraging chickens, you can cook without them but they sure make it a lot more fun. My off-set spatula is one of these. I love my off-set spatula. You can get them in lots of different sizes but my favorite is my little one. It is about the size of a butter knife, I got mine from Pampered Chef the last time the Pampered Chef parties went through my group of friends. I don't think I bought it on purpose, it was probably that extra $5.oo I needed to get that free gift or something, but oh, am I glad I did! The official use of an off-set spatula is for spreading things like frosting on a cake or sandwhich spread on bread, or something like that. For this use it is fabulous. Because the handle is off-set (hence the brilliant name!), you don't get your fingers covered in goop. It also provides a good angle so that you can make those frosting swirls on the top of the cake like you see in the cookbooks.

The other uses are what I really love. My favorite use is to unstick muffins. I never use paper liners when I make muffins, partly because I really cheap, partly because I'm trying to be "green" and the wasted paper just kind of gets to me, and partly because I have silicone muffin tins so I don't really need liners. But I do need to go around the edges to loosen the muffins from the pan and then tip them out without burning my hand. The off-set spatula is perfect for this! The angled handle lets me get it in along side the muffin and the fact that it doesn't have a sharp edge lets me pop them out without gouging my muffins all to bits. I also use the spatula for loosening the bread from the bread pans before turning them out on the rack to cool.

I could go on and on, but I won't. Just suffice it to say that I love my off-set spatula, almost as much as my chickens!

Jill

Gary the Gecko

Last night Jim undertook some major yard renovations. It entailed removing some half buried railroad ties and hacking away lots of blackberry vines. Carina and Kaden (my youngest two kids) enthusiastically offered to help (the older two looked at Jim like he asked them if they wanted to amputate their right arms - "uh, no, I don't think so, Dad"). During the excavating the kids made two discoveries: first, that excavating is really hard work and they didn't enjoy it as much as they thought they would. Second, they discovered a gecko. Actually, it is probably a salamander or some such creature but they thought it was a gecko and named him Gary the Gecko.

They quickly lost interest in the excavating (after all it is really hard), and worked on building Gary a habitat instead. They filled a toy dump truck with water for his swimming pool, got him leaves to eat, sticks to crawl on and gave him a grand tour of our back yard. "Look, Gary, this is the mud pit you can play in! This is the garden you can eat!" Kaden told everyone that this was the "best evening of my life."

They really wanted to keep him but after much coaxing by their mother, they agreed to return Gary to his rightful home - the blackberry patch on the butte. After they said their goodbyes, Carina walked him up and placed him on the ground, with two leaves as a parting gift. "This is the worst night of my life." said Kaden. "I miss Gary."

Now the pressure is on to find a gecko in a pet store and adopt him. "Can you Google 'gecko' and see what they eat?" "Can you find a pet store that sells geckos?" Anyone know of a cute gecko looking for a home?

Jill