So the chicks are over three weeks old, and we still haven't settled on names. I blame this mostly on our busy schedules and the fact that I wanted to give my son a chance to name them. He hasn't really responded when I asked him what we should call the baby chickens, although that shouldn't surprise me. All his favorite stuffed animals are just called what they are--Donkey, Big Bear, Little Bear, Lion, etc.--except for one stuffed shark inexplicably named Felix.

Some names in the running: Doris, Marcy, Rhonda, Sheila, Vicki, and Phyllis. Any votes? I plan to name them by Tuesday at the latest.

Other than their lack of name, the chicks are doing great. They're putting on new feathers almost every day and scratching around in the shavings of their brooder box with vigor. It'll still be a while before I introduce them to the big girls, but I think I'll start taking them outside shortly for some dirt scratching and sunshine.

So, it seems like I may get blueberries after all! Even though the two bushes that were supposed to be cross-pollinating each other didn't bloom at exactly the same time, there are still little berries forming on the earlier-blooming bush, a variety of southern highbush called "Misty."

I'm a bit confused, as I was assured by both the Internet and the guy at the nursery that cross pollination was necessary to get fruit. I guess the berries might not make it all the way to maturity, but they seem pretty real right now so I think that's unlikely. I'm really looking forward to picking and eating them in a couple more weeks.

The other bush, a variety called "Jubilee," has just started blooming, so the jury is still out on whether it will produce fruit. But I'm feeling lucky

I've also got a pretty good strawberry crop coming to maturity in various containers around the yard. My son loves picking and eating fruit and veggies straight from the plant, and I don't blame him. It's pretty fun to grow your own food, especially since fresh picked is so much tastier than grocery store fruit.

Guess what I brought home last night? New chicks! Look at these fuzzy little peepers, all little and sweet. It's fun to have new ones after several years with just the grown hens.

The little girls don't have names yet, but the yellow one is a White Rock and the black and white one is a Langshan. I have never owned either breed before, but both are supposed to be pretty good layers of eggs and fairly good tempered. I got them from someone who posted on the Los Angeles Urban Chicken Enthusiasts message board. She had ordered 15 chicks from McMurray Hatchery, but ended up not being able to keep any of them. Since I was looking for just two chicks but needed them sexed and vaccinated, it worked out perfectly for me to take two of hers. I originally asked for a Rhode Island Red and an Australorp, but sadly those two chicks didn't survive their first night at the woman's home.

These two chicks seem pretty hardy. They peeped their little heads off the whole (long) drive home, and they have settled in happily in our old brooder box. I've got a big bag of organic starter-grower crumble from Centinela Feed in Burbank, a thermometer and a heating light, so they should be all set for quite a while. I'll keep them apart from the big girls for at least 8 weeks, maybe longer. I don't want them to get beat up.

Of course, these are the first chicks we've gotten since my son was born. As you can imagine, he's pretty excited about the baby chickens. When he woke up this morning and saw the box, he shouted "Hi chicken!" over and over for several minutes. We let him hold both chicks today and did a good job being gentle. I think it's going to be really fun to raise these chicks with him. We've been gardening, too, so he'll be an expert urban farmer before he's even in elementary school--or at least as much of an "expert" as I am.

I've been playing a little game with myself for the past several months. It's called "Dead or Dormant" and it centers around the California Sycamore tree we planted in November 2011. We got the tree, a native of this area, to replace a giant pine tree that was felled by bark beetles. Dakota, having grown up in the Midwest where they have seasons, wanted to get a tree that would drop its leaves in the winter. So, we decided on a Sycamore, with it's pretty white bark, big broad leaves and deciduous nature.

This is how that tree looked in November of 2011.

Here it is almost exactly a year ago, in March 2012.

And this is how it looks now.

Hmmmmm. Something seems... different, doesn't it? You're probably wondering why I don't have a wide shot of the tree for you. That's because it's hard to get the camera to focus on a leafless stick. At the moment, there is not a single leaf growing on the whole tree. I'm finding that fact very distressing.

But I have not lost hope. The bark is still pretty and white, and there are those little bud-like things coming off the "branches." I feel like those buds might make some leaves any day now. Right? Right? Someone with knowledge of Sycamore tree growth should comment and reassure me, if you can do so in good faith.

I will say that I have given this tree intermittent waterings--not too many but not too few--over the last year. The trees and shrubs all around it are quite happy and healthy, and I have not let too much dirt collect around the base of the Sycamore's trunk. It should be fine. But I am getting worried.

I guess all I can really do is wait and watch. Wait and worry.

Dead or dormant?

Deciduous trees are stressful.

When Dakota first built our coop back in 2008, one of the many cool features was its green roof. After doing his research, he built a multi-layered system to make sure the roof had good drainage and the right soil mix. You can read that original post and see photos here. It was a really cool idea, but, unfortunately, the original green roof pictured below did not survive.

I blame a combination of squirrels, blazing sun and infrequent watering. You know, the usual.

Recently, I have really wanted to re-plant the coop's green roof. It's still a great idea, and the drainage system still works. All I really needed was a way to keep the plants from drying out in the summer and keep the squirrels from digging up their roots. My solution was simple and obvious: burlap.

I had some burlap left over from my son's birthday party decorations. So, I added additional soil into the green roof "bed" and then stretched the burlap across. Then, I used a heavy-duty staple gun to secure the burlap around the edges of the roof.

There was one plant still alive in the old roof, so I cut a little "x" in the burlap to let it through. Then I cut a bunch of additional slits all over the burlap to add more plants.

I pressed the burlap back around the base of each plant for maximum protection and water-retention. The plants I chose this time are a variety of succulents--some taken from cuttings of existing plants and some purchased by Dakota. Several are aggressive spreaders, and my hope is that this new burlap mulch idea will allow the plants to grow and fill in the spaces in between. It should. Burlap is pretty permeable.

So, here's the newly re-planted green roof. I'll let you know how things progress this time. I promise to water more frequently this time around.

One of the major benefits of being married to someone with a fancy wood shop and the skills to use all the tools is that he can pretty much make anything.

I usually try not to brag too much about Dakota on this blog, but I have to share the favors he made for our son's recent birthday party. It was a hootenanny theme, and Dakota decided to make a hand-crafted cigar box guitar for every kid.

If you knew Dakota, you'd know he never does anything half-way. So, the guitars came out beautifully. They have wood handles, sturdy boxes and individually carved pegs so that they can be tuned. They are, in my humble opinion, pretty awesome.

While you (and I) might say this is a lot of work for a 3rd birthday favor, in the end I feel like it was worth it. It was really fun to hand out each one and see the excitement on the kids' faces. Hopefully, they will have a great time jamming on their guitars at home. That's what's happening at our house.

One of my blueberry bushes has already started to put out an impressive number of flowers. They are quite pretty and delicate-looking, and they seem to be holding up well despite wild swings in temperature.

This is great to see except for the fact that the other bush hasn't even started growing spring leaves yet. Blueberry blossoms need to be cross-pollinated by a bush of a different variety in order to set fruit.

So... bummer. These flowers are just ornamental for now. I am hoping the other bush will have a burst of growth very soon, so that the two bushes will actually flower at the same time. It would be so fun to pick fresh blueberries this Spring. I just need that lazy second bush to cooperate.