Check out this hefty bunch of kale from my deck containers. I love those dark green leaves; they just scream "healthy!" This bunch was consumed for dinner last Friday night. I boiled the chopped leaves and stems and then sprinkled them with salt, pepper and lemon juice. Tasty.



And speaking of fresh, seasonal food, I'm very excited about a resource I just read about on the Garden Punks blog. It's a handy Eat Local tool from the Natural Resource Defense Council, which tells you what produce is in season in your region. It even breaks California down into Northern and Southern and distinguishes between the early and late parts of each month.

For Southern California in early March, I should be eating: asparagus, avocado, beets, broccoli, grapefruit, lemons, tangerines, turnips, spinach and, of course, kale. The tool seems great for menu planning. It tells you what will be on sale at the store, or in the stalls at the farmers' market, before you leave your house.

I was out with Peggy and Tina this morning, watering the garden while they enjoyed their morning free range, when I heard some familiar clucking. This cluck didn't come from my hens, though, but from somewhere nearby. The noise was faint, but it sounded just like the loud morning clucks Peggy and Tina make before I let them out.

So, it appears we have some chicken-loving neighbors. This doesn't surprise me, honestly, but it's nice to get some confirmation. It also made me feel better about the noise my hens make. They can get pretty rowdy first thing in the morning, and while they don't crow like roosters, they can certainly make their presence known. I have always reassured myself that a few boisterous clucks are nothing compared to the more frequent noise of dogs barking and helicopters flying overhead. Hearing those distant clucks today just made me feel happy and calm, so hopefully that's how my neighbors feel, too. So far, we haven't had any complaints.

Speaking of like-minded neighbors, Dakota and I had a fun time at the Freedom Gardens event last Sunday. We met our blog friends from Ramshackle Solid, and chatted with many other friendly and interesting folks who are, like us, finding out how fun and empowering backyard "farming" can be. I like the idea of joining a community in Los Angeles that's really committed to living sustainably. So, I think we'll attend more of these events in the future.

For the first time ever, I have successfully grown broccoli. In previous years, I would happily plant my seeds in the late Fall, and by the time the sprouts got about an inch tall, some unseen pest would swoop in and gobble them down to tiny green nubs.

This year, I planted my broccoli with low expectations. But, somehow, they survived. It may be because I planted the seeds towards the middle of my plot, mixed in with hardier mustard greens. Perhaps the bugs were so distracted nibbling on those greens that they never got around to chowing down on the broccoli seedlings. Whatever the reason, I now have some lovely broccoli crowns developing.



And now I'm wondering... how do I know when to harvest them? I'd like to let the crown grow as large as possible. But I don't want to wait so long that the broccoli goes to seed. Do you just have to guess, or is there some secret to broccoli timing someone can share with me?

Maybe I'll ask for tips tomorrow at the Freedom Garden event I'm attending. Eric over at Ramshackle Solid tipped me off about this film screening and pot luck, and I'm really looking forward to meeting him and other like-minded LA folks on Sunday evening.

The rain is making me giddy. I just can't stop planting things in the breaks between storms. In addition to various bushes, I've had the opportunity to plant a couple of fruit trees to add to our backyard orchard. To be honest, the backyard orchard is more of a hope than a reality at the moment. But, with all this rain and some careful care, I could be harvesting fruit year-round in a couple of years.

Last weekend, courtesy of Tree People, I got a bare root Panamint Nectarine for free. I planted it on the slope below the chicken coop. At the moment, it looks more like a stick in the ground than a tree. Consider this the "before" shot.



Yesterday, during a trip to Home Depot, I noticed they had some fruit trees for cheap. So, I picked up a Desert Gold Peach and planted it near the Pink Lady Apple that Dakota gave me for my birthday. I managed to get it in the ground before last night's big rain storm. Here's another "before" shot.



In addition to the new trees, I am happy to report that I have revived my almost-dead Brown Turkey Fig. Its previous location was too hot and dry, and the soil was terrible. So, I moved it to a shadier place where I could more easily water it. The move, combined with this winter's rain, brought the fig back to life. Hurrah! I love fresh figs. They remind me of the tree that grew in my great-grandmother's backyard.



Also part of the orchard is this dwarf pomegranate that lives in a container on the patio. It lost all its leaves in December, which freaked me out a bit, but it's back in business now. This was another Tree People freebie, acquired while I was helping them prepare other trees for a giveaway last year. It didn't bear any fruit last year, but perhaps this year we'll get some.



Joining the new trees are two old-timers, which were here when I moved in: an orange and a lemon. The orange sits at the bottom of the stairs down to the patio. After several fruitless years, it managed to produce four small oranges last year, and I'm thinking the upcoming season could be even better. It's covered in blossoms at the moment, which have just started to open. Fingers crossed for lots of bees.



And down below the chicken coop is a lemon tree, which fruits every couple of years. It's got quite a few blossoms as well, so perhaps 2009 will be a productive year.



After listing all those trees, I'm feeling pretty good about my future orchard. I plan to baby all the new saplings through this year, so I can finally get past my history of fruit tree murder. Then, one day soon, all I'll need to do is step out into the backyard to find a delicious and healthy piece of fruit.

Unbelieveably, it's been raining like crazy here. As a gardner and conservationist, I'm really happy that the Southern California dry spell is letting up a little bit. But, as a chicken owner, it's a bit rough.

We weren't able to clean out the coop last weekend because it was so rainy and muddy, and the girls haven't been getting nearly enough free-range time. This makes them kind of antsy. Plus, their feet and legs are really muddy and Peggy's beard is looking a bit scruffy.

When the first winter rain came in January, I ran out and got the girls a tarp to keep their run dry. It works fairly well, but if it rains hard, the dirt floor of the run definitely gets muddy.



We also drilled a hole in an old metal pie pan and put it above the hanging feeder, almost like an umbrella. Again, that works in a light rain, but a downpour still soaks their feed, turning it into a mushy cake. Luckily, Peggy and Tina don't seem to mind eating their food in mush cake form. I just have to clear it out pretty quickly so it doesn't mold.

I think after all these rains are over, we might look at ways to help with drainage around the coop, and we'll probably put gravel around the outside of the chicken enclosure, so it's not so muddy and slippery down there. A couple of weeks ago, I planted some more bushes below the coop, which should help absorb some of the run off.

Happily, there is at least one plus-side to the rain as far as the chickens are concerned: It should help the vine I put at the far end of the run grow bigger and bushier. Last Fall, I planted it as an attempt to provide shade and privacy while adding pleasant scent to the area. I chose a Vanilla Trumpet Vine, which is supposed to be well-suited to our climate and produces lots of fragrant, purple flowers. With all this rain, I'm hopeful that Sping will bring thick green foliage and lots of blossoms.



There's more rain in the forecast for this weekend and next week, which is great, as long as we have a long-enough break to get all the poop-soiled shavings out of the coop. I guess the hens will have to play indoors for a while. Maybe I should teach them tic-tac-toe.

So, you might think I already have too many hobbies with my knitting, gardening, cooking, chicken keeping, reading and copious amounts of TV viewing. But, of course, you'd be wrong. This month, I added yet another crafty hobby to the list: sewing.

Actually, I've been in posession of a wonderful, brand-new, fancy sewing machine for several years. Dakota once gave me a Viking Huskystar as a birthday gift, but, until this month, I'd never even taken it out of the box. I was waiting until we found a space to set up a crafting table, but I recently faced the reality that, in a tiny house like ours, that day might never come.

What really motivated me to start sewing, though, was signing up for the sewing 101 class at machine project. After eyeing this class for a while, I finally took the plunge two weekends ago. I'm very glad I did. The instructor, Annie, was extremely helpful and encouraging. Setting up a sewing machine can be a bit intimidating, but she walked us through threading the needle and the bobbin and getting the hang of sewing with the different stiches. Then, we moved on to individual projects.

After flirting with the idea of making a dress, I opted instead to make a stuffed toy. I searched around the Internet and found a really cute stuffed pig pattern for free (my favorite price). Happily, I also already had some very nice fabric that I pulled from my grandmother's massive stash after she died. (Not learning to sew from my extremely knowledgeable and talented grandmother is a big regret of mine. What was I thinking? Teenagers are so dumb.)

Anyway, I'm not saying the pig came out perfectly. But, I think it's pretty cute.



I think I'll make another pig, just for the practice, and then probably branch out into other toys and maybe a skirt or something. Annie also taught me how to alter clothing, which I think will come in very handy with thrift-store finds.

My big plan is to create some of my own stuffed animal patterns and make some great personalized baby gifts for all my friends who are getting pregnant. Then, when I have my own kids, hopefully I'll be good enough to make them toys and clothes. My grandmother always made my sister and I the cutest, prettiest dresses and nightgowns. I'd love to be able to do that for my children.

Here's a question for other crafty bloggers out there: Can you suggest any sewing books, fabric stores (online or in LA), blogs or other sewing resources I might find helpful? Keep in mind I'm very much a beginner.

I already have the Built by Wendy book Sew U, and I've discovered some great blogs including the Craft blog and Softie Making. But, I'm always interested in learning more and getting inspired by cool crafting blogs. Leave your suggestions in the comments, please!

The Good Girls celebrated the start of our fourth year of volunteering last month. For the last three years, we've done at least one volunteer project every single month. As the group founder, I am very proud of the Good Girls' record. We've helped quite a few people and organizations, and it's also been a great way to develop and maintain some amazing friendships.

For our first project of 2009, we went out to Animal Acres to help with farm chores. We'd done this project once before, in 2006, and it was just as fun the second time. Animal Acres houses all kinds of abandoned, abused and neglected farm animals, most of whom come from factory farms.

When we arrived at the farm, we were greeted by some huge, and very friendly, pigs. The pigs at the sanctuary split their time between sleeping their stalls and roaming around the brush on one side of the farm. Yes, these are free range pigs. Here's Meredith giving one a tummy rub, which, apparently, pigs love.



After we finished saying hello to the pigs, we were shown to a group of goat stalls where we set to work clearing out the soiled hay. It seemed to me that Animal Acres had even more animals than they did back in 2006, and they certainly had a lot of work that needed to get done. This was a project where we definitely felt like we were needed. I don't think Animal Acres could operate without volunteers.



Happily, the stalls where we worked were inhabited by a mother goat and her two cute kids. So, we got to pet and play with some adorable baby animals in addition to raking poop-covered hay. Here's one of the little guys, relaxing in the sun.



The Good Girls spent about 3 1/2 hours at Animal Acres and managed to clean out a large group of stalls and refill them with clean hay. We felt it was a good morning's work, and the baby goats seemed happy. Hopefully, we'll be back to the farm again soon.

Coming up in 2009, the Good Girls have plans to continue to help out at Los Angeles-area food banks, attend beach and river clean-ups, do some arts & crafts for charity and work with Tree People planting trees. In addition, we may organize some fund-raising events for charitable groups. It should be a productive year, full of service and fun.

It's been a while since I updated on our ongoing kitchen remodel, but things have been steadily moving along. As with most of our projects, the work has been slow-going, since we have to do everything on the weekend. Happily, the kitchen has been usable for most of the time.

After all the drywall went up, Dakota started to install the cabinet cases. After he designed the cases, he them cut by one of his subcontractors, who has a CNC machine. The wood is pre-finished birch, FSC certified and formaldehyde free. FSC certification guarantees that the wood you're using is from a sustainably-managed forest, and not clearcut from a rainforest. It's a must for a green remodel. (You can read more about forest certification here.) The wood looks very pretty, although Dakota has had a few issues with minor warping.

Here he is installing a large storage cabinet that will go over the refrigerator.



Happily, I was able to help Dakota out a little by priming the walls a couple of weeks ago. Since we're using eco-friendly Milk Paint on the walls and cabinets, we figured we should get some eco-friendly primer as well. The product we chose is Dunn-Edwards Eco-Shield. It's low-VOC, and you can really tell. It didn't smell at all. Plus, the primer went on easily and seemed to coat the walls well.



As the cabinet boxes go in, I'm getting more and more excited about the design of the final kitchen. Dakota has really planned things out beautifully, with lots of cool little details that will make our kitchen unlike any other. I feel very lucky to have such a talented carpenter and designer doing my kitchen remodel. I clearly married the right guy.

Some thought Tina might never start laying. Some believed she would hold out until Spring. Some even claimed she was refusing to lay just to prove a point. I think we all can agree that she was taking her sweet time. But, last Sunday, Tina finally silenced her critics and laid her very first egg. Here it is.



It's light brown, and nice and big--around the same size as Peggy's eggs. We are so proud.

And speaking of eggs, on Saturday morning we had a delicious omelet featuring spinach from my garden and eggs from Peggy the hen.



Mmmmm Mmmmm tasty!



Now that both girls are laying, we will have plenty of eggs for omelets and other eggy delights. And when the kitchen is a bit further along, we can start having people over for breakfast again.

In closing, here's a picture of Tina the newly-minted egg layer, enjoying some fresh picked grass. Isn't she a pretty one? (If only someone had told her she had something in her beak.)

In addition to vegetable gardening, this winter I've been focusing on furthering my ultimate goal of landscaping our hillside back yard. Although, I don't really mean "landscaping" in the sense of neat rows of hedges and clearly defined flower beds. Instead, I am trying cover the hillside with drought-tolerant--but still fragrant and flowering--bushes. And, of course plenty of cacti.

In fact, we have decided to designate the lower right corner of the yard our "Southwest" section. This idea comes both from our love of cacti and the fact that horrible soil and intense sun exposure make it next to impossible to grow anything else there.

One thing I love about cactus is that you can grow a whole new gorgeous plant just by sticking a tiny cutting into some soil.

This area by the fence has an arm from a large cactus that sits in one of the patio planters alongside some cuttings from a climbing cactus given to us by a neighbor who was moving away. I'm hoping they will fill in the hole between the jade plants, which line most of the fence on that side.


This one is from a single small cactus pad that I, um, acquired while walking the dog one day. I put it in a pot, it grew some additional pads, and now it's gone into the Southwest section so it can grow big and strong. This one seems to spread horizontally, and makes nice pink flowers when it blooms. It will be very pretty once it grows bigger.


And this pad is from a cactus from my sister's front yard in San Antonio. She says it grows like crazy, and that even pads that have fallen to the ground on their own sprout and grow new plants. My parents have grown some good-sized cacti in their yard using cuttings from the same plant. I like the idea that all three of us will have the same cactus growing in our yards.


There are also several other varieties of cacti and some hardier succulents in the Southwest section, both purchased and picked up for free. I even got a really nice big cactus pad out of a neighbor's green bin (yard waste can) a couple of weekends ago. I'm not above digging cactus cuttings out of the trash, and I only got about tiny, painful 40 spines in my hand doing it.


All these photos should be considered "before" shots. In six months or so I'll take some more pictures to see how much progress I've made. Hopefully, in a year or two there will be a really cool cactus garden down there. I just have to be patient.

So, this week we lost our hen Lisa. I'm not sure if I mentioned it here, but Lisa had been feeling ill for the last few months. She showed signs of the same disease that Jackie died of, which we believe was Marek's, and slowly got very thin over the last four months.

Peggy and Tina were vaccinated for Marek's when they were chicks, because it's highly contagious. Unfortunately, it was too late to do the same for Lisa. My guess is that she and Jackie were exposed at the feed store, but I can't say that for certain.

We were sad to say goodbye to good old Lisa, our remaining original chicken, but I think it's probably for the best. She had grown very thin and frail in the last month, although overall she handled the illness much better than Jackie. Some chickens can even survive Marek's, but I guess that wasn't Lisa's fate.

Here she is enjoying a nice free range in the back yard last summer.



We'll miss her and her big crazy clucks.

Now that I've started harvesting a few veggies, I thought it might be a good time to do a winter garden update. The unusually wet December really helped a lot of my seeds get started this year, so I've got some successful crops growing. But, as usual, I've had some garden problems, too. Although, this time, my crop failures are not really my fault. It's those damn raccoons and squirrels! They're out to get me and my veggies.

One of my garden plots sustains frequent digging attacks--at least one a week--from raccoons (or possibly skunks). They come in the night and till up the soil so dramatically that all the poor seedlings don't have a chance. I have almost no turnips or beats growing, since, due to my attempts to rotate what I'm planting in each bed, I put all my root vegetables in the raccoons' favorite digging spot.

On the bright side, the critters seem to be pretty much focusing on that one plot, so I've managed to get some crops going in the other two. These include purple cabbage, which has been leafing out pretty nicely. I have never grown cabbage before, so I am not sure when the head of cabbage will start forming. Soonish, I hope.



Other crops doing well in the ground include spinach, mustard greens, broccoli, carrots and peas. As usual, my peas are reluctant to climb their poles, no matter how many I provide them. But, they're flowering nicely and starting to make pods, so I can't complain. Peas are so fun to grow because they're both easy and fast.



My container greens have been growing nicely, especially the chard and kale. I have two big wooden containers on the patio that are thriving.



Plus, I've got lots of small pots with mustard greens, spinach and arugula on the deck. I have had several sandwiches with arugula in the last couple of weeks, and I'm planning to make a very tasty, homegrown & home-laid spinach omelet in a week or so.



Tonight, we're having a meal from a great cookbook I received for Christmas from my aunt, uncle and cousins: Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker. I've made three meals from it so far, and they've all been tasty. The lentil stew I'm currently cooking has "ribbons of kale" in it, which I picked from the garden this afternoon.



Tonight's dinner should be a healthy, delicious and cheap meal. Hopefully, it's the first of many from my winter garden. That is, if I can keep the raccoons away.

There hasn't been much chicken news around here lately, since the girls are all just kind of doing their usual thing. But yesterday, Peggy provided some fresh excitement by laying her very first egg. Because she's an Aracauna, Peggy lays green eggs. Her first one was large, hard shelled and quite lovely. Here it is.



We spent Christmas week in Texas, and got back on Sunday night. Our chicken sitter had a pretty easy time, since all she had to do was check their food and water every few days. We decided we could just leave the door between the coop and the run open while we were gone, and our chickens would put themselves to bed. Our chicken run and coop are so well fortified against animals and the elements, that they were quite safe.

On Monday morning, the coop needed to be cleaned out, so I set about washing the removable floor and changing the shavings. The hens free ranged for a while, and then I shut them in their run with the coop door closed while things aired out. I was up inside the house for a little bit when I heard some very loud clucking. I went down to see if there was something scaring the chickens, but they were all fine. I went back in, and, moments later, there was very loud clucking again.

After some sustained loud clucks over at least an hour, I decided to test my hypothesis that they were mad about not being allowed in their coop. So, I finished adding new shavings, closed the roof and opened the door between the coop and the run. Immediately, Peggy ran inside the coop and into the nesting box.

Ah ha! I thought. Peggy wants to lay an egg. I watched her mess with the shavings a bit and change positions a few times, trying to get comfortable, and then I decided to give her some privacy. About 20 minutes later, I came back and Peggy had laid her first lovely egg.

I had hoped that Peggy and Tina might start laying soon since they are 24 or 25 weeks old right now. Lisa laid much sooner than that, but I've heard the short winter days can keep hens from laying. I'm happy that Peggy decided to start egg production despite the lack of daylight. Perhaps Tina will follow her lead.

It's always cool to see new solar products appear on the market, and it's even better when they get cheap enough for regular people to buy. Last year, I searched around to see if I could find any solar-powered light strings to decorate the house for the holidays, but I didn't really find anything. This year, solar light strings were available all over the Internet. Delighted, I decided to try them out.

I got two 50-light strings of white lights from Plow & Hearth. They seemed to have the best price on what I wanted. When they arrived, I pulled them out of the box, let the solar panel charge for a day and then wrapped them on two plants in the front yard that grow in a bit of a cone shape.

When you set them up, you wrap your lights where you want them and then stake the small solar panel in the ground nearby.





So far, I'd say I'm fairly happy with them. The solar lights have a light sensor built in, so they turn on automatically when it gets dark. When they light up, they look nice--although not as bright as traditional plug in lights--and the solar battery life seems fairly long. They stay lit for around 4 hours.



The lights are nice, but not perfect. I have noticed two issues:

1) It takes some trial and error to find the perfect place to put the solar panel. I have had to move mine several times when the lights weren't sufficiently charged by the end of the day. And, of course, if you live in a place that actually gets gray and gloomy in the winter (as opposed to sunny Los Angeles), I'm not sure how well the panel would charge. Although, if you live somewhere with snow and sun, I imagine there would be enough reflection off the snow to charge the panel right up.

2) The light sensor is very sensitive. The street light across the street, our porch light and even my car headlights have caused the lights to turn off. I think I have the sensor turned in a way to minimize that problem, but it is a bit annoying. If you live out in the country, you wouldn't have this issue. But, in a place like Los Angeles, it's pretty hard to find a place that's completely dark.

Overall, though, I'm glad I got them. Because you don't have to plug the lights in anywhere, there are no annoying extension cords to deal with, and your light decorating options aren't limited to where your outlets are. Plus, they cost nothing to operate, and with their LED bulbs, they should last for many Christmases to come.

So when I last wrote about the kitchen remodeling project, we had just installed the insulation. Happily, a good amount of progress has been made since then. Over Thanksgiving weekend, Dakota made a big push, and I am proud to report that our kitchen now has walls and a ceiling.

Friday was ceiling day.



Followed on Saturday with walls, and Sunday with taping and mudding.



This past weekend involved more mudding, a good amount of sanding and a layer of smooth coat to make everything look nice.

While we're quite a ways off from actually having a fully-functioning kitchen, it definitely feels nice to have the bare bones of the room in place.

The coop and our chickens are part of a story about urban chicken-keeping in the LA Times today. If you're here because of that article, welcome! To see all my chicken posts, you can click here. Or, feel free to browse around.

We did the interview a few weeks ago, and I think the piece came out really well. They definitely put up some great shots of the chickens and Dakota's coop. Perhaps it will inspire more Los Angeles residents to get their own small flock. They should. It's awesome.

Nothing says "party" on a Saturday night like installing denim insulation, and that's exactly what Dakota and I did last weekend. Jealous? Thought so. Actually, it was kind of fun (in a way) and made us feel like some actual progress was being made on our slow and steady kitchen remodel.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I was able to find a local supplier of UltraTouch Natural Cotton Fiber Insulation in the Los Angeles area. So, last Saturday night, we ripped open the roll of insulation and laid it out on the floor to fluff up. It comes in long strips and basically looks like a long rectangle of dryer lint.

Here's Nigel demonstrating how safe and non-toxic UltraTouch is.



The UltraTouch website uses babies and small children to make this same point, but I think Nigel should become their new spokesmodel. I mean, look how excited he is to be resting on layers of earth-friendly insulation.

Nigel also decided to help us install the insulation. Here he is weighing down a piece while Dakota cuts it to fit between some studs.



I had read that denim insulation can be difficult to cut, but we just used an old saw and a box cutter and did fine. I guess our edges weren't particularly smooth, but since the insulation will be hidden inside the walls, I'm not too worried about it. Overall, installing the UltraTouch was pretty darn easy. It took us about an hour and was so foolproof that I was able to help.



Up to now, the kitchen work has either involved heavy demolition skills or woodworking skills, both of which I lack. But I think we may be heading into a stage in which I might actually be able to do more than lend moral support and research skills. I'm glad, because Dakota has been working exceptionally hard.

Here's one kitchen wall, nicely insulated.



Since the kitchen is on a back, unshaded corner of the house, it really gets blasted by the sun in the summer. The addition of the insulation, plus ceiling fans and energy-efficient windows will hopefully make a big difference when the weather gets hot again.

The weather for the last couple of days has been very unpleasant: dry, hot and windy. Of course, I have nothing to complain about compared to the poor people in Montecito, Sylmar and North-Eastern Orange County. Fires are raging all over Southern California, and they are so extensive that the smoke has even made it to our place near downtown Los Angeles.

This afternoon, the chickens decided to beat the heat with a good, old-fashioned dust bath. Both Peggy and Tina dug themselves some shallow holes and got busy flopping around in the dirt. Ever the vigilant chicken chronicler, I whipped out my camera and got some action shots.





And, I also made a little video, so you can see what a genuine chicken dust bath looks like. Tina was really getting into hers, flinging dirt all over herself for at least 20 minutes.


Chicken Dust Bath from Audrey on Vimeo.

She makes a funny happy chicken noise around 1:10. See if you can hear it.