Occupy My Urban Homestead

The Occupy Wall Street movement has spread into almost every major urban area. The movements' detractors attempt to portray it as not having a clear agenda or mission, but it is not about a single issue and it is about more than just policy. It is about quality of life. It is about our collective values as Americans, as occupiers of this planet.  I came across an article in Grist, Occupy the Pasture, pointing out that most rural Americans are also part of the 99%. The article noted that growing your own food is one of the changes we can make as individuals to take our food source issues out of the hands of large corporations and their influence on government.  The article made me realize that I am supporting this movement even if I have not pitched my tent in the park downtown.

I am one of the lucky ones right now to have a full time job, and I have not taken any time to be part of the Occupy Portland movement physically.  However, I feel I support their efforts and I appreciate that they are bringing the political and economic issues we are currently facing, and the reasons why, to the forefront of more Americans lives.  People are talking about it.  The media has no choice but to address it.  These are accomplishments.

Most of us are struggling financially and have been struggling now for years.  My family's struggle is part of what has pushed me to find more things I can grow and make myself.  What I can do, and what I have been doing here on my urban homestead supports this movement. Everyone can do it, even if the first step is an herb garden on your windowsill:

• Grow your own food
• Barter or trade for things you cannot produce yourself - Food Swap anyone?
• Buy from local producers, directly if possible - Farmers markets, local food stores
• Eat at restaurants that source their meat and vegetables locally
• Make your own body and home cleaning products
• Raise chickens or goats or rabbits
• Consume less, re-purpose more
• Recycle and compost everything you can

We need to take our families' economy and food security issues out of the hands of the corporations and control it ourselves, sustainably.

Locally grown cherries we picked ourselves

Food Swap Follow Up

The food swap was a lot of fun! It was so exciting and inspiring to see all the items everyone had put their creativity, love and time into making.

There were jams and jellies, sauces and chutneys and pesto, beer, liqueurs, produce from urban gardens, all kinds of things pickled and fresh chantrelles picked that morning in the local forest!

And homemade challah!  From another local blogger Jessica of We Gather in the Woods.

The hubs joined me, the curiosity of this event was too much for him to resist. I am really glad he came with me as he really helped during the crazy swap period as it got a little chaotic. But definitely fun chaos. He also helped in explaining some of the things I brought. I did go ahead and make a few lotions and balms....I am so glad I did as they were a big hit! I discovered too late that someone had brought home made ice cream...bummer.

Here is our loot from the night:

Tomato butter, cranberry sauce and chutney, gluten free crackers, walnut liqueurs (score!), pesto, kimchee, vanilla pickles, asian pears, maraschino cherries, a strawberry plant, a large jar of dried Italian plums, CHOCOLATE PEANUT SAUCE (I mean c'mon!). And the chantrelles....I consider these one of THE best items I scored at this swap--we ate them tonight sauteed in butter and garlic over a yummy scramble The Hubs made.

There are links to PDX Swappers here.  The next swap is December 11th, see the info on their site.  I plan to bring more potions and maybe some of my raspberry wine....and maybe my mom, she was pretty excited by the loot!

Pollo Loco swap offerings - note the little ingredient tags.

Pumpkin Time of Year

There are many reasons why I am happy we moved back to Portland, but one of my favorites is being able to live in the city and be so close to rural, beautiful Oregon.  I met my sister, her family and my parents on Sauvie Island (pronounced: so-vee) this morning to pick out pumpkins and try to convince my two year old nephew to ride the cow train.

Bella Organics Farm, Sauvie Island

The island is a less than 30 minute drive from my front door, and as soon as you cross the bridge you are completely engulfed in farmland.  The island sits in the middle of the Willamette River (pronounced: will-lamb-et), right before it converges into the mighty Columbia River.  Sauvie is a large island circled by a two lane road and is frequented by bicyclists and weekend visitors to the farms and sandy beaches.

My nephew was pretty excited to get his boots muddy.

This time of year all the farms have transformed themselves into family fun zones with corn mazes, farm stands, music pavilions, cow trains, and of course the obligatory pumpkin patch.  These did not exist when I was a kid.  We were lucky to go out here once a year in October with our school class and pick a pumpkin out of the muddy field....but there were no elephant ear stands and haunted corn mazes to be found.  Time changes, but fortunately Sauvie Island is loved by so many and has managed to retain its farm use and been able to manage the increasing amount of visitors it gets on the weekends.

We have been out here for bird watching as there is a large wildlife area in addition to warm summer nights listening to live music at one of the farms.  It is nice to live in a place that you can feel like you can "get away" without having to go very far.

Molting

My poor Pepper is having a seriously heavy molt this year.

Pepper, October 2011

She is so ragged, her tail feathers are all gone and she only has a few wing feathers.  She stands with her neck all scrunched down, I assume to keep warm.  (FYI, she is not that cold, her feet are warm, I checked.)

Here she is in full plumage:

Pepper, May 2011

All chickens molt, the breed determines how often, but usually once per year. My other three hens had pretty serious molts last year but Pepper only lost a few feathers and retained her regal fluffy look. This year not so much. The poor girl is looking ragged...and with every step another feather falls off. The coop and run and in fact my entire backyard are covered in her feathers.

Most chickens will molt in late summer or fall, but sometimes it happens in the Spring.  My Rhode Island Red, a very abundant egg producer starting molting in 2010 in June and gradually lost feathers and grew them back all over her body. Apparently abundant egg producers tend to molt that way. Then there is Pepper, a Dominique, she is losing them all at once. She is a regular and good layer, but not nearly as often as Red.

At least she doesn't look like this:

While molting, chickens require a lot more protein. It takes a lot of energy to create new feathers. You can help them through the process with treats of yogurt, meal worms and some people even feed their chickens meat and cat food. Remember that chickens are omnivores. I have given them dried meal worms, you can get packets and buckets at your local feed store. They LOVE them.  Chicken crack.

Another side affect is that they stop laying while they are molting. I have actually not collected an egg in two days.TWO DAYS people. We have a half dozen left in the fridge....this is getting ridiculous. THIS is why I have five chicks in a brooder in the garage....and my friends keep asking me "Now, how many chickens do you have?".

Food Swapping

I am SO EXCITED, because I get to participate in a food swap for the first time ever this Sunday!  Every year I give away food I have canned and every year like-minded friends give me things that they have made as well.

But this one is ORGANIZED.  They have been doing this for almost a year...and I just found out about them.

PDX Food Swappers  If you go their parent organization website, Sustainable Food for Thought you can find a link to their FAQ page and more info about the evolution of this event.  I am excited to meet the organizers, and they sent me an email today to confirm I am still attending.  They have limited the event to 35 swappers and there is a waiting list!

Here is what I plan to swap:

• Pear Butter (from local pears)
• Spiced Plum Preserves (from a friend's plum tree)
• Blueberry Peach Preserves (from my homestead blueberries and local peaches)
• Homemade Ketchup (from my homestead tomato's)
• Jar of Joy (from home grown tomato's, garlic, thyme, oregano)
• Green Tomato Chutney (from my homestead tomato's)
• I may also get inspired this week and make some lotion and balms to take along!

Blueberry Peach Preserves

Who knows what kind of bootie will be mine?

Guard Llamas

One day I will have my own guard llama to look after my flock.

These are some llamas I saw this weekend while in Hood River with some girlfriends for a wine tasting and overnight without our children and partners. Good girl time is a rare and magical thing.

How to Peel Garlic in 10 Seconds

I saw this on another blog last week and now that I have had a chance to try it out I had to re-post!  This really works!  I did not have two stainless steel bowls the same size, so I used a stock pot with its lid.  Works beautifully!



Try it out for yourself.

Rooster Alert

Darn.

I think the Cuckoo Marans is a boy.  I could be over reacting, but he, I mean she (innocent until proven otherwise?) is just much bolder than the others.  Then there are the physical traits.  Much more pronounced comb that his sisters.  Bigger legs.

I wouldn't be so suspicious, but I have been here before.  Meet Teriyaki:

Teriyaki was one of our first three chicks we brought home back in 2009.  A beautiful example of his Delaware breed. Teriyaki crowed a couple times as a wee boy and then by the time he looked like this at 6 months he was crowing day and night. ALL THE TIME.  Luckily our neighbors all thought it was nice and quaint to hear a rooster.  But since it is illegal to have a rooster within the city of Portland, he had to go.  He went to live on a farm in Mulino, a small town outside Portland. No seriously, he really did...it isn't just a story we tell the girls.  He is quite happy there I hear.

This is Teriyaki at three weeks:

Here is Cocoa (the Cuckoo Marans) today:

I am telling you those feet and that comb look very familiar.

Cocoa is on the right.  Look at that stance!

I have to call Urban Farm Store tomorrow to see if I can make an exchange.

In the meantime, I think Nugget may be my favorite.  So mellow and sweet.

And feathered feet!

Farm Babies

The girls (my teenage girls...not the chickens) and I went and picked up some baby chicks at our local farm store.  It was really exciting.  So exciting that despite my plan to go in there calmly and decide which breeds we wanted...CALMLY...we discovered that all the breeds I had been wanting were available!!!  And...it was impossible to slow down, so we decided to get five new little babies.

As you can see it was hard to contain the excitement:

Sassafras, as she will be known, holding three chicks

Here are the new introductions:

Cocoa - Cuckoo Marans that will lay the large chocolate brown eggs I covet.

Nugget - Light Brahma with feathered feet!  (lg. light brown eggs)

Myrtle - Gold Laced Wyandotte (lg. brown eggs)

Ebony - Black Australorp she will grow up to have beautiful black feathers with a green sheen  (lg. brown eggs)

Eureka - Speckled Sussex (med. brown eggs)

This is a good breed chart if you want to learn more about the different chicken breeds.  We are very excited to see these girls grow up into their beautiful feathers!  The "old" girls do not know yet that they will be sharing their coop with these newcomers, life is going to change in the chook palace.  My family clamors for more eggs and I have not been able to share for months, so obviously something had to be done. Our older girls have really slowed down as of this summer on the egg production, they are all at least 2 1/2 years old (an age where production hens are typically replaced with younger laying pullets). For now, we still plan to have our older girls live out their days here at Pollo Loco convent.

Coop Tour!

The Super Hubs and I spent a few hours yesterday afternoon extending the hen house in our coop, so I thought you might like a tour to see how our little coop lays out.

Pollo Loco Chook Palace

We built this coop very quickly in the Spring of 2010 after we decided to move into my childhood home.  My parents were buying a new house and we needed to get our chickens moved so we could put our first little house on the market.

We salvaged 2x4's and other wood from family and friends and craigslist.  We had to purchase the hardware cloth and the roofing, but the rest of the coop is all salvaged and reclaimed.  We sited the coop along the back wall of the garage and in a corner with the property fence....so it is very protected from any Winter winds and shaded from most Summer sun.  The large people sized door makes it easy to get in and clean out the coop.

The run is fully enclosed and is about 65 square feet. The wood frame walls sit on CMU blocks we found in the basement to keep them mostly out of the wet ground.  The hardware cloth is buried 12 inches into the ground on all sides to prevent digging predators and rodents from getting into the coop.

Egg Access

I placed a little garbage can I found at a garage sale next to the hen house doors so that I can scoop out droppings.  This eventually gets dumped into our big composter.  Below the egg doors is another access door to feed the girls each morning without having to go into the coop.  We use old carabiners to latch the doors shut.

View of food bucket, grit and oyster shell

I have not been able to bring myself to pay out for expensive chicken feeders, so I have improvised with containers I already had.  I just tied the grit and oyster shell containers to the hardware cloth with wire I use for gardening, and that is a utility hook holding the feed bucket.

Pepper at the waterer and our large composter beyond

We found an auto waterer, brooder, thermometer set up on craigslist for a steal.  The large composter is located just outside the run.

Close up of the auto-waterer

This auto-waterer is connected to our rain barrel, so it is very low maintenance.  It does not freeze here for very long so I only have to deal with supplemental water for a week or so in the Winter.

View of entry to the hen house

Yesterday, we extended the hen house, so now the girls enter from the other end of the run.  Last Spring we got some river sand for free that was leftover from a friends yard project.  We use this in our run and it has solved our drainage problem...and the chooks like to dig in it.

New roost bars and step into nest box area

We enlarged the hen house to accommodate two roost bars...so that we can get five baby chicks this week!  When they are all grown, the old girls and the young girls will all share this hen house.  For now, we have left the front open so there is plenty of ventilation...I may re-think that further on into Winter.  I have seen many coop examples in the Mid-west where one side is left open, even in Winter.  Ventilation is much more important for the girls health, they can huddle together on the roost bars to keep warm.  Don't worry, I will do many foot checks to be sure they are warm!

Rooster hook found at a thrift store, painted to match the roofing

Pesticides and False Food Labeling

The Environmental Working Group keeps  a list of the "Dirty Dozen", the fruits and vegetables tested with the highest levels of pesticides.  I am listing them here for you, but if you go their site you can download a handy shopper's guide to stick in your wallet.  If organic sources of the these fruit and veg are available and you can fit them into your budget you should.
Dirty Dozen:

1. Apples
2. Celery
3. Strawberries
4. Peaches
5. Spinach
6. Nectarines
7. Grapes
8. Sweet Bell Peppers
9. Potatoes
10. Blueberries (domestic)
11. Lettuce
12. Kale/Collard Greens

You can possibly offset the extra cost by saving your money buying this list of the "Clean Fifteen", the fruit and veg with the lowest pesticide levels.

Clean Fifteen:

1. Onions
2. Sweet Corn
3. Pineapples
4. Avocado
5. Asparagus
6. Sweet Peas
7. Mangoes
8. Eggplant
9. Cantaloupe (domestic)
10. Kiwi
11. Cabbage
12. Watermelon
13. Sweet Potatoes
14. Grapefruit
15. Mushrooms

"Green washing" by food companies is a huge pet peeve for me.  Right up there with fingernails being drug down a chalkboard.  The following labels can be used by just about anybody and there is no third party verification required to slap these on any food containers:

• Natural
• Free Range
• Grass Fed
• Cruelty Free
• Cage Free
• Environmentally Friendly
• No Chemicals
• Vegetarian Fed

For more information on this list of meaningless labels and a list of labels that cannot be used without independent verification, see this article.