Oh, it's May? Already?

The last 7 months have been a bit of a whirlwind, but things seem to be calming down a bit and once I'm past June 8th, I'm free and clear for the rest of the year.

Meanwhile, what's been up?

• Well, I attended Craftcation in April and loved it.
• I'm getting bees.
• I'm almost through with loquat season, which, unfortunately this year has not been nearly as productive (entirely my fault)
• I've planted, but not nearly the spring garden I was hoping for by this point

Over the next couple of weeks I'm planning on replanting my cucumbers as SOMETHING (I suspect squirrels) ate the plants right out of the ground, roots and all. When I told the owner at the garden shop, he barked; 

"REDPEPPERBLACKPEPPERCINNAMONMUSTARD!". 

"All of them?" I asked. 

"REDPEPPERBLACKPEPPERCINNAMONMUSTARD!". 

OK then.  Apparently, I am to encircle the cucumber plants in these spices, which I have now purchased in bulk to sprinkle throughout my garden. I have to replant 2 artichokes as one just died a miserable quick death and another one stuck around looking runty until one of the chickens scratched it right out of the earth. Damn chickens.

All the chickens are doing well. Gave their coop a nice, thorough scrubbing this weekend after attending the UC Pathology lecture on backyard chicken diseases. Frankly, I'm used to medical slides but the necropsy slides from the pathologist...well, I needed to clean the coop. Thankfully, I'm not going to post any pictures.

As for the bees, I'm going to be hosting two hives of my very own at a sanctuary up north a bit near Westlake Village. I'll post photos as I put the boxes and frames together and get them painted up all pretty.

New girls

The two new girls, Super and Marsala are all grown up! 

The day they came home to Bluestocking Farm!

We got them where all of our girls came from, Dare 2 Dream Farms.  We actually went up to the farm and picked them out, they were about 17 or 18 weeks old when they came home. They came to Bluestocking Farm in May as pullets and in the last couple of weeks, their combs have come in and they're running with the big girls. Super started laying gorgeous pinkish-brown eggs last week, which is a good thing because Potpie had a little illness this summer and hasn't laid for the last 4 weeks or so. Marsala should start laying before Fall.

This is Super (front) and Marsala (back) yesterday.

Last week was the first time I was able to get Marsala and Super back into the coop without having to chase them down, which, trust me, is an amusing sight and great exercise!  I've now trained all of the girls to follow me into the coop.

How? When the first four were little (and I didn't know better) I bought a bag of very overpriced treats in a very shiny bag. They recognize the bag now (really!) and I've been since filling it up with homemade treats but I only give them the treats in the coop. So they know to march their fuzzy butts inside in order to get treats. Today was the first time Super and Marsala followed the rest of the gang back to the coop. They're like my little chicken army!

March!!!

Guess what?

12 weeks 'til Hallowe'en :)

Yes, I am back again for a number of reasons:

1. I just got back a ton of time at work because I finally hired someone and she started and she's great and I'm not doing 2 jobs anymore!!!  Yay!!!
2. So much has happened.
3. I feel like writing again.
4. Hallowe'en is 12 weeks away and I'm planning on participating in CryptKeeper 2013 and if I don't get started writing now, I'll never build up to writing again on October 1.  

So here I am!!!

Catching up:

• Last September my in-laws moved into our house for 3 months. It was a difficult time. Let's leave it there. They moved out on New Year's Eve. 
• 2013 started very well and all has been going along swimmingly. About the first thing we did was get a dog. Her name is Mitzi Francesca Landsman, but I tend to call her Schmookieface. Michael calls her Mitzidoodle, the Wonder Poodle. She's AWESOME! I don't know how we found such a special dog, but I think she might be the best dog I've ever met.  Ever.
• I grew a billion cucumbers, tons of lettuce, a million tomatoes and 4 watermelons. I killed a ton of garlic and I have killed the dill again. I planted artichoke and while it produced chokes, I thought I'd give the plants some time to toughen up so I cut them off so the plants could grow. We'll see if that works. Also, I bought a fejoia tree and it is producing!!!
• I canned 200 pounds of loquats into every form I could think of.  Next year I'm going to ask for help. Also, I'm probably going to make some kind of liquor next year, because it seems everyone wanted loquat liquor. 
• I got two new chickens!!! Michael named one Marsala and my sister, Shannon, named one Super,
  
  after the cartoon.  I kept trying to tell her that SuperChicken was a rooster, but she didn't care.
• We went to Alaska for the last week in July and had a fabulous time. I went snorkeling. In Alaska. No, Michael didn't join me snorkeling because he's bok, bok, chicken!!! He stayed on the ship and napped. Wev.

I'm attending the Scare L.A. Hallowe'en Convention this weekend, August 10 and 11. I'll be spending a ton of time working the Southern California Valley Haunters booth, which I recently joined and LOVE. I can't believe I get to dress up for Hallowe'en in August.  I plan to take a billion photos.

BY THE WAY....Did you know that cameras can become obsolete because the batteries are no longer made and buying the special batteries online costs about 1/2 as much as a new camera?  Well, it's true.  And it sucks. So I need a new camera. Before Sunday...Grrrr.

So there it is folks.  My update for the past 10 months. Whew.  

It's Spring

Spring sprung! And I've already fallen behind on my plans for this year! By now, I was supposed to have

1. 1 chicken coop
2. 5 chickens
3. 6 raised garden beds teeming with peas and tomatoes and lettuce

What I actually have as of this weekend:

1. 1,320 square feet of sanded and stained wood for raised beds (includes front and back for those of you counting).  
2. 8 dying pea plants ready to go into said raised beds
3. 4 wilting tomato plants waiting to go into raised beds
4. 30 seed pots of basil, dill, and tomatoes that never sprouted or got eaten by birds/bugs/squirrels/feral cats/opossums (opossi?)
5. 10 beautiful Italian cypress trees for privacy along the back wall

My coop was, I thought, being built but it turns out I hired a scam artist who flew the proverbial coop, and while I am unbelievably disappointed, I have found another person to do the building and I am supposed to be meeting with him tomorrow.

My schedule for this week is:
Tuesday: meet with new contractor, lay down the weed barrier and hopefully move the soil into the beds
Wednesday: it's supposed to rain :)
Thursday: Finish moving soil and move still living seedlings into the new beds
Friday: Move compost piles into their new home

Hopefully I'll have a new post next week to update y'all on how this went and some before and after photos!

Oh, P.S., the loquats are just beginning to get ripe so next week is going to be the beginning of canning season!

Bawk bawk b-kaw!

So, this weekend I found him.

The contractor that will make the coop of my dreams. My mid-century poulet chalet! My Coop deVille! My Cluckingham Palace! My chick and mortar home!

I am so freaking excited.

Here are some of the inspirational photos I sent him:

Someone built this for their kids. Without any previous building experience (from Atomic Ranch)

Love this cover. I want to live in it...

If there were going to be smaller birds in my life, I would want this bird house!

Right colors, right amount of kitsch, perfect slopes!

This may be hanging on the front door! By one of my favorite Etsy artists, Jenn Ski

So the chooks are getting closer and closer. I've got a list of the things I will need before living, breathing animals are in the coop like feeders, waterers, feed, treat balls and a good pair of muck boots.

One of the best parts of having chooks, is that they LOVE bugs. I am looking forward to a summer with far fewer earwigs than last summer where they were freakin' me out by the dozens. Also, they will decimate a lawn, which is perfect as we are eliminating our back lawn in favor of raised beds and decomposed granite paths. So no Roundup for us! We'll just have our pets do it!

The work should start on March 1st and I'll post plenty of photos of the construction as it progresses!