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Snow Builds Neighbors

The snow is flying, with 8 inches on the ground and an 80% chance of more tomorrow. At this time of the year my neighbors always amaze me. With the excitement of snow brings out the "helper" in everyone on this street.

At least three people on the block have snow blowers and are constantly doing powdery drive-bys on my front sidewalk. The boyscout down the street is bringing by the popcorn we ordered a few months back, and his sister is volunteering to take care of the chickens during our winter vacation.Scott brought hot cocoa to our landlady next door who was snow-blowing the 'hood and later she brought over two huge pieces of beef roast from her ranch.

Then there are always the "well intended" incidents, with not-so-hot outcomes. Like the city snow plow truck that took out the back light of an Explorer a few houses down. Or the rocky hill I made Scott sled down, which didn't have quite enough snow on it to render the rocks harmless (he doesn't have as much padding as I do).

I say, live by these principles and it is hard to go wrong (I have this on my fridge and above my desk):

Chicken Come Home

500 miles with chickens in the car isn't as bad as I thought it would be. If they can put 5 chickens in a crate on top of a bus in Central America, 2 in a pet carrier wouldn't be too bad.

After the first 200 miles it did smell a little farmish (they didn't take advantage of the rest stops we made and went in their hay). 

At one point there was more anxious clucking than usual from Stella for about 5 minutes, and my suspicions were confirmed when Scott dumped out the carrier after we had gotten home and found a broken egg on the ground.

When you gotta lay, you gotta lay.

Stella and Edna are the two newest members of our urban farm and are now safe and cozy in their coop.

Chicken Shizak

Officially, we are ready to be chicken owners. Now that it is legal for us to have them in town and our landlady is on board, we are getting two hens after Thanksgiving.

The plan is a wire-covered outdoor pen (to protect from predators, escapees, and our un-poultry-acclimated dogs) and a straw bale insulated coop.

I am such a wanna-be farmer. Look at our cars- we had three bales INSIDE and three on top. Each.

And, since I am all about renewable power and saving the world, we made it a passive solar chicken coop. Yep, urban yuppie pretender. Also, everything but the straw is recycled, reclaimed materials. Farm-happy hipster. Hokey yokel quack (or should I say cluck).

All I know is that they will be warm and cozy, and we even installed "wing" vents on the side that open to make sure we don't cook 'em.

You can't tell me this is a passing fad or that I'm crazy for being crazy for chickens. Check out This American Life this week: Poultry Slam 2008.

Or this other weirdo chicken freak in Durango.

Pantry is full

After many evenings fogging up the windows (with boiling water, not necessarily hot love), the pantry is full of canned food. Until he realized all the work would pay off in the form of food this winter, Scott was not a fan of all the canning I was doing, and was somewhat miffed that we weren't using that time to go "roost" some "gnar-gnar" trails (ride bikes).

However, since it dawned on him that we won't need to buy salsa or tomato soup for the next five months, he feels better (and maybe a little bit guilty for not helping more).

I know, this doesn't come close to those professional Mormon stockpilers, or a survivalist, with their barrels of water and stashes of wheat flour, but it is a start. Here is the inventory:

Jam (apricot, peach, cherry, and pear)
Peaches
Pears
Beets
Apple sauce (chunky and smooth)
Apple butter
Apple cider
Peach butter
Zucchini relish
Pickled Zucchini's
Tomatoes (for pasta sauce)
Tomato soup
Salsa
Peach/ginger chutney
BBQ sauce
Sweet and Sour Sauce
Cherries in brandy or vodka
Eggplant and sun-dried tomatoes in oil
Whole Pumpkin, spaghetti squash, butternut squash, and some apples

Not to give it away, but don't be surprised if some of you find Santa has filled your stocking with a sampling of these items come Christmas time.