We Are Back

After a few months of hiatus we have returned to our food blog, as I have many new things to add and nostalgia has taken over. For now I am afraid I will have to go because we just got visitors, but I promise to update you blog ole friend in the next few days.

-George

Chicken Laughs

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I think one of the most amazing things about chickens is their presence in popular culture. Chickens are everywhere once you become "enlightened" to the various images that surround us daily. How did these animals make such an impact on us?

I think chickens have pecked their way into subconcious because in addition to the fact they are a great food source. They also have character and they make us laugh.

-George

A Culture of Overeating

Food and Friends

There is something about the smell of cinnamon rolls cooking. For me this smell makes a home feel warm and sweet- filled with the promise of something good to eat.

The holidays brought the second annual visit of an old family friend from Olympia; lucky for us she is a baker. Here is a tribute to our friend owner and operator of Eight Arms Community Bakery in Olympia.

Thank you Jen, you always make our lives warm and sweet.

-George

Cold Weather Gone and Moss Back in Bloom

We seemed to have survived the three week cold spell with feathers in tack. However, the white stuff has caused problems beyond the icy roads and depressed wood pile. Without the green fields to graze my girls the eggs are not of the same quality. I feel somewhat guilty actually making this claim because of the amount of energy these girls put into making eggs during the winter- who am I to bitch about the quality of the yolks. I guess I have become somewhat of an egg snob, a bit of an eggspert I guess. I am just glad to see the lawn again, and know that the chickens are too.
-George

Frozen Chicken

The last week or so it has been extremely cold, at least for us here on the wimpy west coast. I love snow, but only when it promptly goes away after a day or two after I have enjoyed the novelty of it. After a few days it starts to become a bit of an inconvenience and I want my dark, wet, 30 - 40 degree days to return.

Now here I sit in my warm house complaining about the cold, when the four girls get to actually be immersed in the white stuff freezing their feathered butts off. I am hopeful that temperatures moderate for them soon, but for now we change the water daily and provide an extra abundance of scraps to bump up the calories. And despite the frigid temperatures the egg factory continues to stay on production.

I have new appreciation for their endurance in this cold spell.

Eagle and Chicken Can Co-Exisit

I love watching birds in my yard, in fact for years I have kept bird feeders with the goal of attracting as many species as possible. I once had the pleasure of witnessing a large hawk take a Pine Siskin (sp?) after it gorged on seeds while sitting underneath the feeder. It's nice to know that nature balances itself so nicely - feed yourself to full of seeds, risk getting eaten by large predatory raptor. I assume our country's obesity problem would take care of itself if we had large predators that hung around fast food joints and took out the masses as they waddled back to their cars.

Anyway, today I had a special sighting which has never happened in the years of me keeping black oil sunflower seeds to attract wild birds. It seems without really trying I have placed a new larger, and more protein filled "prey item" to attract much larger birds into my yard. The new larger bird feeder seems to be the four chickens that sit rather helplessly (a sitting duck if you will) in their chicken ark.

This morning I was getting dressed and saw a very large bald eagle fly into the yard and perch in a tree directly above the chicken yard. I was thinking "cool" a bald eagle in the yard. It didn't really occur to me what the bird was doing in the yard until I saw it directly above the girls who were happily clucking away. It would be a chore for the eagle to get into the chickens, but who wants to find out for sure. In fact I don't think I would have the same reaction to the eagle taking one of the girls that I had when the poor Pine Sisken met its fate.

I quietly crept out the front door to get a closer look and the large bird decided the restaurant was closed for the day and flew away.

-George