The coop!

We have finally (and by "we" I mean the neighbor whose kids I watch all the time) put up the chicken run. Right now there is chicken wire on the top of the run, but nowhere else.


We have to finish the wire, lay the stones around the base (so raccoons don't get in...sneaky bandits). Even though some chicken "experts" have questioned the stones at the bottom, I figure if a raccoon is willing to dig under a foot of rock and chicken wire, well, damn, that raccoon deserves a chicken dinner!

P.s., if anyone else would like to have their chicken runs built by Cory, he's available ;-) Send me and e-mail and I'll give him your #.

I have the weirdest dog on earth

Anyone else have a dog that sleeps like a dead bug?



In other news, our potatoes are going crazy! The carrots and onions are doing "ok" and my unintentional mustard plants are almost 4 feet tall.

No chickens yet.

Sharks with Lazer Beam Dishcloth

Hey, I found the pattern from this post...so here it is:

Size 4 needles CO 58 stitches

Row 1- 10 k

Row 11: k4, p50, k4

Row 12 (and all even rows): K

Row 13: k4, p50, k4

Row 15: k4, p2, k1, p43, k4

Row 17: k4, p6, k2, p42, k4

Row 19: k4, p5, k4, p41, k4

Row 21: k4, p5, k4, p14, k1, p26, k4

Row 23: k4, p5, k4, p14, k2, p25, k4

Row 25:k4, p4, k6, p14, k3, p23, k4

Row 27:k4, p3, k8, p13, k4, p22, k4

Row 29:k4, p2, k10, p12, k5, p21, k4

Row 31:k4, p5, k8, p10, k7, p20, k4

Row 33: k4, p8, k7, p7, k8, p20, k4

Row 35: k4, p9, k22, p5, k12, p2, k4

Row 37: k4, p11, k22, p2, k4, p11, k4

Row 39: k4, p11, k25, p14, k4

Row 41: k4, p13, k26, p11, k4

Row 43: k4, p14, k26, p10, k4

Row 45: k4, p15, k25, p10, k4

Row 47: k4, p16, k23, p11, k4

Row 49: k4, p18, k6, p26, k4

Row 51: k4, p17, k5, p28, k4

Row 53: k4, p16, k4, p30, k4

Row 55: k4, p50, k4

Row 57: k4, p50, k4

Rows 59-68 k58

If it's spring, it must be rhubarb time!

I made my first rhubarb pie of the season today, well technically my son made it, except for the crusts, that was all me. Here is a little video of some of the prep.

Studies show that crappy looking pie crust tastes the best!

The studies are indeed correct.

Circle of Life

Well, we don't even have chickens yet but we have suffered our first avian death already.

This afternoon as I let the kids out to roam in the backyard, we ran across the lifeless body of a little baby bird. I suspect this little guy's nest was somewhere on our roof (possibly in the rain gutter that has not been cleaned since 2007) and fell out of the nest. I think it might have been a blue jay if he had grown up.

My son was pretty sad and wanted to make a gravestone for the little bird. So I dug out a little hole by the side of the fence and took a sharpie to a nearby rock. My son then decided it needed a picture of a bird with the nest it fell out of, so that everyone would know how he met his untimely end.

After we had buried the little guy, my son retrieved my mother's day rose (I guess I was done using it?) and placed it lovingly by the grave. Then he stood over it and said "Poor little bird. But, that's the circle of life."

McTeacher's Night

As many of those who know me are aware, I am not a giant fan of fast food, although I admit I do occasionally partake of a little Burgerville now and then. I understand the financial need for cheap food, believe me, and I’m not judging any family that has neither the time nor the finances for a home cook meal. Let me be really clear, all of my judging is aimed specifically at the corporations who do everything they can to get our kids to eat at their fast food joints.

That said, my greatest ire has always, and will no doubt continue to be, McDonalds. This is disgust for McDonalds can be summed up in two words: McTeacher’s Night.

What is McTeacher’s Night? If you look at McDonalds website, you will find under their “good works” section, this paragraph:

“Supporting Education. McDonald’s owner/operators support education in many ways. They develop and co-sponsor local programs, host fundraisers for their local schools, and provide scholarships and other education assistance for their employees. They are key sources of support for the RMHC scholarship programs.”

Sounds fantastic, right? Local franchise owners hosting fundraisers for the kids, what could be more wholesome? In reality what McDonalds does is have the elementary school teachers of said local school come for an evening and “serve” the children McDonalds food for a kickback of around 20%.

The horror I feel at this is not so much that the fundraiser was taking place at McDonalds, but that our teachers were serving McDonalds to children. Our kids see teachers as trustworthy adults, the ones they can go to when they are hurt, the ones who teach them the fundamentals of how to do things the right and wrong way. To have them behind the counter saying "eat this food" is basically saying that McDonalds is a good place to eat with healthy food that even your teacher endorses, when in fact neither the school or the teachers are endorsing McDonalds, we just simply need the funds.

When you take a kid to Chuck-e-Cheese for a fundraiser (which I did), no one expects the food to be wholesome or good, it's a treat for kids to eat pizza and play the games. Chuck-e-Cheese as marketed as a fun place where kids can run amok and that's exactly what it is. No on believes you should eat at Chuck-e-Cheese every night (and really, who could afford it at $10 a pizza plus the $20 you end up shelling out in games). I’m still not sure who thought up the brilliant idea to have a rat as the spokesperson for a restaurant (hey, come on down, we have giants rats...and they sing!), but that’s something to ponder at another time.

McDonald's is marketed as a "healthy meal" when all the evidence shows it is anything but. There is a well established link between fast food and childhood obesity, childhood diabetes and a host of other illnesses brought on by eating food packed with calories, salt and sugar. According to their website, a McDonald's Happy Meal is, just by scanning over it, around 550 calories (I could go into the sodium, fat and sugar content, but I'll spare you the spreadsheet). The American Heart Association recommends that kids 4-8 years old eat, per day about 1300 calories which means that the Happy Meal should be 42% of the total that the kid eats all day. That's almost half of the daily calorie requirement for one meal!

I know that McDonald's is aggressive in their marketing for schools for "McTeacher's Night" and I also know that most schools and districts participate, but that doesn't make it ok. That 20% they are kicking back (I think it was 20%), they don't really care about our kids, if they did they would just donate 20% of the profits for that evening without forcing teachers to work there. The whole purpose of McTeacher's Night from McDonald's standpoint is to get more customers for McDonalds, not to benefit our kids.

Quick Post

We planted our red onions in the root garden area 2 days ago.

Still to go in:

Carrots
Garlic
walla walla onions (so yummy)
potatoes


For other veggies and fruits, I'm thinking:

strawberries
cucumbers
romaine lettuce
zucchini

If I get really productive, I might plant a blueberry bush, but we'll see.