Life Transplanet

We have been waiting for the property title to come thru. Waiting and waiting it feels like. I spoke to the lawyer yesterday and he said that the department of natural resources has a survey team scheduled to visit the property soon. They are going to verify the dimensions of the easment and river area. Once that has been verified (measure twice and cut once?) then the legal team at the department can sign off on the deed to the easement. It sounds like it is still months away at this point. We did however forward our case number on to someone that may be able to help? We shall see. This has given us an opportunity to save some more so that is always good.

So I decided to put a song of the day out for download because the lyrics remind me of our chance in Puerto Rico. It’s a radiohead song:

“In the deepest ocean
Bottom of the sea
Your eyes
They turn me
Why should I stay here?
Why should I stay?
I’d be crazy not to follow
Follow where you lead

Your eyes
They turn me
Turn me on to phantoms
I follow to the edge of the earth
And fall off
Everybody leaves
If they get the chance
And this is my chance”

radiohead-weird-fishes_arpeggi
Right click, save as

I also added some Puerto Rico Pics. As with all our pictures you can click on them for a larger view.

Sleeping dude

Pare? ALTO! no STOP!!!

That is the general response we hear from people when we talk casually about the chickens. (We hear the same similar response and incredulity when we talk about Puerto Rico, too!) The chickens are awesome! Here are a few fun facts about chickens that we learned, and hopefully they answer a lot of your questions about chickens. If you have other questions, I’ll try to answer them!

1) They generally lay one egg a day. This is not a 24 hour day, however. Our chicken lays one about every 30 hours, so we skip a day every so often. They lay based on the amount of sun – or day length. In the winter, some breeds stop altogether. This is a natural response so that the chicks would have the best chance of survival (spring, summer, and fall). In commercial enterprises, they use artificial lighting to keep them laying through the winter.
2) You don’t need a rooster to have eggs. You only need a rooster to fertilize the eggs. Unless you have a lot of room or want to have chicks in the spring, don’t get a rooster. The hens are not noisy at all, but roosters can start crowing at 3am, which may make you the least favorite neighbor ever.
3) They start laying at between 3-5 months old. The black one still hasn’t laid.
4) They spend the day on the ground looking for things to eat, but like to sleep up on a board. This is the “roosting” habit. They should have shelter from the elements and predators. A lot of chicken predators (foxes, skunks, weasels, etc) are noctural and strike when the chickens are most vulnerable.
5) They do poop a lot, and their poop is considered “hot” but is excellent fertilizer. We usually just hose out the greenhouse every so often and that takes care of the smell.
6) Regardless of what your egg carton might say, chickens are not naturally vegetarians. They LOVE grasshoppers, spiders, beetles, etc, and they are GREAT at catching them. One day, Kitty caught a baby bird and left it dead on the back porch for us as he likes to do recently (yuck). I went to go move it from the porch but got a little distracted. When I came back about a 1/2 hour later the chickens had finished him off, feathers and all…Is that cannibalism if it’s in the same family?
7) They are “flock” animals. I wouldn’t suggest getting just one. They have their own language and squawk when we come out to let each other know we are there. They are always together, sleeping, eating, pecking around in the yard.
8)- The egg comes out of the same part as the poop, but it is through a different tube (think: our throats are used for food and for air), so they are completely sanitary unless they land in poop on the ground (the shell would be dirty).
9) Overall, chickens can be used as: pets, meat, eggs, feather source, fertilizer, entertainment, bug abatement and much, much more
10) Oh, and yes, they are legal to have in Greeley city limits. Other towns like Fort Collins are also considering it.
BONUS! When Britton and I were in Puerto Rico last, they were talking about how chickens are great for catching unwanted critters, especially scorpions. Well, that’ll help you sleep at night.

Right as our party was starting the kids found this (bull?) snake in the yard. It is pretty small, and probably a baby, so I hope we don’t have a bunch of them around the house although Britton said he also saw a gardener snake. Of course, with them empty field behind us, there are a ton of mice for them to eat. And, thanks, Kitty for bringing the dead little mice and bird bodies onto the porch when you catch them. We really appreciate it (gag!). We also have a bunch of bugs, and I found this little green dude on our kitchen table. I think it is the same type I saw munching on my basil! Blends in so perfectly, I barely even noticed it on the table because I thought it was just a random piece of leaf.

Snake on the ground

Snake going over the fence

Basil Eating bug- looks just like a leaf

A group of us at work had been using some extra space to play music during lunches and breaks. Turns out they asked us to play for the company meeting. I think this is the biggest venue I’ve played at to date. There were roughly 800 people in attendance.

It was a nice stage complete with big screen, TV cameras and a sound crew. Pretty neat to play bass and have it completely thump via a massive PA. The kick drum sounded badass too.

Backstage, but no groupies?

Work has built this nice grass amphitheater. I think that when we eventually move to PR I will try to build our own so that when we throw massive parties we can have live salsa (and other) bands show up and play!

We played
- Come Togehter (Beatles)
- Cold Shot (Stevie Ray)
- Rock and Roll (Led Zepplin)

And for what its worth…we ROCKED. It sounded really good.

We MAY be going forward a little with the deal in PR. I searched for the Dept of Natural Resources on the Internet and found their main site, but I could not find a way to locate anyone (the ‘contact us’ form has a broken link), so I searched a little more and found a blog by a man who actually works there! I left him a comment on his blog that we were in need of help and a signature to get going on the process and he set about helping us! That is a start! 

Apparently we need to send a letter to the San Juan office with the details and copies of deed, survey, blue prints, etc. All of which…we have none of.  So I emailed the request to Carlos, the lawyer, and then called Awilda, the current owner, to let her know the plan. She said she would call Carlos, and Britton will as well.

Awilda also said she talked with another lawyer and that lawyer will try and contact the Dept as well to see what is going on. I don’t even know what type of document it is that we are waiting on. Awilda seems to think the delay has to do with this being an election year, and therefore there is anxiety in who will be the new leader (governor, I assume?) Things work so differently there.  Hopefully this is a little nudge forward. We’ll see.