Life Transplanet

Twice a year we have a migration of the hen house. The chicken coop goes in the greenhouse in the fall through winter and it comes out spring through summer. It works out well because inside the greenhouse it can be 40 degrees warmer than the ambient air in the winter when we aren’t growing anything in there. If it’s still cold in the day or snow’s on the ground they have a dry spot to peck around in. It still gets cold at night, but with the coop inside the greenhouse with a heat lamp and blanket insulation really our chickens are more spoiled than most.

Britton moving the coop with the help of Kitty (standing looking into the coop), Greenfoot and Football

But then we have to drag it back out (by we I mean Britton of course) in the spring. This is nice because we get our greenhouse back, but it also kind of stinks because that means opening them up in the morning and shutting them in once the sun goes down. We didn’t use to do that but we learned our lesson after the hen house attack last summer.

But all the hassle is ok because like daylight savings, it’s a sign of finally moving out from under winter’s long grip, and I’m all right with that!

Another sign of spring: white crocus

February is a hard month to get through. Even if you have a few nice days, you know that spring is not quite here yet and so there is no sense in doing any yard work. It’s still a little too early to start the seedlings and so all you can do is wait it out. At least the chickens have started laying again and we know spring is around the corner.

So with all this inside time, we’ve been cooking up some really good food!

We’ve had Mexican food night with tacos and burritos filled with seasoned lean natural beef, refried beans, sliced red bell peppers, jalapeños, lettuce, cheese, whole wheat tortillas from a local Mexican food shop, avocado slices and greek yogurt (same great taste as sour cream with more protein and no fat! I highly recommend it!)

Britton enjoying his Mexican food meal

We’ve also made chicken with mushrooms, a veggie mix, cous cous and sliced oranges.

Chicken dinner

I’ve been working as an interpreter with a nutritionist at work and she’s been teaching people the “plate method”. This chicken dinner is a great example of this. Take a small plate (this is a salad plate), fill half with vegetables (the mixed veggies, mushrooms and oranges), one forth with a starch (cous cous) and one forth protein (chicken breast). Tastes great and good nutrition to boot!

Our weekends are our favorite for food because we can lazily sleep in and then make a great breakfast. Britton had been making some fantastic pancakes, and so I thought waffles would be really good continuation of this. We didn’t have a waffle iron, however. So we went down to a thrift store on their 50% off day and picked one up for about $4! Now we’ve been eating waffles every weekend (and sometimes I’ll have one for lunch if we have leftover batter).

Waffle with strawberries, blueberries and our chicken’s egg

The weather has been in the 50s all the way to the mid to high 60s which is pretty unusual for Colorado in January. Britton and I are pretty happy about it though. We love summertime and this weather makes us feel like we’re in Puerto Rico -except that they would be freaking out about it being so cold -ha. But we’ve been out walking, cleaning out the chicken coop, we even thought about taking out the bicycles again!

It’s really making us have even more alegría about Puerto Rico and this potential new deal. And the chickens who have taken a two month vacation from laying eggs have started laying again! The sun is staying in the sky just a tad longer in the evenings so when I leave work it’s not complete darkness. Life is good!

Even the sunsets which are usually pretty grey and dark in the winter have been more vibrant and colorful.

The sunset from our backyard looking out towards the twin peaks

But…and this is a big but…this is just a spring tease. Next Tuesday temperatures are supposed to drop to a high of 15. A HIGH of 15 accompanied by snow, wind and the like. Uggh. But at least we have this weekend; we have Puerto Rico excitement to keep us warm; and we know spring and summer will eventually arrive even if they keep teasing us for the next few months.

This is kind of disturbing and slightly disgusting. But this morning as I was grabbing a banana on my way to work, I looked out the back door and saw Kitty really interested in something in the grass. As I watched, I saw him pounce on something and come up with a mouse in his mouth. I wanted to get a picture of our little mouser, so I grabbed my camera and went outside. When he heard the door open he kind of freaked out and dropped the mouse and couldn’t find it. I could see it just sitting still in the grass.

As I approached it to see if it was still alive like I thought, it bounced up and tried to scurry away. I put the camera to “record” and just watch what happens….

I have seen them get little baby mice before, but never a full-sized one like this. It was like I was on the Discovery channel or something.  You can tell I was kind of grossed out watching it, but utterly fascinated that a chicken could do this! Kitty was kind of like, wow…I’m not going to get involved in that… If anyone tells you chickens are vegetarians, you can remind them of this video! Chickens are not ferocious to you or me, but watch out if you are a mouse!

Henrietta with her catch of the day

Now that it’s summer (or feels like it), that means yard work. Mostly for Britton, but I am very good at foreman activities like pointing and picking out spots where things should be planted, removed, etc. Basically, I just stand there while he works. I am always two projects down the line while Britton is like, “Wait! Slow down. Let me get this one done first!” I got this Fortune Cookie fortune the other day and while it amused me, I don’t think it was as funny to Britton…

Anyway, the next project I found was another great fruit tree at Home Depot the other day. A Fruit Cocktail tree! It is a three-in-one tree: nectarines, plums and apricots! How cool is that?! They grafted them together to be space-saving for smaller yards like ours.

So, then we proceeded to find a place for the new tree. We had just the place…where an old tree had died. I think we had pruned it back too far and then it split in two. It wasn’t coming up with any leaves and it was really dry and crunchy, so it needed removed anyway. But it was quite the project.

First Britton had to saw the old tree by hand which wasn’t too bad, but still took some time. Then we (by we I mean he) had to remove the stump by spading all the roots in the vicinity. I, meanwhile, photo documented…

Britton working on the stump, with the rest of the tree to the right

The stump with the rest of the tree behind it

Finally, we got it all out and just needed to plant the Fruit Cocktail tree. Voila!

New Fruit Cocktail Tree

Overall, it was a nice weekend. We spent some time with our niece and worked on the rentals a little bit. We also rode our bikes to my parents’ house and planted a few seeds in the garden. It really feels like summer with temps in the 80s and lots of sun. I love it!