This morning we woke up and headed outside. As I’ve said many times, Bracken has always been happiest outside. I constantly marvel at how content he is out there most of the time. It was a cold morning, so we bundled up. Soon the sun warmed us up.

 We harvested kale. Lots and lots of kale. After we ran out of room in our giant bowls, we started setting bundles on our wooden benches and seats, that Jeff made.

 We ate the flowering tops with our breakfast.

 Jeff holding one of the bundles. Jeff had planted the kale in the fall, along the bed of blueberries out front. We’ve been harvesting from the kale almost daily and it just keeps coming, which is a good thing because we are big kale eaters. Jeff planned on harvesting all the kale in front of the blueberries as soon as they started shading them. Today was the day and we did just that. The kale behind the blueberries (that were not shading them) we left to go to seed. We always save lots of kale seed every year.

Now we have a refrigerator full of kale to enjoy with our meals, stems for juicing, and a recipe Jeff is making with Bracken’s help to share with you all soon.

 Then Jeff got back to work on building the chicken coop. It’s crunch time. Why? Because we pick up our chicks tomorrow!! Yippee! Jeff was working to get it done, we planned on having the chicks in the coop from the beginning. Before, we’ve always started them indoors, which is fun (but soon gets messy.) We might be starting them indoors so Jeff can finish it (without scaring the bejesus out of the little chicks with his hammering.) 

I call this side of the coop “the front” because it’s what you see from the front yard. Jeff had a great idea for this side: he’s going to build a cold frame along the bottom part where the metal is. It’s the perfect spot for one! He got the gutter attached along the edge. We plan on connecting it to a barrel and collecting the rainwater. There are still many parts of the roof and the rest of the coop that need more hammering down, we got low on nails. We’ll be making another trip to Habitat for Humanity (the best price on nails we’ve ever seen.) With all the nails Jeff has bought over the years from garage sales, I never thought we would run out, but he needed so many different kinds. We ended up buying some lumber to finish the coop (mostly for the roof) because the wood we planned on using from salvaging from the building down below had bugs eating it. Bummer! All the “buggy” wood we did not use for building, but we’ll use it for building raised beds in the garden. We need lots of those this year.

 The side. This is where the nesting boxes are (in red.) Jeff is going to make it so we can collect the eggs from outside, without going inside the coop. He’s going to build a little mini roof that covers the nesting boxes that are sticking out.

 The back side, along the hillside, is just metal. He didn’t add windows to this side because it’s where we are putting the roosts. All the metal was recycled from the building down below and we’ve had just enough to finish it.

 The other “front.” This is the side that you can see from the backyard. To the bottom right of the door is a little chicken door that Jeff made, which is what we will use more than the large door. We used lots of recycled windows to have plenty of natural light inside.

 I stood back to see the mountains and the chicken coop with the lilacs in bloom. What a beautiful sight.

 And this is the building down below. I’m amazed how much Jeff has dismantled while juggling so many other projects. Would you like to see half of the building being torn down? I took a video of it and Jeff posted it on YouTube here.

 I got caught up today on thinning all the trays of starts in the greenhouse. In the past I’ve thrown out what I pulled up. What was I thinking? Now I save the yummy little starts for eating.

Bracken has been finding edible mushrooms around our yard and collecting them for our meals. Remember this post where I talked about Bracken the mushroom forager?

 {One of my favorite current necklaces by Jeff, in the shop here.}

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Oh yes, I wanted to remember to tell you that we will be at the Eugene Saturday Market this weekend!

Booth 350.

If you are a local, come say hello!