Basura Bash

This morning, Mr J and I will be getting our Volunteerism on. More than likely, I will be chasing Mr J around while he is distracting all the other volunteers but it's all about intent. Right?

Basura Bash is an annual event where volunteers from across the city clean local waterways that all feed into the San Antonio River. Basura Bob (a talking fish with a walking/trash-collection stick) says, "Think Green and Keep it Clean."

Chicks at Two Weeks

We've had the baby chick two weeks today. They are really big and funny! I'm an animal person anyway, but I've never had much affection for birds. These ladies are very charming and cute. They are getting some longer feathers in so we can start to see a little more of their final breed. We've had to add some extra chicken wire and we're planning to get a bigger space for them soon.

The chicken condo modified for indoor flight.

I flap my wing at you sir in annoyance with your picture taking.

Not a bad wing span for a two week old chick.

Giving us the butt as they drink water.

A coy over the shoulder pose while dining on strawberry tops.

NSTA Conference

Post have slowed down this week because I have been at NSTA (National Science Teacher's Association). That placed me far away from baby chicks and keeps Jenny way too busy with Mr J to post to the blog. I will be back home tomorrow. Who will have grown more: Mr J or the baby chicks?

There were a lot of interesting sessions at NSTA and I found out about several interesting environmental programs and grants out there for schools. One cool product I saw was from Fischer Science. It is a model green roof that can be built in class. I thought of about fifteen science projects to go along with it. I may buy it but it is a little pricey.

Spring has sprung

In addition to quickly trying to come up with a way to contain the one flying (eeeek!) chick, we've been spending a lot of time outside in the beautiful weather. The yard is a nearly endless task.

Chicks at One Weeks

This chick figured out how to jump out of the bucket shortly after we took this picture. These are the six we are keeping for good!

Homemade Cold Care

I have a cold. Actually, I'm not sure if I have a cold or if I just have terrible allergies at this time of year. I've been reminded that I was ALWAYS sick at Spring Break when I lived in Texas before. Anyway, I feel like crap. It's not really possible for me to take a day or two off to rest so my on-the-go healing strategy has been hot tea and hot soup. We've been making (No) Chicken Noodle Soup for a long time, but the farm share veggies have inspired us to make it more often.

No Chicken Noodle Soup

2 boxes (~8 cups) of no-chicken broth or

~8 cups veggie broth with 3 T nutritional yeast added

1 tub extra firm tofu, frozen, defrosted and pressed

Cut the tofu into small cubes and soak it in 2 cups of no-chicken broth or veggie broth with all the nutritional yeast added while you are doing the other steps. Freezing the tofu and defrosting it makes it have a spongier texture that is more absorbent of the broth. Press it between two plates with a heavy can on top. This step can be skipped if you are low on time.

1 lbs mushrooms

1 large onion or bunch of garlic chives

3-4 carrots

several large leaves of the greens of your choice (kale, spinach, etc.)

Chop all the veggies in smallish chunks. Saute in the bottom of a large soup pot with olive oil.

If you are using Chinese cabbage or another really leafy green, separate out the tough rib and chop and add with the rest of the veggies. Add the leaves later.

6 cups broth

1 - 2 t ground thyme

several large squirts of Bragg's Liquid Aminos

2 cloves garlic, grated or mincedfresh ground black pepper

1 inch ginger, grated or minced

2 C rotini pasta

When all the veggies are soft, add remaining broth and all ingredients except pasta. Bring the

broth to a boil and add in pasta. Let simmer for 5 - 7 minutes. Turn down heat and add in tofu and remaining broth and any leafy veggies.

Eat piping hot, preferably with a mug of tea to help clear out your head and chest. This soup is excellent as leftovers and seems to get better the next day. Yummy!

The City Chicken

Here is a great website about Chicken Tractors that we visited frequently while designing our chicken tractor. Our tractor doesn't look like any of these because we ended up using mainly recycled materials, but we used the photos to figure out what goes into a good chicken tractor design. Be sure to visit The City Chicken if you are thinking about urban chickens.

Update on the Chicken Tractor

I have spent the morning working on the chicken tractor. The wood is painted/stained, and most of the chicken wire is attached. All I have to do is finish the chicken wire, attach the latches, add a door to the chicken run, and attach a chicken ramp and roosting perches.

Sheesh. I thought I was almost done until I wrote this post. Sorry for the awkward pictures. It was hard to take a pic from a halfway decent angle and still hide all of Mr J's toys that are strewn about the yard.

Victory Garden of Tomorrow

A quick drive by blogging to post this poster. The Portland, Orgeon based artist has a whole series of propaganda posters for sustainable living on his website. Very cute.

Kitchen Chemistry

Success! I've had mixed results in the past with both bread baking and making yoghurt. But... the kitchen gods appear to be smiling on me lately. I've had successful batches of both in the past week.

We tried out the Bread in 5 Minutes a day thing this weekend and both loaves have been beautiful and yummy.

Essentially, you make a huge batch of really wet

dough, let it rise once and then stick it in the fridge. When you're ready to bake, pull off a chunk of the dough, let it rise and throw it in the oven on an oven stone with a pan of water for steam. The basic dough recipe can be turned into a variety of different types of bread. I tried the basic white bread recipe this time, but next time I'll try one of the whole wheat versions.

The first loaf was a bit misshapen since I didn't put enough cornmeal on the pizza meal and it

stuck, but I googled around found suggestions to start the bread on parchment paper and then slide it off the parchment paper halfway through

baking. It worked perfectly. No stressing about cornmeal and sticking and a great crust. It also has the big, fancy holes in it like real bakery bread.

The second experiment was another try at making yoghurt. The keys: store bought starter,

non-fat milk powder, and cooking the milk over a lower heat. The first few batches were either too thin or too thick a la the Three Bears. The non-fat milk powder helps it thicken up and the

store bought starter made sure it actually cultured. It looks pretty good! Now, I'm working on figuring out how to flavor it for Chuck. We also have a yoghurt incubator that I bought before we got married and I've now moved away and back to Texas. Chuck mocked me about my unused but deeply loved yoghurt maker. So now I'm going to use the darn thing until I can make most of the yoghurt we eat.

Science Education

I teach. I teach because I love to see kids learning and exploring and figuring out. I teach because I love the excitement and passion that students can have. I teach middle school because squirrely kids are the best kinda kid. Last night, I attended the ARASE regional science fair where several of my students were competing. While in the stands, several things I already know were reinforced to me.

First, award ceremonies are painfully long. There is no reason to have an award ceremony that takes four hours. FOUR HOURS! There were more than a few bored squirrely kids by the end.

Second, science education is essential for developing thoughtful, reasoned citizen. Children are the future and what not, but I want a future that appreciates the world around them and understands how to investigate their world. I know that my students will not remember the relative bond strength of ionic and covalent bonds or all the ways polar bears have adapted to thrive in their environment, and most will never need to know this. The purpose of science is not random collections of facts or knowledge. It is not even fundamental laws or complex theories that explain and enlighten. It is the logical and systematic method of study. This is what I want my squirrely kids to get.

Finally, I was amazed to see all of the creative, environmentally projects that students are thinking about studying. I saw projects about construction of solar stills, vertical axis windmills, environmental impact and pollution removal, and energy density of various plant fibers. Lets here it for the squirrels.

Wednesday Dinner: Broccoli Stirfry

We got three huge bags of produce from the CSA this week. Yum!

The farmer market on Saturday was also packed with beautiful produce.

This week in our CSA we received: Cauliflower, Broccoli, Garlic Chives, Spinach, and a HUGE head of bok choy.

In other sadder news, one of our top hat chicks died last night. She was looking pretty pathetic yesterday. We tried reviving her with sugar water and a paste of the chick food. She perked up for while, but didn't make it through the night. One of her sister top hat chicks died last night with another family. They might have just been weak chicks, but we're nervous about keeping them all healthy. The Backyard Chickens forum has been super helpful with people quickly answering questions.

Broccoli and Garlic Chives Soba Noodle Saute
Make 4 servings

8 ounces soba noodles

Boil a large pot of water and through the soba noodles in. Cook for 5 minutes or according to the package directions. Rinse quickly under cool water in a colander.

1ish pound of broccoli cut into small pieces
1 large bunch of garlic chives or 2 bunches of green onions
3 carrots
2 garlic cloves
thumb sized piece of ginger

Chop the broccoli tiny and the chives in large chunks. Grate the carrot or slice it very very thinly. Grate the ginger and garlic on a large hole microplane zester or mince. Heat a skillet with a tiny bit of oil until very hot and dump all the ingredient into the pan. Stir fry very briefly until the broccoli is bright green and the carrot is soft.

1/4 c tamari or soy sauce
1/4 c brown rice vinegar
2 T sugar
3 T toasted sesame oil
1-2 big squirts of Siracha
1/2 c water
2 T cornstarch

Combine all the ingredients except the cornstarch in a small bowl. Combine the cornstarch and 4 T of the liquid mixture in another small bowl to make a smooth paste. Wisk the paste into the rest of the liquid mixture. After the broccoli is cooked, pour the liquid mixture in and cook briefly until the mixture thickens and the cornstarch is no longer opaque. Add in the noodles, take off the heat and toss to combine.

We've made this with bok choy, mushrooms, regular onions...it's really a pretty forgiving recipe. It's also super fast and packs well for a lunch. We also normally baked tofu that's previously been frozen and pressed, but we didn't have time tonight.

Bringing Home Baby

After months of thinking about chickens, they're here! And I'm terrified. They are so cute and tiny. I feel like a new parent all over again. Are they cold? Are they hot? Are they dying or just sleepy? Why are they doing that? Aaaccck.

We ordered the chicks from McMurray's Hatchery. The chicks are only shipped in bunches of 25. If they are shipped within 24-48 hours of hatching, they don't need any food or water for the journey. All 25 chicks fit into that little box! We ordered the chickens with another family and they kindly picked them up from the post office.

We'd setup our little chicken area in the laundry room with a brooder light, water, and baby chicken feed. They need to be at 95 degrees for the first week. Each week, you decrease the temperature by 5 degrees. So far, so good. They are happy, if dopey looking little ladies. Like all baby animals, they are mainly sleeping and eating.

We thought about ordering from a few other places but McMurrays seems very reputable and all the chicks look very healthy. We could also buy all females which solves the problem of what to do with the unwanted male roosters. I was very pleased to learn we didn't need a rooster for eggs. I don't want to be the problem children in the neighborhood.

These little ladies are part of the ornamental layers collection. McMurrays offers the variety pack which included more than 5 different kinds of birds. We selected 10, 5 to keep and 5 for another friend. We're very excited to see what breeds we got.

Right now, they are hard to differentiate. We have a few that have ornamental leg feathers and two with top hats. The chick in the picture above to the right appears to be a Phoenix or possibly a Dorking. We definitely have one Dominique. We probably also have a Sumatra.

I'm pretty positive the little girl to the right is a White Crested Black Polish. I'm not willing to bet at this point but we're going to try and keep one of each to have a variety. I can see why people become chicken fanciers.

I thought 5 was a lot, but now that they are here I want to keep them all! No matter the breeds, they should lay a variety of different colors of eggs. After 4 to 6 weeks indoors, they will be ready for the outside world.

Our biggest concern is getting them through the first few weeks healthy and happy. The dogs aren't very interested, but we're keeping the door locked just in case. Mr. J is very interested and has been talking about the baby chicks all afternoon and evening. Just so you know, baby chicks say "Cheep, cheep" and you can only touch a chick with one finger. He got very upset with his Mama when she picked up a chick. It's hard to have to explain the rules to these dopey adults all the time.

Pre-Paint Chicken Coop

As you know, Jenny and I are trying our hand at raising chickens. Ordering them is much easier than actually preparing for their arrival. Last weekend we built two chicken coops with some friends. Here are a few photos of the coops. We hope to paint the coops and attach the chicken runs this weekend.

WISH US LUCK!

Spring Book Round Up

We try to keep a selection of seasonal books on a low shelf for Mr. J. This is partially due to my love of all things seasonal, but also something we developed after the avalanche of books we received from family and friends when Mr. J was born. Add in the occasional trip to Half Price Books and we have a rather large children's library. Starting March 1st, we selected books about Easter, St. Patrick's Day, Spring, Gardens, and Chickens.

Mr. J has a few standby favorites we always keep out - the Biscuit books, a few books about trains, and the Pixar sticker book Ez gave him for Christmas. However, it maintains our sanity and his level of interest if we keep the readily available books new.

Books about Spring:
Spring - We're slowly collecting the Gerda Miller seasons books. They are good to help slow Mr. J down. He's into naming right now and these books are right with opportunity.

It's Spring - An awesome Half Price find. I think someone must have received this as a gift and never opened it. Mr. J doesn't really understand all the snow melting stuff, but there are lots of birds and nests to discuss.

A New Beginning - I bought this one new. It goes through the traditional Spring celebrations around the world. Mr. J likes the pictures of other places.

Books for St. Patrick's Day:
As a nod to Mr. J's mixed Irish - Scotch-Irish heritage, we're reading a few books set in Ireland.

Fiona's Luck - Beautiful illustrations and leprechauns who aren't totally terrifying.

O'Sullivan Stew - This is a little over Mr. J's head, but the pictures of dragons keep him entertained.


Books about Chickens:
Busy Chicken - A great board book about scratching, and clucking.
Chick - This was a Half Price Books find. The glorious part of this book, in Mr. J's opinion, is the page where the chicken poops in pop up.
Hedgie's Surprise - All of the Jan Brett books a beautiful and full of fun things to find.
The Problem with Chickens - A book set in Iceland with very pretty pictures.

Easter Books:
We celebrate a secular version of Easter, so most of these books are just focused around rabbits and eggs.

Peter Rabbit - A knock off from Half Price.

The Easter Egg - A new book for this year.

The Runaway Bunny - Margret Wise Brown was an odd genius. Joey received several copies of this book when he was born.

The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes - This was one of my favorite books as a kid. I got it for Joey's first Easter, but he's just now old enough to get anything from it. I didn't remember this, but it's hugely loaded with racial and class overtones. The brown little bunny conquering over the big white bunnies.

Books about gardening and nature:

Eating the Alphabet and Planting a Rainbow - Lois Ehlert is a big hit around here. We're working on colors and the alphabet so these two hit the seasonal and developmental stages goals.

The Cucumber Princess - This is my books from childhood. It's a little odd, but I like the illustrations.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Classic and Mr. J likes poking at the holes in the food.

The Sun Egg - A book I found in my books from childhood, but I don't remember it. It's cute and tiny and about oranges which are in season now. It looks like something my Grandmother would have bought.

Mud - A scholastic book order find.

The Root Children - Another book from my childhood. The drawings are super dated, but the story is nice and explains seasons.

Inch by Inch - based on a children's song. Mr. J is learning to sing with us.

My Book of Bugs - A gift from Henry and Kelly, Mr. J. is enjoying bugs and watching the birds eat the bugs.

It seems like a long list, but we read a lot and get bored with the same books over and over. Rotating the books around a theme helps keep everything fresh and interesting for Mr. J and for us.

Chickens on the Way

Jenny Mr J and I are happily awaiting our baby chicks. They should be coming in early next week. In the mean time, we have been reading Mr J any children's chicken book we can get our hands on.

Why I eat dirty veggies

I eat dirty veggies, and I love my dirty veggies. My dirty veggies are pretty, and my dirty veggies are tasty. Most importantly, my dirty veggies are good for my family, and my dirty veggies are good for my community.

My dirty veggies are from my Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). CSAs come in many different forms and can be found all across the globe. Scott Arbor Farms in our local CSA. Once a week, we pick a bag or three of pretty, tasty dirty veggies. They are dirty because they come straight from the ground to our pick-up spot.

My dirty veggies are good for my family. They are nutrient rich. We never know exactly what will be coming so we are constantly thinking of new recipes and trying new food. Mr J loves eating the little trees (broccoli and cauliflower) and roasted kale.

My dirty veggies are good for my community. By buying our veggies from a CSA, we are giving money directly to local, organic farmer. Scott Arbor Farms is a family owned and operated business and has been so for over thirty years.

This week we received french cooking shallots, broccoli, spinach, swiss chard, and lettuce. All are dirty and delicious.