Ivy is an Artist at Heart

painted Ivy

Ivy likes paint. Especially the Benjamin Moore zero VOC, which is better than others I guess. But doesn't she look pretty in lavender? She also likes my Golden Heavy Body Acrylic tubes, so I have to keep those under lock and key.

Other non-comestibles Ivy has been observed to eat within the past two weeks include but are not limited to:

• fence post;
  
• obscenely copious amounts of grass;
• styrofoam insulation;
• pine floor studs;
• wallboard;
• granite;
• foyer rug;
• pine shavings;
• chicken feathers. Hilarious doggie sneezing ensued.
  

Well Apparently Not

It does not seem that the chickens are going to be Things Great Danes Eat.

Charley and Coco

As you can see, Charley is not a huge threat to our new poultry friends. Judging from this photo, I think the predominant thought that runs through Charley's head at any given time is "What exactly are you going to throw at me today and how am I best going to circumnavigate it?" Or in the alternative, "You have got to be freaking kidding me."

Ivy wants to lick the chickens. One of them got a little wet because of her, and let me tell you, the phrase "mad as a wet hen" was not first uttered for no reason.

Milo wants to poke the chickens with his giant nose. That seems to be his thing. Poking smaller animals. And nobody wants to be poked. So that may be a problem, but at least it's our biggest problem.

Vivi

This is Vivi. Every time I stick my hand in the home she jumps on it. I think she thinks it is an elevator. Which is actually pretty accurate. Lately Vivi has been running at my hand and pecking at it rather violently before she jumps on. Routine elevator safety precautions I guess.

Now We Are Twelve

box o' chicks

The chickens all arrived safely on Wednesday -- all 8 little girls were healthy and seemingly happy. One little girl, quickly named Calliope because of the incredible amount of noise she makes, has a little eye infection, but the vet gave us some antibiotic ointment that seems to be helping.

home

Mavis, named after my grandma (who happily said "O, that would be great!" when I asked her if she was okay with having fowl named for her) and Vivian are the two Barred Rocks. They are very spunky and a little unpredictable.

Mavis & Vivi

The two easter eggers are very friendly and like to be held. Friend Lia named the brown one Coco and friend Judy named the other Dusty, after Dusty Springfield. Lia and Judy came to the post office with me to pick up the chicks, and we created a bit of a raucous party in the parking lot. Lots of chirping and general revelry.

friend Lia

friend Judy

The silkie bantams are indeed the lapdogs of the chicken world. They are so incredibly adorable. One is almost as big as golfball, and the other two are just slightly larger. The only way I can keep track of them is that one has an eye infection and a little Karo syrup on her head (Calliope), and the really tiny one has a very poopy bum. I think I will name her Ruthie. Don't hold me to it, but she just seems Ruth-ish to me. We lost one of the bantams today, and it's actually quite upsetting. I have no idea what happened as she was doing so well the past two days. The other bantam is as of yet nameless. How rude of me.

silkie bantams

The bantams have furry feet and five toes on each foot.

feet!

What really cracks me up is the amount of time Mike has spent with all the chicks. And it's not just one or two chicks. If he holds one, he makes sure to hold them all. And when Calliope's eyes were looking ghastly, he did a lot of research on chicken eye ailments on his own.

It is very hard to photograph chickens. I need photographer friend Dan.

The Chickens Are Coming!

I am hoping hoping hoping that chickens are Things Great Danes Don't Eat. I have 8 chickens coming the week of June 8. They aren't born yet, so the wonderful folks and photographers at mypetchicken.com have given me permission to post their photographs of the little lovelies.

Mike had originally stated in no uncertain terms that he would have nothing to do with the chickens, including, but not limited to, the following:

• Coop Building
• Egg Collecting
• Poop/Coop Cleaning
• Feeding
• Petting
• Looking
• Liking
  

He did say that he *might* feed them when I am out of town. I have my doubts. However, a few weeks ago he changed his mind and he is helping me build the coop. I see veiled excitement under his thick crusty exterior. In the alternative, he may have just been worried about the potential disaster that is me with a hammer.

Silkie Bantam

We will be the proud caretakers of four of these little muppets. If your first reaction was to clutch protectively at your throat and back up from your computer screen, click here (probably not good for the little ones or those of you sensitive to, um, the salty language.) If you think they are adorable and you want to carry them in your pockets and rub them on your face like a cotton ball, here you go: "lapdogs of the chicken world." Where do you think they keep their eyes?

Barred Plymouth Rock

We will have 2 Barred Rocks, or "Stripey Jailbird Chickens." See the ankle monitor on her right leg? They are supposed to be plucky and docile. I'm not sure what this means, and the word "plucky" makes me a little nervous, but I do like a good black and white ensemble, especially one with red accents. They lay a lot of eggs, but since and Mike and I don't really eat too many eggs on a regular basis, I may sell some at one of our local farmer's markets one day.

Easter Egger

Easter Eggers have a gene coded for blue, green, or pinkish eggs (one color, not all). They are a kind of hybrid, and I think they will nicely round out the flock. Normal chickens.

The Mother Cluckin' Hen House

We've been working on the coop by thinking furiously about it. We plan every weekend to work on it, but thus far it has rained or snowed every single weekend for the last 5 weeks so only a little demolition work has been done. Most of you have seen our old goat condo, which is what we are using for the coop. We are adding windows, a large run fortified as best as possible to keep out bears, mountain lions, raccoons, foxes, and hawks. I was planning on hand-digging a 12" trench to bury fence in, but my brilliant father-in-law suggested that maybe renting a trencher would be more efficient and less back-breaking. I researched trenchers and they all have about 50 pages of safety warnings, so with my propensity for bad accidents, I'll leave this decision up to Mike. Maybe I will post pictures of our progress.

This Dog is Lazy

Ivy has a bit of a sensitive stomach, so we have to cook for her. Beef (which is totally gross for a vegetarian to cook -- I don't know if it's that I don't have a good grip on the spatula or if ground beef is just prone to go flying everywhere?) and rice, supplemented with a dog food that smells suspiciously like saw dust. We've been assured by our veterinarian that it is a fully nutritious meal, but we are looking forward to feeding her something that has less resemblance to wood shavings and is more akin to your general purpose dog food, at the very least.

At any rate, we are in the habit of giving Ivy the pan to lick the fat after the beef is cooked (don't worry - we don't use this pan to cook food for ourselves or for any of you). This makes the pan easier to clean and then the fat doesn't clog our septic system. As you can see in the above photo, Ivy has gotten so lazy that she just lies on the floor to lick the pan. I don't know if this says more about us or about her.

Evil Outside Influences

When we got Milo, he was just the tiniest thing. He was terribly frightened of walking down stairs, which we finally figured out was due to the massive amount of skin he had on his head. Every time he pointed himself down the stairs, gravity would pull all that extra skin over his eyes so that he was temporarily blinded. He couldn’t get up onto the couch without assistance. He fit nicely into Mike’s lap for naps. He was so cute we could hardly stand it.
At this time, we were unskilled in the art and necessity of crate training, so we would leave the dogs to free-roam while we were out. Looking back on it, this was not one of our more brilliant ideas. We had just bought some new furniture from a trendy boutique around the corner from our flat in Chicago, and so I’m sure you know where this is going. It seems that most of the stories start out this way: “One day, upon arriving back home, we found [chewed bits of any number of foodstuffs, unidentifiably alarming remnants, mysterious fluids of unknown origin on the walls]….” This story is no different. We found that our new sofa chair had been most inconsiderately un-upholstered. Large sheets of velvet lay on the floor like throw rugs. All of the upholstery staples were curiously absent and never were found. I actually found a priest in our neighborhood who moonlighted as an upholsterer, and who kindly reassembled our new chair and offered to cure Milo of evil outside influences. The priest did a good job on the chair. We still have it. Milo, however, is still susceptible to outside influences.

Things Great Danes Don't Eat

I am so proud of Mike and Lars and their ice sculpture at this year's World Ice Art Championships!