Sunday, July 24, 2011

Basement Life Perks

Despite the blazing heat that is blanketing the Northeast, our girls have been sitting pretty in their cool basement. Us humans occupying the upstairs of the house have not been so lucky. So while the girls slept indoors, Jeff and I took our tent and slept in the backyard. The ultimate in irony did not escape us, however we had a wonderful time grilling and acting like it was a regular camping adventure.

A few night before we had decided the heat was just unbearable, and we turned on our AC (which we try to avoid doing for eco reasons.) Come two o'clock that morning, and we were woken by the carbon monoxide detector alarm. While contemplating calling my parents to ask if we could crash there for the night, it occurred to me that I literally have a canary in the coal mine or in my case chickens in the basement. I went down there to see if they were affected by the carbon monoxide. Once I flipped on the light to see, I could tell they were all just fine and only annoyed that I had woken them. However, Cluck had decided to sleep instead of on the roast but on the edge of the wire. When I turned on the light it startled her and she fell forward hitting her face on the side of the bathroom wall. Brilliant! In the end we just opened the windows and the alarm stopped, but I am glad to have my girls to alert me to any problems with carbon monoxide... just yet another random benefit of the clandestine chickens!

Saturday, July 16, 2011

What do they call this egg?

The eggs continue to get weirder...

Jeff was downstairs taking care of the chickens when I heard, "Lisa, did you give the girls an old carrot?" I replied no and then heard nothing from him. It was such an out of place question, it made me curious. Eventually he came back up stairs holding a small egg that did, in fact, look exactly like an old moldy carrot stick.

If the small eggs were called fart eggs, I don't even want to know what to call this one.


See, it is a carrot egg!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Rabbit Repellant

There is unwelcome livestock on the urban farm..... rabbits are eating our plants. (Esp. the corn.) Jeff and I have declared war! The chickens have helped us create our weapon... we are using rotten eggs in water and spraying it around the plants to deter the rabbits. Here is the recipe:

Three eggs
1/2 cup veg oil
2 minced garlic cloves
Three table spoons hot sauce
Teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 cup milk

Put everything in a jar and set it outside in the sun to rot for a week. Strain it once through a colander and a second time through a coffee filter or paper towel. Dilute the mixture with one gallon of water and spray in garden.

The chickens come through the save the day again!

Update: While spraying this toxic mixture gagged me, it has kept the darn rabbits away!