Chicks & Garden Update

Since an ordinance was passed in my town allowing backyard chickens and permits were issued, we went ahead and took the plunge and got ourselves 4 baby chicks on March 21st! We now have an expanded garden, made new garden beds on the side of our house, built a small greenhouse (8′x8′) last fall with all reclaimed materials and are going to be building a movable chicken coop (with reclaimed materials, too) to fit in next to our greenhouse. It will be like a coop/chicken tractor so we can move it around the yard and  the girls can graze safely on grass. I will let them out inside the garden to eat bugs and let them run around the yard while I’m out there with them. I’ve noticed a red tailed hawk in my neighborhood recently which doesn’t make me happy!

My husband grew up raising chickens so I am getting lessons first hand from him even though caring for them on a day to day basis will be up to my son and I. My husband has lots of other projects lined up to do!

We also built our son a funky tree tower next to the greenhouse because there was an Aspen tree in bad shape that needed to come down. My husband decided to make the tree tower for our son’s birthday in February and built it on any weekend that was not frigid this winter – and we had lots of nice weekends, actually.

Here are some pix of the peeps from 4 days – 2.5 wks old:

The two golden colored ones are Buff Orpingtons and their names are Daisy and Lulu. The two brownish ones are Easter Eggers – Americana’s, specifically and their names are Iris and Acorn. All 3 of us named them. They really are so very cute at this age!

Here is a picture of our (still unfinished) greenhouse that will be painted this spring and the funky tree tower to the left of it:

It’s located right in front of our newly expanded garden space, that’s the garden fence behind it. The tree tower looks like it’s all open in the picture but there is lots of cable wire going through the Aspen branches and it’s a 4 ft tall fence so my son won’t fall out! It’s very secure and he loves it!

The greenhouse was built so we could walk in there through a door (on the left side), it’s about 8′ tall at the highest point and has 2 large beds on the ground as well as a big shelf on the back wall under another window that can hold 4 large pots (or 7 flats of seedlings). The roof windows open for ventilation, too. There is a sprinkler head inside it from our sprinkler system so we can run a drip line off of it to the beds. We are also hanging up heavy duty hooks to hold large hanging pots in there, too. I want to grow the upside down tomato plants to have a longer tomato growing season in the fall (I admit I’m a little obsessed with growing tomatoes!). We have also worked out our glitches from last winter’s trial garden and will use the back of the greenhouse to help anchor the hoop house for better winter gardening this year. We are pretty excited for all of this additional growing space we’ve got now!

Many seeds have been started indoors this past week and my husband just rototilled in a mix of compost and top soil into all the new beds we created so now we are ready to plant! We will be direct seeding the new greenhouse beds this weekend with several varieties of cool weather greens and peas. This growing year  should be a good one since we are done with the hardscaping now and can successfully do year round succession planting.

Now with the chickens, we will have free range, organic eggs from happy birds (and my son & husband eat lots of eggs), new fun pets to hang out with and we will be able to feed them many veggie scraps from the garden and compost their waste and bedding to eventually be put back into the garden. The cycle of life. Love it.

The thing I love most about gardening is all that you learn from nature. Everything is trial and error and you find what works best for your individual space and then when it clicks, you get to watch the magic of nature unfold in front of your eyes and reap the bounty! I find this to be so much fun!

Lessons From Nature

I live 2 blocks away from a creek with a bike path in suburbia. We have seen a lot of different wildlife when we take a walk or bike ride along the bike path. We even saw a beaver in the section of the creek near our house. That was pretty surprising to us. On a recent bike ride with our dog running alongside (but on a leash) we saw 2 large coyote in broad daylight following the creek (about a mile from our house) they were clearly going over to where there is a prairie dog colony. I couldn’t believe they would be out around people in daylight although they were looking around and trying to hide amidst the trees. I’ve only ever seen them out in the daytime in the mountains where we used to live – never in suburbia during the day. And they were huge for coyotes – I thought they were wolves for a minute. Poor prairie dogs – it must suck to be the bottom of the food chain!

Here I am thinking how nice to live so close to the creek and the diverse wildlife that lives along there. Well, there is one creature I do not like and they are ballsy and know they can get away with anything – the Skunk.

I have learned much about the skunk recently namely that they reek just walking around and without even spraying anything. A couple of weeks ago I kept smelling skunk and especially at night when I have the door in my office open for the cool air to come in when I work. Every morning I check the backyard and the garden and nothing is being messed with, I can’t find any veggies being taken or anything. Every night the reek would happen again. I read up on skunk and it said they are omnivores and live within 2 miles of water and are nocturnal. I don’t know what he is after or if he’s in my neighbor’s yard munching on their garden which is not behind a fence like ours is but that really doesn’t deter them, either.

Well, last Thursday night we let the dog out to pee for the night and bam! he goes right after the skunk who was in our yard (it must have just gotten there bec. we checked a few minutes before letting him out) and it sprayed my poor dog and my entire house with all the windows open! So freaking gross!! My entire house REEKED so bad, I didn’t know what to do. I had to get on the computer and look stuff up with a towel over my nose and mouth on how to get the smell out of a house. I had bought this natural enzyme skunk odor remover for pets a while back for “just in case.” I’m glad I remembered that I had it. My husband ran upstairs to shut all the windows and get the enzyme stuff and put the dog in the tub.

The other info I found said to roast some ground coffee in a pan or cookie sheet in an open oven or burn some incense. We ground up coffee beans and I wanted to do it on the stove top instead (thought it would be faster) and used a pyrex bowl for some reason instead of a pan. It started to smoke after a bit which was good but then it caught on fire – not good! I tried to sprinkle water in it to put out the fire without putting a metal spoon in the bowl first to conduct the heat – I know to do this, too – and the freaking thing exploded all over the place! At that point, I was so pissed off at myself for being dumb and for now having to clean up a big glass mess and there was smoke everywhere which I was actually happy about because at least I couldn’t smell the damn skunk anymore!

The upstairs REEKED, too. I sprayed this orange essential oil odor killer spray I have all over the place then I lit up a big white sage smudge stick and smoked up my whole upstairs and downstairs to try and kill the nasty smell. I cranked up my air filter, too but by then my house smelled like burnt coffee, sage and skunk. Nothing really kills the skunk smell and even now, a few days later, I can still smell it lingering in certain areas. Surprisingly, my son stayed asleep throughout all of this which was great because I don’t think I could have dealt with one more thing that night! I have washed more stuff the past few days to try and rid the smell from clothes, bathroom shower curtain, liner, rug, dog beds, the dog himself twice, etc. Unbelievable.

It said in the research that they can spray up to 15 feet away. My husband works with someone that lives about 5 blocks away from us in our neighborhood and he told him the next day about us getting skunked and he said, “We were in bed and my wife yells, skunk! shut the windows!” right around the same time that it happened. I didn’t realize the smell traveled that far that fast. No wonder they are such ballsy animals and no one wants to mess with them!

Now I have to keep the backyard light on if I catch a whiff of Scrappy the Skunk. He’s patrolling our street it seems and I don’t want him back and have told him so telepathically. They really don’t have a predator because no one can stand their smell – except for owl who has a very poor sense of smell. Hmm, I may have to call on owl to come to my area if he doesn’t stay away – I’ve seen them here before but not recently.

I looked up in an animal spirit guide book I have about what it means to have Skunk cross your path:

*Be assertive and stand your ground as necessary and don’t let yourself be manipulated or pushed around.
*Make your self-respect and dignity a top priority, offering the same respect to others.
*You’re taking yourself far too seriously and need to relax, play and trust that everything is all right.
*It’s a good time to deal directly and honestly with that person in your life whom you find so irritating and overbearing.

Not sure who that message is directed towards since there are 3 of us that live here and I take any encounter with wildlife as a sign, a message so we are thinking on this one. When we saw the 2 large coyote in daylight I knew it was for me. Coyote represent the “Heyoka,” also known as the “Trickster” or the “Backwards Shaman.” A big teacher for all in some tough lessons that are not always pleasant. But, they also teach you to lighten up and deal with the situation and learn to find the humor in some difficult lessons.

Skunk must be teaching something to someone here on my block since he keeps coming around to our yards. I just wish he would hang out at the creek instead!

photos: Red-Star, PierceRebecca

Endangered Species Day

The third Friday of every May has been declared Endangered Species Day. It is a day to educate yourselves and your children about what animals and plant life are on the list and what simple actions you can take at home to help make a positive change for endangered species and other wildlife and fauna all around you.

One of the animals listed, the Grey Wolf, has technically been “delisted” several weeks ago. This, in my opinion, is a travesty. They need the protection from our government because it is now open season on hunting these wise and beautiful creatures who help to keep the balance of the forest and the health of the herd of other species such as elk.

I have a deep, personal connection with the grey wolf. One summer, when living on a ranch in the mountains of CO, (the same location where I met my husband and got married), I had the chance to live with and bond with a 3 year old grey wolf named Cloud that was the pet of one of my housemates. The wolf and I bonded immediately and he soon started following me around everywhere and even wanted to sleep in my room at night instead of with his dad. This did not go over well with my housemate but he worked a lot and different hours than me so I soon became Cloud’s surrogate mom.

This wolf was so smart, loving and playful and really acted as my protector, too. One day, Cloud and I went for a hike down to the creek nearby which was about 1,000′ lower in elevation so I could harvest some plants that grew there to make medicine. I got caught up in the plant world, kept wandering and wildcrafting and when I was finally done we started hiking back up and I realized, I was lost deep in the forest! I had lost the small animal-made trail we followed down. It was late afternoon, it would be getting to be dusk soon and I was worried because of the bears and mountain lions that also lived in the forest and I had seen them on occasion on the ranch property before. I started running up the mountain since I was more than an hour away from home.

Cloud wasn’t worried, he was happy being out on our adventure running with me like one of his pack and I kept saying to him, “we need to go home, where’s home?” He was the one to eventually lead me back towards the ranch, running off in one direction and stopping to look back at me as if to tell me “this way”, with his sense of direction being much better than mine!

My housemate and Cloud eventually moved out of state, I offered to adopt Cloud and my housemate said no way. I was very sad over them leaving but what a gift I got in spending so much quality time with such a magnificent animal. I will never forget him.

The northern rocky mountain states such as Montana, Wyoming and Idaho have it out for the grey wolf. The plan is for killing off 39% of the 732 total wolves that live in the wild. Many are the collared, reintroduced to the wild adults and are highly tracked and studied since wolves were exterminated to extinction in the wild.

Earthjustice and 11 other conservation groups* filed a federal court lawsuit challenging the federal government’s decision to remove the northern rockies gray wolf population from the list of endangered species. They also filed a request for a preliminary injunction in order to reinstate Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves until the court issues a final decision on the merits of this case.

The injunction states:

“We maintain that wolves should not have been stripped of federal protections so soon because they are not yet recovered in the Northern Rockies region and the state management plans currently in place are woefully inadequate, not based on current science, and do not ensure the long term survival of the Northern Rockies gray wolf.”

“Since delisting, a spate of wolf killings by a variety of methods—pursuing wolves long distances with snowmobiles, shooting wolves from the roadside, and lying in wait for wolves at state-run elk feedgrounds—demonstrates the need now, as much as ever, to protect wolves under the Endangered Species Act.”

In Native American teachings, the wolf represents the supreme guardian, the teachers, the wisdom keepers. They are loyal, family oriented, playful, loving, wise beings. They kill to survive and feed their children as other carnivores do. They don’t take more than they need and keep the sick, old and frail animals they prey on from suffering a long, strung out death of illness or starvation.

I hope you can take action and give some support – even just signing an online petition to help protect this amazing animal from cruel, senseless murder.

*Earthjustice filed the lawsuit on behalf of Defenders of Wildlife, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, The Humane Society of the United States, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, Friends of the Clearwater, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Oregon Wild, Cascadia Wildlands Project, Western Watersheds Project, and Wildlands Project.

Another Chance For Some Abused Animals

I just came across this video about the rehabilitation of Michael Vick’s dogs.   The Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Utah really deserves major kudos for taking the time to work individually with each animal that would have normally been put down.

I really believe for every bad person out there doing harm to the innocent ones, there are at least 2 good people who will help to make a difference in some lives and bring more light onto the planet from their actions.

Leif and I were at the local humane society last week renewing our yearly pet licenses and whenever we go there (usually to drop off donations of food and stuff for them – they always need various items) we check out all the animals.  It’s all I can do to not take several dogs home with me, you can just hear them begging to please take me home!  We saw several smaller dogs this time that were less than a year old and just so adorable and Leif wanted them, of course.  I did see several pit bulls or pit bull mixes in there, too.

One little girl pit bull was hiding under the ledge in the pen and shaking so much and growling from fear.  I felt so bad for her that I did reiki on her thru the gate and she definitely felt it and I tried to mentally talk to her thru the energy work and she totally calmed down, stopped shaking and put her head down and let out a big sigh.  She was so afraid being there and had major energy blocks in her heart.  I think I may go back and try to volunteer to do energy work on the various animals that need it.  I feel so bad for the animals that are given away.  At least the humane society where I live does not destroy them, if they are not adopted in a certain amount of time then they get to go out to “the ranch” as it’s called so they don’t have to live in the little prison like cells for so long (they do get one walk a day).  That can warp their brains (as I’ve been told).

So, for all of you who choose to save a life from the humane society, thank you.  There are so many amazing little beings just looking to give their love  to someone and to be loved in return.  The people who work at the humane society really do a good job in assessing what type of family is best for each animal.  There are also breed specific animal rescues if you have your heart set on a pure breed of some kind.  But, in my opinion, a mixed breed animal is the best kind and usually are very smart.  I love my 3 humane society adopted animals and am happy I got to save some lives in the process.

Our Animal Friends

Since winter is now settling in, I just wanted to post a reminder to all of you to please be kind to our animal neighbors. Leave out some peanuts, seeds, other nuts or corn or leftover fruits or even bread or crackers for them this winter. We have been putting assorted food out into a feeder we made and attached to our fence near a tree some squirrels live in. Last year, we had 4 squirrels that would regularly make their rounds and share in the food items left out by us and some of our neighbors. This year, I’ve noticed we are down 2 squirrels. People don’t really care when they drive and hit a small animal, they keep on going. I think the other 2 were run over, unfortunately because I’ve seen several dead ones on my road these past few months bec. they have to forage all over to get food stores saved for the winter and many people don’t slow down or brake for animals. It totally bums me out that we humans do so much destruction to nature and don’t even think about it.

My son really likes to watch the squirrels and what they do with their finds. He’s learned alot about local wildlife just from our conversations while we watch them and enjoys feeding them.

We always have a big basket display in the fall in our house filled with mini pumpkins, gourds and Indian corn. Once we are done with that and decorate for Christmas, we cut the gourds and pumpkins in half and put it out there and they love it and eat everything. I section the corn, too so they can carry it and they are very happy.

We had a pretty cold winter in Colorado last year and there were stories of many free roaming cattle on ranches dying because they couldn’t access water or hay because of deep snow. Squirrels, birds, raccoons all of them had a hard time, too. The squirrels couldn’t access their buried food under so much snow we had for such a long time. They were very happy and ate everything we and all my neighbors all left out for them. When it was really cold and too much deep snow to trek to my fence feeder, I would just open the window and literally throw food over by the tree and sure enough, they would come out and take everything. It makes me feel good to know that I am giving back to nature in some small way. I would feed the birds, too but I have 2 cats and they would surely hunt them but the squirrels are too tough for the cats. I’ve watched them yelling at my cats when they were trying to eat and Leif and I think it’s pretty funny.

We live near a creek and a bike path and see all sorts of little animals in and along the creek. Leif thinks it’s the coolest thing to spot them on our walks and we talk about what they eat, where they live, etc. It’s nice that he gets that connection to the natural world and is learning respect and nurturing for all aspects of nature.

So, I hope this winter you all can remember your little neighbors who really appreciate any appropriate food you can toss their way when it gets really cold and snowy (or really anytime of year). Some of them have little ones to feed, too.

Why Do There Need To Be Toy Guns?

I’ve been going around xmas shopping lately and I’ve noticed in some stores there are large displays of “pretend hunting” accessories and military stuff like big toy rifles, hand guns, army fatigues and helmets, etc and then there is the plain ole water gun, too. I am so turned off by these type of toys. I always say that we won’t have toy guns in our house for our son to play with but my husband says it will be inevitable that he will play with a toy gun or sword or other type of weapon while still young. I remind him that it won’t be by us promoting it in our home.

Why is this promoted by parents? Why is this ok to have your young child exposed to weapons and learn early on how to be aggressive towards others or animals and that this is fun, productive, imaginative play? I can think of many other types of fun, productive, imaginative play that my son -even when he’s ten yrs. old – can do besides role playing killing animals or his friends.

I know this is a touchy subject and that many people are into hunting. Did you see on the news this past week how in the Mid-West there was talk of a rare, albino deer roaming around. Some woman thought, yeah, let’s kill the rare white deer and she hunted it down and killed it. This seems f*cked up to me because it was a RARE being, maybe it should have stayed in the forest instead of being a kill for you? And a woman did it. That seemed more odd to me bec. woman are the nurturers and are usually more intuitive. How out of touch so many people are. I find it very sad and even barbaric that someone wanted to kill such a rare and beautiful being. I don’t even think she was going to eat it, they didn’t say in the story. It was all about the “get” and her family being so proud of her kill.

I personally think if we can lead by example and teach to take life for food and sustenance in a humane way for the hunters and not in a cruel way – killing just to kill – then maybe we don’t need to be indoctrinated into thinking that playing with weapons are fun toys and won’t cause harm when the kids move into the real deal with real guns.

I can say that at one of the preschool programs my son attends there are some toy water guns that are small, they fit in his 3.5 yr. old hand very well and he and this older (5 yr old) boy play with them alot. They run around and pretend to shoot the animals roaming around the grounds there. Usually in the area they are playing are just cats, dogs and chickens but there is talk amongst them to go over and shoot the horses and other farm animals. Obviously, the 5 yr old knows about guns and what they do and has shown my son what to do and my sweet boy is totally into playing like this. I get upset that he is exposed to it without my knowledge, plays with it and most of all, enjoys pretend killing. The 5 yr. old’s mom seems to have zero problem with this behavior.

Sometimes, when we leave there, I have to say to him, “put the toy gun down, we have to go home now, put down the gun”, etc. He is so hyped up and aggressive it’s hard to calm him down and he even bit my arm when I was strapping him into the carseat the other day! Needless to say, (for several reasons not jut this one), I am not re-enrolling for the winter.

I just don’t think something controversial like a toy gun should be around very young kids without a parent knowing about it. Obviously, I am hyper-sensitive on this subject and other moms are not. I think guns are a controversial subject like religion and politics and if he was exposed to that without my knowledge, I would be pissed over that, too. Why should aggressive play with guns be ok to not tell the mothers about it? Why can’t the teachers step in and say, be gentle to the animals? Or are they just not paying attention?

It’s funny, he goes to a Waldorf program, too and is always so happy and gentle and seems very aware when there and even when we leave there. He’s very easy going so the aggressive behavior is really out of character for him. He even said to me when I dropped him off at the other program the other day, I want to go to (the waldorf program) not (other program). Maybe he’s aware already of the different energy he is exposed to and what he is preferring even though he does wind up having fun at the other program and he’s there only for 3 hours. I still get a sick feeling in my gut when I see him playing with guns and hunting down the cats and dogs and chickens and making gun noises when he pretends to kill them (although he says he’s “getting” them, maybe he thinks it’s like tag?).  I find it even worse when there are like 4 little boys playing this game running around being so aggressive.

I know, I’m a pacifist pansy, I’m in the smallest percentile of this country’s view on what is ok to expose our kids to. Guns, to me, are just not ok or something I can overlook or feel good about that he is learning in school.

The Wonders Of Tea Tree Oil

There are so many great herbal preparations and remedies that can be used for all sorts of things and on both people and animals. I always use Tea Tree Oil on my dog when he gets a cut or something to avoid the $100+ vet bill for them to give me some antibiotic ointment or a pill for something minor. Yes, I will go to a vet if it seems major or if my home remedies don’t do the trick in a day or 2.

So, my dog Sammy all of a sudden had a big lump on the side of his nose the other day and we thought, oh no, it ’s a tumor! and then on closer inspection, it was an infected bite or cut. I think it was a bug bite like from a spider that he probably got outside. And, lucky for me, it was in a spot he can’t obsessively lick at so whatever I put on there would really sink in and work. I cleaned it out and put like 4 drops of Tea Tree Oil right on it and he hated it bec. let’s face it, the smell is strong and not that pleasant. It can be used right on a wound without a carrier oil like other essential oils (except lavender) need. Another great thing about it. I also gave Sammy a capsule of Transfer Factor to boost his immune system which was fighting off the infection. It is the transfer factor molecules themselves extracted out of colostrum (mother’s first milk before her real milk comes in). These molecules are extracted out of bovine colostrum and being that we are all mammals, are interchangeable between us. It’s amazing stuff, really.

So, the next day after treating the wound twice that day, the infection went down by at least half. I squeezed out any puss that would come out, washed it and reapplied the same treatment but this time I added an herbal “anti-everything” and soothing skin salve over the tea tree oil. The next day (today) the infection is completely flat and gone (yay!) but there is still a wound so I put more tea tree and salve over it to speed the surface wound healing.

I’ve seen tea tree dry out and kill off a puss-filled wound on pets and on people over the years. I think it’s something everyone should have on hand in their medicine cabinets bec. it’s dirt cheap, you need just a few drops on the wound and it doesn’t sting or burn or anything on a cut. It really gets in there and kills off the pathogens and speeds the healing of the infection or prevents getting an infection if you or your kids or pets have a cut. If the dog licks it, he likely won’t do it again bec. it does have a strong, kind of numbing taste to it. They hate it!

You can use it in your mouth bec. it is numbing and is great for mouth wounds or tooth problems, too. I wouldn’t recommend this for a kid, though. My husband and I have both used this on canker sores with great success. It is not used for the eyes, though.