Pecans & Mistletoe

Our Grown Chickens in downtown Raleigh

2010-11-14T17:44:00.000-08:00

We bought 6 chickens from Ace Hardware and pu them in our children's old play shed, with a ten foot outside run we bought cheap on Craigslist. The girls are doing great, laying almost five eggs a day and providing us a lot of pleasure and compost.
We got two Aracaunas (probably Americaunas), two Buff Orphingtons, and two Rhode Island Reds. They all get along great. The aracaunas are the most noble, almost hawk-like; the reds are brave and dominant, and the buffs are incredibly plump and very hennish.

Red, Buff, Aracauna.

Marietta in fron and Esperanza behind

Cloey and Zoey are identical to me.

Same for Jenny and Jemima. My son has a close relationship with one of them and will hold it like a parakeet.

Esperanza is the queen chicken.

Mareitta is my favorite, I pretend she IS a hawk.

All chicken posts on Pecans & Mistletoe

Garden Tour June 2010

2010-06-22T07:01:00.000-07:00

The chickens are not quite 4 months but are gorgeous dinosaur creatures who slowly tear up any vegetation we offer and who we love to feed. We'll get back to them later, but this is a long post sharing the new passion Cara and I share - raising food on our little urban homestead.

Cara has always had a lovely flower garden and grows wonderful herbs as well as lots of the flowers we dry for hand-laid paper notecards.

The last few years she has been sharing more of her space for tomatoes, peppers and tomatillos. We enlarged it a little last year and grew a few cucumbers as well.

This fall we tried a fall planting and it worked out very well. Cara's rhubarb is the large leaves at the far left. Behind the red brick on that side are broccoli, Savoy cabbage, and kale.

This year I made a major addition and planned some significant food plantings. We are working hard and having a ball - and it all ties in so well with the chickens!

April garden

May Garden

The rhubarb in its new home on the left, beans on right.

The tomatillo structure with bird bells.

Broccoli and squash, Swiss chard at very front. Cara is trying some sorrel and also Calendula, which has an edible flower. We love growing greens and have harvested a bunch of spinach and lettuce all through the winter, growing under glass on the deck.

The tomato jungle in sunlight, with oregano and sage in front left.

So now in June we have this fantastic array of beautiful and edible plants! How do we do it? COMPOST! Compost and seedlings is how we do it economically. Below is our seedling area - Dori's old basketball court.

We also have a chicken garden for sunflowers, mint and fennel .

Chicken sunflowers behind letterpress shop (and chicken run).

We compost every scrap, I collect leaf bags, and now we have chicken manure to work with! I can't wait for next season - and with all our container gardening, new plastic shelters, and deck gardening, all seasons are good.

We are starting to get a little serious about urban agriculture - we are trying to get seeds from the beautiful onion seed head below.

Below are our leek seedlings, which just went into giant deck pots and look great.

With our partial shade, I have to go vertical where I can. Thus, I love those upside down tomato bags. They are tricky to start - more on these another time

The Malabar spinach on our deck is the perfect blend of aesthetic and food value. That's what we're about these days. More about the chickens, who should be laying by September, soon.

Visiting the Coop at 5 Weeks

2010-04-18T14:11:00.000-07:00

Look for the chicken tails in the lambs ear! These chickens are exploring living plants for the first time

At just over 5 weeks old, our fast-growing young chickens visited their future home . We brought them back up a couple of more nights, but now they are comfortable in their large decorated space, shown below.

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At a month old, look at these chicken feet!

2010-04-01T04:57:00.001-07:00

At 4 weeks the chickens are a little larger than quail with long wings and big feet.

Look at those feet!

They first cautiously and then enthusiastically explored the new space we have provided. The large-breasted Buff Orphington and one of the Rhode Island Reds seem to be at the top of the pecking order, dominating the best roost on the wall between the two spaces.

The chickens are two weeks old.

2010-03-14T18:06:00.000-07:00

The chickens are two weeks old in this post. They are getting larger feathers, including tail feathers.

The buff orphington

Rhode island Reds in back, Mexican Aracaunas in front.

They have knocked down my flimsy roost, but you will see our improved version in the next post. They can fly to the top of this box now, so it is surrounded by a garden fence.

The chicks are growing and climbing

2010-03-04T17:11:00.000-08:00

The chicks are 8 days old in these pictures. Their tail feathers are getting longer and they are experimenting with their wings.

New chicks!! We are urban chicken farmers.

2010-03-02T03:51:00.000-08:00

Five days olds. We bought them at the local hardware! I have a ten foot run and 6x8 coop (shed section) almost ready for them. They will need it in a month.

Keeping them at 95 degrees, using a red heat lamp at adjusted distance.

Camera shy. They were active from the get-go. Minutes after putting them in this plastic-lined cardboard box, an un-used papermaking vat that had sat in the basement for months, they were spying out and gobbling up all the tiny white spider egg sacs I hadn't even noticed on the walls of the box. Thank you, lady chicks!

Honduras Heifer Tour

2009-01-21T16:31:00.000-08:00

Santa Rosa, a historic colonial town in Honduras. My partner Cara toured indigenous communities participating in Heifer International projects. This town housed a potter who had become a beekeeper with the support of Heifer.

Basilica in Tegucigalpa

Boy in Trinidad.
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Below, Chorti Maya people and scenes.

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Above, a Heifer-supported orphanage. Below Cara with a Lenca girl, her family, and the cow they received from Heifer.

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Roadside oven.

Above, manure composted to collect methane. Below, the stove it supplies.

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Community corn grinder.

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Banana trees.

Coffee-roasting plant near Tegucigalpa.

Political ad for election year.

Honduras is home to several cloud forests.

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Mayan ruins. In the foreground is the killing stone.

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Wedding in Santa Rosa.

Honduran 5th graders in Trinidad.

The Heifer Foundation

Bain Water Project

2008-12-31T11:27:00.000-08:00

The E.B. Bain Water Treatment plant is a designated Raleigh Historic Landmark, though it has ben neglected for many years. Now a new art project is developing dialogues about the structure and its place in Raleigh's culture as a new development of the property is planned. These are pictures from a tour during the early planning stages of the art project.

Porcelain filter rocks from the Bain plant.

Holding tanks

Bain plant valves

Scale for measuring chlorine

Chlorine tank

Pump station by Bain plant

Walnut Creek by pump station

Slider in Walnut Creek just east of Wilmington Street.

The Bain Water Project

Mistletoe Sightings December 08

2008-12-13T14:22:00.000-08:00

Oak Mistletoe, a common evergreen hemi-parasite.

A sunny spot on Glenwood Ave at Fletcher Park.

The replanted median where mistletoe once ruled.

Mistletoe at 5 points

Above and below, Harvey Street at Glenwood.

Above and below, Wade Ave at SECU.

Buckeye Greenway mistletoe.

Blount Street Commons

Peace Street across from College.

Above and below, Edenton Street at McDowell.

Above and below, Rucker St. off Wake Forest Road.

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Brinegar Cabin on the Blue Ridge Parkway

2008-10-19T11:31:00.000-07:00

Brinegar Cabin represents a very old style of mountain living which was enacted
and thus preserved well into the 20th century.

flax field

stripping the flax

carding

loom in use

cedar shaved wood mop

broom materials

Brinegar Cabin cellar

Just up the road on the Parkway is the overlook where one can peer down at
Caudill Cabin, several hiking miles away in a roadless valley.

Caudill Cabin

Sustainable Agriculture in the Triangle

2008-09-17T17:39:00.000-07:00

Carolina Farm Stewardship Association

Farm Tour!

native plant area at Piedmont Biofuel's research garden

farm intern explains a Japanese farming technique

intern displays volatile component of biofuel production

biofuel separators

Piedmont Biofuels honor system tank

Dew Dance Farm

Dew Dance garden, with heirloom naturally colored cotton on right.

Below, Laura Young at loom.

Lakeview Daylily Farm

koi pond with turtle and heron protection

Weston Farms koi barn

Double T Farm

Hilltop Farm, Willow Springs, NC

Hilltop Farm horses

Covenant Community Garden, Fuquay-Varina, NC

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September 22, 2008 - September 24, 2008 ELP Food Tour Conference 2008

NCSU campus

The Environmental Leadership Program (ELP) invites you to "The Politics of Food," a national conference on how America grows, distributes, buys, and eats its food.

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Sustainable Agriculture Conference

October 31 - November 2, 2008

Anderson, SC

back to Raleigh Rambles post

Tomatillo Roast!

2008-09-03T20:35:00.001-07:00

brick barbeque with bike

unlit

papered

lit

burning

trashwood fire

dying

Walmart firelog!

almost ready

roasting

slow roast

smoking

done!

parsley puree

puree plus broth and lime juice

chill

serve

serve with beer

NOW the fire is truly ready!

White Squirrels of Brevard

2008-07-30T11:44:00.001-07:00

These squirrels live at Brevard College in North Carolina.

The town of Brevard protects them and has a White Squirrel festival.

The squirrels are not albino. They are just white!

Back to PFI essay at Raleigh Nature

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Garden May 08

2008-05-28T19:48:00.001-07:00

Mom's Hydrangea

Snapper Loose! the still photos - vid below!

2008-05-11T16:06:00.001-07:00

Common snapping turtle with the Raleigh Naturalist's hat for scale. These pictures are on the greenway at the east end of Buckeye, just before his release into Crabtree Creek. Video of that release is in the post just below.

At twenty five pounds, plenty dangerous.

He was ready to go by now!

release video

Snapper Loose! The Release After a Long Day at The Fletcher Academy

2008-05-06T15:07:00.000-07:00

My teacher assistant, Randall B., brought this twenty five pounder from the lake in his backyard. We enjoyed it all day and then I released it at the east end of Buckeye Trail - a short swim down Crabtree to the Neuse with lots of side choices on the way.

Lassiter Mill

2008-04-28T14:38:00.001-07:00

Historical plaque at Lassiter Mill.

Memorial patio

Deep water above dam

Canoe put-in

Foundation downstream of pool

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Garden March 08

2008-03-23T07:49:00.000-07:00

frog's view of garden

green frog

bullfrog in ivy

yellow belly browsing lower section

April 1st garden
Above, emerging perennials and bulbs in the early garden and porch plants. Below, is our front yard Lady Banks rose, which has climbed our pecan trees and turned to face south toward our backyard.
return to Raleigh Nature (main site)

Yates Mill album

2008-01-17T17:28:00.000-08:00

Yates Mill pond

Yates Mill Pond Skink

Crabtree Creek Levels - Hodge Road

2007-12-31T09:10:00.000-08:00

Sequential pictures showing different creek levels at Hodge Rd and Atlantic Ave.

Above and below, November 09.

Above and below, view from Hodge Rd. greenway shelter under RR Mar 09.

Hodge Rd. RR bridge 3-2-09

Gar Hole" March 2, 09 after snow.

Post-Hannah, 9/6/08, this was as close as I could get to the spot seen below.

After Hannah on Sept. 6, 2008, this was the walkway to get to the spots seen below.

Above: my "gar hole" with young slider on 6-20-07. Below is the same spot after two good inches of rain on 12-31-07.

Hodge Road Greenway, scraped after flooding.

Hodge RR bridge 12-31-07

Hodge RR bridge 3-24-07

View from Hodge Rd RR bridge 12-31-07

View from Hodge Rd. RR bridge5-25-07

View from Hodge Rd. RR bridge 3-24-07

Mistletoe Sightings

2007-12-28T09:50:00.000-08:00

This bunch overhangs Oakwood Avenue at Cook Street.

off Wake Forest Road

Buckeye Greenway

above & below: Edenton and Dawson

The Fletcher Pumpkin Project

2007-12-26T15:51:00.000-08:00

We took a huge pumpkin donated for the front door of the school at Thanksgiving and let it rest in the leaf pile. Over the next several months, we watched and celebrated it's passage into compost. We did get a few scraggly vines that produced one grapefruit sized pumpkin the next season from this leaf pile.

Pumpkin 1

Pumpkin 2

Pumpkin 3

Pumpkin 4

Pumpkin 5

Soil profile at Computer Drive off Six Forks

Edna Metz Park

2007-12-25T10:20:00.000-08:00

The day before I got my new tripod (I'm a hardworking novice with this camera) I caught this bird bathing. Over the years, I have often witnessed hominids bathing in the pool below. Edna Metz Park is a true haven for the weary.

Edna Metz is a wonderful urban amenity tucked into Cameron park just below Cameron Village shopping center.

This tulip tree (often called yellow poplar but not a poplar at all- a relative of magnolias with huge blossoms) is my record inside the beltline.

This lovely little creek is part of the streamwatch program. Good thing, I guess, because the upstream pool above is often orange with fertilizer algae blooms in the summer!

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