New beginnings for Meels and The Gang
This is my first ever blog, and I'm kind of nervous, I'm just not a writer. But it seems as though I have taken up a new obsession, think about it constantly and might as well write about it (I sure do read enough about it) ~ urban homesteading. I certainly don't foresee myself purchasing that dream property in Sonoma County or some other rural area where pure bliss awaits. No, for now I am in Oakland, CA. I have a daughter ready to attend high school and feel it is the least I can do to provide her with a solid stable educational experience and finish her formative years of school in one place. So, here we are and we're making the best of it. I actually love the Bay Area and have come and gone and returned again due to that love. So, in my desire to be a homesteader, urban homesteader will do......for now, at least.
I've established my garden; I've got heirloom tomatoes, tomatillos, tomarillos, lettuce, beans, artichokes, squash, cucumbers, kale and cabbage thus far, and I am finally doing something I've wanted to do for years ~ raise chickens. The dear man that is in my life must have heard it enough because he built the Taj Majal of chicken habitat ~ It's fabulous!
To backtrack a bit, my daughter and I decided to go get some chickens. I, being sort of militant in where I wanted to get my chickens from, had to have heritage chicks, not chicks from factory farms....what did I get? Probably chicks from factory farms...<sigh>....I'd been had. Anyway, we went to Mill Valley, after finding a woman who had an assortment of baby chicks. Me, not knowing anything about chicks, other than the few chapters I'd read, trusted every word she said and took all of her advise, which of course, included products. That being said, I do use everything I bought from her, but at $15-20 a chick, I think I was a tad ripped off........oh well, I've got them now. And they are the cutest things ever, personalities and all! My daughter and I named them right away: One for her - Little Kenny; one for her best friend - Little Meels; and the other two for their coloring, Lucy, as in Lucille Ball and Pepper. So far I'm pretty sure that Little Kenny is the leader, which sort of seems appropriate if you knew my daughter.
The Coop and Run took about a week, but its ready and waiting for the girls to grow bit more; at this time they are two and three weeks old.
So, for now, we're cleaning up chicken poop several times a week, changing water several times and day and checking chick vents for blockage ~ not the ears or the nose or the eyes or the mouth, for that matter......the vent I'm referring to is the vent where the shit comes from.....yes, I'm checking for vent blockage....<sigh>.....this is not the joyous part of raising chickens....not completely horrible, but not joyous either....
Chicken Chronicles continue......
