Aw shucks...

How can you please the hedonist while simultaneously multitasking and running an errand? Take a roadtrip to collect oyster shells in beautiful Tomales Bay for your chickens! Tomales Bay Oyster Co. is one of the best spots for oysters along the Marin Coastline in Pt. Reyes. Getting them to go, or bbqing them at an outdoor picnic spot onsite is a real treat. Daluca and I popped in the other day to gather shells for the ladies... Oyster shells are made of calcium carbonate same as eggshells, and calcium is essential for a strong shell. At home I spread them out outside in the sun and then crush them into bite sized pieces. We've decided next time we come we'll do some fishing as well. No shortage of oyster shells here, and they're free for the taking!
tomalesbayoysters.com

Meet the ladies...

...and I'm not talking about the girls next door. I'm talking about 3 hens: Feisty, Ruby, and Lucky. The newest additions to the family~ Feisty and Ruby are a couple of Rhode Island Reds, a popular American breed around 6lbs and avid layer of brown eggs. Then there's Lucky.. an odd duck indeed, she's an Aracauna that lays a lightly green tinged egg. Lucky thinks she's a duck with her honking cry or other times a goose with her cackling call. I named her Lucky because she was lucky I picked her looking like a rag of hay from being bullied from her last flock. Unfortunately with Feisty on top of the pecking order, and Lucky on the bottom, she still gets a little flack. The ladies free range on the side of my house from sun up to sun down pecking at bugs and keeping the weeds away. I have been trying to ensure that their new coop, free ranging, and diet meets their needs, even adding some yogurt, vinegar, oyster shell, and olive oil to their organic feed when necessary. When it comes to a permaculture garden the addition of chickens completes the circle. They eat the outer leaves from my garden veggies which makes them happy and healthy. They lay eggs in return and then poop nitrogen rich waste which is great for making compost and amending soil. Also since I vermicompost, the worms reproduce happily in healthy compost and the ladies can occasionally have protein rich worm snacks. Keeping chickens is a rewarding and entertaining!

One flew out of the Cuckoo's Nest

It's not like I didn't know a chicken was a bird, but what I didn't know is that to keep the girls free ranging and not "flying the coop" it's advisable to clip the primary flying feathers off the wings. This doesn't hurt the bird at all and though it seemed barbaric at the time, the thought of Lucky, Feisty, or Ruby flying to some random location and surviving, made it a compassionate security measure. I like to give them as many free ranging hours as possible during the day to peck around the yard and take dirt baths etc. I'd also say the event took our relationship to a whole new level. I'm now one part mom, one part adoring and appreciating fan, and one part rooster. There's a new level of subservience with the flock that I didn't ask for, but that allows me to pet the girls each morning. Though I may have to lower their perchs a bit due to their lack of lift...

The Year In Review...The Elephant House

The July 4th firecrackers bursting around me have reminded me that I've been here for a year now. It's been so great nesting and dorking out on permaculture projects! Let's have a little "Year in Review" Michele Senitzer's 1st year at
"The Elephant House."
There was: building the coop and getting chickens, making rain barrels for rain catchment and installing a gutter system, crafting raised bed planters and a perimeter garden, refurbishing and installing an outdoor bath that greywaters to landscape plants, vermicomposting, building kenyan top bar hives and catching and installing a swarm, creating a home fueling station to settle, filter, and pump waste veggie oil, a solar powered barrel fish pond, upgrading to a low flow toilet, getting attic insulation, and planting over 30 organic heirloom vegetable varieties, culinary and medicinal herbs while tending to and planting several fruit trees and berry vines. 90% of the materials for these projects came from reclaimed, repurposed, and recycled materials.
Kim (Daluca) and I brewed wine from foraged berries, made mead and kahlua, jams, fermented sauerkraut and kimchee, pickles, preserved lemons, pickled eggs and beets, grew kombucha, foraged chantrelles, black trumpets, mussels, and greens and oyster shells for the chickens.
I also fixed, installed, demolished, improved, and troubleshooted more odd jobs than you want to see more lists of...
In the spirit of starting where you are, I'd say it was a great year!
With a strong desire to live sustainably I currently produce fuel, fruits, veggies, compost, eggs, and honey. I am interested in local food bartering, skillsharing, and seed swapping for continued variety as spice for life.
Goals for year 2 include backyard aquaponics and repurposing the front yard into an edible oasis with an herb spiral and raised beds using sheet mulching.

Backyard Beekeeping

Who doesn't love getting the perfect gift from a friend who really knows you? For my 37th birthday my friend Todd enrolled us in a Kenyan Top Bar beekeeping workshop at Institute for Urban Homesteading in Oakland, taught by Ruby aka Sparky Bee Girl. I had been wanting to try my hand at beekeeping, having had a lifelong fascination with bees. We built 4 Top Bar hives and then got on a local swarm list. Busy with the chickens, and it being late June, I was prepared to wait til next year, but then this morning I got word of a swarm in Richmond about 10 miles away! Off I went with a cardboard box, hedge clippers, a hoodie, and some gloves. There I met two great gals Anni and Carol, and found the swarm about 2 feet above the ground in a Manzanita bush next to their house. After away some low lying branches I placed the box underneath the swarm and gave the bush a good shake. Most of the bees fell immediately in while others flew around me in a frenzy. Quite a rush! I got a bite on my cheek and a sting on my neck before getting the box closed up and getting out of there. With all the adrenaline pumping I hardly even felt it. The rest of the bees starting swarming on the branch again so Carol cut it while I shoved it all in a second box. I wanted to be sure to get the queen!

A good rule of thumb when transporting bees is...make sure the box is closed up well. Can you see where this is going? After parting from our bonding bee adventure I begin the drive back home to East Oakland with my new found friends. A few blocks later I glance in the back and notice a few bees flying around. Few more blocks, few more bees... I drive home like a bat outta hell with my hoodie pulled over my head.

Back home, I left the windows for awhile while running the boxes to the backyard. Nothing to see here folks, nope nothing out of the ordinary happening here... The roar from the boxes was deafening! I was definitely intimidated to open and dump the contents into my hive but I had a lunch date in 30 minutes! I removed the bars cut the tape and dumped the bees into the hive. With bees flying all over the place I slowly and carefully replaced the bars on top of the hive. Tonight I placed a bowl of sugar water in the hive. Peeking in I could see a large clump of bees hanging off some of the bars in the back. I hope the bees take nicely to their new home and thrive!

(http://iuhoakland.com/) Institute for Urban Homesteading
(http://www.sparkybeegirl.com/bees.html) Links to Ruby's hive blueprints/ useful links etc.