One of my interests is in older machinery and scientific instruments, so this book that we were selling at the Pirate Festival really grabbed my attention.

It also grabbed the attention of David Woodson, reenactor with The King's Navy, at the Portland Pirate Festival last year. He purchased the book and made an octant from the plans within, and then came back to show us this at this year's Portland Pirate Festival.

Julie Brown - Homecoming Queens got a gun

Posted in honor of McCain's recent choice of running mate!

DDR Commercials, part III

This camera looks a LOT like my Pentax Spotmatic, and it appears to operate about the same, too.

First blueberries

We just recently picked a couple handfuls of blueberries off the new bushes. They are supposed to be early varieties (to supplement my "late season" picking habits at the farms) but since this has been kind of the non-summer they are just coming on now.

We have an Earliblue and two Duke bushes.

Now if we could just get a little more sun on the corn, tomatoes, and peppers...

We brought the ducks home. They're currently shacking up in the coop. We let them out for swims most days.

Nena still thinks we have a drake, but I can't tell for sure.

DDR Commercials, part II

Got a picture of Nena... she usually avoids the camera.

This is just some clowning around with a "new" old Spotmatic. The glass in these things is unbelievable. I need to get used to the metering again so that I can avoid shots with grainy people on light backgrounds.

Lucy's new "computer place"

Lucy wanted to launch her own "computer place" so that she could post her photos. You can reach it at http://photosbylucy.blogspot.com .

DDR Commercials, part 1

You know, I kind of miss the Cold War.

My favorite 2008 presidential election commercial.

Tim Russert, rest in peace

Stephen Colbert did my favorite wake of Tim Russert.

Garden underway

The garden is mostly in. I took out the two remaining stumps a few weeks back, and so far we have tomato plants, peas, beans, peppers, and corn planted. We have some squash seeds off past the tomatoes. There are also herb plants ready to go in and a solitary lemon cucumber.

The structure is something Nena made out of birch branches that I took down since they were in the roof danger zone. It will be supporting the beans when they grow, and will form a garden hiding spot for the kids.

The pile beyond is the compost.

The soil is really bouncing back after having been under a patio for some years. It's full of worms and, I would guess, a fair number of beneficial microbes, too. I haven't had it tested, but it has much more of the organic crumble to it than it even did last year.

Book recommendation for this post: Teaming with Microbes

Moving in, moving up!

Belle, Cleo, Duchess, and Queen of the Mash moved into their new digs last night.

It's an A frame plan. The lower portion is where they can hang out during the day when we're not around to protect them from neighbor cats or stray dogs or rabid racoons or whatever. At night, in theory anyway, they go up the chicken ladder to the upper portion, where we seal them in for the night. During the day they are free to circulate between levels.

So far they seem to be enjoying it. It's a great deal bigger than the Sterilite storage container they had been living in.

Adam

DUCKS!

This is a little belated, I know, but we recently (May 23) added two Cayugas to our household. They will grow up to be black ducks with a greenish tinge to them. They love playing in water and they love slurping down strings of spinach. They clack their bills against your fingers as they enthusiastically gobble the greenery.

Earth, Art, Ovens

Kiko Denzer has recently brought to my attention his blog, also on blogspot. I thoroughly recommend his book on earthen ovens. The latest edition has a quote about an earlier edition that I wrote to him.

I have to say for those who think this is goofy. These ovens are great. I went to a building party for a cob house out past Carver, Oregon, and for dinner we had pizzas cooked in an earthen oven. I took a few out to the oven and started walking away when the oven tender advised me to stay put, and gestured toward the oven. I looked inside and watched as the homemade pizza dough puffed up perfectly and then settled back down all in the space of about 90 seconds, and then he pulled them out and flopped them back on the sheets of cardboard I had used to carry them to the oven in the first place.

Anyway, go to kikidenzer.blogspot.com for more information.

Growing some more

I am in San Francisco this week, but reports from the home front describe all four chicks as still growing - even the runty one. The runty one has become something of a scrapper. I am thinking of how Lucy, at about 4 inches shorter and definitely of a smaller build than Noor, can still bully her sister just about any day of the week. The smaller is not always the weaker.

The kids shared pictures of the chicks at school today and talked about them, Nena reports.

Growing up

The chicks are growing.

One of the Australorps was looking decidedly inactive, confused, and runty this morning. She kept pecking the side of the brooder. She didn't seem as active as the others.

Nena tried taking some of the chick starter feed and making some mash in a shallow dish. The runty one jumped up into it and started gobbling away, and was so aggressive as to actually drive away the others when they'd try to get to close. I called it her "Queen of the Mash" stance. This is particularly impressive to watch because the two Ameraucanas especially have about 50% more size on her and they're not afraid to use their size to their advantage.

Pickin' up chicks

Nena and I went to Linnton Feed & Seed today and picked up two Ameraucana chicks and two black Australorps... or at least we THINK that's what we got. They're about two or three days old, and they are just getting used to this idea of eating food, drinking water, sleeping, and walking around.

I made a quick and easy brooder out of a 30 gallon storage bin. The reddish light in many of the photos is from the heat lamp we got at the feed store.

I highly recommend Dan and the other folks at Linnton Feed & Seed to anyone thinking about backyard livestock endeavors. Not only do they have most of what you need there on their shelves, but they dispense advice freely.

I think we'll have more on this topic soon.