My Chicks salute the Arrival of Their First Spring

our unkept lawn on which the chicks free-range New England Red flowers sprouting Americana Buff Orpington my deck-lookout where I have to lookout for hungry chicken hawks who want to kill my chicks while they free range... frolicking in the yard... EGGS!!!!!!

Life With my Backyard Chickens

As you raise sassy organic-fed humane backyard chickens, you start to gain an appreciation for the cackling of a murder of crows, delightful cookbooks, the ultimate chicken dessert (scratch), the wing span of a hawk, moss terrariums, the color turquoise on a new earthy skirt and beautiful baskets to collect eggs in made by a friend. Enjoy these snapshots of my Saturday.

A Moss Terrarium by my Rena from the White Weathered Barn My Moss terrarium reaching up as it grows... my sweet stash as I sit watching my ladies, with a dark chocolate peanut butter cup and a mug of Chai tea Isis and the other girls during a photo-op a new SECOND-HAND skirt with turquoise stones My Easter-Eggers

Some of My NEW Favorite Things

I had a restful and great Sunday this past weekend, which is slightly rare. My best weekender experiences usually fall on a Saturday, the day of the week that I would normally call one of my favorite things, but not this time. So I declare that Sunday is making the also-one-of-my-fave-things list.

So this Sunday I woke up early enough to do some morning reading. I'm currently taking a reprieve from my usual cerebral, booky, mystery fiction and I'm reading something that reads rather quickly due to my pressed time schedule this month. Since I am determined to be an author/illustrator combo some day, I'm now reading a fun young-adult graphic novel WONDLA illustrated and written by the author of The Spiderwick Chronicles, Tony DiTerlizzi. Best of all, this book has a phenomenal interactive website and it was one of my surprise b'day gifts from my hub!

Then I got to brew a whole tea pot of some of my newest addiction TEAVANA Rooibos Cocoa Praline Tart tea The ultimate zero calorie, caffeine free sweet tooth satisfaction! Try Haute Chocolate tea too- ooh la la is all I gotta say! Teavana Cocoa Praline Tart Rooibos Tea And thanks to that husband of mine I got to enjoy that tea in another awesome Bday gift- check out my new porcelain tea thermos from TEAVANAMy new procelain thermos

This Sunday Morning we also had a delicious omelette, a gift from my ladies and my hub:

our eggs my handmade ipad case by me

I made major progress (though I'm still not finished) with a daunting sewing project that I wanted to tackle now for a while, a handmade case for my iPad. I wish I could have done a tutorial for you all, but I seriously had no idea what I was doing! I just made it all up along the way and struggled to boot, which is something I usually don't do as an autodidact, but hey I can't always be sunshine and roses!

span class="full-image-block ssNonEditable">latch open openPropped up for viewing

Lastly this is going to be a GREAT thanksgiving week because my ART children are coming home from college and I get to see those fresh eyed babes who hold such a special place in my heart!

- Ciao Amarettogirl

My First EGG!!

Portrait of My First Chicken Egg hatched myteriously by one of my ladies on Hallloween Portrait 2 of my first egg Portrait of My first Egg born on Halloween 2010

So YES! My first egg came on HALLOWEEN :)) My only sadness is that I don't know which of my 12 ladies gave me the gift of this beautiful egg. I wish I did, just so I could thank her, maybe with a strawberry (they are WILD about strawberries). Fertilized or not, I think giving away your eggs can't be completely easy. I love my girls so and I'm learning so much from them. But, I'm scared to eat the egg- I read somewhere that the first few eggs wouldn't be worth much-that they would be small, shaped awkward and possibly even wonky looking...but this looks like perfection. If there are any chicken raisers out there that can give me more tips I would LOVE THEM!!!

which of these lovely ladies laid the first egg, If I only knew??

November Goals & Nanowrimo

Glass illustration by marisol diaz

So we are now into the month of November (my Birthday month) and every year around this time I do some life/goal assessment...and I try again and again until I succeed to fulfill them.

So this year being no different, I am trying one more time to do the following:

• start, continue and finish NANOWRIMO (national write a novel in a month) in which you must complete 50,000 words in one month towards your novel.Check out what I got so far! HERE.
• Get better Podcast equipment
• Interview more folks and start a full on audio Podcast Series beginning with another interview with NYC based Spoken Word Artist La Bruja! 
• Craft my tush off for the Annual Craft Fair
• Buy my long-awaited glass kiln and do some glass work
• Update my Etsy
• Update my techy equipment
• Post more tutorials
• Start some Style posts for both CLOTHES & FOOD!!! FOOD LOVE YAY!
• Make my Ladies of the Chicken Coop as comfy as possible as they start to lay some eggs!
• Update my Blog/Site diversification to include NEW and seperate blogs! 

So wish me luck as I start on this month long venture! -Ciao Amarettogirl

Life with the Ladies in the Chicken Coop

Time for a long awaited chicken coop update!

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Coming Home to Chick Coop Dreams

While I was away my amazing husband printed out my coop design plans and got to work making the fairytale-cottage-coop dream, a reality.

Obviously, we're still not done, but all my hub did on his own is absolutely stunning :))

I'm in awe of it every morning when I look out my bedroom window to my yard.

Since I've been home we got the run built and added a roosting pole into both the coop n run, the quirky 20-something yr. ol' (7-8wk old) chicks love it! and So do my babies Chulo and Chica!

What's left to do:
Well I already ordered the small operable window and that should be arriving later this week.
We're going to place it on the front rightside of the coop.
Then I'm going to make shutters & a window flower box.
Siding n lots of paint.
Inside- we're adding 2 more roosting poles and insulating the inside walls in Sept.
A few nesting boxes still need doors and the run/coop door needs a pulley system...
then I think we can call it done. Hooray!

DIY Chicken Coop Progress

With the exception of an afternoon with two young helpers, my hub and I have ventured into the ambitious and often treacherous territory of construction alone. Neither of us being very welled versed in building we're visual artists and naively feel construction should be a natural extension off of scultping or vice versa ;9 Luckily my hub did spend some time in Japan many years ago and helped to build an art studio- hence there was a little resevoir of memory for things like framing. Alas inspite of nearly experiencing major limb amputation- we have something we can pat ourselves on the back for! Here is the progress of our coop thus far.

Final Coop Plans

The Coop designs changed and changed and changed again - thanks to all who gave me feedback! Basically, many of the changes occurred based on further and further education. It may seem obvious, but if you are planning on starting to raise chicks -its not enough to explore chicken coop building texts and plans- I highly encourage reading as much as you can, (NOT just about coop plans but) about chicken behavior, needs and space requirements. Helpful sites were the Manna Pro Webinar, MyPet Chicken.com's free Chick raising guide, and Backyard Chickens Coop Designs.

This final design may seem the most traditional of all, but why mess with a tried and true working design? This little elevated cottage will provide extra shaded run space below the coop (and include a ramp that is not shown here) and will be an attractive little fairytale-like structure for my yard. Since chickens provide such great garden fertilizer the run you see on the right may be duplicated on the left and therefore alternated with extra garden space on alternating years.

final coop design by m. diaz Complete Final Coop design integrated into yard by m. diaz

Starting with Raising Chickens

Opening the Package from MyPetChicken.com Brooder Introduction Beginning to Eat Meet Colina Meet Varaka