Urban Farming!

Our house welcomed 3 new arrivals last night. Their names are..Cleopatra, Eleanor and Oprah....we chose to name them for powerful women...role models for our darling Ocoee.

Yep that is right, we took the plunge into urban farming and are now proud guardians of these adorable chicks. Wait...we are pescatarians, right? That means we only eat fish as animal protein...and yep, but we love fresh eggs! And these little beauties are going to be our own source of eggs.

My hubby has wanted chickens for years. I grew up on a farm and know a little about chickens. As a kid I would not eat eggs because I thought of the little chickens and their eggs as babies....now I happily eat eggs but never chickens. When I relented and told my hubby he could have chickens, he went full steam ahead.

My only criteria were, they can't smell badly and the chicken coop must be attractive....no ghetto coops in this house! He agreed to clean their coop often and went and bought the lovely cape cod style coop for their future home.

We spent a lot of time researching, since owning chickens is even more tricky in Alaska. Turns out lots of Alaskans urban farm. I spent a lot of time emailing a FOF (friend of a friend) about her set up. She has young girls and that made me feel better since I want this to be a cool thing for Ocoee as she grows.

We set up the brooder (don't ya love the farming lingo) and last night picked them up. The guy on the phone we had talked to was always gruff and un-talkative. My hubby is quiet and not a big chatter, so I was surprised when the 5 minute drive to the chick sellers house turned into an hour trip. Turns out this gruff farmer is very loquacious when it comes to his chicks.

I am very excited to have the chicks. I love fresh eggs and we hope to handle the chicks a lot, so that they are pets. We introduced them to the dogs last night and held them close to our faces talking quietly to them. They already have personalities at 3 days old! We reminded ourselves to not get too attached since young chicks often die. But we are suckers for animals so...

It was actually a lot like bringing a baby home. We had to get the gear and were worried about keeping them warm. We had to prepare ourselves for live with chicks.

Also in my book club this month we are picking a book of our choice. I decide upon Chicken and Egg, a memoir that puts the chic in chicks! It has tons of recipes and I am excited to start it. I hope to bring a dish to the book club from my eggs on day in the future.

It makes me feel good to take a step towards my goal to live more simply. I watched an inspiring documentary I am on Wednesday. It made me think more about how things don't bring happiness. The title comes from a 18th century essay contest where the prompt was a question, "What is wrong with the world today?"

The answer from a entry, " I am."

Hmmm, I know I want to be the answer to what is right with the world today....still thinking how to do that.


Happy Friday

Cheers
J