They're Here!

There's no turning back now!

Exciting times! (Or is that eggciting..?)

My incubator is here and running. I've been spending so much time today looking at the temperature gauge that I swear I'm nearly cross-eyed. It's sitting at about 99.4F, right where I want it to be. Eggs will be here Thursday!

I've decided on my coop and run plans, too (funny how actually buying eggs makes you form concrete plans...). The run will be 6x12, covered, with an external 4x4 coop.


It's no Taj Mahal, but they'll be covered, fed, and watered. Here's to hoping they hatch!

French Drains

The last two weekends have been dedicated to digging a trench on the south side of our house. Lucky for us, someone installed a french drain many years back... they laid down a pipe, covered it with river rocks, then covered the river rocks with broken concrete and a thick layer of shingles. Then they buried it.

Shingles, if you recall, work phenomenally to keep water OUT of things. So needless to say, their french drain failed, resulting in large amounts of water seeping into the foundation. The last owners, and the owners before, all complained (but never did anything to fix it...) to our next door neighbor about the drainage on that side of the house.. and lucky for us she gave us far warning before the winter weather.

The fun thing about house ownership is the large number of tools required for various projects around the property. This is our newest tool (the pickaxe, not the husband) to live in our shed. It has made the pure joy of digging a trench with river rocks, concrete, and shingles substantially more tolerable.

Happy Friday!

Check out the new and improved view from our driveway!

Let's just say that it's been a busy week around here.

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After:

Before:

After:

Happy Autumnal Equinox!

What a gorgeous first day of fall, no? Makes you think about gardening, doesn't it?

I've decided to grow fava beans over the fall and winter for a spring harvest. I figure that I'm not going to get much else out of my garden in the meantime... and these guys looks like they'll be worth the wait. Fava beans make a great alternative to chickpeas in hummus, and if you pick them young enough you can eat this particular variety ('statissa') just like a fresh green bean. Which, for the record, is the #1 daily consumed vegetable in our household.

What's great about this variety is that it only grows up to 24" tall, half as high as other fava beans. And that means a lot to me, given that my garden is in our front yard. I want to keep everything as neat as possible.

Guess what?

I have one of these heading in my direction.

And someone is saving some of these for me:

Image from Over the Stile

Yes, my pretties, those are indeed Salmon Faverolles eggs!

Not only am I part of the Faverolles Fanciers of America, but I'm going to actually have Faverolles to fancy! Hopefully. This is a major case of counting chicks before they're hatched.

I've got the jauntiest mailbox on the block.

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After:

This mailbox was made in Seattle over 25 years ago. It deserved a little love.

Projecting.

When we had the house torn down to the studs, the hubs decided he wanted to install wiring for a projector system. There were a few hitches with the electrician (we only had to call him back about 4 times to get the job right...) and given the expense and the hassle, my husband was ready to throw in the towel an innumerable amount of times.

With my gentle encouragement ("..just order the f*cking thing already and get it done with.." were my exact words) the last few months he's been collecting the final components. On Saturday, the projector was finally installed.

And the last few cables showed up yesterday, and we were able to fire it up for the first time. It works!
We watched our first movie in our house last night- Gladiator. I'm happy to report that it's just as tearjerking 80" across as it is on a smaller television.

(btw, my apologies for not posting often or responding to comments. Moving and getting our condo ready for renting (not selling-decided to be a landlady!) has been sapping out my energy!)

Two Weeks.

Today marks two weeks of living in our house.

And sometime last night someone broke into my car and stole my emergency supplies.

RIP, my emergency kit. I will rebuild you, and make you fatter, better, stronger. And I will consider a car alarm.

Welcome to the neighborhood? :\