A wet fall in San Diego

this last picture is a small creek that developed in the backyard after one of the heavier rainstorms.

Turkeys, more drama

Why did we just invest 27 weeks in these turkeys when one of the bigger ones decides to go a die today. I mean WTF?!? She must have known Thanksgiving was drawing near. But really, we had that turkey since it was the size of my iphone dammit! I drove it back and forth in my car between the farm and the Blough's house. I chased a coyote out of its coup when it was young. I squeezed its crop when it got all bloated and gross and made it vomit all over the place. I mean crap, I was really looking forward to eating that bird. Not to mention, it ate its way through so much organic poultry feed, it would have sold for $20 a lb. at the grocery store, and now its buried underneath a garden bed.

For those of you thinking that your raising your own free range organic turkey for Thanksgiving is a good idea let me give you some advice. Whole Foods has a great selection of free range birds already packaged, de-feathered and cleaned. The experiment is not worth it. These birds are much harder to manage than chickens, get sick more often, have more problems and have the mental capabilities as your average garden snail. Kim and Sarah are not going to like that i posted this blog. But, i don't care. I have had to bury two turkeys already. Not to mention the 2 we lost to coyotes and the other 4 that died when they were still chicks. I am telling you people, i don't care how good the other 4 are going to taste come the Big Day, it has been a hassle and a bother raising these birds.

Shed

The shed is almost completed!  There are more pictures in the slide show on the right, so you can see what the free standing unit itself looks like if you haven't seen it in person.  This is J. finishing up some of the flooring.  It's got a floated bamboo floor, thanks to some overstock from his dad's shop.  Thank you, Wooden Floor Co., Inc!

We've just been pouring all of our spare time into 1) trying to finish the shed and 2) packing up and sifting through all of our stuff.  It's nice to be able to stretch it out and try to organize and get rid of stuff as we go.  We really need to whittle out any excess, so if you need anything at all you might want to ask before you go buy anything...

Jeremy mentioned yesterday that Andy told him there is a 90% chance the short sale will go through.  I guess I just (stupidly) assumed that since it got approved, there was no way it WOULDN'T go through.  Silly me!  I guess either way, we are out in the next two weeks.  There's really no way we can get 95% ready to move and then just unpack and stay here.  It's now or nothing.  Fingers crossed that everything pulls through, though, because I'd really much rather see someone who really wants this place get it instead of having it sit uncared for AND getting slammed with a foreclosure on our record.  We've loved this house, and cared for it and poured a lot of our energy into it for the past few years.  It would be more than a little heart breaking to just see it be one of the thousands that sit empty in this wreck of a market.

A time of excitement, of change, of movement and purging.  Emptying out our old life and jumping into the new.  It feels good to clean out all of this dust and throw away all of this trash.  Let's keep moving!

Exponential Reality

Imagine your life as a math problem. Sometimes you would be living in the world of negatives, sometimes operating in the world of positives and on rare occasion your life would speed up and operate exponentially. Life would speed up and sequence of events would flash before your eyes with speed and tangled beauty.

We have been talking about living in community, talking about sharing a farm and talking about short selling our house since May. We have shared our communal vision with countless people and dreamt about the endless possibilites of an urban farm. The theoretical became the inevitable this week when we found out our short sale went through. A jumbled web of emotions ranging from shear panic and utter delight, to sadness and giddy elation ran through us. The stress and inconvenience of occupying 2 worlds screached to a halt. God's plan is rolling.

So back to the math problem. Life which was already busy burst forth with a new pace. We got to get the hell out of our house in 4 weeks which means 3 weeks to move. On your mark, get set, oh crap we still both have full time jobs. So we sat down with our new family of 6 and made the plans. Mission One- get the turkeys back to the farm. BJ was loving this plan. Turkey poop and cardboard boxes here we come. Mission 2- finish the shed. Mission 3- garage sale, next weekend. Mission 5- clean out 4 years worth of junk. Mission 6-33 Move in 3 weeks.

Reality is in the eye of the beholder.

Now stress is handled in many ways. Drinking exessively, cussing, taking it out on family, throwing chickens, or praying. God has been drafting this multi family farm/community plan for quite some time; ever since BJ and Sarah were 2 days from closing escrow on the wrong house and since Chase lost our refinance paperwork for the 13th time 2 years ago. I am happy to be joining our families together and look forward to a steady stream of possibilities that this community holds. We/I need to remember to breath and enjoy picking up chicken poop and moving boxes. When life becomes exponential it is an exceptional gift to have caring people to help you move turkeys in trash cans and to remind eachother it is OK to BREATH........

Must-read list.

Current read = The Year of the Goat.  Thanks, Tom!  I have really enjoyed this book so far, and for anyone with a little bit of urban farmer in you I would highly recommend it.  A few other books that I've read and REALLY enjoyed over the past few...Let me know how you like 'em!

Thanksgiving!

We now have turkeys in our backyard.  Refer to BJ's first official post below for the rundown.  Anyhow, I got some great pics with Estelle, the bird lady.  They are as big as her, but she has no fear!  On the flip side, Camille will barely even carry the bantams, let alone the full grown chickens.  Estelle single handedly strong-armed all 5 of the turkeys back into the coop today.  She's definitely earning her spot on the farm!

Tureky Chauffeur?

Life on the farm is full of firsts. Many firsts have been with our recent Thanksgiving endeavor involving turkeys. Its hard not to get too attached to these friendly, but extremely dumb, birds. They followed us around when they were small, running with their wings out and tails up. They make noises you only hear when you accidentally flip to the the hunting channel and see a grown man in camouflage with a bright orange hat and vest (defeats the purpose doesn't it) trying to call some wild turkeys by rubbing some sticks together. Most of the time this man seems less than educated and has way too big of a gun for hunting turkeys.

But as friendly as they can be, they are still bound for the dinner table. Which is where the chauffeuring comes in. Up until this weekend the 5 turkeys (we lost 4 as chicks, 2 to coyotes, and 1 to a leg deformity) were living in the chicken coup with all our hens. We decided it was time for a change when we saw a turkey get into a fight with a hen and almost get the whole head of the hen in its mouth. I had to break up the squabble by throwing my shoe at them. The change involved moving out 5 turkeys to Kim and Jeremy's coup in the backyard of their old house, as they are still awaiting short sale approval. Easier said then done. It is hard to find a box big enough and strong enough to hold a full grown turkey, let alone 5 of them. With the aid of a box, a large plastic bin to hold chicken food, and a puppy transport carrier, we managed to get all the birds into the back of the Subaru Outback. A lot of people tease me about my car, but once again the ole' Outback sure came in handy.

The drive started out fine, I had the A/C blasting so they wouldn't bake, I was a little nervous about the one bird in the cardboard box, but I had a pre-formed contingency plan in effect if he were to escape in route. That wasn't my biggest concern. I didn't realize that 2.5 minutes into our drive, each turkey would empty its bowels and continue to do so for the remainder of the 12 minute commute. In a confined space, turkey poop is extremely pungent and nasty The cardboard box soaked through with poop, the inside of the plastic bin was smeared and covered with it, along with the 3 birds inside it and iur white turkey came out a nice tan poopy color. All in all, I don't recommend Turkey Chauffeuring. And in the event you have to do it, make sure you have plenty of air freshener for your car, both for during and after (my car still has a slight smell)