Having a small backyard flock of urban chickens seems like such a normal, everyday thing for me now that I haven’t really posted a lot about “the girls”. But some of my readers have asked that I share more stories on the blog about the latest chic news. Now that I think of it, there is usually some funny urban chicken musing I have to
And the Winner Is…
RED!!! We let out a huge sigh of relief when we saw the first coat of red go on – it was exactly what we were hoping for. And it was the color with the biggest votes on this blog! Thanks everyone for your input. Little by little, we are leaving our thumb print on this house of ours. This fall we are planning to
Little Farms That Could
I heard a sad statistic on NPR the other day that of all the farmers markets popping up across the nation each year, only half actually succeed after the first few years. Those that make it become incredibly successful, but still many aren’t getting to that point. Portland has many examples of the success stories: Wednesday downtown at the Park blocks, Thursdays in the Pearl
How to Build Rain Barrels
Are you ready for your mind to be blown my friend? Get ready, cause here it comes. I built rain barrels! Actually I built four of them and it was so easy to do! I actually spent more time in the hardware store buying the supplies than I actually spent putting everything together. I would say it took about 30 minutes per barrel, plus the
Calling All Portland Bloggers
My sister sent me this in an email and I’m intrigued. Since many of the readers here have their own blogs, are living in Portland, are to some degree interested in gardening, or any combination thereof… maybe you should consider this as well? Click this HERE to go to their site and see all the details. I am thinking about applying, but not quite sure.
The End of a Muddy Era
I’ve been a member of a wonderful little art studio space for about 3 years now called Radius Studio. My discovery of the studio had perfect timing – Jay and I just returned from a year living in Barcelona, I was looking around for new friends/hobbies, and this studio popped up just a block away. I have long adored ceramics, gently packing them back from
Garden Art Inspiration
My favorite gardeners in Portland are ones that can just shove plants in the ground without worry and turn random objects into garden art. My Aunt Teri seems to have that knack. She’s not slaving away outside, yet her backyard has this English cottage feel where everything thrives in this simply elegant way. She also has a knack for finding little treasures at estate sales
A Lighter Shade of Green
The New York Times had an excellent article a week ago Sunday (7/8) that I have to share called “Buying Into the Green Movement”. We all know the good ol’ recycling phrase “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”, but rarely does modern America adopt that first part of the phrase into daily habit. Most of us are aware that going Green is becoming just as much of a
Highs and Lows
The budding urban food forest has a recent success: the fig tree is alive! In case you missed the earlier post, we transplanted a 15+ foot fig tree into our backyard in early June. Not a great time to transplant a fruit tree, and the fig was none too pleased with us. However, we kept at it by burying a thick layer of mulch on