Babies!

Minni the chicken momma, she's a good momma! She sat by the box the whole time they were outside watching them like a hawk!
This was the biggest chick at the time. She is an "Easter Egger". She's got steel blue legs, almost silver-y colored, she will lay green eggs.
Minni again watching her babies.
The chicks enjoyed this time outside VERY MUCH, they ate dirt, grass, bugs that they could catch and were warmed by the midnight sun. They did this funny run when I would bring them outside, with their head down and wings out to the side they ran around like crazy little crack chickens. Oh they were SO CUTE at this age.

You can barley see the one in the corner, she was the smallest one of them all, about the size of a golf ball with legs! We named her Pee Wee she was so cute and everyone wanted to hold her. Eventually she became the same size as the other Rhode Island Reds and we couldn't tell witch one she was anymore.

I miss having baby chicks.

Chicken Eggs!

Here you see two eggs, one light brown one and a green one. The light brown one is JUMBO!

Fresh EGGS! See how big the light brown one is?

Seagull Eggs.

This is how I like my seagull eggs, boiled on some toast. If you haven't eaten them before you probably wont really like them the first time you try them. They are a bit fishy, I LOVE EM!
We got these from Victor and Cathy, THANKS!!! Seagull eggs are collected in the spring, we got these last spring. They made really good omelets and were a good mix in our lunch time top ramen! I will always remember collecting seagull eggs with my cousins Charlotte and Docky, we drove down the coast from camp and filled about four buckets. That was such a fun day. I wish I could just be as carefree as I was when I was that age and subsist with out worrying about work, but we gotta pay the bills somehow.... Maybe my chickens will pay my bills and I can collect seagull eggs and do all that fun stuff, haha.

This is SO BACKWARDS!

I'm so sorry about posting pictures in a backwards order. Maybe some day when I get a nice fast Internet connection I can be a little more in order but until that day comes you all will have to be patient with my postings. :)

Finally some PICTURES!

Calvin cutting wood, John hammering wood. :)

See the big crate in the background? That provided a lot of wood.

My Chickens are Happy Chickens!

I am very proud to say my chickens are happy chickens!

A whole new look on life.

These are the nest boxes that John, Dave and I put together. The bottom box was John's idea, he thought it would give them more of an opportunity to lay in a different place.



The chicken coop is all done and ready for the chickens to be moved in. This day was very exciting. I was so happy to have them out of the back of our house.

Moving the Chicks to the Big House!

Here is Elsa and I moving the chickens to the new coop in a bin, with two covers so I don't commit the same crime of accidentally killing another by way of suffocation. I made Elsa sit in the back of the truck while I moved them over so they didn't try to jump out of the bin. She was a good sport. Thanks Els!

Hurry up and WAIT!

I'm waiting for my sister to get home from bible study so she can take pictures of....



EGGS!


Yeah, my chickens decided to lay some eggs yesterday, 10 to be exact. You have NO idea how excited I was to discover eggs in the nest boxes. It was like a feeling of accomplishment I've never felt before! ha ha. Yeah I'm a dork.


As soon as she gets back from bible study we'll post some pictures of eggs.

I know its a skip from the last post but I've been having problems with my profile on my home computer so I missed all the in between pictures of the chickens. Sorry!

A visit from some fine 'gents!

I wanted to post this picture that Cristian from England took of our family. We got a visit from Huw and Cristian in the fall of this year, they came to take pictures of life above the Arctic Circle. I love this picture.

Coop.

Here's a picture of the coop almost done. It took almost all summer to finish this coop. Calvin and John did all the framing in one day and Calvin left the rest of the work to John. I pretty much had to light a fire under his butt before he finished it. Thank you babe!! You make a good chicken coop builder!

Thanks to my Uncle David for putting up the insulation, that was one of the hardest things to do, since you get so itchy and everything....


Again, THANK YOU JOHN! I greatly appreciate the work you've done to make my dream chicken coop. :)


ps, the wood by the coop wasn't mine, our new neighbors built a house. :)

Chicks!

This was the only white chick, I thought maybe it would get picked on but she ended up okay.

When I first got the chicks I put them in a plastic tote, until I went to the grocery store to get a box. The boxes worked out very well, the potty pads I used for the bottom worked well but I wished I would have tried pine shavings when they were that little because pine shavings work SO MUCH BETTER! Here are some pictures for you to enjoy. The chicks were so dang cute!

Minni-Girl the Greatest Chicken Momma!

Minni the CHICKEN MOMMA!

These are my babies, in a box!?

One, Two, Three, Four, Five, wait... didn't I just count you? Sit still so I can count!

Here she is checking out a baby chick. She was so interested in them when I got them in from the post office. She never once did nip at them or paw at them (until they got bigger than her). When they were babies she acted like their mom, sleeping by the box, whining when they were chirping away, and checking on them frequently.

They are SO FUZZY AND CUTE!!!

Wow, I seriously didnt know that chickens were SO CUTE when they were little.

Here's the little box the chicks came in.

I ordered 7 Americana/Arcana Chicks that lay "Easter Egg" eggs, they're any shade of green and blue, very pretty eggs. These chickens are very good for cold weather as their comb's are "rose combs".

I also got 7 Rhode Island Red's. These lay brown eggs, and are very good layers, not broody (hopefully) and pretty forgiving of cold weather.

I wanted to try something different so I got two Black Sex Link chick's they are bred just to tell if they are male or female when they hatch. They also lay pretty brown eggs. They are also pretty heavy and have good feed to waste ratio. :)

Baby Chicks!

So my baby chicks came in July, I ordered them from Triple D Farms in Palmer/Wasilla AK. I ordered them a little early because I wanted to have them before I went to WEIO with my cousins.

The post office waited until 11am to call me about the baby chicks and I was so mad. When I got to the post office the guy at the counter said "there was no phone number on the box" I looked at the box and my phone number was literally written FOUR TIMES on the box. Well they all got here okay, but were starving and thirsty little birds. Minni took to them like babies it was quite entertaining.

Playing Catch Up Today

I'm so sorry I havent posted in a long time but we finally got a good internet connection so I'm going to play catch up today. Thank you for being patient with me!

Happy Almost 4th of July!

Okay, this past week I took a few days off and went to Anchorage, Chickaloon, Bethel, then Fishcamp! It was great. I have some pictures but yes I have yet again neglected to put them on my computer. I swear I need a laptop just for this use only! Anyway, we got some kings, and I was on my merry way back to Kotzebue. I landed in Anchorage and Sonnie picked Clara and I up and we headed to Alaska Mill and Feed to see if they in deed have feeders that I needed to complete my entire stock of stuff I need for the chicks. Yes, they did! We were there on my way to Bethel but the girl I asked was a little confused, maybe stoned, I don't know, and she told me that the baby chick stuff would be with the regular bird feeders that they have in this fancy room... uh, no! Anyway, we didn't have much time to look around and Sonnie and Troy and Tahlia in the car so I didn't want to keep her waiting for fear of her sanity going out the window so I just said F(&^ it. :) Then I went back and found them myself. So I am fully stocked up, I have 100 lbs of feed, 60+ pounds of hay, feeders, waterers, a heat lamp, a red 100 watt bulb, and a thermometer. :) The only thing I do need is the rest of my coop to be built, I think I'll bug Calvin this week about it. I just need some vent holes and misc. stuff like that done to it, otherwise I'm cocked and ready to pull the trigger on this chicken deal. haha. I might ask Cal if he would build me a little barrier box for when the chicks are little, so they don't go wandering around the coop, they will just be stuck in one spot until they can keep their own temp. Well, I'm off to do some more prep for my 4th of July booth. Come on over and let your kid win a fish. :) I'm SO excited for tomorrow, yeeeah...... right. :)

Give him wood, he will build!

Is that how that saying goes? I cant remember. Anyway, on Saturday June 20th Calvin and Sonia called at about 10am to tell us they were going to get ready to head over to my parents house to start the building of my coop! How exciting! John and I went over there and the guys started to take apart crates, put together 2x4's and next thing you knew, we had a floor, walls and a roof! Some issues have arise since that day, like when it rains or is windy the satellite dish doesn't get a good reception (as soon as I can post pictures you will understand what I'm talking about) so we're going to have to move it a little over. HOPEFULLY Eviky, and some of her guys can move it over a bit. Anyway nothing else new going on here. I ha vent heard back from NWAB, so I think I will call them this week... Also, I ordered my chickens from Triple D Farms in Palmer, to arrive the week of the 13th thru the 17th of July. I'll be done by then... :) Happy Hump Day!

multi-tasker extrodinaire

I'm at work (SHHHH) but I am working. I'm also blogging. I shouldn't be but whatever. I wish my camera was with me earlier when I went to my Ahnna's because the ice in front of town is amazing. Not that I've seen it every single year I've lived here but when you are growing up its not as interesting as when you're old enough to stop and listen... Anyway I just wanted to drop in a little note, no wood yet... still waiting. Also, I found some cool things on AlaskaList.com... I think that's what the website is, anyway its like craigslist, but maybe better! :) Look under the farming section, I found some neat stuff. :)

Be Patient Grasshopper!

Half the problem of living in the arctic is having to wait a long time for things... Things like more wood, insulation, an answer from a grant opp, some feed, some pine shavings, mason jar feeders.... stuff like that! I'm waiting very patiently and I think I should be awarded for it! Snail mail sucks.

On the other hand, I went to check out some prices in Anchorage for a few things I needed and boy do the prices get slashed in Anchorage. WOW I mean to the point of wanting to move... well not really, but really.

By the way I should also receive an award for "Best Duck Auntie" since my little sister wasn't competent in in duck babysitting. I saved them from their own crap, literally. I should also say that a petition has been started (not really but it should be) for my sister Maija to GET RID of her yellow lab, Shockie. I know she's cute but she's become good-for-nothing and a liability, so in the words of my most wisdom father: "if it is good-for-nothing, get rid of it goddamnit!!!"

Here is where I stand, hammer in hand!

Well; maybe not, yet! Calvin and I had a session brainstorming the other night of chicken coop designs and how big it will be and all that fun stuff.... I got my zoning paperwork to turn in tomorrow along with the measly 10 dollar fee for the building permit from the City of Kotzebue. What a rip! haha. I collected more wood also, mostly drift wood for perches for the brooders. (and I will come get that crate from by the teachers housing, from by!) I have counted enough ply-wood to construct it.


I also have registered with the FDA for the refrigerator. Ask me how funny it is that we have to do that... anyway I've been looking for a "dorm room" refrigerator on craigslist, my most favoritest place to pass time at work (ssshhhh!). I'm getting excited, even though the chickens wont start laying until at least October at this rate... we'll see, maybe I'll encourage them to lay earlier than 22 weeks. :)


Sorry I don't have ANY pictures on this blog yet, I finally found my camera's battery charger cord, so my battery is happily charging away right now. I will be in Seattle all week next week for work so I don't think I will blog then, I might. We shall see. :)

Are you going to throw that ply-wood away?

So it seems like everyone is working on something outside this spring. I keep driving to and from work and keeping my eyes peeled for some good ply-wood or anything I can use for my chicken coop. I've done a lot of research for this and seem to have full confidence in myself that this is going to work. We'll be eating a lot of chicken if it doesn't work out. :)


My friend Charity told me that chickens are like pigs, they'll eat anything and they are messy. She also told me that as long as they have water, so they don't get dehydrated they'll live thru the winter. I think that's two of the best pieces of advice I've gotten so far. She herself has a few chickens that she regularly gets eggs from and they live in her back yard coop. I haven't seen it but if they live in it all winter I imagine its a good one.


I've been procrastinating on asking a few community members about their wood piles for the past couple of weeks. So on Tuesday among doing other things on my only day off I plan to call around town to various house holds to ask what they are going to do with their wood. I think its silly to be asking around but if it is going to go to waste or in a fire and its worth taking to my parents house (where the coop is going to be located) then it is worth the embarrassment to ask around. I've seen some nice wood piles and if I had a crew of about 10 people and a nice big truck I could have gotten a bunch of wood, of course in the darkness of the night... only a couple hours a night now and disappearing fast.

I also applied for a grant at our local borough for small business'. I hope I get it. I should hear back from them this week. Cross your fingers for me as I could use that money for a feed I plan to stock up on and the chickens themselves. Back to reality. :)

Tundra Chicks, ptarmigan?

"Aren't tundra chicks; ptarmigan?" No, I answered. Tundra chickens are, not tundra chicks! :) So is the name of my Chicken Coop, Tundra Chicks. I came up with the name one morning laying around my house with my dog, it was sunny and she was eating nuvivaks (flys) off the window. I wanted to have a good name for my Chickens to be known as, and I think Tundra Chicks does the job.

It all started with one fresh egg. My dad had talked to me about a person who he doesn't really know but has chickens that lay these cool different colored eggs and Red the post man gives him a dozen here and there... I asked about the chickens and my dad didn't give me an answer that I was happy with so I googled it. :) I came up with a plethora of answers, chickens laying all colors of eggs at all seasons of the year.

I never had a chicken in my life but as my parents know me to be I probably could have kept it well and for years longer than the guesstimated life span. I am an animal person, someone who animals just are a magnet to and I am to them. I've been up to my arm pits in dog shit my whole life, literally. I remember walking around my grandparents dog yard in Sisaulik with puppies in my atiqluk pockets and bottles made for the puppies out of old Tylenol bottles, the ones with the droppers. A huge influence on my love of animals was my Ahna, who was always yelling at the dogs but loved them dearly. She would sit in the evening with her dog Pinky in the sunset and smell of the ocean and talk her about her day and what she did, what Doc (her husband and my grandfather) came home with to cut up or to cook that day. I think when I saw that growing up I wanted to be that person, and older native lady, no white hair, sitting on the porch of her old falling apart house 12 miles from any kind of civilization, talking to a dog and being totally content with that.

Of course the love of Dogs wont equal the love that Chickens give or receive. You can pet a dog and hold it in your lap while it contently sits there with eyes closing and nodding off. Chickens on the other had aren't as lovable but I think I can handle that. :)

So I came up with I think is a great idea, why not have a chicken coop that produces eggs all year round for the residents of Kotzebue? I could maybe make a few bucks, of course after paying off all the feed and little pooper scoopers I plan on hiring. I can also and more importantly give the chance to the residents of Kotzebue to eat a fresh egg. I can tell you the first time I ate a fresh egg and what I thought of it but its boring and nobody really cares... haha. All I can say is that it is much better than what AC has to offer.

I started just asking around town about left over building supplies and I picked up some great crates from Sandy Huss, whom I am indebted to some fresh eggs when the chickens do start laying. I also picked up some random pieces off the road and here and there. I think I have acquired enough to build a 8x8x8 coop. I might change it to 8x8x6 just for some insulation reasons but I think I can pull off what I originally want. So this is where I stand, crates in front of my parents house, no chickens yet, and waiting on Calvin and Sonia to come home to tell me how much more wood I need...