A Chicken Walkabout

When Farmer Jeff said to me, "Be careful of what you dream, it could come true...", I froze in my tracks. Uh oh...what do you mean, I asked.

I looked in the same direction he was looking and my heart alternately jumped and sank. The chickens were out of the pen and wandering through the yard, and luckily, the dogs were locked up in the pen. WHEW. I didn't need another dead chicken or 10. Once I realized they were safe, I was REALLY happy!

Ever since we have had the chickens, I have wished that they could freely wander where ever they wished. With the dogs, that didn't seem like it would be possible. I happen to agree with my friend that said she never had pets on the same food chain. I kinda like that. Makes sense to me!

However, I do have dogs and chickens, so I follow the other adage, "Good fences ...keep chickens alive...". Well...you get what I mean!

We have actually let the chickens out 3 times now for several hours at a time. They have helped us by both weeding and fertilizing to garden. I just have to make sure they don't make it to the tomatoes!

I had to laugh. A couple of them started following me up the path towards the house, following just like the dogs!

Tyner, the hen with the scissor beak, is out of her baby bird food. (You might recall that for the last 2 years I daily feed Tyner a mash of baby bird food.) We ran out last night and I usually buy it in the town 1/2 hour south of us. With gas prices being what they are along with close to 100 degree heat today, I wasn't about to make that drive. I drove to the closest feed store and they had just run out. I drove to the town south of us and BOTH of the pet stores there have gone out of business! Sad to see that...

Once I realized that her special food was not going to be found, my ingenuity went to work. I went out to the coop, got a scoop of the regular feed pellets that she can't pick up in her beak, and ground it up in my coffee grinder! (Note to self: REALLY clean out the grinder before grinding coffee!)

I don't think she liked it quite as much as the gourmet stuff, but she did eat and I found a way to save some money. Works for me!

Upcycling and Recycling

"Upcycling is the practice of taking something that is disposable and transforming it into something of greater use and value." The term upcycling was coined by William McDonough and Michael Braungart, authors of Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things .

Until I spoke with some women from San Francisco that were in the recycling business I had no idea that a word had been coined to explain this age old practice. Isn't that what quilts were traditionally made from, "post-consumer" clothing?

I have stepped into the special world of upcycling by creating shopping bags from our chicken feed bags! I have envisioned using these for close to a year and finally just said, oh what the heck, and made the darn thing.

I hate to say it, but I am so tickled with myself and so JAZZED over the final result, the bag, that now I am trying to figure out how many of these sacks I have stashed by the chicken coop! I think we have saved something like 30 of these bags. I will need to wash the ones that have been out in the rain and elements, oh...and find the time to sew them!

In the meantime I am trying to figure out where I can get hold of cheap black webbing for the straps. I would like to use 1 inch or 1 1/2 inch thin nylon webbing. I just bought the sample webbing at my local fabric store, but I would like to find it for cheaper than $1 a yard.

I need to time myself in making the bags to figure out what to charge for them. They are really basic: no pockets/buttons/cell phone holders. In other words, a bag! Thoughts?

I am still making my sustainable sacks. Currently they are for sale at The Cheese Shop in Healdsburg. Once the Farmer's Market on Thursday night in Windsor begins, I will be selling them there, too! I think there is a market for the both of them. Besides, I have way too much fabric that needs to be used!