Happy Easter 2016

Happy Easter!

Of course I saw this video on Colossal.com, where I find everything cool. The video is from Jiri Zemanek, check it out, it's a lot of fun!

Egg courtesy of Babs

So this month has been a bit crazy, and I realized just how crazy when I looked and saw that my last post was over a month ago. By this time next week I will be in a new home. Still renting; the house is not new, but it's new to me.

My sister in law messaged me on a Tuesday asking if I could be home to show the house to three realtors on Saturday, and it's been a whirlwind ever since. It's been a bumpy ride, and I was originally under the gun to get things ready for an open house on the 26th, but thankfully due to circumstances with things that had to be repaired before it could be shown, all of that will be happening in April.

The biggest surprise was that I was able to find a place to move to fairly quickly, and I can have the cats. HUGE thanks go to my boss Kelly for helping me find it. It was probably a good thing that I made a big push at the beginning of the month to get things packed and into a storage unit and out of the house so I am not doing all of it at once.

I am doing better than I thought at looking forward and not looking back too much. For as many things that frustrated me here over the years, there are still things I liked about this house. There are pros and cons to everything it seems like, but I am going to make the best of it.

I am going to miss the hens from next door. It was really funny - Friday when I came home from work I found an egg on the front porch. I took it over to Teggart and we were pretty sure it was from Babs, the little Bantam, and my favorite. He gave me an egg from one of the other hens, and I made an omelette for breakfast yesterday. Then in the afternoon she laid another one on my porch! It was just as perfect and small as the first one, so I knew for sure it was her.

Breakfast!

The other funny thing from this weekend was yesterday morning when my friend Jo and I came back from taking a load out to the new place and saw this garage sale sign taped to the light post across from Haggen on Meridian. It reads "Our crap, could be your crap!" Jo spotted it first, and we both cracked up! Big thanks go to Jo for emailing me two Saturday's in a row asking if I wanted some help, because I still feel too guilty and awkward asking for it.

Our crap, could be your crap!

I always knew I had a lot of stuff, but having to pack it up and move it just confirms it! So this next week is going to be crazy, and by the end of the day next Sunday I should be completely out of the house on Queen St. and into the new place. Hopefully it won't be another month before I post again, but I know I will be busy unpacking and figuring out where everything goes!

The Girls

I've been meaning to write a post about my neighbors chickens ever since last summer; it only took me 7 months.......

My late neighbor Dave's house was bought by a young guy named Teggart in the summer of 2014, and his girlfriend Morgan moved in within 6 months, and they became urban farmers. They originally had over a dozen chickens, and that included what turned out to be two roosters. One of the roosters was a big fellow, who as the summer progressed, found his voice. Now I didn't actually mind too much, I do however acknowledge that I might have felt differently if he had been doing his thing from the start of the summer and I woke up to that before my alarm clock every day. Apparently there were some neighbors who didn't appreciate it, and eventually they were forced by animal control to find both roosters a new home.

Babs

So since late September, it's just been The Girls. I've named some of them after one of my favorite movies, Chicken Run (from the makers of Wallace & Gromit). Even though she technically doesn't look like the chicken Babs from the movie, I've named the little Bantam Babs; she is my absolute favorite. 

There are three yellow hens, and I call them The Three Gingers, or Tres Gingers, because I'm not that creative, and they are all ginger colored. I've covered my bases with that one. They also remind me of the main character Ginger in the movie, because she was always trying to escape, and two of the three gingers are the first ones to get out of their pen every day.

The Three Gingers or Tres Gingers

There is one I want to call Rocky, even though in the movie Rocky was a rooster (voiced by Mel Gibson), because she will fly over their fence to get out. I have yet to capture this on video, but she cracks me up every time. Most of them are actually pretty entertaining to see how the both get in and out of the pen. To get out they will scramble up the side of the coop and then fly out. To get in at night, they will get on the edge of Teggart & Morgan's front porch and fly into the pen and land on the top of the coop. The last stage will be a short flight down to the ground.

My cats don't bother them, most of the time they are curious, but keep their distance. The girls also like to come up on my porch too, and thankfully have not left too much of a mess in their wake. I am definitely going to miss them when I have to move. They are starting to respond to my voice and will come running when I am putting food out in the bird feeder and I will toss some on the ground just for them. They were also treated to some of the apples and Italian Plums from the trees in the backyard last summer. So there we are, a short story about my neighbors free range chickens. 

Babs & Munchkin

Jingle Bell Run 2015

For the first time I participated in the Jingle Bell Run here in Bellingham. I walked it - 3 miles in 58 minutes & 55 seconds.

Of course the weather was crappy but I did the whole course and was soaked to the skin by the end. I have blisters on the bottom of both feet. But hey, now I know what to wear if I do it again next year! To greet me both coming and going was Ginger, one of the chickens from next door.