A chicken got loose again yesterday evening.  I don’t know what happened, except I came back there to get my potato fork and one of the chickens was on the other side of the fence.  It wasn’t happy to be there as it was scrambling around trying to get back, and it’s friend was frantic on the coop side of the fence.  I chased it for a while and then got Rachael to help me chase it down.  Eventually we had 2 adults and 3 kids chasing it and we cornered it against a fence and snagged it.  We trimmed their wings so they shouldn’t be popping over the fence anymore.  Chicken wrangling is an adventure!  Those things are darn fast, and quick.  Now I know why Mick told Rocky to chase the chicken around when he was training for Creed.

A lot of commenters were talking about cabbage and how to prepare it.  My big concern with cabbage is that I went to my go to method of preparation that makes about every type of vegetable go down (stir fry) and it was rejected. In fact, he rejected the fresh peas that were in there as well. (I think they needed to cook longer and be a little more soft)  So if that failed I’m concerned.  I’m going to give this recipe a try and we’ll see how it turns out.

The Veggie Man:  In the post yesterday I mentioned that I was working with some local CSAs to distribute excess vegetables to some food kitchens.  I did my first run tonight.  The farm is fairly close to town, maybe 10 miles or so.  I drove out there and she gave me 46 lbs of broccoli, 20 lbs of lettuce, a bag of beets, 21 lbs of shell peas, 13 lbs of snap peas and 32 lbs of snow peas.  I’m pretty excited about this endeavor.  Before she would compost this excess, not it’s going to people.  Once I get a schedule down and find another driver or two we’ll be able to get some serious local, organic food to the food banks.  She thought she would have enough for me to pick up twice a week until early October.  Rock!  And that is just this one CSA, I have one other to work with (who has expressed interest) and also one on the north side of town that I haven’t contacted yet.

I’m adding a tab to the storing/harvesting tab above to track this.

It’s sweet corn season here and it’s just glorious! Coming up on muskmelon time too!

Plant something: Started some of the long maturing cool weather crops. Broccoli, brussel sprouts, carrots & chicory. I’ve got a lot more to put in over the next few weeks. Planted some potatoes that were sprouting in the kitchen cabinet in the ground, which I’m sure they appreciate.

Harvest something: I dug up my carrots (they were puny little things), some fingerling potatoes (also puny but probably picked too early), garlic (47 heads), cabbage, broccoli, swiss chard, an onion and some sungold tomatoes.

Preserve something: Froze some kale, spinach and broccoli. Bought some chickens for the freezer.

Prep something: I built another 6×12 bed which is part of my garden beds that are due for cold frame conversion this fall. Cleared out a bunch of volunteer plants to make room for fall plants in the existing beds.

Cook something new: I tried cooking cabbage this week in a stir fry. It was picked out. I’ve never cooked with cabbage before so if you have any recipes send them over. I’m not a sauerkraut or kimchi fan though Sharon so you can just keep those! ;-)  My cabbages were in a bed that must have been poor soil because they are pretty small too.  I was thinking maybe cabbage rolls?

I’ve tried some other recipes too, but I can’t remember them. Mostly they are variations of similar recipes so that doesn’t really count.

My MIL bought me an electric rotiessirie last year sometime which I finally tried last Sunday. I put it outside on the patio and stuck the chicken in and let it go. All the heat was outside which was just fine with me. It wasn’t something new, but it was a new way to cook it, using this Goodwill find. I liked it very much. Sunday night chicken might be back in style in this family!

Manage your resources: Chili mentioned how she used the jar sealer on her Foodsaver to dry seal some storage items. It sounded good so I tried it. It was hit or miss. Some jars would seal, and some wouldn’t. Either way, at least I finally vaccum sealed up the rice and beans in the basement. Well, most of them. That’s all I’ve done, except stock up a little each week.

Local food systems: Well 2 local CSAs have surplus produce so I’ve volunteers to be it’s chauffeur to some local food kitchens and deliver it for use. I don’t think I’m developing any food systems, simply helping this nice, local, organic produce not go to waste.

I got the chickens too so I’m assisting in changing the mindsets of what’s acceptable in an urban setting.

Reduce waste: See above. That’s about all.

Learn a new skill: I got a pellet gun to remove the rabbit problem from the garden. I guess I’m learning how to hunt, sort of. This should be interesting.

On the chickens: Why doesn’t everyone have chickens? They take like no time to take care of. Maybe 15 minutes a day. And they are fun to watch. I like how they walk around and CHIRP! at things. They do dig some watermelon rinds though. I need a couple more I think…

This is a very interesting picture. I got this from here. Click the picture for a bigger image.

Check out this article from Charles Hugh Smith.  (Look for the blog entry with the title the same as mine)  It’s good stuff.  Tough action will be needed in our future if we’re going to fix this debt problem our whole country is in.

Our government should be ashamed of themselves for all the two faced talk they’ve been giving lately.  Paulson says that institutions will need to fail, and then they bail out Fannie and Freddie (sort of, $15B doesn’t go far when a company has debt like they do) so that institutional investors (read, foreign governments, PIMCO, etc) can all get rich, or at least maintain what they have.

In a capitalist economy when a business fails it fails, and the investors lose money.  What we have in this country is some kind of hybrid where the owners make money when times are good but when they are bad the downside is pushed onto taxpayers, if the business is deemed important to the greater good.  The bad thing is that these businesses are historically reckless because of this potential bailout.  There is also a sort of short term mentality with these large corporations.  The managers know that they need to get their cash while they can, screw what happens 5 years after they leave their office.  It’s a messed up incentive pool.

The article sums up a lot of the crap that’s gone on that no one hears about on CNN or ABC.

OK, there’s been some questions about the chickens, mostly from Wendy.

There are two chickens. (Important to start small I’d say, although my wife were discussing 2 or 3 for a long, long time) I have no idea what kind they are. My friend stole them from her dad’s flock of 50-60 birds. They were just hatched about 6 weeks ago. As you can tell they are brown and white. And we are fairly sure they are both girls. If one or both isn’t we’ll trade them in.

No names yet because the kids haven’t had time to name them yet, but they are excited to name them. I was trying for a variety of names. Kentucky for one and Fried for the other. Foghorn Leghorn is a possibility, but there’s trouble since they are both girls.

The chickens are solely for eggs.

I have some observations.

They are very skittish. This could be because they are new, I’m not sure. They are certainly, um, chicken of me. he he

I’m amazed at the amount of poo that comes out of them. And we already have a ton of flies back there, and it’s only been two days! If anyone has any tips on this I’m all ears. I’m using shredded paper in the coop for bedding (the advantage of an office job is a ton of shredded paper) and eventually the run will be lined with either straw, leaves or grass clippings, depending on what time of year it is.

I’ve been trying to bribe them with lettuce and such to get them closer to me. They aren’t taking. Anyone know of any good treats for them?

They seem to like their coop, which is good, but I’d like them to forage a little more. My friend says they won’t eat the creeping charlie, but I’ve seen them chomp it so we’ll have to see what happens there.

I was having a problem with the paper getting in the water dish, but I hung it from the ceiling tonight, so hopefully that problem is solved.

I love them already. When I go back there they scoot around and they make cool sounds.

We had our first escape attempt yesterday. Our dog busted through/under the door to the chicken run (admittedly it’s not very sturdy) and was going after them when I made her “you’re being naughty” noise. (it sounds like the horn of a Renault) She hit the brakes and hit the ground and got totally submissive. (why you take them to obidience school) But in the meantime one chicken flew up to the fence post and then jumped down to the neighbor’s yard. I hopped the fence and with my wife’s help we corraled it back over the fence. We didn’t look too silly chasing it around. The other one landed in the potato patch and it was trapped by the fencing so I just put it right back in.

Needless to say the dog is escorted out for now and I’ll be upgrading the door shortly.

Chronicling Obama’s march to the right. I’ve been noticing that he gets progressively more centric and closer to the right every week. I wonder if he thinks no one will notice? Maybe no one will notice? So many people are in love with him that I don’t think many will notice. I liked the guy while he was campaigning for the Democratic ticket, but now that he’s starting to change and wear the same spots as all other politicians I might be through with him.

IndyMac bank blows up. 2nd biggest failure ever. Not counting Bear Sterns, etc of course.

The Greatest Transfer of Wealth in History.  (Scroll down until you see this title in a post title)

The story of the Nigerian Delta, and it’s oil riches.

Interesting story of a soldier becoming a farmer.

My mom sent this to me. It’s a pretty bad one, I warn you.

An elementary school class started a class project to make planters to take home to their parents.

They wanted to have a plant in it that was easy to take care of, so they decided to use cactus plants.

The students were given green-ware pottery planters in the shape of clowns which they painted with glaze.

The clown planters were professionally fired at a class outing so they could see the process.

It was great fun!
They planted cactus seeds in the finished planters and they grew nicely, but unfortunately, the children were not allowed to take them home.

The cactus plants were removed and small ivy r eplaced them and the children were then allowed to take them home instead.

The teacher said cactus seemed like a good idea at the time!

Hey now, we need some privacy

This creeping charlie is damn tasty

I know you're excited we're here Matt, but we're still kind of skittish.

Um, the chicken are here.

I’ll tell you, I’ve seen a ton of great stories lately, which is why I’m sharing them with you. Most come from a Daily News e-mail I get. Let me know if you want info to sign up for it.

A NYTimes story about a potential intervention of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Interesting discussion about how Washington and Wall Street set up this financial crash.

Vanity Fair article about the crash of Bear Stearns.

Story about demand for wood stoves, and the upcoming high cost of winter heating.

Story about suburbs feeling the pinch of high gas prices. If you haven’t see the movie “End of Suburbia”, this is sort of a written account of the death of suburbs, like the movie.

Story about CSAs.

How to get cheaper oil.

Similarities between 1929 and 2008.

Animals back in vogue now on farms.

If you want to avoid foreclosure, just ask them to bring the true note to court. A lot of lenders can’t do that.

Something does smell bad about a hunger summit featuring meals like this.