The Chicks: 1 Week Old

The girls are now one week old, with the exception of Bethula who is a day behind her sisters. They're thriving, full of energy, and each have a VERY different personality. It is fun to get to know the uniqueness of each chick.

Blanche is by far the feistiest and is ruling this roost! I'm sure that will continue as they grow. She is already able to fly out of the brooder and is the largest of the four.

Delaney is very calm and mellow. She and Bethula are small and more docile.

Bethula has yet to be formally introduced on the blog. She arrived a day after the others and has beautiful coloring. She is a great addition to the crew.

Amelia has quite a personality and will give Blanche a run for her money in terms of dominance. She is currently trying to fly out of the brooder as well, but she isn't having any success yet.

Here are all the girls together in their brooder. They enjoy taking a nice, long nap under the heat lamp. They're getting bigger by the day!

The Girls Arrive

Since marrying Cliff, I've never lived with girls. In fact, we've brought two more boys (dogs that is) into this small home of ours. Today that all changed...girls became the majority in the Ellis home.

We now have three lovely chicks who will become hens! Well, we hope they'll be hens. We'll see if the feed supply store where we bought them made any errors in the next few weeks.

We welcomed Delaney, Blanche, and Amelia into our home this afternoon. I picked them up from Portage Bay Grange after work today. I wanted different breeds, so that we could really appreciate their different personalities, egg shell colors, and unique looks. When choosing the breeds, we looked for cold hardy birds who have high egg production and who are also known to have docile personalities. I figured they needed to put up with two crazy dogs, so docile would be important! I ended up selecting one of each - Rhode Island Red, Light Brahma, and Golden Sex-Link.

I am going to get an Ameracauna in the next few days. They are very popular breed known for their beautiful colored eggs, so they're harder to find! Her name will be Bethula Jo once she joins the crew.

This is Delaney Elizabeth. She's a Light Brahma:










This is Blanche Katherine. She's a Golden Sex-Link:










This is Amelia Estelle. She's a Rhode Island Red:










We borrowed a brooder from our friend Sarah (my chicken buddy) that the chicks will live in for about 8 weeks. The brooder will stay in our guest room until about May when they'll transition slowly out to their coop.

Come over and meet these sweet girls anytime! We'll keep the pictures coming so you can see how much they grow and change.

Raising the Roof

Coop construction continued this week after we got back from Mark and Michelle's wedding in Kentucky. We've had a few nice days of weather, and with daylight savings finally starting to payoff, I've been able to grab a few hours here and there in the mornings and evenings to continue working.

This morning, I made another trip to Home Depot (I should seriously consider buying stock) for some roofing material, hinges, and other odds and ends. This evening, I was able to attach the roof, which I framed on Monday. I still need to attach the metal roofing, but it was fun to see what it'll eventually look like.

wood frame for roof

metal roofing

my two helpers

Spring

I'm so thankful for the sunshine and the way all of our plants are starting to shoot little green sprouts from beneath the dead debris. I hadn't realized how ready for spring I was until I came home from work on Monday and planted dahlias, cut back my rose bushes, and saw my Hellebore blooming in the backyard. Spring is certainly upon us!

I am extremely excited for all that this spring and summer hold. We're adding chickens to our urban garden as well as continuing to improve and learn how to make our vegetable garden even more productive. In addition to what we've grow in the past we'll be adding: rhubarb, butternut squash, pickling cucumbers, and tomatillos.

I'm anxiously awaiting the first lettuce greens, the crisp red radishes, and the gallons of blueberries we hope to harvest again this year.

Wedding Bells

We had the pleasure of celebrating Mark and Michelle's wedding on Saturday, March 19. What a joy it was to see the two of them get married and commit to spending their lives together. We are so excited to not only have a new sister, but to have a niece, Taylor! She is eight and a complete joy. It was such fun to get to know Michelle's family, meet some of Mark and Michelle's friends, and spend time with the whole Ellis crew.

Here are just a few pictures from the celebration. We're so thankful for the blessing of Michelle and Taylor.

Green Clean

We recently had a good friend jokingly tell us we are turning into West Seattle hippies...I think she might be right. Well, not really about being hippies, but we are becoming more and more aware of the environment and what we can do to be better stewards of the earth God blessed us with. That's why we've become interested in gardening and growing our own vegetables, raising chickens, and I've recently started making my own cleaning products.

I'm certainly not planning to preach at anyone, but I was pretty amazed to learn how many hazardous chemicals I was using in our home and how easy (and cheap!) it is to use less hazardous products. I was really surprised to learn how few regulations there are around household cleaning products and how many of them are highly toxic.

In making this transition to green cleaners, I'm not planning to throw away the cleaners I already have, but to use them up and not replace them. I've found a number of books at the library full of recipes for all-purpose cleaners, laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, and more. It is kind of like the real food movement, which is all about eating like our grandparents ate. In thinking about "green clean" it is really about cleaning like our grandparents cleaned.

A couple of resources that have been very helpful for me are:

• The West Seattle blog did an article on a local group that had a make your own cleaning products class. Click HERE to read the article and have access to their recipes.
• Keeper of the Home: Non Toxic Cleaners You Can Make at Home
• I also checked out a few books from the library. One that was quite helpful was: Do It Gorgeously: How to Make Less Toxic, Less Expensive, and More Beautiful Products

I'm just starting slowly, but am intrigued at how easy it is to make these products and how well they work. The dishwasher detergent is so inexpensive and works so well! Give it a try. Let me know what you think!

Pastor Cliff [video]

The video from this past Sunday is now online. Check it out.

Starting Seeds

Surprisingly amidst coop construction, unbelievable rain, and typical weekend busyness, I was able to get our first round of seeds planted on Saturday. It felt so good to be back out working in the yard and covered in dirt. As Cliff was building the coop for the chickens we're getting at the end of the month, I amended our raised veggie beds by adding fertilizer and compost. Then I sectioned the beds into square feet and planted kale, lettuce, spinach, sugar snap peas, beets, and swiss chard.

I'm excited to see the seeds begin to sprout!

Pastor Cliff

By God's grace, Cliff officially became a pastor at Mars Hill Church today. Standing on the stage next to him as some of the other pastors prayed over us and officially called him pastor for the first time was a humbling and amazing experience.

Over the last few weeks, as I knew this day was approaching, I've been reflecting on the last eleven years of our relationship, recalling that we met during our senior year of high school when he wasn't a Christian to seeing him saved by Jesus and begin to walk in faith as a freshman in college. Since then, we've been blessed by Christian community and godly men who have loved and discipled Cliff along the way and continue to do so. It has been a great joy to see the way God has given Cliff a new heart and used it for His glory.

In the next few weeks, Cliff will transition from his role at the Mars Hill Ballard campus to be the Pastor of Biblical Living at the Mars Hill West Seattle campus. We are so humbled and amazed by God's work in our lives - drawing us to Seattle, burdening us for the neighborhood of West Seattle, and finally making a way for Cliff to serve the people of this community through ministry. Praise God!

**We will post the video from one of the services today as soon as it is available!

Coop Construction

Well, it finally happened. Mackenzie wore me down and talked me into getting chickens. She's been trying to hatch (get it?) this scheme for quite some time, citing the numerous benefits of raising chickens, including fresh eggs (which I won't eat), free, fresh manure (which I could do without), and feathered fun (we'll see about that one).

But what really attracted me to the idea was the opportunity to do a little carpentry work. Shortly after we moved into our house five years ago, we built a shed in our backyard to add some much needed storage space. Since then, the only real carpentry work I've done is building our raised veggie beds (not much to it). So as we thumbed through book after book from the library about raising chickens, I started getting excited about the challenge designing and building a coop.

While all the books have proven informative, the most helpful by far, in terms of coop construction, has been Building Chicken Coops for Dummies. It provides both basic carpentry tips and tricks, as well as specifics on must-haves and luxury items for chicken coops. We went with a fairly basic plan with a few modifications to utilize the location we chose.

So this morning I made the first of what I'm sure will be many trips to Home Depot to gather some supplies and tools to get this project started. My goal for the day was to get the coop framed and placed on the concrete pier blocks. Cutting the boards and building the frame didn't take too long (after a second trip to Home Depot to get the right kind of nails), but leveling the concrete pier blocks took some time. But I was still able to get as far along as I'd hoped.

Check out the pics below and stay tuned for more updates from Mackenzie on the chicks themselves, which we hope to buy at the end of March, as well as my progress on the coop.

The Book List Revisited

I've read a few books on my list for this year, but of course I'm behind...or at least I feel like I am. I find that I go on reading binges. I consume books for a week or two and then don't read for a few weeks. The last few months have been so busy that I haven't read much.

From my 2011 Book List, so far I've read:

• Be Still, My Soul: Embracing God's Purpose and Provision in Suffering by Nancy Guthrie
• Choosing Gratitude: Your Journey to Joy by Nancy Leigh DeMoss
• Sacred Influence by Gary Thomas
• Coop by Michael Perry

Right now I'm reading:

• Every Thought Captive by Jerusha Clark

I think I'm going to try Farm City next. Can you tell I'm ready for spring? Coop and Farm City are just encouraging that excitement.

What have you read so far this year that you've enjoyed? Anything you'd recommend?