Catch up - and chickens...

I keep forgetting to blog. I get so absorbed reading other blogs, and I run out of time to write on my own. A lot of the time I feel so in awe of the creative people out there and their endless amazing projects. My random projects seem so small - should I bother posting about them? But I will! I have to upload the photos to the computer more - I tend to leave there there for awhile. I was also reading in the Artist's Way that people who edit themselves when they write (or type, I guess) will also limit themselves in their creativity. It sounded alot like me. I never kept journals because what I wrote was never "perfect". I'd think too much about what I was writing in case someone read it. My brain also tends to go about a million miles ahead of my hands. Typing is better than writing, though. I just need to let the ideas flow...

So I thought I'd tell you all about our chickens. Well, not our chickens - but UBC Farm's chickens. Miss B and I are volunteering our time once a week as Chicken Friends. Our job is to feed and water the ladies, as well as collect, sterilize and package the eggs for UBC's Farm Market. It is so much fun - a touch of the country in the middle of the city! The air is so fresh there!

I fell in love with chickens last year at my mom's house in California. That summer my mom let us pick out three chicks to replace a few that had been "taken" by an unknown animal. We picked a white one, a red one and a brown one - Princess, Twink, and Chocolate respectively. We held them and snuggled them. This is what they looked like back then:


Over our three week visit we watched them lose their fuzz and start to grow feathers. They morphed into gawky teenagers:


This summer we saw them again. They are beautiful birds. Princess is still the meany that she was when she was a baby. She always pushes the others around to get the best food first. Twink is super snuggly - she'll sit on your lap. Oma always gives Chocolate the most treats, so she is a bit bigger than the rest. They follow my mom around the garden as she works and they get all the worms that she digs up. They remember the area where their cage was kept when they were small and they always come back to that spot on the balcony to rest. They are such smart birds - it makes me wonder why I eat chicken. I miss them.


To get our chicken fix at home we do our chicken duty. The birds follow us around as we fill their feeders. They watch us collect their eggs - always with full commentary. They love to be patted and don't mind if you pick them up. Miss B snuggles them and brings them fresh grass from outside the pen.

I have never volunteered my time before. This has been such a great experience for me and my B. And it is great to know that the eggs we buy every second week are from really happy birds.