Renee Wilkinson's Blog, page 27

Farmy Baby Shower

Graduate school gives you a shortage of both time and money. Yet somehow, my classmates in Eugene put together a super-sweet baby shower for us that I just have to share with you. The theme was "Springtime on the Farm" and they came up with the most adorable and creative ways to fill us with love before Bug arrives.

Exhibit A: baby chick cupcakes. I think I screamed with joy when I walked in and saw these cuties.

Exhibit B: tea sandwiches cut in the shapes of ducklings and chicks. Seriously? Cute overload in a big, big way.

Exhibit C: the decor consisted of thrift store farm animals, post-it notes cut into triangles to make little garlands, and yellow primroses. Crafty and creative!

Our hostesses planned a couple really great activities including a MadLibs game about our growing family. In proper fashion, the responses ranged from the sincere to the hilariously inappropriate. I would expect nothing less from this creative bunch.

Someone printed off color pictures of Jay and I. Scissors were passed around and everyone cut us apart to put together a picture of what our baby might look like. Hilarious and totally frightening! We of course loved it. (Dear Baby, please don't look like any of these…)

One of my classmates taught everyone how to make an origami lily. People wrote a wish for our baby inside each one before they started folding. When we were done, they hung the lilies from a wooden hoop, making a really simple and love-filled mobile for our lil' gal.

We were overcome with gratitude and are still recovering from the overwhelming thoughtfulness of this creative pack of rascals. What a lucky baby to have so many people to make her life colorful and filled with love.

Upcoming Event: Eugene Home & Garden Show

This Sunday at 1pm I will be speaking and signing copies of my book, Modern Homestead, at the Eugene Home & Garden Show. I have always wanted to attend the show because I know lots of my favorite local nurseries are there talking about edible landscaping. It will be a treat to share some ideas and inspiration with fellow green thumbs.

These kinds of events can fill you with so many great ideas that it can sometimes be overwhelming knowing where to begin. The goal of my talk is to help you plan and prioritize your homesteading projects. Here's what I'm planning to touch on:

My journey in modern homesteading
Grow: understanding soil, what to grow, winter activities to get going
Raise: understanding the responsibility of livestock, low-high maintenance livestock, winter activities to get going
Create: preparing for the harvest, simplifying home care, building community

Let me know if there are any other topics you would love to hear about! I hope to see some new and old friendly faces at the event.

Goodbye Howard, Our Beloved Companion

We said goodbye to our loving companion Howard this weekend, our devoted greyhound. He has been a part of our family for almost as long as Jay and I have been a family. We met him eight years ago after his racing days were over and I still remember falling in love with him that afternoon. We were so excited that we just stared at him for hours after bringing him home.

Howard settled into retirement easily. His world was now full of soft beds, gentle pets and long walks. We went on hikes through the gorge and walks up Mount Tabor. He was also more than content just snoozing all day, occasionally waking up to see that you were still there with him.

The logical part of my brain tells me how lucky we are – he had a full life, lived to a ripe old age, and the end came quickly for him. We were there when he took his last breaths as he slipped quietly off into eternal sleep.

But my heart is breaking too much to actually process anything logical right now. I miss my companion terribly. Jay has never seen me sob so much or so hard, but it's some small tribute to just how cherished he was as a part of our family. He will be sorely missed and never forgotten.

Whirlwind in Oklahoma

We took a quick, whirlwind trip to Oklahoma where Jay's family lives to visit one last time with them before the baby arrives. It's a really different culture than what I am used to being a born and breed NW gal. So here's a quick recap from the eyes of a Portlander.

Upon arrival into Oklahoma City, we headed to the stockyards – an old part of town where ranchers used to literally drive cattle in for sale or rest before continuing on north. This might be my favorite part of Oklahoma City because it has a rich, unique history. The old signs on the drug store, next to the saddle shop, next to the steak diner hint at that history.

After many trips to Oklahoma, I finally got to visit the memorial made for the Oklahoma City bombing victims. The quiet winter landscape of Oklahoma matched the memorial with almost stark-like quality. The large black tree in the background survived the bombing.

The chairs in this picture are for each of the people who died in the attacks, including smaller chairs for the children. I'm not a fan of the wreaths, personally. It takes away from the somber tone of what should be a somber installation.

On a less somber note, the ladies of the family took a late morning trip one day for some high tea in Oklahoma City. We talked about overseas traveling while we stuffed ourselves with tea sandwiches, creamy desserts and lemon curd. Lots of food and love around that table.

We had a rough flight back that required us to be up at 3am – yikes! So here is me and my pal Will Rodgers in the early morning hours at the airport. He used to say he never met a man he didn't like. When someone asked him what he thought then about Hitler, he said "Well, I never met the man!"

My fondest memories of the trip don't have pictures attached to them: spending time with family, sipping tea and smelling freshly baked cookies coming from the kitchen. Every year more of Jay's family moves away to other parts of the country, but we were so grateful to have everyone gather from the four corners of the country to be together.

Risky Business: Exotic Edible Plants

January is the time when nursery catalogs pour through our mail slots and cold evenings are spent carefully deciding what new trees, shrubs and vines to add to the homestead. There is an on-going debate between permaculture advocates and native plant experts on which plant species should be planted and which ones are dangerous.

David Fothergill is one of my classmates and a plant expert, especially when it comes to invasive species. He is a Kentucky boy who spent much of his pre-grad school career working to combat invasive species and restore natural landscapes. David had some great insight and tips to share when it comes to deciding on edible plants.

What's the big fuss about when it comes to planting non-natives? When you introduce a plant to a new, non-native environment, the plant is released from it's natural "controls" – the things that limit it's spread. These are things like other native plant competitors, native animals that eat them, etc. Even soil organisms may help manage the plants ability to spread.

Camas - native to the NW, edible tubers

Can nurseries sell invasive species? Yes! People want them, especially since they are typically easy to grow, so some nurseries will sell them. Some laws in various states may put plant species on a "do not sell" list, but often there are no repercussions.

How could a plant spread if it is planted in your private, fenced backyard? Plants have various ways of dispersing seeds. Some release them during winds, so the wind carries the seeds. Others produce fruit, berries or seeds that birds eat. The birds fly miles and miles away and the seeds are dropped in the bird guano. Other seeds have a velcro-like shell that gets stuck on dogs or people, then can fall off somewhere else outside your yard.

Red Flowering Currant - native to the NW, edible berries

What is your advice for edible plant enthusiasts? Exhaust the native edible plant first. Look at what the native people used to eat, which gives you a lot of options in the NW: currants, salal, hazelnuts, huckleberries, camas, etc. In Kentucky we have pawpaws, aronia, rubus (genus of blackberries and raspberries), shagbark hickory (same family as walnut), and more. There are lots of native edibles, but often they are relatively unknown.

Next, be ethical about the plants to use by doing your research. Find out if it is problematic in any other places – that can be a sign it may become problematic in your area. And if you do collect a plant, keep a close eye on it to ensure it does start spreading on its own.

Western Hazelnut - native to the NW, edible nuts

Do you have any helpful resources to share when we're doing our plant research? The USDA Plant Database has a search bar that allows you to enter a botanical plant name and show you where the plant grows (either naturally or because it has "naturalized") and list whether it has become invasive in areas.  Another site is the Global Invasive Species Database. I usually check both to get a full picture of a plant.

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Much thanks to David for lending his time and expertise to share with us! I will be the first to admit I have a hard time sticking to a natives-only palette in our edible landscape. The websites David mentioned have been really helpful for me though as I make a short-list of trees and shrubs to add this winter. Edibles vs. natives can be a hotly debated issue and I would love to hear your comments about it!

New Year, New Bathroom

It's a new era for us in our Portland house and time for some updates. We plan to be here for a while and want to enjoy the house as much as possible. But like many houses, there are things here and there that drive us nuts. With a baby on the way, we decided that if we don't make changes now they will never happen. Exhibit A: our bathroom.

The most immediate change we decided to make was to our bathroom, where an over-sized sink was making a small space feel even more claustrophobic. My growing pregnant belly could barely make it in and out of the room. Jay dismantled everything in about an hour and we proceeded to brush our teeth for the next week in the kitchen.

We found a great, super narrow, Euro-feeling sink and cabinet from Ikea that turned out to be a great option for our skinny space. Of course, no project ever seems to go according to plan for us. Adapting a Euro-sink to our old 1927 house required a couple trips to the hardware store for this and that. But the hassle was worth it. For about $200 bucks we have breathing room and a functional sink space.

The next big change to the room was with paint colors. When we moved into our house six years ago, we painted every room a bright, bold color. Maybe it's the recession or maybe it's knowing our life will get more chaotic, but we wanted new colors that were calm and soothing.

Yolo Paint makes a gorgeous line of eco-friendly, non-toxic, no VOC paints. We chose "Nourish .03" for the wall color. Don't you feel relaxed already just reading the name? It looks great on the wall and makes me feel like I'm in a spa.

A couple weeks of work and our bathroom is now a calming space we love with room for my expanding baby belly. One room down -  four more to go!

The New Duck Coop

Construction is complete! The runner ducks have a new, permanent home here on our little homestead. It should be a safe, predator proof place for them to sleep, play and lay eggs.

Ducks need a little more wiggle room than chickens. Allow about 4-6 square feet per bird in their duck house and 10-25 square feet per bird for the run. In our case, the house is 4 square feet per bird and the run is 20 square feet per bird. I would go smaller only if you are planning to let them out to free range everyday.

The new duck coop attaches to our chicken coop. That is really for our own convenience – one place to store supplies. There is a nice, wide pathway for a wheelbarrow and a three foot planting bed next to the house. I'm planning to plant the beds with native ferns and evergreen huckleberry.

Some features of the duck coop include a side door into their duck house. That allows us to rake out the bedding easily and collect eggs. I made some super simple nesting boxes to slide in and out of there. There is a flat board along the bottom (covered with straw so you can't see it) with two 12″ boards attached at a 90 degree angle. It should be enough to make the space feel private for laying.

We also splurged on way-too-expensive clear corrugated plastic roofing. I wanted the birds to have good daylight access, but also protection from predators trying to climb into the coop. I also wanted them to stay dry. The ducks love the water and the rain, but wet living conditions can lead to health issues.

Total cost for supplies was around $200 – half of which was for the roofing. We salvaged plywood and hardware, including screws, from the old chicken coop. We're planning to paint the duck house portion hot pink again when the weather is drier. The girls digs gotta look good!

Here's a little video of the girls moving in:

It took a couple weekends of hard work and lower back aches from crouching with my big pregnant belly. But the payoff is so worth it! We sat out there Christmas morning watching the ducks explore and enjoy their new digs and it felt like a gift to all of us.

Holiday Prep

The holidays this year are something we are admiring from a distance, rather than actively getting into the spirit of. Boxes are still stacked like a maze in our house from moving and projects are lined up high. What we would do without our sense of humor about it all?

The duck coop is getting closer to completion and I suspect the final touches will be finished on Christmas Eve – expect an update early next week! When that project is wrapped up, we'll work on painting the interior of our house with some non-toxic, no VOC paint. And when the paint is dry, boxes can get unpacked and we can relax.

We can't let the holiday pass completely without some good food, so here are the easy recipes we are trying out this year:

smoked salmon spread with melba toasts
potato-mushroom gratin
rosemary pork chops

It will be a low key holiday season for us this year, but we recognize this is the last of its kind. Next year there will be a baby sitting on the kitchen floor playing with pots and pans while I bake cookies to my heart's content.

I hope you have a great holiday this year, however you celebrate and whoever you spend it with. As always, I would love to hear about your holiday and hope it's filled with good food and good people.

Duck Coop Construction

The ducks are getting a new, permanent home – slowly but surely. Last week we did some deconstruction and site prep. This past weekend I drew up some loose plans and we started building.

The duck house should give each bird about 4-6 square feet of space while the run area can be anywhere from 10-25 square feet per bird. This wide variation may have to do with the breeds you select and the personality of your flock. My girls like a lot of space, so I aimed for more wiggle room.

I designed the entire enclosure to fit along our side yard, using our existing fence as one side. The whole area is approximately 6′ x 16′ and it lines up at one end and attaches to our chicken coop.

The duck house is 3′ x 6′ with one end built with an access door for collecting eggs and cleaning out bedding. The run will be 6′ x 13′ and about 5′ tall so we can get in and walk around fairly easily.

We have used a combination of new and salvaged materials. Most of the posts for framing have been pressure-treated cedar. Not my preference since they use chemicals to treat the wood, but it was roughly seven times more expensive for untreated cedar.

So far we have everything framed and the duck house walls and floor up. We still need to attach the metal fencing to the enclosure and put on roofs – always a tricky part. It's going slower than I want, but that seems to always be the case with construction projects. I think I know how we will be spending the Christmas holiday…

Out With the Old

How many coops have I built now? Ah, best not to keep track.

I honestly forgot that we had a chicken coop still here at our house in Portland (pictured above). Past tenants were interested in keeping chickens, so we left it here. It sat empty while we were away and isn't really needed anymore.

Photo credit: Isaac Viel

We have a great coop now (pictured above) that has been working really well for us. It's the one I included plans for in my book Modern Homestead. We love it because it's portable, has a nice modern look and it gives the birds enough space while staying compact in the garden.

The ducks on the other hand need an equally nice, permanent solution. Currently we lock them up at night in their duck house and let them out in the morning to free-range. But it's a drag to run outside in my pj's every morning at dawn when it's freezing. And it's also a pain to go on vacation and be required to find a duck-sitter.

So we've torn down the old chicken coop, salvaging what materials along the way, because we need that space for the ducks. We're building a (hopefully) predator-proof enclosure to keep the duck house and give the ladies plenty of room to play.

Dismantling the old coop took almost a whole day and poor Jay did most of the hard work. My growing belly is limiting what I can do, but I managed to help a little.

The space has been cleared though and materials neatly arranged for construction. Let's hope the weather holds this weekend so we aren't mixing power tools with rain. I'd love to hear what projects you are braving the cold to tackle this weekend!