Raising the Coop

The first step to building any backyard farm project (after waking up) is to put yourself in line at a reliably good restaurant for some tasty brunch viddles. As in the case of this Sunday, that restaurant would be the Country Cat and the viddles would be eggs, of course, with baked beans, collard greens and corn bread. This meal served as a reminder as to why anyone would go through the trouble of building a coop and raising chickens — good eggs.

With our freshly filled bellies and some surprisingly good weather, we were all set to begin building the much anticipated Fancy Acre Poultry Pavilion. OK, let's see. We need some pieces of wood of various sizes and some metal thingamajiggies to hold it together — oh, and some of that wire stuff with the hexagonal holes, and some — whoa! This sounds complicated.

Fortunately, just inside Nic's brain were the designs and materials list, and Topher is really good at using tools and building stuff — so it looked like this was going to come together really easily. Jenny really cracked the whip and together they got a lot of it done before it started to rain again. Check it out.

I'll admit. I wasn't as hand-on as I thought I would be. The three of them were working so well together — each one anticipating the needs of the other. It was really astonishing. Besides, I have really weak wrists and I would have just been in the way. There was some planting and a lot of thinning to do in the garden, so mainly stuck to that.

Portland Guide

Do you want to have a fancy acre? Good luck. But you can at least get some chicks or grow a couple of carrots. Here are some good places to go if you are looking for trouble:

The Urban Farm Store this is where Patsy, Loretta and Wynonna arre from. They also have edible plants and fruit trees.

Pistils this is where you get fancy chicks and expensive plants and wish you lived there.

Costal Farm Supply this is like farm walmart and is where Tammy is from (doesn't that just explain everything.)

Naomi's Organic Farm Supply My uncle gave me this reference! But I have still never been. He says it's the best. But he also is totally nuts. You be the judge.

Garden Fever This is the garden store near my house and I LOVE it there. They have great veggie starts and like six different blueberry varietals. I always spend too much money there so I am on probation for the week.

Growing Gardens This is another great edible plant store with all the fixin's, also in NE Portland.