Down She Goes

June 27, 2008 - Alright, let's get right down to business. Here's what our house looked like when we arrived this morning - sort of a half house.

Joe says, "I'm sick of working on that roof. We're taking the whole house down today." Right. Okay, let's do it. Joe attaches this rope thing to the house, to the tree, and to his car.

After a few mighty attempts by Joe, and a little cheering on my part, a few things fell down, but the house was still holding on.

Joe made some adjustments, then took a few more tries. Finally, with our neighbors (who have been waiting 20 years for this moment) watching, the house came down.

Hmm, now there's a big mess to clean up. And with all the fun stuff over, it's just a bunch of dirty work now. But we got a bit of it done last night and we'll be heading back over there in the morning to keep going.

In other news, the rooster and one of his girlfriends have a new home. After a whole lot of turmoil about what to do (including a brief but serious conversation about bringing the poor rooster's life to an end), we decided to bring them over to the new property, set up a modest home for him, and see if he makes it on his own. Well, with one lady to take care of him of course.

Here's what Joe set up for them.

Recognize anything? It's the old skybox! We believe in recycling. He brought them over in it and actually hoisted it up there while they were in it so that they would establish it as their 'safe place.' After he opened it up they stayed up there for a while. Then the rooster clumsily fell down to the ground and the hen flew gracefully down. Didn't have my camera that day, which was too bad. So since we can't really be there first then in the morning and last thing at night every day, we're just leaving the box open. Here it is Saturday and they're still alive, so either there's not much scary stuff in those woods or else the chickens are pretty tough. They may not even be staying in the skybox at night, but it's there just in case.

When we go over there, we don't usually see them right away. After a while they come creeping up on us and eat some food that we brought with us. Then they wander off again. It always makes us happy to see them. We really love our chickens and we're glad we didn't have to knock off our rooster. :)

And now for some food news. I harvested some beets the other day! It was one of the more satisfying moments of gardening, because they truly are a surprise. I mean, you can sort of see the beet root coming out of the ground, but it's so cool to pull them out and see what's been growing underground all this time. Plus they are delicious. I also cooked the beet greens with onions and portabello mushrooms, which we ate in tortillas.

And then here is a dinner I made with some more of our collard greens. I cooked them with onions and white beens and then served them with pan-fried polenta over blue cheese sauce. Yummm.

Best thing about working hard is that you get to eat lots of calories. :)