Chicken Math 2026

Okay y'all. It's chicken time again.

How did we get here? I'm sad and embarrassed to report we are here because of predation, and it's my fault. Our chicken run is 16 years old and NOT critter proof. I believe during all this rain, a very smart raccoon decided to live under our covered porch and then realized it could get a nice chicken snack if it waited for the coop door to open when the sun came up. :( Ugh, there's nothing quite like finding my flagship chicken Sesame mangled and dead with a raccoon trying to drag it behind our neighbor's Airbnb. I hope I startled their guests while I was screaming and hitting a raccoon with a broom handle… :(

I did seriously consider not getting any more chickens and just waiting out the 2 remaining ladies. But have you seen baby chicks? They are too cute to ignore. I hopped on to the chick page for Urban Farm Oasis and ordered 6 chicks.

Behold.

Here we have 2 Easter Eggers, 1 Buff Orpington, 1 Black Sex-Link, and 2 Copper Marans.

Like I said, the lust for chickens is real. A few days after getting these, I went to Concord Feed and picked out three more. I thought 3 little Wyandottes. They integrated with the 6 other chicks even though they were a bit bigger.

They lived in a box for a few days until I realized that I would need somewhere larger to stash these chicks. I went to Urban Ore and bought what I thought was a dog crate. However, when I got the thing home I realized it was a 2-story cat condo. No problem — it was bigger than I needed and a bit unwieldy, but it worked. Oh, except the chicks were so small they could just pop out between the bars. smdh

Look at these little nerds!!

Orange cat looking at a cage full of baby chicks

I was keeping them in the front entry room so I also wanted to make sure they got some good outside time to explore and peck around. They need to get grit from the local soil and learn about grass and bugs, etc.

Goodbye to a much loved cat

I had to say goodbye to my favorite cat Tango. I love all my cats but she was my favorite, the one who cuddled me the most. My cats are indoor cats. They all definitely want to go outside and we do let them in a very supervised manner. When they dart out unexpectedly they almost always run under the porch and wait until we are bored waiting for them and then they jump over the damn fence into the neighbors yard or worse, the parking lot behind us! Why cats! Why do you do it?!

Tango, a usually very mild mannered cat, was very very bad and would immediately jump over the fence to lounge in the neighbors yard.

Here is Tango at the Golden Hour.

Anyway, I brought Tango home from the vet in the hopes of having a home euthanization. So she did get one last glorious romp in the backyard. She got to drink from the fountain, smell all the plants, and watch the birds and bees one last time.

I was not able to get the at home euthanization in time for her so I did have to bring her back to the vet the next day. She was ready and it was her time. <3 As I sobbed in my car afterwards I realized that this is the only cat I have ever had to do this for as an adult. It was so hard and so sad.

A light orange cat out of focus and glowing with backlit sun

Then and Now

I stumbled across this picture of our side yard the other day. Wow! It is highly cringeworthy. But such is the price and reality of construction.

Um. It looks you might have left some stuff in the side yard…

Um. It looks you might have left some stuff in the side yard…

About a year and a half later!!!

About a year and a half later!!!

Just came across these two photos of the space in 2014 just after the basement was done. You can see we still had the metal awning, no stairs, no porch, etc.

Time for a Tea Party

Just a few pics from our back porch tea party. We have some delicious treats from Lovejoy’s in SF plus some extra crumpets and pastries.

The side yard is growing in nicely

“Everyone needs a sideyard”, as my boss tends to say. Usually she is talking about people needs a messy work area - a place to keep shovels and buckets, etc.

In this case, as we only have one side yard, I wanted it to be a beautiful entrance to our garden. The crappy stuff is hidden in a back a bit.

We are finding that this side yard stays nice and cool during the summer The bamboo is growing in to add shade and will hopefully screen the house from our very nice neighbor at some point. I love the way the path turned out. It is very weird to remember that this whole area was mostly underground previously and then WAS a trash area for quite a while as we did the deck construction and laundry room rebuild in the back.

A fine and shady spot to drink a cocktail and have some snacks.

I am a tad concerned for the changing light over the seasons in this area. It is mostly full sun on one side in the summer and then in winter it really does become all shady with some morning and evening light. Originally I wanted this inch to be a live edge bench but with all the chaos and decision fatigue of construction we just went with whatever. It’s nice enough!

Cotinus ‘Grace’, Ceanothus ‘Diamond Heights, Bulbine ‘tiny tangerine’, Achillea and some Armeria

Tim got me that egret at Burning Man in 2012. As we were driving out someone had a bunch still up in their camp and he got out and asked if we could have one. I love it so!