A few weeks ago, I got three chickens from a guy, Guy Freesen, down in Staunton who runs the Charis Eco-Farm. After bringing them home and setting them up with food and water, we named them Mary, Judy and Maria, after some of our heroines of environmental activism, Mary Olsen, anti-nuclear activist with Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Judy Bonds, from Coal River Mountain Watch, and Maria Gunnoe, of Bob White, WV. Both Maria and Judy have won the Goldman Environmental Award, which you can read more about here.
Mary, Judy and Maria were doing great, laying about an egg a day. Maria is still a month or so away from starting to lay, and Mary was laying regularly. We enjoyed french toast, omlets, egg sandwiches, and pancakes from her eggs. I say were, because tragically, Kidu, our Siberian Husky, got out of the house one afternoon and got to the chicken pen, which we had just built the day before, so they could get some fresh air and sunshine out of the coop. :( It was quite a day. My friend Lara and I mourned their deaths, gave Kidu a good scolding, and then plucked and cleaned them. They now rest in peace in my freezer. Maria was alone for a few days, but then a good friend, Brian, from across town, who also has backyard chickens, donated one of his, to us. Her name is Oprah (like Winfrey) and I’m sure she and Maria will become close friends soon.
Sort of unrelated to the chickens, I am starting a new job tomorrow at the Little Grill Collective, a worker-owned restaurant and live music spot on the north end of Harrisonburg. I will have more to say about it, as I work there longer and get a sense of the collective and how we operate. To start, I will be washing dishes and running food primarily, but have the opportunity to move into the kitchen to prep and cook and then serve food eventually. Find out more about the Little Grill HERE!
Last week, I bid at a silent auction on a chicken house here in Harrisonburg, and ended up with the coop! Some friends and I are helping to pay for it together and we’re keeping it in the backyard, near the vegetable and herb garden. It’s a really nice design, made of cedar and a reused window complete with an aluminum roof to keep the chickens dry. There’s a roosting space and a hole cut in the floor for their droppings (aka super rich nitrogen fertilizer for the compost pile and veggie beds). It’s quite heavy though and cumbersome to move, so it might not be a mobile tractor style house. Unless we put sticks on it and move it like one of those throne-y things you see in movies. 
