Coffee Beans

Well, my coffee plant is very very happy living at the studio. I just noticed this morning that the beans are ripening. Aren't they pretty? It's a gorgeous color. At this rate, I might be able to make at least a tablespoon or so. Even my salvaged impatiens is doing well... I dug it up before the first hard frost because I couldn't stand to let them all die. I trimmed it way back, and now it has all new growth on it and even has some buds. Small victories.

So, as I was reading more about the chicken thing last night, they raised a good point. Even if you're not raising them for meat, you do have to accept the fact that you have to be willing to kill them if necessary. For example, if you get the errant rooster chick, or if one is sick or injured. They also raised the point that you really have to guard them from dogs and raccoons, (and where we live, hawks too) so they have really can't have some sort of half assed contraption to live in. It's going to require a significant investment at first. besides, if I am ever going to convince Marc, it's going to have to be one exceptionally attractive chicken coop.

You have to raise the chicks yourself if you want them to be friendly and tame, and that can take 6-8 weeks of indoor care. I am thinking that this might be a good project a little further down the road when Olive is older and she can help out with them. (See? I'll raise my own farm hands.) It would be a good learning experience for her; a long term science project if you will. At least that's what I keep telling myself, but she may just end up hating me for it. ("MOM. Seriously. I am the ONLY third grader whose Mom has CHICKENS.") The people who wrote this book say that they just let their chickens out during the day to roam the garden; my question is, don't they fly? How do you catch them again? In Key West, they are in the trees all the time. I know they instinctively go back into their roosts at night when it gets dark. I think Marc hasn't completely nixed the idea of having chickens ever, he just doesn't think we should have them in our current house. I think we could handle three with no problem.

At least I can have all the tomatoes I want...