Magical Bunny Poo

What a week! Among other things, we finally cooked and enjoyed the rabbit meat from our backyard, put in more garden beds, and hosted one of the spots along the 2nd Annual Tour de Coop. The progressively longer days which forecast Summer's arrival simply mean more time spent outside, something no one around here is complaining about.

If it walks like a... Rooster? This feisty young Silver-laced Wyandotte has been the center of attention all week.

Homemade (and homegrown!) chicken-pot pie, a la Jenny.

Words can not express how delicious it was, nor could they decipher my muffled blathering of content, certain to follow each bite.

Jenny: educator, urban farmer, and one cool chick.

While we may not have had the most fancy coop on the tour, people still had great interest for our setup (as well as our boldness).

Rabbit manure, we are convinced, is nearly unparalleled in convenience and benefits for the backyard farmer, and these fava beans have certainly demonstrated the relatively immediate benefits (in comparison to most other organic fertilizers and soil additives) that may be realized.

Our new expansion, which, due to a southerly obstacle and a correspondingly shorter growing season, will most likely contain 'shade tolerant' crops such as lettuce.

These Wellsummer pullets have an amazing knack for breaking out of our minimalist chicken tractor. Surprisingly enough, however, it has proved to be a great way to introduce them to the rest of the flock: if things start getting too hairy, they zip right back to the narrow little section that they squeezed out of in the first place, safe from the hazing beaks of the older girls, who often remain in hot pursuit long after the Wellies are safe, prowling menacingly around the outside of the enclosure.

Our newly decorated coop, 'Sky City', soon to be reassembled again, as an inevitable consequence of all the new knowledge gained from other chicken enthusiasts this weekend.

I lost count yesterday of how many times I had my back to the entrance of our yard and heard "Eeeeee! Bunnies!", accompanied unfailingly by tumultuous, entirely unrestrained giggling and the blur of a young child as she would run past me to get to the fabled creatures of her childhood stories.

Incomprehensibly photogenic bunnies.

This old sandpit has fast become the "water-hole" of choice for our  Khaki Cambell Ducks.

Fresh salad, now in season!

The results of our experiments with companion planting seem hopelessly confounded by the power of the bunny poo.

Pea Blossom