And the winner is...

And the winner of the guess when the 100th egg will appear is....

Farmer Alex! who guessed Jan 1st, 2010. And a close second was David who guessed Christmas eve, but was disqualified for suspected chicken squeezing (Just Kidding!). The chickens produced the 100th egg yesterday. Congrats to Alex, who gets to pick our next restaurant adventure and received a surprise token for his awesomeness.

In other news, we used our family pass and went to the Woodland Park Zoo yesterday. Of course, I forgot the fabulous new camera I got for Christmas. It's still sitting by the booklet that tells me how to use all of its fabulous features. So, no pics. In the children's farm area, a goat and a sheep were head butting for the right to stand on a big flat rock. The goat was winning. The Bengal tiger was having a roaring fit, and the three snow leopards were playing a rousing game of tag. We also got a very up close view of the sloth in the night exhibits, especially cool as that exhibit is scheduled to close due to budget cuts. And finally, all the tropical bird decided to come out and show themselves. Our favorites were the golden pheasants, hornbills, and the toucans. We had a great time and no rain!

And the final bit, I've run so many miles since the beginning of November that I can now fit in my high school Levi 501's. (Yes, I still have them!). I've logged 321 miles, and now I run a 10K daily. So far, my legs haven't staged an open revolt. Now, I just need to get faster!

3 Teens!

A news update: Anni turns thirteen (13). We now live with three teenagers in the house! I'm earning every one of my grey hairs! No, seriously, the future farmers are awesome. I'm a lucky mom!

The weather has finally warmed back up into the 40's. We no longer have to worry about the chickens freezing to their perches. And despite the cold weather, they're still laying eggs! We believe this is due to the clear top we put on the coop, clever design that!

I'm still running and my knees have not yet abandoned my body, but my pants are threatening to. I seriously need new jeans in a much smaller size. The future farmers are playing a new game, 'Honey, my mom is shrinking'.

Lisa came over for holiday card making on Saturday, and Sunday, we celebrated Judith's birthday with a movie and lunch. This year our house smells like the great northwest woods thanks to all the fresh greenery around the house. We have a Balsam fir, extremely fragrant and lots of garland (juniper, I believe) We also have oodles of variegated holly and mistletoe over all the doorways (hey, I like kisses). We've decided to take a more natural approach to our holidays, since we celebrate absolutely everything!

December!

Our frosted Chinese lanterns on the back deck.

Thanksgiving dinner on the funny farm.

The younger farmers can't wait to dig in!

In other news, farmer Alex had a birthday. We went to the zoo. He really liked the bats. Anni's is coming up this week. I'll be living with three teenagers! Say a blessing and eat a vitamin or two for me!

We've been busy doing lots of holiday events. We went to the Pike Place Market the day after Thanksgiving for holiday favorites, pomegranates! yum. Yesterday, we did some holiday shopping and then the river lights walk in Redmond in the evening.

Our weather has turned for the cold, with a few places getting light snow last night. Today, I took the older farmers to see New Moon. Ari liked it, Alex did not. Then I went running. I can do a 10k now, yipee!

Nano, the national novel writing contest has ended. The Seattle area won again for most words and donations! I wrote almost 186,000 words on my story, and have added another 120, 000 since. So, a very productive November! I'm still working on the novel and having so much fun. I love the story!

And a project update to close with:
1) We are still eating seasonally and as locally as possible by continuing our CSA farm box with a local organic farms and trips to the Pike Place market.

2) We are still attempting to grow more of our own food. The chickens are producing eggs, and we still have some greens and herbs growing in the garden. Our attempt at winter garden was not sucessful. The heavy rains caused a huge influx of slugs! They ate most of the small plants.

3) This is a tough time of year to decrease consumerism, but we're trying. We've limited everyone to just a couple of gifts. We're not wrapping gifts within our family, instead placing them in large decorated bags - reusable. We've also asked the future farmers to chose an experience over a thing as part of their holidays, more fun for everyone.

4) We're spending lots of time doing holiday events in our area, winter hiking, and staying snuggly at home.

And the feet go on

Check out that egg count! We're at the halfway point.

In other news, all three future farmers and I took an urban adventure to the Seattle Aquarium on Friday. We decided to become members! We saw a sleeping octopus, several wolf eels, and a giant clam (and lots of other cool critterage). Our favorite was a swimming lobster. It was really something to see its little swimerettes moving.

Ari and I went to a write in at my friend Lisa's house this Saturday. It was very productive for my nano story. Alex came along to play video games with another member's son. Ari and I tried guitar hero. I suck!

On Sunday, I decided to rearrange the Learning Center. I'm counting that as my workout for the day, as I had to move five bookcases, 2 chest of drawers, a sofa, two computers and desks, and a boatload of book baskets! It took all day!

The winter gardening is not going well. The veggies are way too wet! But, the chickens are happy and laying. The running is going very well too. I can now run for an hour straight again. So far, my knees and ankles are not complaining. Now, I need to run faster!

Fall has retreated

Our weather has been absolutely gorgeous the last few days. The front garden is in false spring with the roses, pansies, and assorted other plants all reblooming! We picked a whole bouquet of pink and red roses yesterday. They smell wonderful.

The pea plants and baby spinach are doing well in the garden. The green beans and tomatillos are still producing at an outstanding rate. Thank goodness the zucchini had finally slowed down. We still have 20 on the kitchen counter! Our pumpkins are in full bloom with two little pumpkins on the vine. Today, we cleared weeds and nonproducing plants (a few spent beans, tomatoes, and squash) to make room for seedlings that will need to be set out by the weekend. We also fertilized all the currently producing plants and herbs with an organic fertilizer and some compost from the worm bin.

Alex is finally getting over his bronchitis, but now Anni has a cold! Pass the tissues!

We had a lovely fall lunch today of potato leek soup with potatoes and leeks from the farmers market, milk from our local dairy farm, and chives from the garden. It was delish! For dinner, we had some porkchops basted in a wonderful apple chipotle sauce from the good folks at Aldrich Farms. It gave them a great sweet spicy tang.

And I'm still making it to the gym, 4 days in a row! Drum roll please...So far, I have 9 miles running, 9 miles cycling, 12 miles elipsing, and 30,000 lbs of weight lifted on the weight machines. Phew!