Pay no attention to the last post

We've decided to postpone Mocha's death sentence!!! We're all really happy about that. My mom put her in the coop the other day and she's able to scoot around using her wings and fend for herself. Apparently she's been getting enough food and water. Who are we to discriminate against paraplegic chickens? We can't find any chicken wheelchairs, but hopefully she'll live for a long time. The only problem might be that she can't fly up to perch with her sisters at night when it's cold, and it's been really cold. In the spring she might even lay some eggs. We're still not too hopeful about Banana, though. I have to go to school now but I thought I'd share the good news!

Bad news

I haven't posted for a while because not much has been going on. We haven't heard much from Colleen regarding Kiah and her future soul mate. She may have found another doe that gets along well with her, named Eve. We're waiting for the news that they're in heat. The enclosure in the back yard is all ready for them. The skyway isn't finished yet, but my dad says that it shouldn't take long. The big problem now is that since it seems like the rain is going to start we need to build them a little indoor space and to find somewhere to put the hay so it doesn't rot. The chickens have been enjoying the extra space outside and TJ has been enjoying sleeping on the hay. He's a real farm cat. 

Unfortunately, we seem to be losing chickens. Our leghorn, Mocha, had a stroke or something and can't move. Her legs are paralyzed and all she can do is squawk and fall over. Right now she's lying upside down in the bathtub in a pile of her own feces. It's awful. We want to put her out of her misery, but we don't know how. None of us is willing to break her neck. Yesterday we tried to give her some alcohol and an insulin injection but the insulin didn't even get into her body. It's not easy to get through the feathers. We know we have to kill her eventually but when she isn't falling over she looks so perky and happy... It's really hard for all of us, especially Sophie, but that's a part of having so many animals. Some of them have to die. We're probably going to end up with eight chickens instead of ten because Banana is thrice the size of her/his sisters and is strutting around perching on things. S/he hasn't started crowing yet but it's only a matter of time. 

I'll post some memorial photos of Mocha later on and I'll let everyone know if we hear anything more about the goat situation.

It is officially official! Indigoat farms has a goat. Her name is Kiah and she is three years old. She's never been kidded but we hope to get her knocked up before she comes down to us on Saturday. She comes from the herd of the goat lady, Colleen, and Colleen is also going to give us another doe. The family that is selling us Kiah has another goat that they decided not to sell to us because they were too attached to her. 

We are all epically excited and I have been thinking of nothing but goats all week. Here are two pictures of Kiah. The third picture is of several of Colleen's other goats (she has fifty of them) and among them is Kiah's mother. The last one... look at the bottom of the fence. 

I was unable to go up to the farm to buy Kiah because I have too much homework. Yes, it's sad. Yes, it's unbelievable. Yes, this farm is EXTREMELY important to me and I wanted to go but the transition into being a junior is hitting me very hard. These past few weekends I have had about fourteen hours of homework. No Joke. 

The chickens are growing, as always. The second batch is now living in the coop 24/7 with the other ones. They seem to be getting along tolerable well, although the big ones don't seem very accepting of the little ones. We'll have to do some chicken peer mediation if this keeps up. They are all going to very happy when the goat enclosure is finally finished because they will be allowed to wander around that whole area freely eating whatever the goats don't demolish. The coop was built for five chickens, not ten, and they seem a little crowded. 

We are dramatically increasing our food production as well. The self-watering containers are working so well and the veggies are growing so fast that we've just been making more and more containers. We're even growing quinoa, for protein. We'd like to be self-sufficient, but it doesn't seem like it would be possible. There are four of us and we eat a lot of vegetables. We'd need to have 10 times the amount of space we have to grow enough to feed us all for a month. I'm thrilled about our purple carrots, and I've been going out to the garden every morning and picking lettuce to make myself a big salad to take to school. I've also been sweetening my tea with the leaves from our stevia plant.

I am in my element right now. I love farming, I love my Dance and Theater classes at school; I can almost do the splits and going back to drama was an exhilarating homecoming. My internship is awesome, and on Monday we're piloting our first phone bank in Oakland, at the First Congregational Church on Harrison St. I'm so excited to be training in Oakland because it means I have two extra hours that I'm not spending on a BART train. I'm also organizing Oakland Tech's Gay-Straight Alliance. We signed up about fifty people today, which means that more than 20 of them will probably come regularly. I've found my calling! Community organizing is definitely my thing and I feel very strongly about the gay rights issue. Yay! As always, if anyone reading this is interested in putting their money where their mouth is and actually fighting for marriage equality, get in touch with Equality CA. There's even stuff you can do that doesn't involve talking to people. 

Construction Zone

Happy Labor Day! I think that everyone agrees with me that three-day weekends are the BEST! Two days just isn't long enough. I'm tired out already and it was just the first week of school. 

There's been a lot of stuff going on at Indigoat this weekend. My dad talked to a woman who breeds Oberhaslis and she's promised us a pregnant goat. Because she might call us up any day now, my dad has been working really hard outside to get the goat pen-and-skyway set up. They're going to have a large open area to hang out in and the a set of stairs up to a walkway over the chicken coop into the treehouse. According to Novella Carpenter, goats like to be up high because they're mountain animals and it makes them feel protected. The neighborhood kids are excited about the skyway too. 

The chickens are still growing at an incredible pace. It's hard to tell them apart any more. The babies have been at Kenda's destroying her yard, so I don't have any pictures of them but here are the big ones demolishing a Kabocha squash. 

My father's also been making self-watering containers to plant vegetables in. So far they're working really well. The soil always looks moist and the seeds are already germinating after two days. Our other beds are full of greens and TJ loves hiding in between the plants. 

It may be a little pretentious calling ourselves a farm at this point, but we're definitely getting there. I can't wait to be able to look outside and see goats and chickens frolicking around together in the enclosure that my dad's working on. I'm also really excited to be able to eat cheese! I eat cheese that I buy every week from this guy at the farmer's market, but only because I've seen pictures of his goats and seen a list of their names. According to my dad, Oberhaslis make really good milk! 

Wow. There's been a lot going on since my last entry. The first batch of chicks is starting to look almost full-grown. The second batch is still adorable and fuzzy but they're starting to grow their wing-feathers. The two groups met for the first time the other day in the portable coop. We were grateful that they didn't attack each other but they weren't all over each other either. They stayed in their separate groups and every once in a while the small ones would run over and rush the big ones. Just like middle school.

This picture isn't great but you can kind of see them hanging out together. A huge heat wave is hitting the Bay Area right now and it is HOT. In this weather, there's no risk of the chicks freezing so we put them outside in the real coop this morning. They seemed happy to have some vertical clearance and the be able to stretch their wings. 

Meredith, our friend and fellow chicken farmer who lives in Santa Cruz, had her baby at our house last week! It was really exciting. Well, actually, I was scared out of my mind at first because when she was driving down to Oakland, she thought that she was really in labor and I was the only one at home. My mom called me and told me that I was going to have to deliver the baby by myself. I've seen births before, but I've never actually helped, so I was a little nervous. Luckily, by the time she arrived her contractions had stopped and my mom and her midwife had time to arrive. It was a very loud birth, but it was over quickly. Our next-door neighbor was too stoned to complain. Meredith's labor started at 8:30 p.m. and by 10:15 the baby was out and the cord was cut. Welcome to our hippie commune, Enzo! 

That's the type of thing that goes down at the Levy-Sheon house. We have long, anthropological discussions with chickens, our fridge is full of home-made kimchee, sauerkraut, and fermenting milk products, my father and the mail man call each other up on the phone to talk about the right way to make injera, our friends give birth at our house, and, to top it all off, we have Meredith's placenta in our freezer, right under the Trader Joe's samosa burgers. 

I don't know if you remember when I talked about Novella Carpenter and GhostTown Farms. Well, I finally read her book and I HIGHLY recommend it. It's perfect for anyone who has ever wanted to grow their own food in their backyard and doesn't know how, or doesn't think they have enough space, or just needs that extra push to get their butt up off the couch and down to the feed store to buy some chicks. Plus, it's absolutely hilarious and a quick read. I guarantee you will not be able to put it down. 

We went to her open house today to see how her farm was set up. The vacant lot that she's turned into a garden is dense and lush and wild and amazing. It gets full sun so her vegetables are ENORMOUS! We especially wanted to check out her goat enclosure. We learned that they like little, cave-like spaces and they also like to climb stairs and be high up. Their natural habitat is the mountains, after all. My dad has plans for a drawbridge from our tree house over the chicken coop and down into their pasture area - a "Goat Skyway." We'll see how that goes... If you want to read more about GhostTown Farms, visit Novella's blog.

Well, school is starting on Monday. I'll try to post as often as possible but I don't know how much time I'm going to have. 

Here's a video of the babies that my father made. Enjoy!

Chicks from MyPetChicken.com from Nicolas Sheon on Vimeo.

And here are some more photos (because I know y'all can handle some more cuteness) of our neighbors, Scott and Kenda, with the chicks.

(This is probably my favorite all-time chicken photo: McNugget: Ninja Master!)

Here are some links to some veg and small farms articles

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/julia-moulden/how-small-farmers-are-sav_b_260242.html

This is an article that I just saw on Huffington Post today about small farms, urban farming, the battle with "The Man", and what you can do.

experts.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/06/03/meat_the_slavery_of_our_time

This presents the arguments against eating meat, it's good to know these things, even if you don't want to become a vegetarian. At the very, very least you should be conscious of what you are eating and know the health and environmental risks associated with your diet so you can make an educated choice.

www.huffingtonpost.com/kathy-freston/shattering-the-meat-myth_b_214390.html

When I was in France, an argument I heard a lot was that humans evolved eating a largely, or even almost exclusively carnivorous diet. THIS IS NOT TRUE!!!

www.huffingtonpost.com/kathy-freston/future-shock_b_210545.html

I personally find this article hilarious. It's a scene in a future classroom where kids are shocked that their ancestors actually ate other animals. 

Please know that I do not expect everyone to be vegetarian and you can be an amazing, wonderful, beautiful person and eat meat. I don't hate omnivores. However, I believe that everyone should educate themselves about what it is that they're eating. The same goes for not eating harmful pesticides or products that might be contaminated or poisonous. You should know about the potential effects on your body. 

Also, if you want to be vegetarian but it sounds too daunting to wake up one morning and never eat meat again, you don't need to do it that way. Some people can go cold turkey (no pun intended) but many people start slowly. Try eating plant-based meals one day a week, or one meal a day, and see how it goes. After a while you will probably be able to extend it to two days a week and so on. And if there's one food item that you can't give up and that's keeping you from going vegetarian (ex: I can't go vegan because I love ice cream, I can't be vegetarian because I love cheeseburgers too much) then just don't eat any dairy except for ice cream, or try to be vegetarian and then eat a cheeseburger when you feel like it. 

The planet and your body will thank you for it. The meat industry causes MORE THAN HALF of global warming and cutting back a little bit makes a BIG difference. Think about it.