Out and About: The Portside

Los Olivos and Solvang

Santa Barbara County

March 16, 2015

We've been fortunate to have The Man's Mom stop in for visits while earning and preserving her Premier Platinum status with United Airlines. During her visits we mostly hang out and enjoy the animals. Which is to say, we don't really do much of anything. We . . .  relax.

On a whim, we decided to drive south to Solvang for the day. Although The Man and I have been going to the Christmas Tree Burn at the Old Santa Inés Mission in Solvang, it's been many (many) moons since the three of us spent time visiting the Danish-styled town.

Tourists (with Tina)      circa mid-1980's

On the trip south we detoured to the pretty town of Los Olivos to say howdy to our friend Lauren at the Daniel Gehrs Wines Tasting Room.

We had not intended to do any wine tasting during our visit, we just wanted to catch up with Lauren. Such a cute tasting room and beautiful outdoor courtyard; Lauren gave us a tour and then invited us to sample a glass of Port wine . . . with chocolate chip wafers.

How to describe Port, the delicious fortified wine?

One word: Yum. 

Two words: Yum Yum.

After our fun visit with Lauren, we hit the streets of Los Olivos.

 The Grange Hall - it doubles as the Public Library on Saturdays from 10 am-1 pm.

The magical J. Woeste in Los Olivos: the former home of my red begonia potted plant. That is, I'm talking about my still-alive-and-still-pretty-but-not-as-beautiful-as-when-I-first-received-it-from-Al-and-Anda (Lauren's family) 'Barkos' Begonia.

There was so much to see in this incredible place. And since we decided to sit in a giant red chair, I thought it fitting to "transform y(our) world into a live cartoon" (ToonCamera app).

Eventually we did make our way down to Solvang. We briefly browsed a few of the same shops we visited thirty years ago. (Sadly, no photo op cutouts.) We ate a Danish Smorgasbord lunch at the Red Viking Restaurant; I even tried the pickled herring and pickled herring cauliflower with curry mayo (now I can cross Smørgåsbord off my bucket list).

Next time we'll skip Solvang.

Instead we'll spend the day in Los Olivos: revisit J. Woeste's Home and Garden Treasures, savor Port wine, eat chocolate, and spend slow time with family and friends.

Lauren, fortified with Brandy  1/30/15

Not Chicken Feed

(Chicken Feed: a very small amount of money.)

The Peeps celebrated their first birthday a couple of months ago which, I guess, makes them Girls. It doesn't seem that long ago when we brought them home. The memory of introducing them to the original flock is still fresh. It was a stressful time for all of us as the pecking order was reestablished. And you can bet those poor Peeps got their fair share of pecks from the older three Girls.

We give chicken ownership a thumbs up. Well, hens anyway since we don't know much about owning a rooster. Haven't had the . . . pleasure.

The Girls provide us with white, pink, and brown jumbo eggs, anywhere from 4 to 6 eggs per day. We've been giving them away to friends but still had a surplus. Awhile ago a co-worker asked if she could buy eggs and since I knew she had fruit trees I asked her if she'd like to trade home-grown goodness instead. On a weekly basis she's been receiving our fresh eggs in trade for her juicy sweet oranges, blood oranges, and "not Haas" avocados. In a few weeks her peaches will be ready. Woohoo.

Recently, another co-worker offered to buy any extra eggs we might have. She and her husband eat three dozen organic, cage-free eggs per week. Yes. Three. Dozen. Per. Week. That's a whole lotta eggs! She didn't have anything to trade so I offered her a dozen for $3. She brings me her empty egg cartons and the good Girls comply.

Egg Money

Sophia ~ Quality Inspector

"Where's Tandy?"

Tandy, hard at work.

A Matter of Time

The woman selling the pullets said, "Livestock is deadstock," and warned The Man not to get too attached to the chickens she had just sold him.

Yesterday when I came home from work The Man told me one of the chickens was missing. He had been working in the garage, heard a loud noise, and all the animals--goats and chickens--ran into the garage. When he was able to do a head count he realized a Buff Orpington was missing.

Sophia, aka "the Hag", followed me as usual but I found the remaining four chickens hiding under the deck with Brandy amongst them. I was not surprised that Tandy was missing. She's the one who likes to be carried, the sweet one. I looked at Sophia and gave her the chicken stare: "It could have been you."

Still in my work scrubs, The Man and I walked the chickens down to their coop and locked them in the pen. We searched the area around the Vista and the fence line but we only found a handful of soft blonde feathers. No body, no blood. We reassured ourselves that it must have been very quick.

As we searched, I kept looking upwards towards the treetops and the sky. No turkey vultures circling. No golden eagle--since November we've had an eagle occasionally perch in the pine tree next to our driveway. It could only have been an eagle to take down a chicken as large as Tandy. No hawk could have carried her away.

I finally went inside to change out of my work clothes. As I looked out the upstairs bedroom window I saw one lone chicken on the outside of the pen. I hurried back down to the pen with The Man and scooped Tandy up. I checked her over for injuries or blood. Nothing.

When I put her back down she went on her merry way, pecking at the green sprouts, clueless.

Photo by Barbie 12/13

Foodie Friends

The other day my friend Sandee wrote a very delicious blog post about making Artisan bread in just five minutes. Although the thought of making hand-crafted bread so quickly was intriguing I was more interested in her bread cloche. I knew what a cloche hat was but had never heard of a bread cloche. (I didn't know I needed one till I read her post and saw the beautiful bread sitting in the stoneware cloche.)

The tempting photo made me think of another friend, CJ. She's a coworker friend, an accomplished baker, and amazing blogger. Her blog is called Food Stories. I'm not sure where she finds the energy to work full-time and keep up with her blog but she does and she does both well.

CJ's blog has a section called Food Foto Gallery, because "we love food and food photos".

So anyway I was thinking Sandee should post her beautiful bread and cloche to the Food Foto Gallery. As I read the submission instructions and looked at other people's photos I thought, "Well, why not." And posted my own photo.

Here's a screenshot of part of today's Food Foto Gallery. Can you find my food photo?

Everyone but the Dog

We're finally getting some of our much needed rain. In fact, it's been raining off and on for the past four days. Our home rain gauge is at the 5 inches mark, that's more rainfall than all of last year!

The animals have been cooped up in the pen for the past two days and although they're free roaming today it doesn't look like anyone wants to be outside. The doghouse seems to be the perfect shelter from the storm.

For Molly the Cat.

Sophia and two white eggs.

"You know we're not house-broken. . . ."

And the dog?

Sleeping inside the house on her heated bed.

Eggcellent!

The Girls have been very productive. They've been plopping out four to six eggs per day. My egg basket (Christmas gift from The Man) has been in continuous use.

White eggs from Sweetness and Baby (Red Leghorns), pinkish-brown eggs from Tandy and Brandy (Buff Orpingtons), and brown eggs from Mrs Bond (Plymouth Rock) and Sophia (Speckled Sussex).

Yes, even Sophia, (aka "The Hag", "Chicken Soup", "Henny Penny", and a few unmentionable names) has been putting out her fair share.

Sophia's Inspection

Fruits of our Labor

But, as they say, not all eggs are created equal but they are all equally delicious.

Chickens and Duhks

Birds of a feather really do flock together. Yesterday, the ladies were buddying up with their same-colored gal pal. (Note that tint of green -- little sprouts coming up after the sprinkles of rain.)

Last night, The Man and I drove south for a concert at the Clark Center for the Performing Arts.  Lucky me, this is the second time I've won tickets from the hospital -- community sponsors of the Clark Center. To make it even better, Susan, a work friend, also won tickets and we sat next to each other.

The Duhks (pronounced like "ducks"), a Canadian folk rock band, was a pleasant surprise of versatility: appalachian, Americana, cajun, fiddling and french songs, gospel, audience-participation hambone (slap, slap, clap) and let's not forget the rockin' banjo. It was fun and it looked like the band enjoyed themselves almost as much as we did.

The Duhks   Clark Center for the Performing Arts   2/15/14

Milk and Cookies

Every once in a while you click with someone instantly. It's as though you've known that person for a long time even though you've just met. Barbie and I clicked when she started working a 12-week Traveling Nurse assignment. When her time was up and before she started her trek back to Texas, I was able to knit her a Cable Lace hat with Leche yarn. It turned out pretty well and I'm sure it will keep her nice and warm this winter.

 

Before she left she baked Christmas goodies for us: a variety of cookies and biscotti. It was doubly-good since she forgot to bring it when she came over and made another trip over The Grade the next day just to bring us her delicious gifts.  We tried to dissuade her but we're glad she returned with the baked treats.

Barbie, my friend, Happy Trails to you….

Yum: Life is Sweet

(Thanks to Sandee for the inspiration of this week's post.)

Thanksgiving 11/28/13

Thanksgiving Treats for the Boys and Girls

The Goaty Boys

The Girls

Fresh Eggs!

Life is Sweet

Impeckable Timing

I am happy to report that The Girls are growing some mighty fine looking feathers. Baby (Frankenchicken) is looking sleek and shiny; her new feathers are a deep dark auburn color. Sweetness (aka Countess Dracluckula) still looks a bit scruffy but otherwise healthy.

More good news: The Peeps have started laying eggs. We received our first egg a week ago, three days before their six-months-old birthday. So far we've received five good-sized creamy brown eggs.

Cafe Au Lait eggs

All the eggs were found in the pen: one on the ground and four in the Igloo dog house. I'm not sure what possessed The Man to look in there but I'm glad he did.

I suspect Brandy is the egg layer. For a couple of days she's been doing the Chicken Squat. But on the other hand, both Brandy and Mrs Bond have been loudly singing the Egg Squawking Songs. For all I know they could both be sharing the Igloo.

Buff Orpingtons: Tandy (l) and Brandy (r)

"My name is Bond. Mrs Jane Bond."  (Barred Plymouth Rock)

Newbies

Chickens are the greatest.  Who would have thought?  The Man says, "You feed them garbage and they provide you with delicious eggs."  (Garbage?  I guess he doesn't notice that I wash all the veggie scraps carefully and chop them up into beak-sized pieces.)

After BeBe died it just didn't seem like we were getting enough eggs.  I think I've mentioned before that the Red Leghorns are great layers, the Speckled Sussex not so much.  I felt like we needed more chickens.

We checked our local Hay and Feed stores and kept an eye on Craigslist.  We wanted fully feathered chicks so we didn't have to deal with a heat lamp.  I wanted to get two so they'd have each other to stand up against The Girls.  I was pretty sure Sophia was going to give them a hard time.

We found just what we were looking for a few weeks ago in Craigslist:  Buff Orpington and Barred Rock pullets.  I wasn't sure if I wanted two Buffs or two Rocks.  Since these Peeps were together we brought home all three.

  

First Look

It's a little nerve-wracking to watch Sophia establish dominance.  The Man has been calling her "The Hag".

Sophia with her evil chicken stare

The Newbies spent five days in quarantine (chicken wire around their crate) and another few days in the garage without the wire before we moved them down to the Pen.  We kept them locked up in the Pen during the day and brought them back to the garage at night.

The Newbies are now free range during the day and sleeping in the coop at night.  

The Man was finally able to get the livestock out of his garage.

It's not a farm, it's a zoo.