La Casa Grande Colectiva

Tag: sun

  • chicken behaviors – dust bathing

    Our chickens love a good dust bath.  While it looks dirty and gross, its actually an important part of their natural hygiene.
    dust bathing leghorns

    On nice sunny days the chickens will spend all afternoon showering themselves with dirt.  They’ve found a few spots in the yard with suitable soil, but their favorite is over by the garage in the full sun.
    dust bathin

    The fine soil is sifted down through their feathers and helps by rubbing dry skin off their bodies.  It also helps by clogging the breathing holes of lice and other parasites.
    _MG_7085.JPG

    A quick shake and she’s as clean as ever.

  • House Meeting, march 16, 2009

    I wouldn’t normally blog about a house meeting, but our meeting today was really enjoyable and I wanted to explain how we organize ourselves and stay informed.  We set aside an hour each week to discuss things of importance related to the house.  An agenda is made up on the spot as we begin by proposing what things need to be addressed.  We depend on whiteboard and dry erase technology to keep track of the meeting, and notes are taken with someone’s computer.  All notes get posted to our internal house wiki that contains a variety of things no one will ever see but us.

    House meeting, march 16, 2009

    Today’s meeting was beautiful.  Food was prepared and we ate outside on the pic-nic table.  Fresh eggs served from cast-iron, mmm, mmm, mmm.  We were short one housemate, Jacob, who was at a cybernetics conference in Washington.  We had a lot to talk about but the meeting went quickly and we were soon done and working in the garden.  With the warm weather and time-change I can sense that we no longer need to worry about seasonal depression.  I have a bit of a sunburn to prove it, too.