So it's Grits & Jackass night. Meaning Mike is out and I can eat, watch and listen to all the stuff he doesn't like. Only this night I am not alone.
There is a chicken in our bathtub.
The garden gate fell on her and she's injured, so we took her in to recuperate where the other birds won't pick on her. I figure I'll know she's well enough to go back with the others when she jumps out of the tub.

Though I was worried that day might not come. She'd only been taking water when I hold her up to it, and she reluctantly ate a few earthworms but hasn't touched her usual food. I was really concerned, as she's become less mobile since I brought her in.

I made my traditional pot of garlic Grits and settled in, then figured I'd drop a spoonful of it next to her food.

She went for it like a starved dog after a dropped steak. Like I'd been feeding her rocks up until now. Holy crap. She's standing up to eat it and everything.

I'm afraid I may have sent her down a road of addiction that cannot be reversed.


Bathtub Chicken is watching you pee.

Yikes. Sorry LJ, you still alive?

( New Hampster )

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( Norwescon )

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( Cape Dissapointment )

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( Trip to EWA )

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( Chickens & ducks )

Friday we drove our home out to Camano Island State Park, where we met up with Keith, Sue, & The Flame-Haired One for Keith's birthday. It was raining a bit, windy, and cold, but we had our pick of campsites and they looked right out onto the sound. Keith got a Coleman Pop-up trailer, with inexplicable tread plate siding, he has dubbed it the "Mobile Fortress of DOOOOM" <-You have to say it that way, too.

Jax, JC and their Gypsy Child beat us there by about 5 minutes, and we were later joined by Sandie and Krystal.

The first thing I did once we parked was to move the fire using Keith's hefty pair of tongs, I took burning logs from one fire pit to the next, which was more protected from the wind. I was dubbed a master criminal for stealing a fire. Then the tarps went up, flapping noisily in the wind. We relaxed and showed sobriety the door. The conversation quickly degenerated into the kind of things you only talk about when the kids are sleeping. I HOPE they were sleeping. If they weren't the parents are going to have some questions to answer.

By morning the weather had improved: 50, overcast, and calm. I was awaken by the cries of bald eagles, which were joined by the voices of the two girls bossing each other around. JC and Mike constructed some coffee, which I gratefully took advantage of.

( Where I spent time alone with children )

Funny enough, I was in very little trouble for bringing the kids back with their new fluffy coats, as the adults had attempted to deliver my partner from sobriety without his knowledge and were afraid they'd be in trouble with ME. They pulled the same trick with me successfully, and if they hadn't said anything I wouldn't have noticed, though in retrospect it was somewhat evident.

( The Cake is a Lie )

We were not entirely without sweets, Sue made up a fantastic batch of rice krispy treats.

( You Drunk My Battleship )

The evening proceeded with further debauchery and two truckloads of wood that Keith was determined to get through that weekend. He attempted to melt the park's iron fire ring. Somewhat fortunately this failed. Thermite was suggested, but Keith had apparently left it in his other pants.

The RV was rockin', for various reasons some hilarious, others exactly what you'd expect.

Breakfast was a feast, including hash browns by JC, pancakes by Sue, and the leftovers from the giant meat cake. We watched the eagles and eventually packed up and made our way out.
I still had about 20 eggs left and made the Fritatta of doom when I got home.

Good times!

Just whipped out my first home raised chicken & duck egg fritatta.

( Fritatta Recipe )

Which reminds me... Ducks. Ducks are OMGSOCUTE, but at first that's all they had going for them. When we got our first batch of ducks, I thought they were fing USELESS. They weren't eating slugs, they went through a LOT of feed, made a huge mess with any water that happened to be around, and it seemed like they could crap their own weight twice a day.

8 months later, it paid off. The slug population vanished. I still find one cowering under a log once in awhile, but our garden was free (to get eaten by the goats, to tell the truth). Our white pekin is our best layer, and she's got 18 hens of all different flavors to compete with. One egg a day, consistently. She did stop laying (and molted) when the Drake died, but started up again when we got a new drake-which was a little odd, he never mates with her, while the cayuga(also a good layer) and the pekin actually have some kind of lesbian relationship going.

The Pekin is almost two years old. We have four other ducks, the cayuga, two rowans(can't tell between them and mallards), and an Indian runner drake, who's mostly entertainment value and doesn't seem to repel water as well as the others. Not only do they eat slugs, they eat mosquito larva out of the standing water as well, and do very little damage to plants-I have caught them munching on the lettuce, but compared to the slugs, it's negligible.

Now we're getting two duck eggs a day. One of the guys on the property will eat straight up fried duck eggs, but I made a pure duck egg omelet once and will not do so again-WAY too rich.

( Baking with duck eggs )

( Ducklings )

Watching ducklings hit water for the first time is the best thing EVER; it IS what happiness looks like. If you have food for them, they love to look for it under water(this doesn't work with bread). Throw them worms or slugs and watch those babies dive.

( Adult ducks v. chickens )

( Predators )

I loathe it. I think the best time I ever had on V day was getting shitfaced with a bunch of other bitter singles.
The only difference between being single and not is I don't get sympathy e-mails from my parents anymore.

I'm going to a wedding tomorrow, while weddings aren't really my thing, I'm kind of glad as it'll give me something to do besides be cranky.

Hit the aquarium today with Mike, Krystal, Sue, and two children. Ryan(10?) and The Flame-Haired One(7) being the only ones with a decent night's sleep under their belts -the unfairness of this was not lost on me.

( Wolf Eel )

( Octopi & touch tanks )

( OMG CUTTLEFISH! )

( Spiny Lumpsuckers )

( Birds )

( Pinnipeds )

( Weapons-grade Neurotoxin )

Sue called the expedition to a halt: "I'm HUNGRY!" we left, deftly avoiding the gift shop, and piled back into Krystal's van for a trip to Bothell for salty Mexican food. While eating seafood at an aquarium is along the lines of ordering stew at a zoo (one questions how locally obtained the ingredients are) after seeing all those lovely fish, I was in the mood for seafood. I went for a chimichanga stuffed with various bivalves and shrimp. I WANT their sauce recipe. Subtle creamy lemonish... yay.

Oh, SPEAKING OF, the aquariums and other organizations have issued seafood watch guides. Sushi and seafood eaters would do well to heed these. Not only for the purposes of species and habitat conservation, but mercury and toxins as well. Go! Read! Now!

Note to self: If I want more than my 20 bucks worth out of the Seattle Aquarium, I go early and go alone, on a weekday. Still, it was a good visit with many worthwhile encounters.

Despite the efforts of those voting against it, Washington State has now joined progressive countries like, oh, South Africa, in allowing people to engage in wedlock regardless of gender.
Good. I'm proud of my state for once. Hugs and love.

Because I may not get to again, here is a list of things I love to do on the Olympic Peninsula, just a few.

Crepes by the Kingston ferry terminal

Exploring the bunkers at Fort Warden

Olympic Game Farm in Sequim, get extra bread before you get there, take the driving tour. When you get to the bears, raise your hand out the window at them, palm out. Throw them a reward if you want them to do it again, or the others to do it. The smaller grizzlies are the best for this, but I think they all know tricks.

You can feed the buffalo, if one gets it's head in your car, move smoothly, don't startle it. Grab its horns and push it out of the window. You can push it by the nose, but their horns can get hung up on you window frame and your hand gets all slimy.

Dinner at Cest Si Bon: Northern French food, best I've fond in WA. The owners are very loveable. Not to be missed.

Salt creek recreation area: Tidepools on the East end of the cove, amazing at low tide. A family of sea otters lives under the tiny island, and grey whales and their babies hang out in the cove.

Olympic Hot Springs: A drive up the Elwha valley and an easy 2 mile hike in. A bunch of pools to pick from, spend the night.

Queets river valley: gorgeous, good camping. Assume you'll get rained on.

Graves Creek campground up the Quinault: Magical. Or hit North Fork campground on the other side of the river for a great swimming spot and a beach.

A 13 mile hike from Grave's Creek is Enchanted Valley, just go on up the river. Chances are you'll come across bear and elk sign on the way, you'll hear the rumble of the glaciers and ice caves from the valley. Waterfalls pour off the cliffs, fog rolls in off the mountains at night, you can watch it pour into the valley.

Ocean shores: In the winter you can drive for miles on the beach. Fly a kite or go horseback riding, but the main reason I go to Ocean Shores is for corned beef sandwiches at Galway Bay Irish pub. I haven't had anything else there, the sandwiches are too good to pass up. Real corned beef brisket.

I hope to have a list like this for the northeast of the UK by next year. We'll see.

Robert David Steele, Ladies and gentlemen.

Early Friday morning, after the traditional < 4 hours of sleep, we spent 45 minutes digging the little Hyundai out of the crusty snow, followed by getting stuck twice in a Sultan parking lot, being pulled out by an eager man and his new Durango, and skipping another stop to avoid having to go through that again, we hit the relatively clear freeways and headed to the Seatac Marriott.

( Rustycon ) I blew through the ridge made by the snowplow and fishtailed into my parking spot, Mike making comments about his drycleaning bill. We passed Out.