The Tangled Nest

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Entries Tagged as 'seasons'

Chickens Versus Snowpocalypse

January 18th, 2012 · 20 Comments

Hi, Tom here… Lyanda’s away on a writing retreat so I am hijacking her blog for a few days. In Seattle it’s a snow day–we are having our annual “snowpocalypse,” when a few inches of snow completely shuts down the city and sends cars skidding into the curbs and children flocking into the unfamiliar white [...]

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Tags: chickens, seasons, urban farming

The Urban Winter Wild

January 10th, 2012 · 15 Comments

Winter is considered a time of quiet and hibernation, and often we wait until spring to think about viewing birds and other creatures. But the cold of winter increases the energetic need of wild animals, sending them out to seek food at all hours of the day.  It’s one of the best times to watch [...]

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Tags: birds, seasons, urban nature

The Quantified Year: A Family New Year’s Survey

December 30th, 2011 · 7 Comments

A guest post from Tom: How many states did you visit in 2011? Countries? How much do you weigh? What piece of music are you currently practicing? What magazines do you read? How many Facebook friends do you have? I recently ran across a journal I kept in 2008-09. On January 2, 2009 there is [...]

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Tags: seasons

Happy Solstice…

December 21st, 2011 · 5 Comments

…Peace to all creatures. Thank you for sharing The Tangled Nest this year.

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Tags: chickens, seasons

Return of the Prodigal Chicken: A Holiday Story

December 8th, 2011 · 8 Comments

Most people ate turkey on Thanksgiving.  Us?  We came home from the holiday feast with a live chicken. Last May, our older chickens went into Urban Chicken Retirement at my Uncle Joe’s farm in Maple Valley.  We’ve taken our aging flocks there in the past, where they  nibble away their golden years in wide sun-dappled [...]

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Tags: chickens, seasons, urban farming

The Tangled Nest 2012 Holiday Gift Guide

December 3rd, 2011 · 11 Comments

One of the most lamentable things about the corporate takeover of the winter holidays is the co-optation of gift-giving.  Presents under the tree have become synonymous with obscene mobs at Walgreens and Best Buy. In an effort to separate ourselves from that scene, many of us seeking a simple, authentic season have declared “no gift” [...]

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Tags: seasons, simple gifts

Backyard Camping Season Draws To A Close

October 3rd, 2011 · 2 Comments

A post from Tom: As Lyanda has described before, for the third year in a row we’ve had our enormous family tent pitched in the back yard and slept out there most nights. I’ve probably slept in my indoor bed no more than half a dozen times since the fourth of July. Sadly, this weekend [...]

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Tags: seasons

A Cool Coop: Caring for Chickens in the Heat

August 4th, 2011 · 2 Comments

Well, we’ve finally had a few sunny days in Seattle, and even though it hasn’t hit 80 degrees yet, I’ve noticed the chickens are seeking shade, and panting a little–nothing to worry about.  But in much of the country it’s a great deal hotter, and I’ve been receiving questions from folks about caring for urban [...]

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Tags: chickens, seasons, urban farming

Baby Crows In Our Midst

June 21st, 2011 · 11 Comments

One of the Crow Questions I hear most often is, “Why do I never see baby crows?”  In truth, it is likely that we have all seen plenty of baby crows–but we are misled by the human tendency to conflate “baby-ness” with small-ness.  A few crows will jump from the nest before they are grown, [...]

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Tags: crows, seasons

Kitchen Table Seedlings: Watering from the Bottom-Up

May 18th, 2011 · 11 Comments

Wow.  It is a cold cold cold spring here in Seattle.  Record cold and dark.  Nearly 200 days of sub-70 degrees in a row.  Only five days since January 1 without rain. Today is finally sunny, but there was a light frostiness on the ground this morning.  All of us have been getting crabby, and [...]

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Tags: garden, seasons