Went down to the post office early this morning to pick up a box containing 30 baby chicks from Murray McMurray Hatchery in Iowa. We’ve been getting chickens this way for 30 years. We’ve switched to bantams, and this time got 20 Auracnas (green eggs) and 10 Silver and Golden Sebrings. The Sebrings are beautiful birds. McMurray’s birds are top quality. Their catalog is a delight to look through: https://is.gd/c33K9

I still can’t get over the incredibleness of these little creatures coming halfway across the country on an airplane. They’re shipped when one day old. When they arrive we put them in a box under an infra-red light and get them to drink water fortified with electrolytes. They start eating ground-up grain right away.

A lot of people are suddenly interested in backyard chickens. There’s even a magazine: https://www.backyardpoultrymag.com/

Today’s my birthday, also a full moon (whoo-whoo!). I was going to skate on the mountain at sunrise, but it was cloudy, so I decided to go to a rocky grotto on a nearby beach. I got up at 4:15, made my way down the “not-for-the-faint-hearted” trail, real steep in spots, It’d been raining and I soon learned that Vibram soles are slippery on wet rocks. Got down to the grotto as the full moon was going down on the western horizon. Rain drops falling. A swell had come up overnight and the waves were powerful and crashing. Vortex of energy! I hung out for maybe 20 minutes, then started back up the cliff. Partway up, I looked down at the beach in time to see a big flock of pelicans fly inches above a breaking wave. They use the wave’s updraft and hardly flap their wings. From my vantage point I could see them doing this beautiful dance, skimming above one wave, then when it broke, switching to a new, yet unbroken wave.

This was on the way home, a few hours ago. Low tide in the lagoon.

Lesley designed and built this bed, which is 4′ by 10′-6″.

How-to: First lay ¼” wire mesh on ground, then stack 2 layers of concrete blocks on edge of mesh. No fasteners. Fill both bed and blocks with soil, gophers can’t penetrate. Can grow strawberries, parsley etc. in blocks. Front of this bed is filled with salad greens; arugula, radicchio, etc., which we’ve been having along with wild miners’ lettuce for dinner these nights.

Gung hay fat choi! (Happy New Year!) The Year of the Tiger starts today, which is both Valentine’s day (celebrating love and affection) and a new moon.

“Tigers are physically powerful, gracious, independent and brave, they are extremely bold animals. They are friendly and loving but can also selfish and short tempered..…The Tiger flourishes by power and attention and takes advantage of all circumstances it gets itself into. The Tiger is a natural leader and loves to be the centre of attention. As a rebel it goes up against authority and speaks out about wrongs in society, and willingly puts up objections.…”

–from: https://www.yearofthetiger.net/

–photo from: https://www.onlineartdemos.co.uk/misc_images/on-easel/siberian-tiger-6.jpg

I’ve found three like this while running in the hills yesterday afternoon. My friend Paul Wingate once remarked on vegetarian deer producing all this calcium on a diet of grass.

-iPhone photo