Earlier this morning, I walked up to the coop to check on our flock. The temperature last night stayed around 40deg, so I didn’t take a pot of boiled water along. Just a morning hello, to top off the feeders and make sure everyone was happy and healthy.

I grabbed the 5 gallon galvanized waterer, closed the coop behind me and walked to the gate. While opening the gate, I cocked my head to the sound of an unearthly wail. Was that the wind? I turned, sloshing chicken water down my boot. Again, I heard the noise. This was not a sound I had heard before. “Eeaahuhhh.” Not super loud, but not a normal chicken noise. I checked the coop, thinking that maybe I had shut a chicken foot in the door or some such. Everything inside was clucks and pecks, nothing outside status quo.

I filled the waterer and walked back to the coop. Just before opening the door, “eeeeaaaauuhhhh!” It dawned on me then, this moan wasn’t the wind, wasn’t a hurt bird, but it was the first pathetic attempt at a cock-a-doodle-doo from our juvenile roosters. “Great,” I thought to myself. Wasn’t expecting that at just a little over 2 months old!

For the past year we have been baking much of our own bread, and always searching for a way to make a better loaf. Slow fermentation, no sugar or oil, letting the dough rest before kneading, starting with a levain the night before, and using a very wet dough have led to great results. Here is my favorite recipe to date, adapted from “Amy’s Bread.”

Country Sourdough

The night before you want to bake bread, make “Firm Levain” using your sourdough starter:

Firm Levain

1/4 cup sourdough starter
1/4 cup cool water
1 cup flour

Knead ingredients for 2 minutes to form a very stiff heavy dough. Let rise at warm room temperature for 8 hours or so. Don’t forget to refresh your starter!

In the morning, make your bread dough:

1/4 cup very warm water
3/4 tsp yeast
1 batch Firm Levain
2 1/2 cups cool water
5 3/4 cup flour
1 tablespoon salt

Mix yeast and warm water, let stand for 3 minutes. Add the Firm Levain and cool water, mix with your fingers for 2-3 minutes. Add the flour and salt and knead for 5 minutes. Let the dough rest (autolyse) for 20 minutes, then finish kneading. Dough will be somewhat wet and difficult to work. A stand mixer might make it easier.

Let it rise for 1 hour at room temperature, then gently deflate by folding inwards. Alternately, after the first rise and before deflating, you can refrigerate the covered dough for up to two days. After deflating, form loaves and let rise for another hour.

Bake loaves at 450deg for 20 minutes, then reduce to 400deg for 10-20 minutes. Should be ready in time for dinner!

*Also makes a great pizza dough. Enough for two large crusts. Bake at 400deg for 18 minutes.
** I also really like to chop up fresh rosemary and mix into the loaves before baking. Delicious!

They grow up so fast! Three and a half weeks ago we received 25 peeping fluffballs in the mail. Housed under a heat lamp in the living room, they were lovely for a week. Cute as can be. We separated the broiler chicks and laying hens into different boxes, as they eat different food.

A few days ago, they hit critical size. The contented murmur of warm, well fed chicks had turned into a near-constant proto-squawking. They were kicking up a layer of fine dust that infiltrated the entire apartment. I’d had enough. Off to college, kids.

We moved the broilers into the garage, with a kerosene heater keeping them above 60 degrees at night. While moving those chickens, it became very apparent that they were no longer house-pets. Widespread panic ensued as we transferred them to a box to be carried out back. Feathers flew through the glare of the heat lamp and clouds of dust roiled through the apartment as they squawked and flapped and leaped out of their brooder box in a frenzy, trying to avoid being scooped up. We rounded up the escapees from the kitchen floor, established them in their garage home, and swept up the pine shavings and chicken poo.

The layers stayed in the living room. Just five, and a finicky five at that. Temps in the house have been warm, plenty for the little peepers, so we started turning off the heatlamp at night. We discovered that, if you want to turn off a chicken, simply turn off the light. Well…perhaps not “simply”….because they raise a holy ruckus for the first five minutes of darkness! EEP! EEEP! EEP! EEEEP! They settle down soon enough, though…and seem to sleep well through the night.

Today we moved the whole lot out into the coop for a day of fresh air, exercise, and eating dirt. They are a joy to watch and interact with….especially in the backyard rather than living room. They’ll sleep well tonight!

They’re all in the garage now, and our house (cleaned for a new prospective tenant) is spotless. Apryle liked having them in the living room. I’m ok with them moving on.

Starting on the morning of July 1, we’ll be hiking along the Colorado Trail. Other than our almost daily SPOT updates, we’ll be out of touch until the end of the month. Feel free to leave comments, and we’ll get back to you when we return to civilization. Anyone interested in meeting up along the way can use the SPOT map to pinpoint our locations. Thanks to everyone who helped out, gave advice, and to John and Megan for putting us and our car up and for the ride to the trailhead. See you all in August!

I’ve been more or less out of commission with respect to hiking for the last two or three weeks; first a bruised ankle from an unfortunate post-holing incident in the Comanche Peaks and more recently a head cold that has laid me low. But I’m recovering nicely and I think that I’ll be in good shape in another few days to start our CT hike!

We’re pretty much set at this point. We are planning resupply points in Breckenridge, Twin Lakes, Mt. Princeton, Lake City, and Little Molas Campground. Of those, we’re mailing ration boxes to Twin Lakes, Princeton, and Little Molas. The boxes are pretty much packed.

Still settling on a stove. The cat-food can stove is the likely winner, but we need to figure out what quantity of fuel to carry and how to carry it. Seven days worth of denatured alcohol works out to be quite a lot of fuel.

If you are interested in joining us for a day or more somewhere along the trail, use our SPOT map to keep an eye on our location. We’ll hit the OK button each night when we make camp. We won’t be carrying a cell phone on this hike., and planning a meeting point is logistically difficult anyhow given the vagaries of foot travel in the mountains, but you are welcome to try to meet us at the next trailhead. Bring some fresh fruit, please!

Just a quick reminder – we’re doing a slideshow presentation at REI Boulder tonight at 7pm. Photos, video, a bit of schwag, and stories from our 111 day trip on the Inside Passage. For more info visit http://www.rei.com/event/3933/session/4583.

We went up into RMNP yesterday (Feb 18) and skinned to the top of the “Otis Redding Couloir“, at the base of Otis Peak on the south side of Chaos Canyon. I am not an avalanche expert, but we are definitely wary and keep an eye on things. It wasn’t pretty, and we bailed. Here’s the report I sent to CAIC.

We approached from the south (Loch Vale) and emerged just below the top of the gully. Decided to skin up and check out the steeper slopes. We noticed significant fracturing and set off a few small slides (~6-10″ deep) especially when cutting switchbacks near the top of the gully, north and northeast aspects. Dug a pit and found about four inches of powder with a 6″ thick soft slab below it. There were some crusty layers below, and then the rest of the snowpack below (4′?) was facets. The slab layer on top failed easily and cleanly after three or four thumps on an isolated column, AND we observed a natural slide (more of a slough) on a steep slope west of the couloir, and a big crown on a south-east aspect across Chaos Canyon.

We didn’t ski the gully due to conditions, but rather descended through trees and set off sloughs on most steeper slopes. Throughout much of the descent there was an obvious slab layer just below the recent snow with facets below.

It’s been snowing on and off since in Estes, and we’ve gotten 3-5 inches here in town since we got down…and it’s still coming down hard. Things are looking up for the early spring backcountry ski season!