Random garden shots

We had a pretty uneventful weekend. I didn't get some fall planting done that I wanted to because of being busy. But we did end up going to the Ballard p-patch Art in the Garden again this year. I bought some earrings from a local artist, we bought some flowers grown in the p-patch (see picture below) and generally just poked around.

Sunday we took Paco to the off-leash dog park and I let the chickens do some free ranging of their own. Our sunflowers are finally producing as are the blackberries and we finally, after 3 years, have some grapes growing on our vines!

On the way home from the dog park, we stopped by Top Pot for some coffee and donuts. Paco was pretty pooped out from playing. But not too pooped to pose.

Dog versus chickens

Result:

Dog - Likes chickens
Chickens - Not so much

I made the mistake last week of letting Paco (our new rescue Chihuahua mix) loose to run around our backyard and check things out. Now, our chickens are totally used to the neighborhood cats sitting and staring at them at close range (see picture at right), so I didn't think much about it. Of course, the chickens were in their enclosed coop and run, safe from any puppy rambunctiousness.

However, as he ran around the yard and eventually ran over to the run, the chickens went batshit crazy and, in an attempt to escape Paco (who is notably smaller than they are), they ended up slamming themselves into the side and roof of the run.

Okay, that wasn't so helpful. The next few times, I walked him around the yard on the leash and they were a little bit better. Since Sarah is in perpetual nesting mode (we're going to try water-boarding her this weekend), she didn't care, but Chloe was bagawking like a crazy lady.

I'm hoping they eventually get used to having him in the backyard since I'd like to be able to work out back and let him run around at the same time (while the chickens are in their run) without having to listen to a bunch of chicken bitching.

For those of you who have chickens and pets, how did you introduce them?