ARK picked up more bokbok friends last weekend. Rock passed away last week, and Brulee was very very sad. I told her we needed to get Brulee some friends for the winter, or we should send her to another plane of existence. She took LK and his old classmate/soccer team member AM to Baxter Barn in Fall City to obtain some young friends. ARK thought of getting only three more, but I said we should get a least four; if we got four we could get four more next year and possibly have a easier time integrating the new bokboks. Or we could go big and get eight (the maximum allowed in the city, although the henhouse is sized for ten and we would have nine at that point). ARK decided to go big.

She came back with one each of

• Rhode Island Red
• Black Australorp
• Gold Sexlink
• Barred Rock
• Black Sexlink
• Easter Egger
• Americana
• Cuckoo Maran
• Delaware

My requirements were only that the could all go outside immediately without supplemental heat, and we both liked getting all different breeds. I wanted to get primarily champion egg layers, but that would have been hard to do without me going as well. I also wanted to get a Mottled Java because I think they look cool, but apparently they were all gone, so I think the farmer guy got us the Cuckoo Maran as a replacement (same colors anyway).

It turned out we got a bonus chicken. ARK came home and said “can you check if there are nine faces looking back at you?” The Delaware was the bonus pullet as it was not on the receipt. I had to look it up as I was unfamiliar with the breed… probably because it is primarily a meat bird as opposed to a layer.

I did not quarantine them as is usually recommended, which could be a mistake. I did pop them into the henhouse and spent the time finally fixing the screens underneath the henhouse to keep them from wandering about the yard. I still have to fully predator-proof it though; raccoons can come in through some openings between the henhouse and run still.

They seem to be adjusting fine. Brulee pretty much ignores them as she is many four times their size. They avoid her. At first they slept in a pile on the floor of the henhouse, but then they moved to the perches next to the nesting boxes, then into the nesting boxes themselves (a no no!). Away from Brulee who was at her usually perch (actually Rock’s old perch) at the other end of the henhouse. Last night most of them slept on the other perch except for the gold/red sexlink who slept by Brulee(!), the easter egger who slept on the divider between the perch area and the rest of the coop, and the rhode island red who kept sleeping on the floor.

Rock passed away yesterday. She was four years old; on the low end for backyard chicken lifespan, but not unusual. She had not laid an egg since January, and ARK was thinking about given her to our chinese neighbors. But as it turned out, she lived a full life. She had been slowing down considerably this year, and she lost her grip as the top hen in the pecking order. For the last couple of months she could not jump to the perches in the henhouse and instead slept in the nesting boxes. I am not sure why she died, but Thursday night it was obvious she would not last the night. She was a good bokbok.

Here is Buff, Star, and Rock a couple of years ago. Sadly, none of them are with us anymore. Buff and Star fell victim to a raccoon attack a couple of month after this picture was taken.

We had bfast at my inlaw’s place. Afterwards, I passed out on their couch while everyone else when to pick raspberries for jam.

Back home while J was sleeping, we cleaned up the house. I basically cleaned up the office [note: is it now messy again because we cleaned up for pictures today and stuff was dumped in the office].

In the afternoon, we went to Madrona Park where AC had won a reserved shelter in an auction or something. I had not seen AC or MC or family in a while; Amanda had gone camping with them during Memorial Day, but I was in Portland then getting my Level 1. Kai spent most of the time swimming while Jae rolled about in the grass and pointed at the “duckies” which were in fact Canada Geese. Kai later regretted swimming as he became hyperthermic once the sun vanished behind the clouds. They had the place reserved until 10pm, but we had to leave early as we were going to JI’s place to watch the fireworks in some fashion.

We went up the JI’s house and discussed where to watch the fireworks… either just walk down the street or go to her rowing club on Lake Union to watch them. We eventually went down to the club; JI said there would be “food and games” but she was unsure of what the scene would be. The club had just bought the building her rowing mates used to use to become and combined social/rowing club, so she joined since the boathouse was mere minutes away from her house.

The club was nice enough, although there seemed to be an odd mixture of people there: old social members, teenagers, etc. They had a couple of bands there that actually seemed pretty good to me, but not appropriate for the audience and they played very very loudy… so loudy we escaped the main room to other environs. I found the building (basically two floating buildings connected together, very oddly laid out, but JI said it was expressly constructed as a rowing club which would explain the weirdness. We ended up talking in the fitness room while the kids ran around. LK and EI-P later spent a lot of time dancing to the band in spite of the loud volume. I hope their hearing is not permanently damaged.

The fireworks were fine. From our vantage point we could see the fireworks that displayed at a lower altitude that we had not seen from previous vantage points. There were also skydivers immediately before the fireworks and a few hours prior. The earlier ones did these crazy landings at Gasworks Park by doing crazy flips and spins way too close to the ground/water. I thought they were going to horribly wipe out, but they did not. I guess they are the professionals. The later ones shot cool flames from somewhere on them so they looked quite impressive as they came down. They both passed in front of the moon which would have made a great photo if I had my camera. I had a good time, but JI seemed to think it not worth the trouble to go down with the kids, so perhaps next year we will just hang out at her place to watch them.

2014 JUL 02 #182 – Open Gym

1x Power Clean + 1x Hang Squat Clean
165# (???)

“Blast from the Past”
200m run
15-21-9
– squat
– push-up
– ring-row
200m run

5:10

Amanda and I went to the open gym together; it was actually the first time we ever worked out at the same time. Although, now I am thinking we did once before when there was a team workout and she did not want to be on my team. I don’t actually remember what I did on the cleans. We were just messing around. Instead of doing the day’s workout, we did the original one that everyone does on their first day. I believe I did it in over 2.5 minutes faster. Amanda did hers in less than half the time!

2014 JUL 03 #183

Arm Bar / Turkish Rollover 5-5-5 45#

3 rounds:
90s wall walk
90s rest
90s russian KB swing 70#/53#
90s rest

16/123

The arm bars were on the difficult side as always. I suppose that means they are good for you. I am unsure if I like them better than the full Turkish Get Up move.

The workout was on the rough side. Meaning it was pretty exhausting.

2014 JUL 05 #184

Overhead Squat 7-5-3-2-2-2-2-2+
45-75-85-115-125-145# (1)

3x500m row
5 minutes rest between rows
1:41 / 1:51 / 1:53

I only got 1 rep at 145#, but it was a PR. Woo! The rows were painful. I was going good on the first 500m at a 1:31 pace until the last 100m when I just gassed out. I had hoped to keep the rest in the 1:40s, but failed. Perhaps the OHS took more out of me than anticipated.

“Helen”

3 rounds:
400m run
21x KB swing 53#/35#
12x pull-up

14:09 (russian swings)

5 rounds:
30s l-sit
30s rest

I was going to do american swings, but my form was off and I did not want to freak AR out. The workout was alright, although my legs were tight from the squats and cleans yesterday. I did make a concerted effort to not use the run as recovery time, but I lost a lot of time on the pull-ups as the last two rounds I basically did three at a time.

I did the l-sits on the rings. The first two I basically did unbroken (with crazy amounts of shaking at the end), but the last three I could only go 10s without dropping. Alas.