hmm. for some reason I'm not able to enter a title into the title bar box today. oh well. life in the blogosphere must go on. here's the title i wanted to enter:

I'm a Chick Magnet
Our household now has the pitterpatter of little feet. And little wings. We bought two baby chicks on Saturday. They are about 3 weeks old, make cute little birdtwittery noices, and look very cute. If all goes well, we'll be eating home-grown eggs in a few months. I'm not sure if raising chickens for eggs is economical, but its been a lot of fun, just in the past few days.

A sharp-eyed poultry husbander can come across some great deals, even in semi-urban Oakland. Today I scored a free bag of chicken feed and a bale of straw. (Both came from a family who lost three chickens to racoons.) Even with free feed, by the time I build a coop (with small-mesh wire that can foil masked furry bandits) and whatever else we need, its probably less expensive to buy eggs at the store. However, the title of this blog is Living Well, and not just getting by, and I'm enjoying our latest agricultural experiment.

We've been thinking about chickens for a few months now, and they keep popping up. We've been randomly meeting people who have chickens, and reading about them in the NY Times and the East Bay Express. Chicken is the new pug, or something.

Cucumber on $6.60/hour

If I were on Food Stamps, would I have time to compose a blog? In 1993, when I was living in South Dakota and surviving on Food Stamps, I had time to write a small zine. I had time to check email. I had time to bake my own bread.

Currently, an idividual can earn up to $817, and a family of two can earn up to $1100 to get the maximum allotment of Food Stamps. (Those numbers are the "poverty line" as determined by the US Government.) That means one person earning $6.60/hour (40 hour week) for the family of two. Well, that leaves the other person not working, and one person -me!- at home with time to cook and grow the garden.

I'm not assuming anything here - I just wanted to run the numbers and see if it could be possible. (I would not be able to afford to pay my mortgage though, so I wouldn't be living here.)

Today we harvested our first cucumber - yay! I'm half way through the Square Foot Gardener and the seedlings in the new bed are popping up. More food on the way.