Chicken Recycling

In Belgium, they are much better at recycling than anywhere I have lived in the U.S., or in Suriname (recycling - what's that?). We have to separate our trash into paper, plastic bottles and aluminum cans, regular household trash, and food waste. The way you pay for your trash pickup is by purchasing the bags from the city. That way, you pay for what you use. If it's not in the official bag, it won't get picked up. The bags aren't cheap, either. The regular household trash bags are 1 Euro each. (I think they are trying to discourage overuse of these bags.) The bags for plastics and cans are much cheaper, and paper products/boxes don't need a bag at all. Just set them out in a cardboard box on paper pickup day. There are two options for food trash. Either rent a compost trash container for 80 Euros per year, which they pick up and empty once a month, or give the food trash to your chickens.

When we rented our house, it came with a chicken. She really belongs to the landlord's mother, who lives two doors down, but she doesn't have a good place to keep her, so the landlord asked if we wanted her. Sure! Her name is Zeertruude (I think that's spelled right), which is equivalent to our Gertrude. So, we call her Gertie. Here is a picture of her.

Our landlord told us that, at one time, our town's government decided it would help their recycling program if they gave everyone a chicken, because they love to eat kitchen scraps. That is how the chicken came to be with the house. She is part of our recycling program.

Now, Gertie is getting old, and wasn't laying very many eggs, so the kids thought it would be a good idea to get some more chickens. They were sure that Gertie was lonely. Actually, they just thought it was really cool to go in the chicken house and find an egg. So, we bought two more chickens. Of course, you know who cleans the chicken house and feeds them every morning. And now I have to actually buy chicken feed, because we don't have enough scraps for three chickens. (It's still cheap, though, and it is fun to have chickens.) We decided to name the other two chickens Kentucky F. and Barbie Q. (Okay, so I have a sick sense of humor...) Here are their pictures. Kentucky is first, and Barbie is second.

About a week ago, we had a surprise visitor. Although many of our neighbors have chickens, I had never heard a rooster. One day, I kept hearing a rooster, and he sounded pretty close by. When I looked out the window, we had a rooster in our yard! As I watched him throughout the day, he was easily flying over the fences between the yards, visiting all the chickens. When I went outside, he went over the fence. He is very good at NOT being caught. Since that first day, he has spent almost all of his time in our yard, and I'm pretty sure he's sleeping in our henhouse. I don't know why; our next-door neighbor has more chickens than we do, and he has a big garden, with lots of vegetables. Our chickens must be nicer - or maybe he likes the American food scraps better (we had tacos last night). Anyway, he seems to be good for egg production. Our new hens had not laid a single egg since we got them at the end of October. Chanticleer showed up (our name for him), and within a week, I'm getting one or two eggs a day. Besides that, he's gorgeous, as you can see by his picture. I don't know if anyone is looking for him. If they are, they better get a higher fence!

So, in case you're looking for a good way to get rid of food scraps, think chickens!

Okay, I know, now I have to make a chicken and/or rooster quilt!

First Impressions of Belgium

Obviously, I'm not much of a blogger. And this one won't even be about quilts, although I will mention a quilter. But, I thought this would be a good place to record some of our family's first impressions of Belgium after living here for three weeks.

First, it's cold. Actually, it hasn't been really cold, but the highs are generally in the low to mid 60s. Remember, we lived in Suriname for 6 years, and when we left North Carolina, they were having a record-breaking heat wave. I think it was over 90 the day we left.

I have noticed that people, especially women, really are more style-conscious than most Americans. I went downtown in my New Balance walking shoes (think white sport shoes). Standing at the bus stop, I watched people walk by. The only pair of white tennis shoes I saw were on a 12-year-old boy. I think I am too old for jeans, too, but they will have a hard time breaking me of that. I haven't worn my white shoes downtown again, though.

Carrots. They must be the national food. They are in everything. It's a good thing we like carrots. My kids tried something called a taco. It was a triangular pastry, filled with ground meat (probably pork or mixed pork and beef), peas and carrots. The kids said there was nothing even reminiscent of a taco in the flavor, although they weren't bad.

Everything is smaller and more expensive. But I already knew that would be the case. We have been here before, just not to live.

We have lots of spiders in our house. I don't know if it is the time of year, an especially "spidery" year, or just normal for Belgium. There are many perfect "Charlotte's Web" type webs in the corners of the windows.

You really have to conserve your drink. If you go to a restaurant and order a Coke (for 1.50 - 2.00 Euros), you will get an 8-oz glass of Coke with no ice. There are no refills. We have a running contest to see who can have the most drink left when their food is gone.

Nescafe is considered coffee.

It is normal to be a super gardener. You should see the yards. I'm in trouble. I bought some cute pots of herbs to grow in my kitchen. They died by the third day. I love plants, but my kids say I have a brown thumb.

I have not found any powdered drink mixes (Koolaid). This is very annoying, since my only transportation at this point is the bus. I can only get enough food for two days at a time, and bottles of soda pop are heavy! I don't think I could shop for a whole week anyway, since my refrigerator is European-sized. (Think small.)

Bakeries are awesome!

Architecture is almost always interesting, often gorgeous.

Closets? Why waste space on that? Or second bathrooms, or stairways that can accommodate a queen-size box spring?

People are friendly and very accommodating. As soon as they realize I am struggling to find the right words in Dutch, they switch to English for me. It's very nice of them, but it won't help me improve my Dutch.

O yeah, the quilter I mentioned. In the town right next to mine, there is an internationally-known quilter. Her name is Monique Gilbert. She has a website at www.moniquegilbert.be. I saw her quilts hanging at the City Hall when I was there to apply for stay papers. Quilting is not common here. In fact, I have yet to find a fabric store with any fabric suitable for quilting. I haven't met Monique yet, but I intend to.

So, there are my first impressions. This place will become "gewoon" (ordinary) in time, so I thought it would be good to record what I think now, when I still notice the things that are different.

Happy New Year!

So, since I started this blog to be about my journal quilts, I guess I should sum up what I did accomplish over the last year. I only completed five journal quilts, when I intended to make one every month. In this process, I think I have identified something about myself. I have a hard time sticking with one project if it stretches over a whole year! I had the same experience with my Women of the Bible quilt. I have stalled out on that one at block #32 (I think) out of 52. I will probably eventually finish it, but it will be like starting a new project. Even though I am a very even-keeled person, I find that I get bored with my life easily. Growing up, I never lived in one place for more than 5 years. Now, after I've lived in one place for a few years, I am eager to move and try something new. Jobs get really boring after a couple of years. I am actually surprised that I am still so interested in quilting after 5 years! I think it probably has something to do with the variety of styles and techniques that are possible. I doubt if I will ever make the same quilt twice!

I have had a pretty full life over the last year, so I can always blame it on moving from South America to North Carolina, but I also know that I always find time for whatever I really want to do.

Now that 2007 is here, I know better than to promise to do something that lasts the whole year, especially since we will be moving to Belgium this year. But, I'm sure there will be some new projects to report on during the year!

At the moment, my WIPs include:

• a hand-pieced dahlia wallhanging; I'm hand quilting it, and I'm in the borders now. It's amazing how long I can let this thing sit without working on it when I am so close to finishing it!
• a string block wallhanging made with all southwestern fabrics. I'm supposed to be working on string blocks for a swap, but I've been thinking about these leftover southwestern fabrics for a string quilt for a long time. I was preparing muslin squares for the swap blocks when the southwestern idea took over.

I guess the rest are UFOs, since I haven't worked on them in a while:

• A bright and black kitty wallhanging. Top is done, needs to be quilted.
• A lone star wallhanging. The star is done, but needs background, borders and quilting.
• Women of the Bible quilt.
• A hand pieced wallhinging in greens and burgundies. Four out of nine blocks finished. Will also have appliqued border.
• A blue and white sampler wallhanging. Partly quilted.
• "Waterflowers" wallhanging - top is finished, except that I want to have dragonflies embroidered on it. I have a friend with an embroidery machine, and I keep meaning to talk to her about it.

I have a couple of piles of swapped blocks that could be put together. There might also be something else in the bin that I'm not remembering right now. And more ideas in my head and EQ6 than I could possibly make in a lifetime! And, of course, all of those ideas will be set aside for whatever inspires me at the moment.