Dear loyal customers, and fine feathered friends:
Well, we have been working hard on a couple of fronts. As you know, we had to close our original store due to water coming into the backroom and flooding our stock every time it rained….which, seeing as we are in the Pacific North West, just wasn’t going to be something we could work around. Particularly as critter feed, hay and straw made up the bulk of our wares…all of which can’t even risk getting damp.
At this point we don’t see New Suburbia going on, the legal costs alone have
been incredible and so we are no closer to finding a new place…that is, if there was a groovy new place to be found anyway!
Looks like New Suburbia—at least in its present incarnation—is not meant to be right now.
We miss seeing everyone but we are happy to tend our flock and work our micro farm, and—except for not having a place to meet our fellow urban farmers and chicken tenders on a daily basis– life hasn’t changed that much for us. We still deal with chicken feed, hay and straw—but now we are buying it again, not selling it.
It’s been great, thank you for coming in and making New Suburbia one of the happiest, hippest and hen-focused places in Beaverton …. now we shall see where life takes us next.
Keep on urban farming! We will!
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JANUARY 10
We’re going to be open from 11 to 4 (so we can hunt down new spaces) from today to the 14th
–we still have a lot of soil amendments, buckets, signs, cloth diapering gear, classic re-use items, seeds, g…rits, chick feeders/founts ALL AT 50% OFF….but we are out of chicken feed.
December 20–Updated January 4th
Rain…it is becoming a problem for us here at New Suburbia. The building leaks. A lot. So, we are looking for a new place to call home in the new year. We know it’s out there, somewhere. We will absolutely be sticking close to where we are now, we love being here in the thick of the West Side Urban Farm Community!!
In the meantime, we’ll be holding all sorts of sales on some of the bigger stuff we (frankly) don’t feel like moving in January. Ah, yes, New Suburban sloth is a silver lining for our customers….
EVERYTHING IS ON SALE for 50% OFF.
Everything.
Feed? Wht’s left of it, yes half off.
Soil amendments and compost? Heck yea. That stuff is heavy to move, please grab it now.
Old rolling pins, cookie cutters, canning jars and crocks? Yes, even those.
Diapers, squirrel peanuts, books, bird seed, scoops, chicken waterers, chick waterers, feeders, salt licks, grit, bees wax candles, soy candles, soap…..all of it. No exceptions. We would like to not have to put anything in storage if we can!!
Most of the vintage furniture we’ve repurposed for fixtures is also on sale. We would like not to store a whole lot of big stuff. We are good at finding, saving and repurposing, so we’d just as soon save other old things for the new location and give some of these old beauties new lives in new homes.
Life is always exciting at New Suburbia.
Our last day of being open for business at the old location will be MONDAY JAN 14 2013.
Stay tuned for our re-opening information.
Same bat channel, but a different bat cave!
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WE WILL BE CLOSED ON DECEMBER 21st TO OBSERVE THE SOLSTICE.
HAPPY YULE EVERYONE!
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November 2012
Meet Mr. Lucky.
Really, his name is Lucky. And he is.
His story goes like this: a clutch of hatching eggs was given from one urban farmer to another. The eggs were dropped. Only two survived. These two eggs were duly incubated. Calendar days were marked off, waiting for the hatch day. But, something went wrong and dates were miscalculated—it was mistakenly thought that the two eggs had not hatched on time and so were duds. The eggs were put in the garbage. A few hours later, the mistake was noticed! The eggs were not due to hatch yet and were not, possibly, duds after all. The eggs had grown cold, though, and it was feared all was lost….still….just maybe they would be okay. They were re-incubated.
On the right day, the proper day, the eggs hatched. Well, one did. The other just sat there. But one did!! A yellow chick was born. The chick was loved, and taken care of. It grew into a white and black chicken. Well mannered, gentle, so nice that it could go to show and tell at local elementary schools. There was real hope it was a hen….it seemed like a hen…but then it crowed.
Alas…. Lucky’s luck looked like it was running out. Roosters are illegal where his backyard coop was located, and no matter how charming and well-mannered he was…Lucky had to go.What to do, what to do. His owner was so sad, and didn’t know what to do except ‘get rid of the rooster’. But what if you wanted the rooster to have a good life because you have fallen in love with him? How do you do that? Let’s face it, rehoming a rooster is…..hard. Very very hard.
That’s where Lucky yet again lived up to his name.
His owners came to New Suburbia to buy other supplies when they saw our posted Chicken Notes that mention that we accept unwanted roosters and hens when we can. So it was arranged for this rooster to come to the store where we would take him off his owners’ hands for them. They did not know what breed of rooster he was. They thought maybe he was a mixed breed something or other. Sigh, it’s always so hard to find a farm for one of those boys. Still, we understand how awful it is to hear your rooster crow and wait for the long hand of the law, or the frowny face of your next door neighbor, to come calling at your door. When space allows, we will accept healthy but unwanted roosters (and hens) no matter where they were bought/hatched originally—that’s our policy and our way of helping the chicken community who supports us so much every time they come by and buy feed and other supplies. (Always call ahead to make sure we have the room–we always try to, but…sometimes there is a crowd already here.)
Now, the thing is this. We live in the county, not the city, and have a rooster in our home flock. An Americana rooster that grew up to be every bit as flighty as he grew to be nervous. Even our hens don’t like him. Why? We have no idea…maybe he was a bad egg. He certainly is not a great fit with our otherwise calm and placid flock. We have been planning on replacing him with a less anxious rooster that would suit us all better. A Brahma was the breed we settled on. We figured we would get one in the spring, when the hatcheries are in full swing.
Guess what breed Lucky turned out to be when he showed up at the store? Yes, a lovely gentle Light Brahma Rooster! What a sweet gentleman, even as discombobulated as he had to be, he neither pecked or fussed. He let out a few low crows, but …let me tell you….they are music to our ears. We have already made arrangements for William, the Americana, to leave our flock. And this evening our much wanted Brahma shall meet his new lady friends for the first time. We think they will be as pleased as we are.
Mr. Lucky is his name—and indeed he is.