Incubating Eggs update

Hey there all. As I think I told you guys, I had put some eggs in the incubator on December 25th. I candled them tonight, because I couldn't wait one more day to do so. I only had to take out 3, 2 of them were not fertilized, and 1 of them had a blood ring. so now I'm down to 17 out of 20 eggs I had set. I'll check them again in about 4-5 days because there were a few that I was having a hard time figuring out for sure because the egg shells are so dark.  Its always quite exciting to see all of those little veins and lines inside of those eggs, and knowing that I'm helping something to grow and be born into this world!!! 

So, that's whats going on here today. Other than that its the same old stuff, different day. Except I'm working on a crochet order, which is turning out really pretty. I'll try to upload some pics of that here in the next few days, along with a link to where you can get the pattern. Unfortunately its not a free pattern, it's out of a Leisure Arts book. 

Not to sound like an old lady, but the night is getting late, and I've got to get up a little extra early in the morning!!!

Night all

Waffles!!!

Guess who got a Waffle Maker for Christmas??? Did you guess??? That's right, this girl!!! My parents decided that everybody needed a waffle maker this year, no matter how many we already had sitting in our cabinet. Although, I'll say at this point, I'm thinking that this is a favorite so far. It works faster, and has better options as to how dark they are. That little green light actually pops on when they are ready, which I kind of like.

So, as always, when I have something along these lines to share with you guys, I have a recipe to share with you all as well!!!!

So, here is a quick, simple waffle recipe, that if you are like me, you will most likely have all of the ingredients for.

3 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup melted butter (1 stick)
1 tbsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
2 tsp sugar

Beat whole eggs in a bowl until thick. Beat milk, melted butter and vanilla into eggs. In a separate bowl, combine remaining ingredients. Mix into egg mixture and mix well. Bake according to the directions that go with your waffle maker.

Yields 6-8 waffles.

And the Eggs are in the Incubator!!!!

So, yesterday morning (On Christmas Morning) I set 20 eggs to hatch. I was only going to do 18, but then I got two perfect beautiful green eggs, and I could not resist setting them as well. So, I have 9 green eggs in the incubator set to hatch along with the rest. Now, I cannot tell you who the fathers will be. I don't know if they are Rhode Island Red, or Easter Egg, but I do know this, its a great mix!!! Some of the eggs are Rhode Island/White Leghorn Mix as it is, and I do know I've seen the Easter Egg roosters flirting with those if you catch my drift, so I'm fairly certain we will have added to that mix a bit more. (Those will either be super ugly chickens, or really pretty)

I do know that I'm about to start putting up some of the verified pullets for sale. They are already very used to being outside, and I've started mixing layer pellets in with their feed, so they will be good to go on that end of things. Plus they should be ready to start laying in March/April depending on what all is mixed in with them.

I don't know about the rest of you all, but I did sleep in this morning after having a big Christmas dinner, and then staying up to watch the Doctor Who Christmas special. (And I learned what I always suspected, Santa's sleigh uses Tardis Technology...it makes since, I mean, how else does he fit all of those toys in there)

Well, I should get myself motivated a bit more for the day!!!
Everybody enjoy the rest of the season, and take advantage of these warmer days if you have them!!!
(It's been in the 50's here)

Merry Christmas

Farming doesn't stop, even for the Holidays, but that doesn't mean we enjoy them any less. We like to incorporate our animals big and small into our thoughts and well wishes. Our animals keep us fed, safe, loved and entertained throughout the year.  

Here at our little farm we would like to wish you all the Merriest of Christmases, and the happiest of holidays. We hope you all stay safe, and warm, and can be with your loved ones. We would also like to hope that you would stop and remember those who cannot be with their loved ones this year because of work, distance, or the loss of their loved ones. We would also like for you all to remember our troops/soldiers that are far from home protecting us, no matter who, no matter where. 

We would also like to thank you all for visiting us here at our blog, and following along. I hope to be able to bring you new recipes, and crochet patterns in the new year. 

Merry Christmas
Brandi, Frank, Sam, Jasper, Bella, and all the rest

Gathering for the next hatch

I started selecting eggs today, that will be going in my incubator as soon as this carton is full. I'm only planning on setting an 18 pack of eggs this time around. I only want to do a small hatching, because these guys will be in the house a bit longer because its winter time. That's OK though, since its a small batch.

This hatching should truly be interesting, because my Easter Egg roosters have fertilized a lot more eggs than my Rhode Islands have. I can honestly say, I have no clue what to expect from this one. We've only kept Rhode Islands up until this point, so I'm kind of slightly excited to see what's going to come from this. The one's I'm truly excited to see, are the Leghorn/Rhode Island crosses that I have, because the EE roosters seem quite fond of those, so taking a mutt, and then breeding it with whats kind of considered a mutt, should make for an even more interesting mutt.

This spring however, we will be separating the Easter Egg Hens and Roosters out from everybody else. Right now, we are just keeping them all together because its winter. If all goes well though, and we can get another house for the chickens, we shouldn't have to put them back together when winter arrives, we will be able to keep them separate, and continue to hatch as we please.

I'm kind of enjoying the fact that these guys will hatch out after the first of the year sometime. They will be the first ones of the year 2015. I'm hoping that I have a decent hatch rate, and that I do have more girls than boys though. (ha ha)  I'm not sure how many other people are planning to set up their incubators in December, but I will say this, they are my kind of people!!!!

busy busy busy

Hello everybody!!! I know, its been really quiet here on my blog over the last couple of days!! I swear I'm not abandoning you all!! It's just been crazy. We had to figure out how to keep the roosters from upsetting the water thing in the chicken house, finally got that done. Then I had to turn all of the bedding in the chick pin, and then get their water thing up higher since they are much taller now. Of course there is all of the holiday shopping, and cooking, and running, and dealing with the extra crowds at the feed stores, because the are such "quaint" places to find "unique" gifts. Sure they are, I shop there year round, so I know all about it. Here I'm in the coop wearing mud splattered jeans, an old jacket, and have my hair pulled back, and am looking at this woman who is all perfumed and dressed up, gushing about "These adorable canning jar shaped salt and pepper shakers" as she is showing them to me, and I'm just like, yup, I've had a set like those for quite a while now, and then she wants to know "oh do you farm???" Maybe just a little...Now I promise you guys, I'm not griping, I really am not. It just stinks when you have to fight the crowds to buy animal feed and dog food.

Well, I shall close this up, and hope that you are all keeping warm and safe during this holiday season!!!

Trying to Get Dogs to pose.....

Getting one dog to pose for a pic is possible...trying to get 2 dogs to pose is harder, but 3...getting 3 dogs to pose, who all have ADD...and won't always behave or do tricks for a treat...well, you  can see from the pictures that its almost comical...they move, they look the other way, they talk, they scoot...and sometimes the picture takers finger ends up in the shot trying for that near impossible picture!!! It was fun though, and I went through a pocket full of treats in no time flat.

Chicken Pics

I still can't get the time and date to stay correct on this new camera, and I also can't figure out how to just turn it off. It's quite frustrating to say the least.  But I did have some fun taking some pictures for you guys!!! Hope you all enjoy!!!!

Brandi

A day of fun and baking!!! (plus recipes for peanut butter balls and no bake oatmeal cookies)

So as you can see we had a lot of fun today, plus I got to cook in somebody else's kitchen!!! My new found sister and I met at my moms house for a day of being goofy and some yummy holiday baking. Let me tell you all right now, in that top pic of me, those are not my glasses...those are my dads...they were just laying there, and I couldn't help myself!!! (oh and I still don't have the date fixed on my new camera yet, hoping to get that figured out soon)

This was the first time I had made peanut butter balls, and that was quite an experience. It was fun, and tasty. I'd made no bake oatmeal cookies before. They are a favorite of mine, even if they are a bit rich.

That lovely doggy in the picture is my mom's 9 year old dog, Maggie. She has a lot of health problems that came with age, but she's a big sweetheart of a dog.  She was our helper today...after all you cant properly cook with out a helper underfoot!!!

I'm going to start with the Peanut Butter Balls recipe

What you need

1/2 cup creamy pb
3 tbsp salted butter
1 cup powdered sugar
8 oz semi sweet choc (we used chocolate chips)

What you do

Mix pb and butter together in a mixing bowl, until well blended. Gradually stir in powdered sugar a little at a time until mix holds together in a large ball. Cover and let sit in fridge for 15 min to firm up.

Shape into 1 inch balls, and place on a baking sheet. Cover and refrigerate for at least 20 min. Allow to firm up. Dough balls should hold shape before dipping into the melted chocolate.

Melt the chocolate according to the directions on back of package. Then, dip one ball at a time, and allow the excess to drip off.

Place on waxed paper and refrigerate until chocolate hardens.

No Bake Oatmeal  Cookies

What you need
2 cup granulated sugar
4 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
1 stick of butter
1/2 cup milk
1 cup crunchy PB
1/2 tbsp vanilla
3 cups oatmeal

What you do
Bring the sugar, cocoa, butter and milk to a boil. Boil for 1 min, then add the PB, Vanilla, and oatmeal. Mix well. Drop mixture by tsp on waxed paper. Then let sit until cool and hard. (It helps to put them in the fridge for the cooling process.

Now that you've had your chocolate fix for the day from me, hope you all enjoy the pictures, and are keeping warm in this cold winter weather!!!!

Yummy Corn Bread Recipe

There is nothing better than fresh out of the oven, made from scratch corn bread. It's especially good on a really cold day with a bowl of chili, or a plate of ham, and pinto beans, and fried potatoes. There is just something about from scratch corn bread, that the stuff that comes in a box can't seem to match. The best part is, you really can buy everything you need at the grocery store for this, it's all basically right there in the baking isle..except for the milk and eggs. I get my supplies from Food Lion, its my favorite grocery store, plus I know and can tell that everything on the shelves is pretty fresh. (Plus if they don't have it, they will look into getting it) (and no, that wasn't a plug, promise)

So Here's what you need
1 cup Indian Head Yellow Corn Meal, (or corn meal of your choice)
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1 egg
1/4 cup oil

What you do
Preheat oven to 425.
Mix all ingredients together using an electric mixer making sure to get all lumps. It helps to take a wooden spoon, and run through to see if you can bring up any lumps of cornmeal, or flour up to the top so you can get them broken up and mixed in.

Then pour into a greased 8x8 pan. I use Pam cooking spray. It works just as well.
Then bake for 20-25 min or until golden brown, serve good and hot with butter!!!

(I promise you all the picture wasn't taken in 2013, I'm having a time trying to get the date and time to stay correct on this camera, and then to get it off of the pictures...its not working out for me.)

got a new camera

I went out today, a woman on a mission, in search of an affordable yet easy to use digital camera. Well, I got affordable, and for the most part easy to use. I've just got to figure out how to get it to not put the time and the date on the bottom of the pictures. I find that super annoying. I got a Polaroid on clearance at Wal-Mart today. Its small, and very light weight compared to what I'm used to, but the pictures are pretty good.  The part I like the best is the fact that it has a rechargeable battery. I was really eating through some batteries with my other camera that I was loving. Although I think I miss using that one.

But here are some updated pictures of the chicks...the dogs are a given, as you all know, I love my pups!!! These guys are growing in a hurry!!!

It's calling for some nasty weather here tonight, so I'm going to bunker down for the night. Everybody stay safe!!!

On the search

Since I broke my digital camera the other day, I'm on the search for a new camera, that's simple to use, and takes good pictures, so that I can continue to bring you all the magic of my horrible picture taking!!! There are so many different choices out there. I have it narrowed down to the cameras at Wal-Mart, 1 because I don't want to spend a lot of money, and because 2. the minute I get it home and out of the box it would be outdated already, so I see no point in spending a lot of money on something that's just going to be for taking pictures!!!

I'm so excited!!! The building permit for our bunny house has gone through, and now the building can commence. We really need the space, rabbit cages take up a lot of space, and at the moment we are maxed out on space in our current space. We have 5 hanging and 2 on the ground, plus we have a kit in with Ginger still, that we need to get in a cage of its own. (We also need to gender check that baby as well, before we end up with unexpected babies)

It was sunny today for the first time in 4 days!!! It had been raining for 4 straight days!!! I can't begin to express how happy I was to see the sun!!! But of course, that means we have a lot of cleaning up to do in the chicken house over the next couple of days. Hopefully we can get that cleaned up in just a couple of hours. Between the two of us, I'm sure we can clean up the run, and then the house in a short amount of time.

Those chicks are thriving outside!!! I can almost watch them grow on a daily basis. I need to take the rake into the grow out pen tomorrow and fluff up the bedding, and lay down some fresh dry stuff for them, to help with the warmth in there, and to help keep mud and muck from seeping through.

I've been crocheting like a crazy woman here lately. I'm making plans for new patterns for my Craftsy store, and free patterns to share with you all, my most favorite people. I don't want to say I have big plans, but I have plans. I don't try to make my plans too big, because we have a ton of stuff going on with the farm as it is!!!

Well, I believe I've rambled on enough to my lovely followers!!! I hope all is well with you all!!!
Take care, and stay safe

Crochet Towel Topper Pattern

First of all, let me apologize for the crappy pictures, I tend to take a bunch of pictures when I'm doing something along these lines, and then pick the best ones to upload so you will get to see the steps and stuff...BUT These were the only two pictures I got. I dropped my digital camera...seriously..I dropped it...just slipped right out of my fingers...so I got out the other digital camera that I haven't used in forever, and never took the batteries out of, and well, stuff came out of the batteries, and I can't figure out how to clean it off of the things that touch the batteries...and then I got out the other digital camera we have...it works..but we hate it. It's an Apex, and takes the worst pictures ever...its great if you want to take a video or something, but the picture quality is awful..in fact I couldn't get the flash to turn on, and the pictures were dark and shadowy even with all the lights on!!! So, these are the two pictures you will get to go with this basic, easy to follow pattern, for something that crocheters have been making for ever and ever, that makes a great little gift, for a friend, or just for yourself to brighten up your kitchen. Plus its great to be able to have one hanging on the stove to wipe your hands on when you've been doing dishes...or whatever. They work up so quickly, that its easy to make a dozen in a sitting depending on what you are watching on tv...lol

Alright, now, let me say about this pattern, that there is no point in counting stitches, because not all dish towels are created equal. I am constantly buying dish towels to do this with, and I realized that some are much wider than others, and some are just plain skinny. We will however count the rows, because that makes life easier.

You don't have to cut your dishtowels in half, some people do and some people don't. I was given a bag full of these that somebody had bought to put toppers on, and had already cut them in half. I do them both ways, but find it's more fun to be able to make a set of two to give to somebody, and I think they look nicer hanging on the stove when they've been cut in half. But again, that's up to you.

for this you will need, a small amount of WW yarn, an H hook, a yarn needle, and a nice big button. (I have a bad habit of buying buttons, and have a couple of jars full, different shapes and sizes, so I can't exactly tell you the size of the button per say...but if you know buttons, you will have an idea as to what size you will need.)

First, sew a row evenly across the top (or folded middle) of your dish towel. (If you have cut it in half, you will probably want to fold the top edge down and sew through to make it a little neater). You will have between 37 and 42 stitches depending on the length of the dishtowel. (Or tea towel as some people call them.)

Row 1, With H hook, and yarn, join with a sl st, and single crochet in first stitch, and then each st across, ch 2

Row 2. Dc Dec first 2 st together *Dc in next st, Dc Dec next 2 st together* repeat across, (NOTE: if you have an extra st left over at the end, just do a dc in that st, don't worry about there being 2 dc side by side, it will all work out in the end) Ch 1 at end of the row

Row 3. sc dec next 2 st tog and all the way across, (if there is a remaining st, just sc in that st) Ch 2

Row 4. dc dec first 2 st tog *dc in next st, dc dc next 2 st tog* rep across, ch 2

NOTE: you should have somewhere between 7 and 10 st remaining at this point, this is where we will begin working on the strap

Row 5-14 dc in each dc across, ch 2

Row 15.  Dc in each dc across, ch 1

Row 16. sc in first 2 to 3 st, ch 3, skip middle 3 stitches, and then sc in last 2-3 stitches. (just try to make it even, but you do need to skip the middle 3 stitches)

Row 17.  sc in each sc across, and 3 crochet in ch 3 chain. finish off and weave in ends.

Sew button onto row 4.

So, these are more general instructions than a pattern. I've never really followed a pattern to make these. Mostly because I'm just one of those people. This however is what I do, and I wanted so very much to share it with you all. I hope you enjoy, and I hope you can follow. If not, please feel free to email me at crochetbrandi@gmail.com I will be more than happy to answer any questions you have. If there is a pattern you would like to see, I enjoy a good crochet challenge!!!

new egg layers!!!!

So, even though you can't tell in the top photo, that egg is olive green!!! My Easter Egg chicks that we ordered through Cackle back over the summer, have started laying!!! So far two of them are laying. I'm very excited to see how many different colors I get once everybody is laying. (I know they won't lay different colors each time, but they aren't all going to lay olive green)

I was packaging up eggs the other day for an egg order, and got rather artful with my packaging. I thought it would be fun to go from light to dark, and I was quite pleased with how it looked...it was fun. Seeing as they were for one of my husbands male coworkers, I don't think they noticed how pretty they were packaged.

Our chicks are thriving by the way, they have gotten tall enough, that I was able to start filling up the big feeder that sits on a stand up off of the ground. They are wasting way less food now too. With the smaller feeders that sat down on the ground, they were wasting a lot. I think over half of it ended up on the ground.  It shouldn't be more than a couple of weeks before they are able to go in with the big chickens. I'd like to keep the roosters separate until its time to butcher, but I'm not sure how well that will work.

Spiced Sweet Potato Casserole

My husband is diabetic, as are a few of his other close relatives. Sweet potatoes are indeed a holiday staple, but unfortunately most of the time they are made with yummy gooey, crunchy marshmallows, and lots of sweet yummy brown sugar..(I swear I just gained 20 pounds thinking about that) The traditional way is one of my favorite ways to eat it, but when I ran across this recipe, I thought, you know that doesn't sound too bad, its not a cavity inducing recipe, and it wont raise the blood sugar to the point that the diabetics have to take an entire syringe full of insulin. I tested this out on my husbands family, because hey, somebody had to be the guinea pig...(ha ha ha) (If you guys are reading this, love you all)

What you will need:
Nonstick cooking spray
1 large sweet potato (about 10 oz.), peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
2 large carrots, peeled and sliced
3 tablespoons of butter melted, and divided
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/3 cup chopped pecans crushed.

What you do:
1. preheat the oven to 350 degrees., and spray your casserole dish with non stick cooking spray.
then add water to a large sauce pot until its mostly full, but not all the way, and then add the sweet potato to the pot and bring it to a boil over medium heat. Cook the potato for 20 min, then add the carrots to the pot and cook for 15 to 20 minutes longer.  Once the vegetables are tender, drain, keeping 1/4 cup of the cooking water, and add that and the veggies to a bowl.

2. With a hand mixer, mash the potato and the carrots and water together until its mostly smooth, then add 2 tbsp of the butter, and all of the seasonings, keep mixing until everything is mixed well.
Then dump it all and spread into your your casserole dish. Top with the pecans and the rest of the butter.

3. Bake the casserole covered for 15 minutes, and then bake it uncovered for 10 minutes longer until the top is lightly browned.

It sounds like more work than what it really is. My husband who generally dislikes sweet potatoes, admitted to me that he actually liked this and would eat it again!!! Now, I know he's not just saying that to be nice, because he's one of those people who has no tact, and if he doesn't like something, he's going to say so, and if he thinks a recipe is missing something, he will be the first to tell me. (That's how I got the pie crust recipe right) He actually told me he wouldn't mind it if I made this for Christmas dinner!!!

So enjoy!!! (oh, and for you diabetics, this is only 10 grams of carbs)