Good Morning!!!!

 

One of my favorite times to spend with my chickens is in the morning when I first open the doors to their house. Some come ripping out into the run to check the ground for bugs or bits of grass, or just whatever may be out there for them. Some of them decide that its time to eat and flock around the feeders.  And then some just jump up on the roost and watch to see what I'm doing or if I have any special treats in my pockets for them.  The two in the bottom picture I'm hoping will lay colored eggs for me. I'm not sure what eggs they hatched out of, but they are from my last batch that I hatched out, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they came out of the olive eggs that hatched out.

 

I got my Mc Murry hatchery catalog in the mail the other day, and it would seem its easy to spend hours pouring over one of those catalogs. By the time I was done looking at it, I had marked how many of each I wanted by the pictures of the chicks, and it would seem I want way more chickens than I have room for. I'm fairly certain though that Mc Murry would have had no problems whatsoever taking my money for that particular order.

 

This morning some of my young roosters (from the first batch of chicks we hatch out last year), have decided to be aggressive. I think maybe they were testing the waters...well one of them thought he was going to attack me, and he thought wrong. I don't think he will be trying that again any time soon. I think next month we will be processing some of those rooster chicks. We were hoping that the roosters from the last batch we hatched out would be able to be big enough for butchering at the same, but I don't think those boys are going to let us wait that long. Poor Sinatra ( my head rooster) is showing signs of battle. He has some bald patches from where it looks like they have been challenging  him. 

 

 

Monday Madness

OK, so its really not been a bad Monday, but it sounded good.  My hubby had a doctors appointment this morning, just a regular kind of visit. Then when we got home I started a load of laundry, and cut up some apples and ripped up some stale bread rolls for the chickens. I must say those little piggy's have eaten all of the bread and most of the apples so far. Since they have a longer run, I was throwing it as far down the run as I could, and that was most amusing. My chickens love anything that's a special treat as all animals/people do, so watching them run all the way to the end of that 30 foot run was great.

I was working on cleaning up my kitchen some, and I realized that I really need to take everything out of my cabinets, and my pantry, and I need to just go through and reorganize, and figure out just what I have, and what I don't have.  After 9 years of living in this house, we really have stuff!!! Its truly amazing to me when I get up on the step stool looking for something in the back of one of the higher cabinets and I find something I forgot I had, the other day I found a long lost hand juicer that I had forgotten about. I think I had bought it to make lime aid, which is a really yummy treat in the hot summer...I may have to make that this summer....its really easy, I'll post the recipe when I make it.

I would say that my goal for this year is to be "more organized" or to "keep a cleaner house" but those were my goals last year, and my house isn't dirty or anything like that, but the "more organized" part never happened. I figure if it happens it will happen, one room at a time.

Expansions for the Chickens

 

Yesterday was a really long cool wet/busy rainy day. And we were out in it!!! We were at a point where we needed to hurry and get our chicken run expanded because those 15 chicks we had, which are now pullet size, were getting to big to stay in those coops and crates anymore. So with the help of my husbands life long friend, we got the kennel panels, and went from 10 feet of run space, to 30 feet of run space. I can tell you our original 8 were incredibly happy, and have gotten their "run" on.

 

Once we got the Kennel walls up, and the bird netting over top for every bodies safety, we opened up the doors to the chicken house and out they came. As I suspected my Black Copper Marans were the first to venture all the way to the end of the run. They are some really adventuresome girls.  So while everybody was enjoying the grass, and extra space, we set the crate with 5 young chickens out in the grass, and left them there for a few minutes. The hubby hung a head of cabbage, and set out a fresh flock block, and then we opened the crate, and the coop doors, and everybody slowly emerged. There was a little bit of pecking,  which we knew would happen, but nobody got hurt.  This morning when we went out to check on everybody, and to release the birds out into the run, the newbies were on the roost, and we had 4 eggs waiting for us in the chicken house.  Then a couple of hours later when we went to check on everybody again, there was an egg waiting for us in the middle of the run.  Those are some happy chickens!!!!

 

What a day!!!!

We've been having some epic cold weather, that the all important weather people are calling an Artic Vortex....which basically means that everybody is cold no matter where you are. It made for quite the day here. We had to keep the chickens shut in their house where it was warm, and we didn't have to worry about frost bitten combs. My hubby has taken care of them the last two days because of the ice out in the yard.  Apparently the chickens like him better than they like me, because they have given us a good number of eggs over the last 2 days. they've given us 11 eggs in 2 days...just 1 shy of a dozen. Really for this kind of weather that's not bad.  Its calling to get down to 2 degrees tonight, I'm not sure what the wind chill is going to make that.  But I do know early this morning we had a wind chill of  -15.   Thankfully tomorrow its going to get back up into the 30s.

Today unfortunately we suffered a bit, our pipes froze, but thanks to some space heaters we were able to get our water unfrozen and moving again. Before I go to bed tonight, I'll make sure to turn the water on so that it drips and keeps the water from moving.  We do now however have 12 gallons of water....my dear, dear, sweet husband went to walmart and got some supplies for this frozen pipe nonsense.

So who's ready for spring?????

YUCK

Its already cold out, and we already have snow laying on the ground, but NOW we have freezing rain pouring down out of the sky...looks like chicken stuff is going to be a blast today. I'm so ready for the spring thaw to come about.

Today however is a great day to work on my crochet projects.  Everybody be safe and warm!!!!

Chili

I had some pictures for this blog post, BUT this is one of those days when technology doesn't want to work for me...or rather everything on my phone wants to update right stinking now, so I'll come back later with pictures. Some days I think my smart phone isn't so smart.

With temps plunging down, down, down into the minus temps, some times a person just needs something good and hot and easy to fix for dinner. Easy being the key word, especially when you are busy.  I like something that I can just throw together and walk away from. This recipe is perfect for that.

1 lb. ground beef (or more depending on how meaty/chunky you like your chili)
2. cans diced tomatoes
2. cans kidney beans (dark or light)
1. small onion diced
1. Small bell pepper diced
1. pack of chili seasoning

Brown your beef together with your onions and bell pepper, drain well. While beef mixture is draining, in a big pan, add your diced tomatoes, and kidney beans, making sure to drain your kidney beans part of the way, add your beef mixture, and then your seasoning packet. Mix well, set your heat on medium low, and walk away, just stir it randomly. After about an hour it will be good to go. You can let it sit as long as you want though. I've been known to start this around noon, and forget about it until my hubby gets up for work around 3:30...I just start it when I have time, as I'm walking through the kitchen for one thing or another, I'll stir it to make sure its not sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Top with Cheese, maybe add a little sour cream.  Enjoy and keep warm!!!!

Pickled Eggs

 

Pickled Eggs are always a tasty treat, especially when your Chickens are laying really good, and you have more eggs than you can give away. Since I've started keeping chickens, if I'm going to boil eggs, I always boil more than I need, because there are always a few that aren't going to peel pretty. I only had about 4 out of this batch that didn't peel pretty, so I gave those to my chickens, who thought they were getting the best treat ever!!!!  As you can imagine, you're not going to be making large batches at a time, unless you have a billion chickens. I only got 2, 2 quart jars worth (10 eggs in each jar). 

This recipe is a very basic recipe. I decided to go basic, since its the first time I had ever made pickled eggs, and according to my husband they are really good, especially if you dip them in mustard. (I think it must be a guy thing or something, I'm not sure) (the mustard part) But they did turn out pretty good for basic pickled eggs.  Now this recipe is for 1, 2 quart jar, but its easy to double as needed.

 

4 cups Vinegar

1&1/2 cup water

1 tsp salt

Boil until all the water appears to have boiled out, you will have under 4 cups of liquid...when you feel like your eyes are going to fall out of your head, and your whole house smells like you've scrubbed it with hot vinegar, you will know its ready.

 

In a jar, before you add the peeled hardboiled eggs, place 1&1/4 tsp pepper and some bay leaves.

If you want your eggs to have a touch of sweetness to them, add about a 1/4 tsp. sugar to each jar as well. 

 

After you pour the hot boiling liquid over the eggs, put your lid on and screw the ring on tightly. Once the lid seals, let the jar get to room temp, and then place in the fridge for about 2 weeks before you open them. I randomly flipped mine upside down, and right side up to make sure they pepper and bay leaves got all through.

 

Enjoy!!! And happy egg eating!!!