Baby Bunnies, and Orpingtons

Ignore the mud in the one picture on my pinky finger! when you are outside doing farm type stuff on a regular basis, there's going to be mud, dirt and poop! LOL One of the baby bunnies let loose and peed in my hand today. That's really no surprise, because that's what babies do, but this bunny is a little guy, and I can't figure out how it had so much in it!!! However, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised as right now they are pretty much so on an all liquid diet.

I realized yesterday that my Orpington chicks that are outside are almost 4 months old already! That time went kind of quick!!!

Whats in a dozen eggs???

What's really in a dozen eggs??? Well, when you buy a dozen eggs from the store, just the yolk, and the whites, and not much flavor. HOWEVER, when you buy eggs from a back yard farmer, there is so much more. There is love, dedication, and friendship. When you buy eggs from someone like me, who runs a small farm, some would even call it a hobby farm, you get to know me, and I get to know you. I hear stories and see pictures of your children, and you see pictures of my animals, and even get to see pictures of the chickens that those eggs came from.
I recently took some eggs to a really sweet lady who works in our favorite place to eat. She had asked us about them, so I brought her some, and gave her my information for when she was ready for more. She was really surprised that I charge as little as I do, but I come out ok in the end (more to that here in a moment). I assured her that I sell them better at a lower price.

Recently there was a conversation in one of those groups that I belong to on Face Book, and that conversation did get a little heated. People were discussing how much they should be charging for eggs. People were attacking those who charged too much, and then people were attacking those who charged too little.  One man even went so far as to say that charging such low prices, you will never get back what you had to put into that chicken to get it to lay the first egg. As far as I'm concerned, that's like a high school graduate saying ok, I need to make $80 an hour for anything I do to make up for all the time I had to spend in school to get to this point. You will never get back what you put into that bird to get it to the first egg, until it comes time to harvest that bird for meat.

I get my Chicken feed local, I buy it from the local Co-op, and I get it for less than $9 for a 50 pound bag. I'm buying it local, its also milled local, so, I'm taking money that I made locally, and spending it locally, and that money is staying local...I'm meeting other local farmers, and workers, and I'm helping out my own community. Now, I find that most people that charge high amounts are going to the big box stores, and paying huge amounts of money for feed. That money is not staying local, that feed is not made local, etc etc.

So what's in my carton of 12 eggs??? Local love, and community support.

Sour Cream Chocolate Cake

I'm sorry that there are no pictures of this fantastic desert!! Unfortunately it was gone before I remembered to take pictures!!! It was good to the last bite!!!
This was a recipe from scratch that  was pretty easy. Although, I can tell you all that separating egg whites from the yolks when the eggs are like just laid fresh, they do not separate quickly or easily.

I made this for Todays family dinner, with my husband family. My husbands family gathers together every Sunday, its a beautiful thing, and our group has grown this past year. My husbands one Aunt has started being a regular face at the table, and his one cousin, and his cousin's girlfriend have started having Sunday Dinner with us. Its been so great, warm and fabulous to have everyone together as a group. I've loved every minute of it. We had a health scare with my Father In Law, but Thanks to God, and Medical Science, he's going to be just fine. It's been an emotional few weeks, waiting and worrying, and not knowing what was going to happen.  You see, my husbands family is special to me in more ways than I will ever be able to vocalize, so I'm just going to move on, because finding words is getting hard here.

So here we go with the ingredients!
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup boiling water
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick), butter, softened
1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream
1 & 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 egg whites
2 (16 oz) cans chocolate frosting

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour two 9- inch round cake pans.

2. Combine the cocoa powder and boiling water in a bowl and stir until the cocoa is dissolved, about 30 seconds.

3. Combine the sugar and butter in a large bowl. Beat with mixer until light and fluffy, 1-2 minutes. Add the Cocoa mixture and mix for 1 minute longer. Beat in the sour cream, vanilla and baking soda. Add the flour and salt. Mix for 1 minute more.

4. Beat the egg whites in a medium bowl until stiff peaks for, 2-3 minutes. Fold into the batter.

5. Spoon the batter into the prepared cake pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cake comes out clean, 25-28 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool. Spread the frosting between the layers, and over the top and sides of the cooled cake.

That's it, that's all there is to it!!! It may not sound quick and easy, but it surprisingly is!!!
If anyone makes this cake, send me pics, and I'll share them on here!!!!!

Raspberry Crumble Bars

So yesterday (March 5th) Was my husbands birthday. I was actually making these to share with everybody at our Sunday supper along with the cake that I made (recipe for that coming up as well), these were so good, that they got sampled by him out of sharability. So, I'm planning on making these again in a couple of weeks, in a larger batch.

This recipe is so quick and easy!! I really think its one of those things that can be whipped up for any event quickly and easily!!!

1 & 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup quick cooking oats
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 jar (12 oz.) raspberry jam or preserves
(Makes 20bars)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Coat an 8 inch square baking pan with cooking spray.

2. Combine flour, oats, brown sugar and baking soda in a large bowl. Cut in butter with a  pastry blender until mixture resembles course crumbles.

3. Reserve 1 & 1/2cups crumb mixture. Press remaining mixture onto bottom of prepared pan. Spread jam on crust to within 1/4 inch of edges.

4. Sprinkle reserved crumb mixture evenly on top; press gently. Bake until crumb mixture is light brown, 20-25 minutes. Cook completely on a wire rack. Cut into bars.

Been a little busy

Hey everyone!!! Yes, it's been a bit since my last blog post, but things tend to get a little bit busy on the farm here lately, especially since I've been working hard on staying on top of the hatching, and chick raising.  About 2 weeks ago, I hatched out some Buff Orpington chicks, and then bought some black chicks from Tractor Supply. This week, we bought some more ISA Browns, which are some brown sex links. The ones we got last year were so good, we decided to get a few more for this year.
My Chicks that we got in the mail in January are about ready to go out, as they are fully feathered, and are getting too big for their brooder cage. I'm only keeping six of the Easter Egg chicks, the other 4 I'm putting up for sale in another 2 weeks.
Four of the six tetra tints we hatched out in October have started laying. I have 1 with the Buff Orpingtons, and so far, she has laid 12 days in a row!!! I cant wait to see how many days she lays in a row before she stops.
On Friday (The 4th) Doris gave me 8 cute little baby bunnies, and then today, Ethel gave us a litter, but I have no clue how many she's had yet. I can't wait until tomorrow morning when I can dig into that nest box and see what's waiting for me!!! Ethel tends to have the best kits!!!
I have a bunch of pictures to share with you guys. They aren't all in any particular order, because well, I've been taking pics to share with you all for quite some time, but I've been posting them on my FB Farm page One Crazy Little Chicken Farm if you get a chance, go over there and take a look, and give us a like!!!
So, here goes with the pictures so you can see some of what I've been up to!!!

I had more, but for some reason, they wouldn't load! My computer kept telling me they were already loaded, even though they weren't! I'll have to work on it more another day!!!
Coming up next, I have 2 new recipes for you all!!!

Things I want to try this summer

This cold blustery weather, with the snow that's calling to start anytime now, has me thinking warm thoughts of things that I truly want to try this summer.  One of the biggest things I want to try this summer, which probably isn't all that big at all is, Orange Marmalade. I've been wanting to try making it since I first started making jelly, and canning and stuff. I know when I was a kid Orange Jelly was one of my favorite things for my PB & J sandwiches, of course I know that Orange Jelly, and Marmalade are 2 totally different things, but some of the pictures people have been posting in one of the canning groups I belong to have been calling me to the point of really wanting to!!! So, look for pictures of whatever mess I'm probably going to make in that endeavor. I also want to make Kool-Aid Jelly. Face Book is a really dangerous place to be when you belong to lots of fun groups. (Crochet, Quilting, Canning...my FB group list doesn't really look like something a normal 30 something would belong to!)

The next thing on my list of things that I want to get accomplished this summer is, I want to get the hang of making the Double Wedding Ring quilt. I don't necessarily want to make the quilt, but I'm going to make practice blocks until I get good enough to make an entire quilt. I have my colors picked out, so I do want to make a DWR quilt, I've just got to practice, because those curves aren't necessarily impossible, just something that's going to need practice. I just love the look of those quilts, and would love to make one of them to have for Frank and I to cuddle under together.

Trout fishing!!! I want to go to a river that we can catch trout in, and stock our freezer with fresh fish. I think we can get our fishing licenses and trout stamps online now, so that will make things easier. Frank has plenty of fishing gear, so we wont need to get any of that. I think it would be fun to pack a picnic basket, and spend a day together with no television, no phones, and no work stuff going on. Just the two of us enjoying life.

And finally!!! I want to get more green beans, and tomatoes canned. I'd like to double the amount we got canned last year. This winter, we have done awesome not having to go grocery shopping for much of anything. That's been really awesome, and tasty.

What is everyone thinking about for their summer plans? I know the cold is probably getting to you all some.

Recipe Round up!

So, since I've not been able to figure out the tab feature of this blog yet, even after all these years, I thought that I'd go through my blog, and put links to all of my recipes here for you guys to maybe hopefully help out just a touch!!! So, every recipe that I've ever posted up until this point will be on this blog post! (I'm also planning on doing the same thing with my crochet patterns as well) (Plus since its only 10 degrees out, and Frank's working this weekend, it might kind of sort of be a great way for me to kill some time tonight!!!) (OK plus I'll admit, my walking abilities tonight may be quite limited..more on that in another blog post)
So here we go!!!
Fruit Cobbler
Raspberry Pie
Bread
Fried Pioneer Bread
Spanish Rice
Canned Apple Pie filling
Crock Pot Apple Butter
Single Serve Hot Chocolate
Crockpot Macaroni and Cheese
Brunch Egg Casserole
Cranberry Relish
Green Bean Casserole
Apple Butter Cake
Pickled Eggs
Chili
Scalloped Potato Casserole
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Macaroni Pizza Skillet meal
Quick Oatmeal Bar
Quick and Easy Chicken Casserole
Chocolate Eclair Crumble Desert
Zucchini Bread/Stuffed Squash
Flour Free Pancakes
5 ingredient bread
Pancakes
Bootlegger Beans
Eggplant Lasagna
Peach Bread Recipe
Breakfast Pizza
Frank's Pizza Sauce and crust
apple peel jelly
Laundry Soap
Dog Got Skunked deskunk wash
Snickerdoodles
Gluten Free Pie Crust
Quick and Easy Sausage and Pasta Bake
Bacon Wrapped Asparagus
Spiced Sweet Potato Casserole
Corn Bread
Peanut Butter Balls and No Bake Oatmeal Cookies
Waffles
Grans Chicken Soup
Strawberry Jam
German Potato Salad
1934 Chocolate Cake and Icing Recipe
Overnight Coffee Loaves
Chocolate Zucchini Cake
Big Brownies
Rabbit Chili
Zucchini Fritters
Easy Dinner Rolls
Pumpkin Bread

And There they all are!!! I may have missed one or two, because I didn't always label or tag the best when I first started out! As I was going through this blog, to gather up all of these recipes, I was rather surprised by how long I've been doing this already!!!
I hope that you all enjoy the trip down my recipe memory lane as much as I did!!!