Soul Food

After a week of working and not yet finding balance in my new routine and feeling kind of tired and overwhelmed. I sat down Saturday and crocheted my first dishcloth. It was good for my soul and made me feel like I accomplished something this week even if it was only a small dishcloth :)

Seeds

I started my tomato, pepper, and broccoli seeds last weekend. I learned from trial and error (mainly error) the best way to start seeds is to let them soak up water from the bottom. The seed starting soil is so fine when you water from the top the dirt and seeds get moved around. Anyway I like to use left over aluminum casserole dishes from Christmas time. I poke holes in the bottom fill it with dirt and then plant my seeds. I use baking sheets I found at the Thrift store under the casserole pan to hold the water. Next weekend my girls and I will make a ton of newspaper pots and fill with organic potting soil to put the individual plants in when they get a little bigger.

Crazy chicken!

My chicken Honey/missing digit decided to go next door for the last couple of days. When I hiked up the dadgum hill to get her I hear her make the " I just layed an egg" noise. I guess she didn't want me to experience the joy of her first egg :p I had to work today so they were cooped up until about 2 and just like I thought there was three eggs in the nest! Oh well I am just glad she's finally laying!
The cold weather seemed to affect my Winnies egg laying she would lay every other day but Squirty kept on crankin' them out. Winnie is also just plopping them out anywhere she pleases so every other day I get a cracked one from her.
I started my seeds this weekend I will post pics soon and also show everyone the hideous dirt I am working with in my backyard. It is the reason I am so proud of anything that we grow. You would think we lived in Arizona!!!!
I just ordered my dulcimer today :) ( super excited about this!!!) So hopefully soon I will be playing some music in my backyard!
Happy Fat Tuesday!!!!

Granola!!!

My second day of work my little one had fever so I had to stay home. I made granola. I have wanted to make it for awhile but never had. It's really good :) My honey loves it and my kids made me buy a bunch of yogurt to put it in. In my opinion it's messy to eat but if your dog is around she will gobble up the mess you make. I am going to try mixing it with yogurt on Tuesday when I go back to work because I made such a mess on Friday. Here is the recipe......

3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1 cup raw almonds

1/2 cup roasted pumpkin seeds ( I may omit these next time)

1/2 cup sunflower seeds ( without the shell ;)

3/4 cup dried coconut flakes

1/2 cup maple syrup ( I splurged and bought 100 % maple)

1/3 cup cold pressed vegetable oil

1/2 cup flour

2 tsp cinnamon

pinch of salt

1/4 cup apple or orange juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped
Preheat oven to 300* F Oil baking sheet with olive oil, set aside
Combine oats, almonds, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, coconut, cinnamon, salt, and flour
In a seperate bowl combine syrup, oil,  juice and extracts
Pour wet ingredients over dry slowly, mix well spread on baking sheet
Turn granola every 10-15 min. bake for a total of 45-60 minutes or until granola is golden
Let cool for 10 minutes or so then add the raisins and apricots.
Store in airtight container

My temporary journey

Valentines day my mom called with news that her work needed temporary help. They had a major computer issue and needed a couple of data entry people to put some info in. I immediately said yes! I could set my hours to fit my daughters schedule and make some extra money to pay for the many wants I have! I haven't worked for the last six years and it would be great to contribute to the familys income even if its just a little bit :) I have a ton of interesting feelings on the subject of work. First the office dynamic. There are so many different personalities that have to all some how fit together to make it work, this makes me appreciate what my mom deals with on a daily basis. It isn't bad, its just intriguing. Second I am not as awesome as I thought I was. Sitting at a computer for five hours, looking up products you don't have a clue about, being distracted by the funny lady in the front, and making sure my wireless mouse is plugged in (this cracked me up after I did it). So far I am slow and slightly unproductive. I will be lucky not to be canned before my time is up! LOL!!! One thing that I will get out of this besides the money to pay for my wants is the appreciation of my stay at home job. I have taken it for granted, I put off alot because there is always tomorrow. I may not be very productive at my new job YET but I AM getting more done at home.

Sunday

I had alot of fun with my husband yesterday going to antique stores and pawn shops (he is into guns) but I realized two things. One I am a tightwad, it didn't matter if I wanted a certain something or not. I will wait until I find it at a thrift store or an estate sale. Two I am a homebody. About six hours into our day I couldn't wait to get home. Once we got home, I let my dog out and ran to the coop to check on the chickens! I love being home! But I did notice at all of the stores I was drawn to antique bee smokers, bee keeping may be next on my list!

First Eggs!!!

I have had my chicken for 4 1/2 months. Every book I have read says they start laying between 5 and 7 months. I am going to say that because I take such wonderful care of my girls they have started laying early :) Two weeks ago when I went out to clean the coop and feed my birds I found some mystery goo in their house. After poking at it for a few seconds I realized it was a yolk! Weird! Of course I called my husband right away to share the good news, and then my six year old and I went to guessing which chicken did it. Whats funny is we thought my leghorn was the one and as of right now she is the only one not trying to lay. I did notice winnie's bottom looked puffy and bigger but it was when she pooped out the liner to the egg that we realized it was her! Yes I was watching her the exact moment she pooped out the liner as strange as that is. The next day she layed a little green egg :) They have gotten bigger since the first day and they are a darker green now. This weekend they are going to be scrambled!

The next chicken to act weird and sit on the nest was Honey, she has sat in the next box for long periods of time and so far nada! Three days ago my cute little cochin Squirty was running around griping all day doing laps around my feet and just acting like a spaz. I was worried about her (she is my baby), so I kept checking on her all day. That night we had the cutest little pink egg in the nest. I couldn't believe how stinkin' cute it is. She layed another one today it's the same size and just as cute as the first but without all the griping and drama :) 

This weekend is going to be really cold, I am curious to see how this affects all of the egg laying. I have harvested the rest of the brussel sprouts and tucked the veggie plants in for the night. I also brought in the rosemary, I would hate to see her go, she is soo good in our Sunday night pot roasts!!! Now I am going to finish the pink camo beanie I am crocheting for Bella. The hubby and I have a day off from parenting tomorrow, we are planning on going to antique stores hopefully I will find some treasure!!!!

Thanks to my beauties

I just wanted to say that I am soo thankful for my daughters help with the garden and the chickens :) Thank you Mariah, Haley ;), and Bella for everything you girls do. LOVE YA!!! MUAH!!!!!

Getting Baby Chicks




Winnie and Sunny

 

The first thing I want to say is out of all the books I have read about chickens they don't emphasize enough about how much chicken poop you will be dealing with. A compost bin is a must!!!! Thank you to my husband for building mine ;) When you do your research and figure out how many and what breed of chicken you want the exciting day comes when you go to purchase them. We learned a few lessons on buying chickens at the feed store. Lesson 1~If you buy the banded pullets (the ones that are definetly hens) you have to take the metal out of their wing. If you are squeamish and an animal lover this part really sucks! But if you take your time and are careful you can get it out with little fuss from the baby chicks. Lesson 2~Check them over we had one with a bad toe. The other chickens pecked at it unrelentlessly so we had to seperate her. With chickens being flock animals she was sad for a few days until I bought her a smaller baby chicken friend. Luckily she only pecked her toe once and then left it alone. They are best buds now and Honeys/missing digit's toe healed up. Lesson 3~If the person at the feed store says "This one isn't doing well you can have it for free" say no thanks! I carried that little baby bird around all night and the second I put it down so I could fix dinner it died :'( The next time I get new chicks I will order from a hatchery.




Honey and Angel Squirt

                                              Our original plan was to end up with three hens. After buying our birds we had five chickens two of which were definetly female the other three were iffy. The "for sure" pullets were our americauna Winnie and our leghorn Sunny. Honey/missing digit grew up to be a pullet and I think she is a barnvelder, and her best buddy is also a female, a cute little blue cochin named Angelsquirt. The only chicken that ended up being a cockerel was Nibble a partridge plymouth. He had such an aggresive and curious personality were pretty positive he was male! Since we had to seperate the chicks, cliques formed. We have the three big ones in one clique and the two little ones in another. My daughters loved playing with the baby chicks after school. Now mommy loves playing with the chickens all day!




Nibble and Sunny

 







Lovin' Life

Yesterday, after getting an egg from my chicken coop and harvesting almost two pounds of brussel sprouts and eating them for dinner. I just wanted to share the joy of the simple things in my life. So today (although I am techno impaired) I decided to start a blog about the part of my life that I love! I learn new things everyday about animals and gardening and want to share my experiences (right or wrong) with everyone!!! I have been online all day trying to figure out this blogging thing so I am done for today but look for chicken pics and no tellin' what else tomorrow :)