1 Year Blogaversary Giveaway!!!!!

I can't believe it's been a year! I remember that evening when the hubs came home from work and I said "I did it, I started a blog" seems like yesterday, but it was a year ago LOL!!!! I became rich with blog friends this year. You are all so special! When naysayers put down, or don't understand what I'm trying to do, you guys remind me why I do it and give me support to carry on and grow!!!! I cherish you all ♥ So in honor of my year anniversary next Thursday, I'm doing a giveaway! One lucky winner will receive one of my upcycled feed bag totes. The winner will be able to choose which bag they want ☺ Just leave a comment below, share on your blog and let me know you shared for an extra entry. My darling little on will pull the name out of the hat Wednesday evening before bed so I guess the contest will end around 9pm central time Wednesday Feb. 6th! Winner will be announced Thursday morning! Here is just three of them. I will post pics of all the choices soon! Thanks for following my ramblings for a year and for being great blog friends! I ♥ you guys!!!!

Something new!

I have a confession to make. I do raise, butcher, and eat my homegrown chickens, BUT I have never cut up a whole chicken! What you say, who doesn't know how to do that! Well me, until today. I usually take the easy route and just roast the whole bird and let the savages at it when it's cooked and lately when we butcher a bird we just skin it and take the breasts, legs, and thighs. But today I stumbled across an oven fried chicken recipe and as it so happens I had been thawing one of my birds in the fridge for the last two days, so I decided to take the time (I'm not patient) and learn this skill! So here it is my cut up bird.

I thought the leg and thigh seperation was hard, well it was cake compared to the breasts which I'm sure I did wrong, they ended up with the skin hanging on by a thread but I did get them off the bird, so yeah! I might skin them and put them aside for another night! I'm sure the hubs will be super impressed with my accomplishment today and I look forward to trying this recipe ☺

Hatching Eggs??? + Update

I am wanting to hatch out some Marans and Americauna's. The only local person I found is back ordered for two months and her hens have quit laying!!!! Do any of you WONDERFUL blog friends have fertile Maran or Americauna eggs you'd be willing to sell to me? Is it even possible to safely ship eggs? I was just wondering :) UPDATE============================================================Thanks to Kristin I will be getting a dozen fertile Maran eggs next week ☺ I can't wait to have beautiful dark brown eggs and the yard is going to be really full of chickens now LOL!!!

Baby Bunny

She's 2 1/2 weeks old now and yes I said she. I'm not a bunny sexing expert but I'm thinkin' it's a girl! I was going to give it to my brother if it was a boy, but she will be staying here if her parts are right, so I hope I'm correct ☺

Gun Diva's Giveaway

Found this link through Garland Girl! My husband loves all the free gun stuff from shows! All you gun lovers need to check this out ☺ Gun Diva's Giveaway

Mmmm Bread

Along with making Mama Peas delish stew yesterday I made bread. One of the loaves I smothered in butter and added garlic pepper to the top before baking, it's gone! With the other loaf I am enjoying the best grilled ham and cheese samich for lunch and we'll have french toast for dinner!!!! Yummy ☺

I ♥ Compost!

One of my favorite things around here is my compost bin. My husband put it together for me last Christmas. I filled it up and by spring was able to put all of it's contents into my new garden. My compost bin is pretty full right now, so I dug down deep and got three wheelbarrows full of compost and added it to my raised beds. It amazes me how all the "crap" doesn't smell once it's broken down and it is a pretty sight to this gardener! My baby buns eyes are open :) It comes out of the nest box to visit it's mama a couple times a day. It's grown so fast! It's a cute little chunk! My youngest daughter thinks it's the cutest thing she has ever seen! We are collecting eggs from our New Hampshire reds to incubate. From what I have seen in the yard they should be fertile. As of right now whatever hatches will be for meat, but I could change my mind ;) I finished painting the new coop. I don't think the chickens care but it does looks good! The little roo's of that bunch are beginning to get rowdy! The witching hour is about 4pm when they get randy! It's annoying but soon we will pick who stays and who goes. My big roo may go first, it chased my dog yesterday and tried to flog my little one. Mama doesn't put up with that! Two of my pullets have started visiting the nest box. I'm hoping for more eggs soon :) I haven't spent much time online this week, but I did grab Mama Peas chicken and dumpling stew recipe. The hubs is in love with her now LOL!!! I recommend making this, it's delish!!!! I think that's it! Have a great day!!!!

Today

I pulled weeds in my raised beds. It felt good to have dirt run in between my fingers! The broccoli and brussel sprouts leaves are a little droopy but with this sun and a good drink of water, I think they will perk back up. I harvested a handful of beets, they look a little woody. I've never grown them before and I think I put them in a little late but I'm going to try and cook them anyway :) Cleaned the goat pen, and now I'm going to get some paint to finish the new chicken coop! Have a great weekend!!!!

This is me!!!!

♥

Thursday I went to the mailbox and I had a package ☺ When I opened it I started bawling. You send a guy some matches and he sends the most thoughtful treasure! Thank you so much MDR! I adore it♥ My family was blown away by your talent and kindness.
Okay guys get ready to be jealous........................
disclaimer~~~~ I have been wearing a winter hat all day dealing with my critters. My face is red from just coming in from the cold and laughing at my photographer who is 7!  You would have to catch me at a specific time of the day looking my very best and I'm not sure what time that is LOL!!!!~~~

I realized my little dog was chewing on it in this pic. The little turd is teething!

I've got to find the perfect spot for it and I might stain it. My little one says leave it alone it looks country the way it is! I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet, I just love it! Thanks again! And thank you Sandy for walking me through the picture posting thing, it worked ☺

♥My baby bunny♥

So I posted this pic on FB and then copied it to here. I'll have to figure out this blogger mess tomorrow. Ain't nobody got time for that LOL!!!

UGGGHHH!!!

I can't upload photos!!!!!

This is hilarious!!!!

Bunnies!!!!!!!!!!!!! +UPDATE

Miss Lolly just delivered her buns! This is OUR first time, I hope she is a good mamma! I see three so far, two look blue and aren't moving but one is wriggling all around!!! I will keep you posted, wish us luck!!!

Bun update: She had three. One was big and it looks like she might have cleaned it too well, it's gone. One was the obvious peanut, also gone. We still have one pink baby bun, I'm hoping all goes well. No matter what this is the first real birth on the homestead. I can't count the chicks I had a hand in that ☺ So even if this one doesn't make it we have made it through our first time and can move forward. I'm proud of my girl and it was a beautiful thing to see ♥

Welcome ☺

I just want to welcome and thank Queenacres, Duke, Amymorgan1970, Stephen, Katidids, Skeeter73, momMDR, Janeofvirginia, Michael McKenzie, and niteflyrwoman for following my blog. I hope I don't bore you with my thoughts, I tend to be a doer and not a big picture taker, but this year one of my resolutions is to take more photos of what we do! If you have a blog and I haven't found the link please leave a comment. I would love to check yours out too!

Chicken ER Update

After dinner we got Ms. Honey down from her roost, brought her into my husbands shop, he was suprised at how big the lump was. I had put warm water and a little olive oil into a little kids medicine syringe. Now to get the bird to open her mouth I held her nose holes for a second and she would pop her mouth open to breathe. I put some of the warm water/oil in her mouth and then massaged downward nothing really moved. I did this about four times, the hubs smelled something foul and from my research it could only be the wet food stuck in her crop making that smell. We put her in a small cage in the shop with a heat lamp. She poo'ed it had bubbles in it which was weird. About thirty minutes later the hubs said put your boots on and come out here. Ms. Honey had layed a not quite formed egg in her little cage, I let her eat a little of the yolk and then cleaned it all up. This morning her crop is smaller but I'm still going to withhold food today and redo the warm water into her mouth tonight. Tomorrow I will offer her some yogurt, but until that thing gets really small I'm going to keep her locked up.
From this experience I would say if you ever have an egg bound hen warm water and olive oil will help the egg slide out!
Thanks for all the well wishes for my girl, I think she will be okay and JUGM the crop is a sack around the top of the breast that holds their food until it passes through and makes a turd. When you butcher a chicken you can open them up and see what they ate that day it's kinda interesting. My hen has hay or something in hers thats not passing so everything she eats is just building up in there. I guess if it doesn't get fixed they die from starvation even though they are still eating they don't get the nutrition because it's stuck.
Have a great day everyone, I have to clean this house and do some shopping for the big party this weekend ☺

Chicken ER

I think one of my hens has an impacted crop! I kept thinking all day that she has a tumor or something, upon further binging I think it's an impacted crop caused from the alfafa hay in the goat barn where she likes to lay her eggs. I'm going to make dinner real quick and when the hubs gets home we are going to put olive oil and water into her mouth and massage her crop. She will have to stay in her own cage and will only get water with ACV in it until she is better. I will let you all know if this works or not, fingers crossed she's one of my first birds and I would hate to lose her :(

Refocusing

I've felt down lately by all the goings on in our country. Things I can't change, things I really don't think anyone can change. So, I went to the library and checked out five books on farming and homesteading. So far I have been reminded why I love this life, when you are busy there isn't much time to worry about anything except whats going on in your own yard! So besides preparing my home for my oldest daughters sweet sixteen bonfire party this weekend, I have been painting our new chicken coop ( I will give you a photo tour when it's complete) My husband bought me a 22 while I was posting about guns Ha! He put a scope on it and can't wait to show me how to shoot it. I hope I will have it on me if another coyote or fox comes into the yard that would be awesome!!! He's also hoping I will shoot some squirrels and bbq them one night, hmmm maybe, I've been enjoying watching the squirrels eating pumpkin and then being chased by my hens its a hoot! We are supposed to get rain tonight, we need it. I'm hoping next week will be as nice as this one so I can finish the coop. I hear we are getting some really cold weather in a couple of weeks so I'm going to focus on the house and the next nice day start on painting the goat barn. My MIL gave us some rusty red paint she got at a yard sale for .50c a gallon! I'm wanting to get all my painting done before spring so I can really get into the garden this year!
Happy Tuesday y'all!!!

Guns

I'm not a big fan of guns, they scare the living crap out of my little dog. If she hears one she heads for the hills and won't stop! They are loud and sometimes scary especially in the wrong hands. They also protect our farm animals from unwanted predators, provide food for the table, and would really come in handy if someone was trying to break in your house to harm you or your family.
When we moved to our little piece of heaven, the hubs machismo went through the roof!!! He could burn trash, the burn barrel was smoking constantly! He could walk through the woods, which was our backyard before we cleared it and he could shoot guns! His interest in guns grew over time, he started building targets for the backyard. He has a pretty cool set up out back to shoot and his friends from town would come over and shoot their guns, even our neighbor has used the targets, since our land backs up to a hill. My little one loves collecting the spent shells from the yard and putting them in her fort! Now my husband spends his time stock piling ammo and not shooting any of it! This is sad to me!!!

New Years Superstitions

The hubs and I binged some new years superstitions today because his mother told me one I wasn't aware of. Did you know your not supposed to do laundry today? Well my man has to go to work tomorrow in this cold weather so I had to wash his coveralls!!!! So, I'm hoping what I read wasn't true because if what you do on New Years day is what you do all year than I will be cooking, doing laundry, and taking care of my critters, all the while being a little tipsy thanks to the champagne we didn't drink last night! LOL!!! So here's to hoping that the superstitions are all hog wash!!!
The hubs has aquired something today that I am super excited about!!! It's silly, but we don't get out much! I can't wait for him to bring them home, they will be perfect for K and MDR's homemade gift! I think they will like it even if they have some already!!!!! I got all the chickens up, some greens harvested, the beds covered, and the goats fed. It's sooo cold today that all that was actually a chore. Now I'm going to make some chicken nuggets from our backyard roo's, collard greens (for fortune), and mashed potatoes for dinner. It's been a good day, maybe not real productive, but good ☺

2013

 

 

Happy New Year to all my blog buddies. I wish we all lived in the same area, what a neighborhood we would have!!! We would have some fun gatherings for sure!!!! I tried to take pictures with my phone this morning and couldn't upload them, so it's looking like 2013 is making me use my old camera! Taking care of my animals this morning has been done in small trips, IT'S COLD outside. So when it started snowing, I wasn't suprised!!!! I took pictures in the goat barn this morning but these are of my garden and little chickens in the snow. My last quick trip outside for awhile LOL!!!

 

My raised beds from the warmth of my house. We had to fence it to keep the feathered friends from destroying anything that was planted. Can you see the snow falling? 

One of the reasons I keep covering my garden!!!



A sideways picture of my raised beds from outside, my plants started perking back up from yesterdays rain.

The baby chickens aren't babies anymore, but they are small except for the weird yellow one!

He's a nosy rooster in case you can't tell, this is what you get when you cross a buff orpington with a partridge cochin. A feather footed buff orpington LOL!!!

I have had some Hoppin' John for lunch so the good luck is done! I need to harvest the greens for supper but it's cold!!! Have a great day everyone!!!!