The "First" EGG!!!!!!

Yea!!!! It's finally here. One of the hens laid the first egg yesterday. It is so pretty, if eggs are pretty. We had been raking leaves all afternoon and redoing part of their run (more about that later). We finished up and decided to check out the coop to make sure everything was in order. There it was laying on the poop shelf. Fortunately Vince had cleaned off all the poop earlier that day so it was clean. It weighed 1 and 1/2 ounces, was 2" long and 4" diameter. We brought it in and cooked it. Vince fried it over medium. Yummy. I had forgotten what a bright colored yolk fresh eggs have. The flavor was more intense also. So there should be more to come. They are supposed to start laying between 16 and 20 weeks and this is 18 so they're doing pretty good.

Thanksgiving day was great!!!

Thanksgiving day is over but giving thanks continues. We had a wonderful time with Matt, Jenny, Kevin, Kelley, and Irene (aka Gwama.) We cooked all sorts of food and enjoyed a very relaxing afternoon. Even Rory was tuckered out.

It is such a blessing that we know our son-in-law's parents and can have a holiday with them. I know it makes it a lot easier for Matt and Jenny too. Plus they're really cool people !! We even took them on a tour of the chicken condo.

Making Laundry Soap

Here we go again, another experiment. I like trying new things so I thought I'd try making laundry soap. I'm not a big fan of strong scents and most detergents now have very strong scent added to them. First I tried the liquid method where you melt the shredded soap in water then add 1/2 cup borax and 1/2 cup of washing soda, mix well then add hot water. This recipe makes 2 gallons and it works fine. I didn't really have room though in my laundry area for the two gallon bucket so I thought I'd try the powdered. I shredded 1/2 bar of Fels-Naptha soap and a little bit of Dr. Bronners all natural soap mixed that with 1 cup of borax and 1 cup of washing soda. You use 1 tablespoon per load, 2 for extra soiled. It works great. You have to get use to not seeing a lot of suds. I'm told that's all just for selling anyway. But if you put your hand in the water you can feel the slickness which is what allows the cleaner to slide through the fibers. Most exciting is it's pennies to make. I haven't calculated yet, I'll get our family mathematician (Jenny) to do that and I'll let you know exactly but it was hardly what you'd pay for commercial brands. Off to do some more laundry!!

Closing the Pool :-(

Oh boo, it's time to drain the pool :-( Rory really isn't too sad, she prefers lounging on the deck just in case a morsel of food should drop. Annie is sad though. She really loves her pool. She even had a friend stay a week this summer and play with her. Her friend, Cody liked the pool too. It actually stays pretty clean. You can't see in the picture but Vince made a filtering system using two barrels and a pool pump. The black hose is from the gutter so the rain water kept it pretty full this year. I'm sure Annie wouldn't mind if it froze over. She would still be ready to jump in. But we don't want to take a chance on it cracking, nor do we want the dogs "cracking."
That's what happens to them when they go swimming and the water freezes on their hair, they crack as they walk.

Raking leaves with the chickies!

Raking leaves isn't much fun unless you happen to have children (or old people that act like children) or chickens that like to climb into the piles and begin to spread them back around from where you just raked them. I read that about a 6 inch layer of leaves makes good bedding for their run so since I have a yard full of leaves why not. Well chickies see the pile and can't wait for it to get into the pen so they jump right in. They seemed to have fun, if chickens have fun that is. At least it keeps them busy for a while. Then after I put it in their run I tossed in some scratch grains and they got really busy trying to find it. That is actually good for them in the winter as it helps them warm up.

Operations Christmas Child

Our church decided to be a relay center for Operation Christmas Child this year, and it's been loads of fun. Since we are an Age Intergrated Church our families chose a night to come a serve together. It's a lot of fun to see the people come in and there are sooooo many boxes and yet probably still not enough :-(

Pizza Day!!!

AAAHHHH, my house smells sooo good. I baked my usual 12 loaves of bread today and decided to try the pizza dough. I hadn't tried it in the mixer yet so I thought why not. I tripled the recipe and used the hard red wheat, prairie gold and just a couple cups of the soft wheat or pastry. I added a few tablespoons of herbs de provence for flavor. The outcome was 8, 12" crusts. We gobbled up one right away, wrapped 5 prebaked ones for the freezer, put one ball of dough in the fridge and one in the freezer. The last two are experimental. I want to see how they recover. The only bad thing is once you make your own dough it kinda spoils you and it's hard to get take out again. But oh well. Now I'm just plain tired but good tired.

Garlic is in!!!

The garlic is in!!! After reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, I am very excited about planting different varieties of vegetables. I just thought garlic was garlic but there are so many different flavors. I chose the Organic Polish Softneck in honor of my hubby's Polish heritage. It boasts to be for lovers of hot garlic (that would be Vince) and I am not sure I have ever had "hot" garlic. We planted 64 of the little buggers. That should be enough to hold us for a little while. We took a little of the wonderful compost that cooked over the summer, mixed it in the boxes and just poked them in. I ordered a milder one too, but it was already discontinued. We got it in the ground just in the nick of time. Next year we will plant it a few weeks earlier.

That, That cat, That cat!!!!

This is Daisy, or better known around here as "that cat." Vince has a love/hate relationship with this gorgeous little fur ball. We actually bought her 19 years ago, then about 6 years ago we gave her to my son-in-laws parents and a 2 years ago she disappeared. We all thought she had either died or been killed. Well then a year ago they pulled up in their driveway (it was at night) and they opened the car door and hear "MEOW." They shut the doors looked at each other and said "you don't think, no it can't be." Well it was and it just so happened they were moving and couldn't keep her but I had been wanting another cat so I dashed over and brought her home. She was so skinny. Well now she's a fat cat. The only problem is she poops where Vince doesn't want her to poop. She started under the deck so he fenced that off, then she went in the finished compost so he covered that, now she's going in the gravel walkways in the garden. All this wouldn't be so bad except the dog just happens to like kitty candy a lot. So as he passes Daisy where ever she is I always hear him saying "that cat." Bottom line is, he loves that cat and will miss that cat when she's gone.

Cleaning the chicken condo!!

Condo cleaning day!!! We wanted to put in some fresh pine shavings before the cold weather gets here. So we scooped all the old out into the run and put fresh on the floor. Underneath the shavings vinyl flooring to make cleaning easier. The buckets are old paint buckets complements of D&J Painting (my brother) in Thomasville. They have shredded paper in them to make the chickies comfy while they lay their eggs. The shelf above the buckets catch the dropping from the roosts which helps make clean up a breeze plus it helps keep the shavings dry. There are a couple of chickens that are a little scared to fly down in the morning so Vince has been helping them. Ha! now they are "waiting" for him to help them. There's a slide door over the hole where they go out into the run. This way we can lock them up safe and sound at night. No chicken dinners for Mr. Fox or Mr. Raccoon. Mr. Raccoon got into our last coop. So now the chickies have a nice clean house for the winter. Oh did I mention the chicken poop gets scooped into a pan every couple days and goes into the compost barrel. Boy does it make for some nice fertilizer.

Good "whole" Food!!!

Since planting the garden it's been a lot of fun to watch things grow. In an attempt to get back to eating "whole" food, real food, the Farmer's Market is getting to be my favorite day trip. Here is a picture of the dinner we recently had with some yummy food most of which was purchased at the Farmer's Market. There are roasted beets, which we had for the first time, sauteed brussel sprouts, rutabaga also a first timer, black beans and rice and a slice of my homemade wheat bread with a butter and roasted garlic spread. Not in the picture but also delicious was a "sweet" potato. Can't put these things in a box and still have them taste so good. I can't wait to start planting in the spring.

Me and my girls :-)

Here are a few of the most beautiful chickens ever. I think, they think, I'm the mommy cause they follow me everywhere, or maybe it's the food:-) It looks like Mr. Bird may have gotten his claws into the back of one of the hens. I was out with them today and noticed what appeared to be blood on her back. I picked her up and looked around but couldn't see anything. Then when I sat her down she walked with a little list to the side then kinda shook it off and continued scratching around. That won't happen again though, they'll just have to be happy in their run unless I'm out in the yard with them. Gotta protect the babies!!!!

Yummy food!!!!

Oh my the garden is doing great!!! I'm not so sure about picking off the cabbage worms but otherwise it's like magic. I look at each plant and it's like you can see it grow right before your eyes. We've had a couple pickings of peas already, the broccoli is beginning to head up and so is the cabbage. Vince put a cooker on the deck so I can cook up the collards outside, not really the best scent for inside, but good to eat. The chickies get the worms and the leaves that we cut off but don't use. That's one of the great things about having chickens, nothing goes to waste.

SPA Day!!!

I'm not really sure Rory fully appreciates her spa treatment. After battling her allergies on and off for two years, we took her to the vet. Before we could say a word he had a steriod shot in her and said come back in 6 weeks for another. Well I do not like steriods and I definitely can't afford them every 6 weeks. So into the bath with tea tree shampoo, finely ground oatmeal and all natural peppermint shampoo for a little tingle and good smell. We washed and massaged and even had a little blow dry.

We will try some topical ointments and attempt to keep these allergy issues under control without "steriods." I'm thinking it's an environmental allergy, with my luck I probably have a dog that's allergic to grass. So for now Rory will be getting a spa treatment about every 6 months and in between wet wipe downs. Poor Rory monster.

Oh my goodness!!!!

Poor chickies!!!!! This chicken is safe and sound after a traumatic experience, but I think she's a little "ruffled." I had let the chickies out to hunt for bugs and taken my favorite spot on the deck when all of a sudden I hear squawking and flapping like crazy. I look up and see a bird, a very large bird diving for my babies!!!!! I jumped up and screamed as loud as I could several times and he aborted his mission. The chickens managed to run under two holly trees in the edge of the wooded area of the yard. I was able to call the ones from the front tree to join the ones in the back tree closest to their pen. Well from there they weren't moving at all. Some had hunkered down in shock the others just kept looking at me like what the heck was that. I started coaxing them to me one at a time and carried each one of them to the pen. When it got down to the last five they had more room to get away from me so I fetched the pruners and cut away a couple of smaller branches enough so I could crawl in, yes crawl in to a prickly holly tree. I kept moving them and when I took the next to the last, the last realized she was all alone and started cackling and telling me what she thought. Next thing I know she was "flying" to the pen. Whew!!!! I immediately counted heads (about 10 times) just to make sure they were all present and accounted for. The ones I had carried either "purred" or peeped grateful to be back to safety. Don't think they'll be out again unless I can stay down in the yard with them. Now I need to take some Advil for the sore legs I think I will have in the morning.

Rory's learning to walk on a leash!!

Okay so for years I've said I would walk if I had a walking partner. Ha, turns out I have two very good ones so no more excuses. Rory, the orange dog that believes the best part of life is eating, also needed to walk. So we get the collar on, find the leash, put on our walking shoes and off we go.

This picture is Rory after the third day. She gathered my shoes, probably so I wouldn't find them and then put her sore paws up in the air for a little nap. I really did have to give her a couple days off. I noticed she was limping and realized since she wasn't used to walking and her pads were probably a little sore. She recuperated and now looks forward to her daily walks. As a matter of fact after the last three days of rain, she started getting in all kinds of trouble so I figured it was time to get a little of that energy out. We had a nice long walk and she's passed out in the chair behind me.

Baking Bread Yum Yum!!!

Oh my, the smell, the feel, the taste, baking bread is amazing. I started with whole wheat grain from Wheat, Montana, the best place for growing wheat, and finished up with 12 loaves of the best whole wheat bread ever!!!! I made it by hand 2 loaves at a time for a long time then Vince got an amazing deal on a Bosch mixer and now I can do 6 loaves at one time. That turns out to be a good thing since we can go through at least one loaf a day!! It's a very simple process yet so many people are intimidated by it. It's another one of those "nurturing" things. The right temperature, the right timing, the right "feel" you get use to it and the best thing is even if something goes wrong (which it will) and a loaf doesn't rise or collapses it still tastes good. Even the loaf I forgot to put the salt in was good, especially with peanut butter on it. Now I'm just going to sit and read and enjoy knowing there's good healthy bread in my freezer.

Chickens!!!!

Chickens are funny!!! They are so curious but scared of everything!!!! Vince has built them a chicken "condo". These chickens will have the best life ever. I am feeding them chick feed with no "animal" protein, although I'm sure they will find plenty of bugs and worms on their own. It just didn't seem right to feed them animal protein when we are vegetarian (and so are the dogs). There are about 4 of them that like to be rubbed and held so when I go out to give them treats they stay right by my feet pecking me until I pet them. I'm still scared when I let them out in the grass. I don't think I could handle seeing a hawk fly off with one. I usually sit out there with them or on the deck with my air gun. I'm still looking for a place in the area that sells organic feeds. Some mills will mix for you. So far I get their grain treats from Yoder's Country Market in Yanceyville. They are just a little spoiled on millet, oat groats, brown rice and rolled flakes.

Always Learning

Learning is so much fun!!! Now I'll be learning about this whole blogging thing. It's funny how when you're young you learn so easily and don't really think about "learning" and as you get older it becomes a little more difficult but you can look at it as task or treat. I just happen to like it so for me it's a treat.


This organic thing is like learning a new language. I grew up on a farm where there were so many chemicals sprayed on the crops the wells we used for our drinking water were contaminated and we couldn't even use them to wash clothes much less for drinking. So chemicals on our food, chemicals in our food, it just gets to be too much. Trying to learn a new way of life at my age is overwhelming but well worth the effort. I have a great advantage in that my daughter is very knowledgeable about organics and she is a wonderful "researcher" and good at teaching this "old dog" new tricks.



So I guess we'll see where this journey goes.