Playtime for the Babies

 I took the little ones outside to play for awhile today.  These little ones are completely different acting than our last two batches.  These babies are very quiet.  The most I hear out of them is what you hear on the video clip.  They rarely cheep.  They are fairly skittish and don't care to be handled.  I will have to break them of that fear.

This was the second time outside.  The first time was yesterday.  They immediately starting eating the small ants on the patio blocks.  They started pecking at the grass and straw the older birds had kicked out of the coop.  The babies were not well received by the older girls.  The older ones are actually afraid of the little ones.  All the little ones wanted to do was get closer to the older birds.  They weren't having it. 

The birds were hatched on Monday and they arrived on Tuesday.  As soon as we got home I took the box out next to the coop and the older birds went crazy hearing the cheeping.  They started pacing back and forth and Red even ran into the coop to get away from them.  They didn't know how to act.  Let alone want anything to do with them.

After taking the birds outside yesterday my husband gave me a hard time when I came inside.  He said the neighbors are going to think I am the crazy chicken lady.  I said I am 44 years old, with braces...do you think I really care?  He laughed. 

I know I have a chicken addiction.  I need to start selling some of their organic eggs to pay for my habit!

My husband won't admit to it publicly, but he likes the chickens too.  He jokes and says he has names for them such as: barbeque, fried chicken, and several others.  He teases me about playing with my food.  He knows we will never eat something we have given a name to, and especially not our chickens.  I get chickens from a friend whose family raises them to cook. ( Thousand Generations Farm ) I don't know them personally, so I have no problem eating them.

Eating ants off the patio blocks

The black one is the smallest but seems to be the leader.  When ever she takes off the others follow her.

Buddies

Amber and Ginger like to stick together

Simply exhausted

Time for a short nap

OK, we are awake again

Paying for Cable TV

In a quest to live a more simple life, one of the things that comes up in discussion is our choice not to pay to watch TV.   When we enter Sam's Club, immediately we are asked who our cable TV provider is.  (They are trying to sell cable service to their customers).  We respond with, "we don't have cable".  They immediately are quieted.  One response was "well, we can't be free".  Exactly.

I have only had cable TV for three years of my life.  When I was going through my divorce, the first thing I did was cancel the cable.  That was in 1997.  I haven't paid for television since.

Since 9/11 we have spent more than desirable time living or staying in motels with my husband.  Each time having access to paid TV. It was a novelty, that at times kept us up because we were watching TV.  After time we found ourselves flipping channels frequently to locate something to watch.  The same can be said for "antenna" TV.  Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy some shows that are only on cable, however, not enough to justify the added expense of paying to watch it.  I feel that is money I can spend on something of more enjoyment.  If I am going to pay for something to watch, it's usually a rented movie.  We do buy movies, on occasion, to add to our collection which we view from often.  Especially now that reruns of most shows are being played.

Now that television has changed from analog to digital, the viewing choices are more limited.  If a cloud rolls over, our program can be disrupted.  If you don't sit in the "right" place while viewing, the program won't come in.  Having to buy a converter box for each of our televisions was also another irritation.  Why did the government feel the need to mess with something that was already working, and had been for  years?  Oh that's right...more money.  They made money in the change.  Money seems to be the determining factor in so many choices now days.

What about the people that are effected due to their decision?  Storm alerts don't get to those affected.  As we have experienced, many times, if a storms rolls through, your reception is lost.  Oh, but wait, you can buy a weather alert radio.  For a mere 19.99, actually they are higher now, but 19.99 seems to be the going price for most "junk" anymore.  Yes, you can get a weather radio, but if storms are anywhere in the state it will keep you up all night.  After one season of loosing sleep, not only from storms, but from the radio going off every few minutes, they have been thrown into a drawer.

I realize many people get enjoyment from watching television.  I'm not saying we don't watch TV. We do, however, only have a limited number of converter boxes.  Therefore, have decided to shut off the TV in the bedroom.  We no longer watch TV in bed.   It's actually quite nice.  It gives us more time to read.

We make a conscious choice not to pay to watch TV.  Many people are paying around $100 a month for cable.  That's $1200 a year.  With the cost of everything increasing, but wages, our choice is to spend that money elsewhere.

For many years we struggled with the fact of having a home phone due to the cost.  In the community we live, in order to have Internet, you must have home phone service.  Unless you get your Internet from the cable provider.  We don't use our home phone that often, so we felt we were paying an excessive amount just to have Internet service.   We often thought of just cancelling both phone and Internet but we do a lot of price comparison, searching, shopping, and communicating with the Internet. Unfortunately we also live in a community that is loosing more and more businesses each week.  We don't have a lot of options for shopping. The Internet gives us more choices.

I Love the Color Green

Dishcloth in progress

I wouldn't say green is my favorite color, but I do like it.  My couch and love seat are both green.  I have green as one of the colors that connect each room in my house.

  I love the outdoors because everything is green.  One of the places we like to vacation is Cheyenne, Wyoming.  The only down side is there isn't enough green! I love looking outside and seeing a green garden and yard. 

There is a lot of green vegetation around our house.  Ferns, lily of the valley, and snow on the mountain, all of which were already planted when we purchased the house.  Thankfully they keep spreading each year.  It's always sad to see them go die off for the winter.  Most of the area then becomes brown and barren. 

Can you believe these are native plants to Iowa!

   Each year I gather the seeds from the Black Eyed Susan plants I have growing and spread them in different places around the yard.  This year they are growing in places I didn't sow seeds.

Picture from 2010

 The same can be said for my heirloom tomatoes.  The seeds I planted this year did not sprout, however, I have several plants that have popped up in various places.  I will get to have some after all.  Some of the plants have been spread through the compost I use to replenish my beds.  Apparently heirloom tomato seeds are not killed off in the compost pile.  I have tomatoes growing in my strawberry bed, flower beds, and all throughout other various garden beds.  I even have plants that have sprouted up next to the chicken coop.  How on earth the seeds made it next to the coop is forever a mystery. 

New Outdoor Cushions

 This is a project I actually completed this spring but never got around to writing about it.  I have two older white wicker chairs that sit on my front porch.  The chairs are worn and I have repainted them a couple of times but the weather seems to stay ahead of me.  Instead of repainting this year I decided I would try to spruce them up by making some bright cushions for them. 

 I still want to make a matching cover for the end table that goes with the set.

Sew on snaps were added for easy removal for cleaning

Completed project

 The only problem now that they are completed is I haven't been able to bring myself to put them outside.  They look too nice!

The Babies are Here! The Babies are Here!

They have finally arrived! We picked them up at 5:30 last night. I tried to order more than a month ago from Theisen's but their suppliers would not let us order any less than five of one breed.

We wanted various breeds for diversity in the flock. It's easier to tell them apart too! My son was obsessed with getting a white leghorn. He wants to name it Foghorn from the cartoon. I tried to explain to him Foghorn was a male and we wouldn't be getting any males. I don't think he really cared about that. He wants a Leghorn to name Foghorn. We'll see what name he decides on.



This one is the Leghorn




Thanks to our friends from Thousand Generations Farm we were able to add the chickens we wanted on to their order. We ordered from Hoover's Hatchery again this year. The hatchery sent us an extra chick in case something happens to one of them. We now have five. Two buff orpingtons, one black sex link, one white rock, and of course the white leghorn. The leghorn will be the first chicken we will have that will lay a white egg. All of the others are brown egg layers.

The two Buff Orphinton's
I'm going to name them Amber and Ginger
Ginger from the movie "Chicken Run"

Little Miss Leg Horn
The one with the green stirpe on her head is a White Rock

The Black Sex Link

The first drinks of water

Sleepy Time



Sprucing up an existing hosta bed

I got tired of weeding the garden bed my son created last year so I decided to get some mulch and spruce up the bed.  I didn't have any landscape fabric left so I used a newspaper roll to cover the area before adding the mulch.  I had to cut out slots to put the hostas into.  

 

The three larger hostas were planted in 2010, while the two smaller ones were just added this year.  While digging in the garden shed I found three decorations I thought would go good with the theme.  They are in the back next to the tree.  Two are chickens and one is a barn.  I added a cement patio block to put the red hen on this year for more stability.

The Babies Will be Here Tomorrow!

It has been a dreary day today.  It has rained off and on.  It makes me miss my teenager even more.  Tomorrow is the delivery date for our new babies. My son picked the breeds we ordered and now he won't be here to get to see them.  He had made plans before we knew the delivery date. 

Getting more baby chicks is both exciting and more work.  Although new babies are always fun and cute, they require more care than the older girls do.  I have read a lot about having one of your established hens become a foster parent to new hatchlings.  I haven't decided if I want to bring one of the girls inside to "nest" with the babies or keep them separated until the babies are a little older. 

Part of me wonders if maybe they will get along better once they are mixed with the older girls if one of the hens watches over them as if they were her own. 

Right now I still have a few things to get together to get ready for the baby chicks like wash up the food and water trays and dig out the box I had saved to house them in.  Baby chicks tend to stir up a lot of dust which I am not looking forward to having in the basement, yet again. 

My garden haul

Yesterday I worked on planting tomato and pepper plants I didn’t have the room for until now. I had to use a tulip area of one of my beds. I also threw some pumpkin seeds into a compost heap in hopes they will grow. I am out of garden space and don’t have anywhere for pumpkins to be planted. I read on another blog that pumpkins grow just about anywhere and to try sprinkling some seeds into the compost pile. There are a lot of nutrients for them to thrive so I am hoping to get some pumpkins this fall. Now, to keep my husband from disturbing the pile.


While in the garden, I decided to see what I could pick to eat for lunch. I didn't realize it, but I had peas ready to eat. Those little pods are hard to see sometimes. I was able to pick lettuce, peas, radishes, and mustard for a nice salad. I was thinking of boiling eggs to go with it since the girls seem to be laying well right now. How great is it to be able to walk out to your own backyard and gather things for a meal!

I often wish I lived in an area that would allow for a longer growing season to enjoy more fresh vegetables throughout the year. I don't care for the quality of fruits and vegetables in the grocery stores anymore. So much of what you see in the stores are transported great lengths to get to us. Many of the strawberries I have looked at were already molding on the shelf. Even if you find something has a good appearance, it may not have a good flavor. You can't beat freshly picked! Not to mention the lack of travel.

I have a few books on extending your harvest and am thinking I will venture more into cold frame gardening this fall to allow a longer harvest. I would love to have a greenhouse some day. What a way to extend the growing season!



Roses fresh picked



My first batch of strawberries for the year.  There are some missing from my snacking.

I also made the first cutting of Italian Oregano and have it sitting out ot dry.  I will use the food dehydrator to finish the job but wanted it to dry naturally for awhile first.


Itailian Oregano Drying



Fresh Bread Cooling



Rhubarb, Rhubarb, and MORE Rhubarb!

The Rhubarb Patch

There were several perennials growing on the property when we purchased the house, rhubarb happened to be one of them.  For several years the patch stayed the same size.  Last year I dug some of it up to share with my parents so they could have their own patch.  In doing so it made the patch expand even more!

I never cared for rhubarb and either gave it away or cut it and tossed it onto the compost pile.  I wanted to keep the patch growing, so I continued to cut off any seed heads to help it flourish.  This way I was always able to share it with others.

This year I dug more up to give away and fertilized with my compost.  It started growing like crazy.  Having started on a quest or desire of wanting to use more of what was available and buy less, I made my mind up I was going to try rhubarb in various ways and see if I could acquire a taste for it. 

One of the first things I tried was making a simple syrup.  All you do is add sugar to the rhubarb and cook it.   Actually it's a little more than that, but it's as simple as syrup.  Having a soda stream I used the simple syrup to make rhubarb soda, which actually turned out to be really tasty!

Rhubarb Simple Syrup

Cut cleaned rhubarb into small pieces.  Depending on how sweet you like things will determine the amount of sugar you use.  I used a cup of sugar to approximately 3 cups of chopped rhubarb.  You don't need to add water because rhubarb is loaded with it.  Some recipes call to add water, but I chose not to.  Simmer the rhubarb and sugar until the sugar dissolves.  I used a potato masher to crush the rhubarb while simmering.  Continue to simmer until the rhubarb is soft.  Strain using cheese cloth or mess strainer.  You can use the pulp for other recipes or discard.  Place the syrup in the refrigerator and use to drizzle over ice cream, add to iced tea, or to seltzer for soda.

The quest for more rhubarb recipes.

 There are several recipes using rhubarb in The Taste of Home Baking Classics Cookbook.

I picked up this cookbook at Sam's Club for less than $15 and love it!  It has become my nighttime reading material for now.  (That is until my next Mother Earth News Magazine comes).  I have tried several recipes from the cookbook and haven't been disappointed with any of them.

 I didn't want to type the recipe out so I took a picture of it instead.  It turned out a lot better than I had anticipated.

This recipe was absolutely YUMMY!  I cut it in half and it made more than I could eat.  I am the only one in my household that will eat rhubarb so anything I make I have to share with friends. 

For more recipes using rhubarb check out this site. 

 The Rhubarb Compendium 

You will be amazed at the number of recipes listed.

We have Broccoli!!!

This is the first year I have planted broccoli.  I bought the plants on April 6 and planted them the same day.  Because of frost warnings after planting, I did have to cover the plants on occasion. 

All of the work was worth it.  I am harvesting a lot sooner than usual.

This is a picture of the plants two weeks ago. 

Broccoli

The plants were starting to bolt due to the extremely hot weather we have been having, therefore, I had to harvest them all at once. Now to blanch and put them in the freezer.

 I still  have several smaller heads growing on the plants to eat fresh. 

Once the plants are done producing, I will plant another crop from seed to harvest this fall.

Picked today.

 

 This is another first for me.  Mustard.  It almost has a horseradish taste to it and adds a nice spice when mixed in a salad.

 Cabbage and cauliflower bed.

I mixed in some onions to help deter bugs.

There are cucumbers planted in the far row which will take longer to grow. 

Once they get tall enough I will train them to grow up the trellis.

 Peas

This picture was taken last week.  Today there are pods forming and several blossoms on the plants.  They will be ready to pick soon!  I have two other succession plants of peas to space out the harvest.  These are a favorite for the chickens and they love getting them as a treat!