New Arrivals

Well, we are officially starting our food production endeavors as of this morning!  The chicks have arrived!  This year to save time we ordered two specials from Murray Mc Murray Hatchery, the Barbecue Special (Straight run cornish x's or cornish roasters) and the Rainbow Layers Special (various breeds of chickens that lay colored eggs).  So, as of 8:23 this morning 51 little funny little feathery babies are living in our garage.

The Little Engineer wants to sell eggs this year so I got a dozen chicks for our family and a dozen chicks for his entrepreneurial endeavors.  Now, should we house all the hens together or separate them?

These are the meat chicks... they're born to eat and be eaten... these things grow so fast they're ready to butcher in 6-8 weeks... they really are bred to eat... they pretty much sleep, eat, and poop constantly...  This is not normal chicken behavior.  Normal chickens browse on grass, chase bugs, play roosting games, scratch, take dust baths, and can be trained to come when you call.  I don't enjoy raising the cornish x's at all.  They seem like something outside of the natural order, some sort of mutant monster out of a mad scientist's lab or something.  My sister wondered if eating animals bred for eating constantly has any effect on our own appetites?!  Why are we raising them?  I don't know... just because, I guess!

Here's our brooder set up:  not exactly high tech... it's packing boxes taped together in an oval shape and filled with hay!  It was virtually free and recycling cardboard to boot. The chicks seem warm and happy in their new temporary home.

A final shot of the cuties!

A Bit to Mourn

I am Reading: A Book on Calculus... weird, huh!? Romans, Make, Grow, Gather

I am Thinking: About my girls that I lost. We're down to three hens now, and four in the brooder with the broilers. They were such good little hens, such good layers, such funny little barnyard companions. I'm mourning the chickens. I miss their eggs, too.

A lot.

I asked my landlord if he'd sell me some hens, but he said that I'd have to take a rooster, too. I just put professor in the freezer a few weeks ago, and I'm not ready to love/hate another Roo, yet. So, what to do? I suppose I'll just have to wait to see what happens.

I am Working on a couple pairs of socks, the ironing basket, the laundry, and the new schedule for summer.

I am Wearing denim capris, a white cotton cable sweater and my Green stripey Wellies... and wild frizzy hair pulled into a pony tail.

I am Teaching myself new routines for the day, the children to obey, and cheerfulness in adversity.

I am Cooking some roast chicken, with mashed potatos and corn for dinner... maybe some fresh bread, too.

I am Planning some housecleaning, some organizing, some gardening.

Outside my window, but not today:

It was beautiful around here in April... See that house at the end of the road? It's for rent, so perhaps we'll get to meet a new neighbor, soon. The forsythia makes me so happy in spring. It just slays me next to that black board fence. So gorgeous. Isn't the light beautiful?!

New Chicks!

These arrived just in time to make us all remember that Resurrection Day means New Life! Aren't they just adorable... it makes you forget that a previous incarnation of downy chick just tried to attack you in your own back yard... we have a beautiful, and I mean really, really handsome but also really, really mean rooster. That rooster will soon be hitting the chicken pot, I think. Which is OK, it'll make room for some lovely new laying hens in the coop! I just had five delivered this morning, how convenient! The hens are the yellow and black chicks, the all yellow ones are Cornish Roasters, which are supposed to be less mutant like than the Cornish x Rocks which are scary and horrible and ugly and I hate them. We'll see. We also got our one surprise rare chick, which I hope will be a nice, pleasant, wonderful, caring rooster, that takes after my husband instead of being like some other awful Cock I know. I won't mention his name but it starts with Professor. Whoops.

I hate to make the chickens mateless again, and fertilized eggs are waaaay healthier than unfertilized eggs, but I've got the bitty one year old wanting to play in the yard now and I can't leave his side because of that nasty rooster, not to mention the other darling children that are in peril from "His Handsome-ness". And you know, there are other wonderful, good looking children I want to keep away from him, too.

I remember a picture of my Aunt Georgeanne as a toddler, with multiple places all over her sweet little face with stitches on them from a rooster attacking her, and it's haunted me ever since we let this one roam free. I suppose after all this ranting and raving about Professor, I should show him to you. I did take a picture of him today, but it was very dreary out and he's got these gorgeous iridescent feathers around his neck and in his tail that really take the breath away and you won't be able to see those, but, just to illustrate:

Some Sewing

Well, I've been enthralled by this wonderful book that I purchased recently: Weekend Sewing. If you're interested in her blog, take a look at Weekend by Heather Ross. She recently had a really cool contest where people made sort of "Show and Tell" boards for their ideas for a summer wardrobe using the patterns from her book.

Here is the Oh, So, Cute wrap skirt I made (like the one on the cover of the book)... Of course, it's too small for me... so I may have to sell it or something, or use it for an apron, or something... This photo is a two-fer, because in the background you see my latest home improvement project, the Workroom! It used to be the guest room, but I decided a school/project room is in order since we only have one living area and it already does triple duty, without it being a schoolroom.

Here is a detail of the hand sewn rolled edge hem. I'm very proud of that!

Our latest school handiwork project is a memory quilt of all our firsts here on the farm. I remembered this great article on applique in an old Martha Stewart Baby magazine and got it out for inspiration. We're going to make blocks for all sorts of things, but the first is a block with little hens in the colors of our flock. The second is a block inspired by my square foot vegetable garden. I picked up a few fat quarters at a local fabric store in appropriate colors and got started:

Here's our first chicken:

I can't wait to see it finished!

Easter Eggs for Breakfast

Look! Aren't these the most beautiful, fascinating, and delicious eggs you've ever beheld? OK, I know, they're just eggs, and those of you with chickens are perhaps underwhelmed, but to me, they're beautiful. Now, all of our nine laying hens are officially laying! The blue/green eggs belong to the Americaunas, this I know, and I think the pinky buff ones are from the Buff Orphingtons (all of which I call Maryanne), but the darker, speckled ones? They're from our ginger colored hens with the white collars. I call them all Ginger, but I don't know what kind of chickens they are. Our rooster is, as of yet, unidentified, too, but we call him Professor. There's one more cockrell in the flock. Technically I should not name him, as he's for dinner, but in my imagination, I call him Gilligan. The Americaunas are named Daisy, Lily, and Marigold, in case you were wondering. I love the beauty of their eggs, but they're timid and not as willing to be petted as the Gingers. I'm so glad we have chickens, and I love to watch them do their work of pest removal, mulching, and fertilization. Those seven to nine eggs a day are just enough to keep us in eggs without going to the market, so I expect to have to add some in the future (though perhaps it'll be geese instead, or even ducks?), but for now, they're perfect! Do any of you know of chickens that lay tinted eggs that are also speckled? Or even white eggs that are speckled?

Some fun Stuff

I just heard about the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, which I so want for Christmas. It sounds amazing. I mean, I want to make all our bread, and have been toying with the idea of making my own sourdough starter, which I still plan to do, but the idea that you just mix a few ingredients, let it rise for two hours without kneading, stick it in the fridge and just get bread dough when you want it and form a loaf and bake it. I'm sorry, but that's just amazingly easy for homemade bread. I mean you never knead this stuff, you soak the flour which is good for digestion, and I imagine that I could eventually use this same idea with my sourdough starter.

Also, I spotted this today. Little knitted moccasins in super warm alpaca. All my kids want them for slippers, so now I have to figure out how to make them in multiple sizes, but look how cute they are! They're super easy, too. I could probably use them to teach my big girls to do shaping and knitting in the round, since they're motivated to have them for themselves. Fun! Like I need more projects, though. I have way too many, seriously, waaaay too many projects going.

Finally, for fun, one of my fun chicken pictures..... guess what???????


Chicken Butt

Golden Gifts

Well, it's gotten cold here again after having a beautiful Indian Summer. Last night the water froze in the chicken coop, and, though you'd think we could have seen this coming and planned for it, we didn't and haven't. The house has managed to stay relatively warm, though I can see dollars flying out the windows every time the radiators start to warm up. I have taken pictures of a couple more projects that I thought you'd like to see. Or not, not that I care, I blog to brag, after all. I do it completely for my own gratification, and not as some service to society or belief that what I have to say is important. Which, by the way, raises the question of whether it's "redeeming the time" sufficiently to blog at all. I'll not address that question right now, though.

On to the show:

Linen Sweater in Reynolds Soft Linen, gift from Honorary Mom, on the occasion of my birthday, as well as these socks, pretty self striping yarn and Jaywalker sock pattern:

Toddler dress and blouse, improvised from leftover fabrics, so essentially free, except for the time required to sew. I'm planning a skirt to go with the blouse, as well. Or perhaps some blousy knickers, instead, that would be cute, in navy wool.

As for home life, the four year old boy fell on his face and bit through his lip today, it looks kind of scary, but, as I'm also nursing Dad, we're gonna keep it clean and keep an eye on the lip and leave it be. The house is kind of a disaster, SHOCKER! OK, it's so much of a disaster that I'm actually feeling like I WANT to clean it... so that's pretty bad. It's Veteran's Day, and though I wasn't planning a school holiday, with two invalids, I've declared a school holiday and we'll clean and play and read and snuggle and get better. I'm feeling thankful to all the men who laid their lives on the line in service to Liberty and our Constitution. Thank you Hubby, and Grandad, and PawPaw, and David, and Stuart and our myriad of cousins who have served or are serving this country now. What a debt of gratitude we owe you.

Our First Egg!

Soooooo, guess what! We got our first egg. My 11 yo son was feeding and watering the chickens and letting them out for their day of foraging when he noticed one chicken didn't come out. He usually counts them as they come out of the coop, and since one didn't appear, he looked into the coop and saw one of our hens in the nesting boxes! He brought our four year old out after breakfast and they found one little brown egg in the nesting box! I know you all are just as excited as we are.


We've been working on some apple butter here. I love apple butter. I know not everyone appreciates the taste and the color is objectionable to some people, but to me, there's no beating good apple butter on some freshly baked bread. We don't have apple trees, but we went to a pumpkin patch on Sunday and bought a peck and a half of apples to make apple butter and an apple pie. No pictures of Apple Butter yet, but I have a picture of my pickles to share! They were my first attempt at pickles and they turned out pretty well. I mostly use pickles in recipes like potato salad and tuna salad, though occasionally I'll put one on a burger or something. The pickling spices made the pickles more complex than I'm accustomed to for eating out of hand, but they are really good in recipes.



Yum! On all accounts.

So, we finally got our chickens. When I say finally, I mean that the long hoped for event has occurred after waiting, dreaming, fantasizing, pouring over the Murray McMurray catalog, etc. They are, to put it mildly, wonderful. Well, mostly. The day that they arrived, our neighbors rescued them from the Post Office for us. I don't know exactly what misunderstanding took place, but when we were sold the chickens, we were convinced that they would be delivered to our door. We were mistaken. They were shipped to our Post Office, where they languished, thirsty and cold, until our dear neighbor boy of eight years was at the Post Office with his father. He heard them peeping and asked about them, and, learning that they were ours, and being privy to our misconception that they would appear at our door magically, they brought them home to us! Oh, shortest of knights in shining armor, how I thank thee! I don't think they realize just how grateful I am about that! I have, in the misty, glowing, dreamland that is my imagination, heard them clucking for years, as I collect eggs in a basket wearing a colorful apron and sun bonnet while humming contentedly under blue skies. I'm nothing if not idealistic. I've checked out books on fanciful hen houses. I've subscribed to Backyard Poultry. I remember aching to live on a farm six years ago, when we lived in North Dakota and consciously putting that dream away in the Hope Chest of my heart so that I could command myself to be content with life as it was. I wasn't very successful, by the way.
Now, I have a flock of chicks who peep away in our backyard oh, so sweetly. They live, right now, in a chicken tractor that was given to us by some good friends who hobby farm with goats and chickens and gardening. We plan on leaving some chickens in there... the ones we plan to put in the freezer. The laying flock is getting their very own blue house later. We love to watch the chicks! They are endlessly entertaining. For example, as the sun goes down, they all pile into one corner of the tractor, trying to get the place on the “preferred” roost. They play king of the mountain until the sun goes down, then they all spread out and go to sleep. While they're playing their “game”, though, there's tons of squawking, jumping to the top of the pile, stepping on the heads of each other, and jockeying for position. It looks like corporate America! I picked some whitefly larvae off my cauliflower plants the other day and fed the chicks the little caterpillars right out of my hand. Well, technically, only one chick, who would grab two or three on the run, gobble them up, and be back for more before any of the other chicks knew what was going on! We love to just sit and watch them. Really. We pull our chairs up, open the lid and watch for hours (I knit, too)! Who needs a television?! I told my husband it looked like only the Cornish Rocks were growing and he said that they were growing, but I couldn't tell because I stare at them for hours every day! He's only slightly exaggerating. If I could, I'd just meander back and forth between the chickens and the garden all day long... and knit!
Speaking of Cornish Rocks... they are just the ugliest, nastiest, most disgustingest chicks. They're like freaks of nature... except they're not really natural, in my opinion. They've been bred and bred to grow big fast on as little grain as possible, which is great for a factory farm, I guess. They don't forage, they don't scratch, they don't do anything natural, except eat grain, poop, and breathe. They're kind of naked and pink and ugly and blech. With grain prices getting higher, and hence chicken feed getting more expensive, I think I may just buy dual purpose breeds for meat from now on instead of meat birds. They may take longer to get big, but they'll feed themselves on bugs and grass instead of only eating grain. The Cornish Rocks make me feel kind of queasy when I look at them, actually. One already died... and I'd not be sad if the rest accidentally got eaten by a raccoon or something. Course, maybe that'll make it easier (emotionally) to cut them up and make into chicken noodle soup or something.
Hmmmm.
Anyway, I ended up buying five Americauna pullets, five Buff Orphington pullets, five Cornish X Rocks, and ten straight run Barred Rocks. I'm not sure, but there are four or five birds that were not ordered by us that might be Buffs, too. We ordered 25 and got 30 birds. What kind are the extras? Are they pullets or cockerels? What's the difference between a pullet and a hen, anyway? Do any breeds of chickens lay speckled eggs, or do I have to get guineas for those? Questions for the ages.....

Technical Difficulties

I no longer have broadband! I, essentially, have super-slow, force me to be offline dial up. I can still upload essays, but not pictures. I have stuff to write about, but I wanted to put pics with my entries and I can't!!! Wahhhhh Hahhhhh! Here is my solution, and I know you'll all understand: I'll go ahead and post my essays, and then post the pics that go with them when I have access to broadband. So, you'll get pictures, but perhaps later.

Apron Trend?

Um, I may have discovered a new "thing" I enjoy. I've always enjoyed aprons. I really like vintage fabrics... and occasionally I actually ask for aprons when people ask what I'd like for a gift. Women used to wear aprons all the time. They cooked, did laundry, cleaned, and took care of children all day long. These are all very messy, dirty jobs. Women often don't really do these things all day anymore, so aprons are considered necessary, but not fun. I do this stuff all day, every day. My wardrobe will attest to it, too. I have dozens of t-shirts that have little grease spots, or food stains, or minuscule tears from their rough use. I need more aprons. I have decided! Today, in my time wasting portion of the day, when I surf the Internet for pretty things and stuff I like to do and which chickens I want to order, I found this cute little post on Oodles and oodles. I need to make one of those! I do have a clothespin apron, but I usually have little helpers and could use another to share. I can use the leftover bias tape from my Evangeline apron and my yards and yards of muslin and figure one out that's Melissa sized. Because, you know, I don't have enough to do!

Speaking of chickens. I'm ordering some, as soon as we get a PO Box in Upperville. I've decided to order Ameracaunas (well technically, I suppose, they'd be Easter Egg Chickens) and Cuckoo Marans, I think. But you know, I know very little about chickens. I've done a little research and found out that Americaunas have blue green tinted eggs... FUN! Cuckoo Marens have chocolate colored eggs, (rurality)as well as being really pretty birds, and being rare, gentle, and supposedly being a good dual purpose breed of chickens, meaning good for meat and eggs. I also heard that the hens can be broody, which means they will sit on their eggs and hatch a clutch, which has been either bred out of chickens or just not learned as so many eggs are hatched in incubators now.