Hello Again!

So, it's been a long time since I've been here, life has been busy, good and bad.  Good things like spending lots of time with my family and getting to do more around the house and cooking more...  Bad things like not having a job since my seasonal work ended with October.  So, things are stretched.  Very, very thinly!  Good thing- we're going to Washington DC in June with my stepdaughters Girl Scout Troop.  Bad thing- we can't afford to pay extra so we've got to fund raise like mad!.  I'm going to try to post more often, which will be more and more difficult as the summer comes.  I think I'll be working the same place as last year, a flower farm.  It's a fun place to work, and I learn quite a bit but it is hard, dirty, sweaty work and I come home exhausted.  My family is lucky I feed them sometimes!  But, we aren't there yet, so lets see if we can get in a good habit before things get that far. 

This was dinner tonight, Chuck Eye Steak rubbed with spices and herbs then broiled, Roasted Rosemary Potatoes and Asparagus.  Got good reviews from Hubby, and my stepdaughter wasn't home, so we didn't tell her what dinner was... she would have been super jealous (but there were only 2 steaks, so too bad!)

We're also making the switch to cloth napkins.  Lets see how the family deals with this change!

Holy Cow..erm...Chicken?

I found this giant egg last week....

And this baby one a few days later.  Thing is, I think they are from the same chicken.  One girl has been laying since last spring.  Only 1 new hen started laying this year, so I'm guessing all the odd sizes are from her.  The little egg is smaller than a ping pong ball!

Daisy, the bloodhound hood ornament. 

Life is never boring at my house!

This past weekend we did expand the kennel for the chickens.  Before they just had a dog kennel, and this weekend we combined the one they had with a free one we picked up last fall.  I can't let them free range because our dogs think they are toys...plus I'm pretty sure the goldendoodle would try to 'hunt' them since she's technically a 'bird dog.'  The chickens seem to be enjoying their expanded space, and it will be put to good use this summer, since I have a dozen chicks on order to pick up in March!  All pullets this time though, since I have 3 roosters I have to decide what to do with soon!

Eggs!

I haven't been checking for eggs since they girls stopped laying around October.  Much to my surprise on Saturday, I discovered 6 eggs in by the chickens, and some broken shells.  One of the 6 eggs was frozen solid, and cracked so I'm pretty sure that's what happened to the broken ones in the 'coop.'  I had 2 eggs on Sunday, 1 yesterday and 2 more today...  I think things should keep going at this rate!  I have 5 chickens total, and I'm almost positive that 3 of them are roosters... which leaves me with 2 hens.  Both of the hens seem to be good layers so far, so I'll survive until I can get some more ladies.   I'm definite on 2 of the roosters, and the third looks like a rooster, but has no spurs...yet.  None of them have ever crowed, not a cock-a-doodle-doo anywhere!  

Finally, an update!

I haven't been keeping up with this as much as I would like, but not too much has happened besides a Blizzard, 3 fence jumping dogs (out of the yard, not into!) and chickens that started laying eggs.  Yes, already!  My girls don't usually lay in the winter, not having a heated and lighted coop... I guess they decided spring was here!

I'm going attempt to attach some pictures, we'll see how it goes!

The front porch, post blizzard

Doggies, having a wonderful time in the snow!

Chickens emerging

Waiting for food and water!

This is Daisy, the bloodhound

Rosy the Goldendoodle.  She's the youngest, at about 7 months old.

The one on the leash is Thistle, my doggie.  She's the old girl, but also the one that sets a bad example.  She's been jumping the fence first and the others watch her and decide to follow.  No more unsupervised outside time for these girls!

Running in snow deeper than they are...

The front walk after being shoveled...

And the stairs that were completely covered before!

I'll try to get a picture of my eggs and some of my current projects up soon!

And maybe a picture of the almost melted snow.  No more blizzard for us, now we just have dirty snow and mud!

Evidently I'm out of shape..

Recently I started babysitting for a friend of mine.  (Recently being Wednesday!) I am exhausted!  Her baby is a year old, and just starting to walk and he's speedy.  He is also heavy....  I got up this morning after babysitting from 2 until about 10:30 wednesday night and my whole body hurt.  I had sore muscles that I didnt even know I had!  I'm excited to have my own kids some day (hopefully soon, I'm not getting any younger!) but I definitley need to work up from newborn to heavy baby...  This one is kickin my butt!

He is a wonderful baby though, he rarely cries and loves to smile, giggle and be tickled.  He's just a joy to be around :) 

He won't be back until next week wednesday though, so maybe I can get some stuff done when he's not here!  I have some garlic to pickle, and apples to make apple butter and maybe some apple jelly.  Apple jelly will be experimental, so we'll see how that goes. I haven't done anything for the last 2 days since my house isn't as baby proofed as it should be so I've been following him around moving everything he's tall enough to reach!

I'm pooped!

Dinner!

We made these http://www.grouprecipes.com/71450/panko-parmesan-chicken.html for dinner tonight, and they were great!  My stepdaughter even loved them, and it's hard to get her to like something on the first try. 

First Post!

So I'm new to the 'blogging' universe, but I thought I would give it a try.  We'll see how things go, and if I'm interesting enough to have a blog!