March Update

Hello, Friends! Again, it's been too long between posts. But I have plenty to tell you! Pictured above is our sugaring arch, A.K.A. a 50 gallon steel drum with both ends cut out and a large notch cut out for placing the firewood. To date we have made about 16 quarts of yummy, lip smacking maple syrup! Things have gotten cold again, so the sap hasn't run since last week. I'm praying that we have a good run again before the season is over.

This year we have been blessed to share our sugaring operation with two families that are friends of ours. My  very dear friend, and fellow Vermonter, had no idea that maple sap was like water. Our other friends got to see the sap become syrup and and watch (and help!) us can it. It was truly a blessing to share this with others.

A couple of weeks ago my darling hubby bought me one of those green house kits that you can buy at the store. Ours isn't huge, but it is a "walk-in" size. It is currently residing in our dining room, all put together in front or our south facing picture window and holding my Roma tomato seedlings. I went into the green house to check on the seedlings' moisture and couldn't believe how incredibly warm it was in there! It's like I have an indoor green house and sauna! I still have many more seeds to start, like green peppers and herbs. Once it is warm enough outside, we'll be moving the green house outside.

I'm also looking to use one of our 4x4 raised beds as a cold frame to start some Swiss chard in as soon as I can get the soil in it warmed up. My daughter belongs to the school's gardening club and last September she brought home some rainbow chard for us to try. We loved it! So we bought some rainbow chard seeds from  a High Mowing Seed Company's fundraiser that her school was doing. I bought another variety of Swiss chard as well, so I'm hoping that it does well.

I've also made up my mind that this year I am going to stick to my guns and not buy any annual flowers to put in our planters. The only ones I will buy are marigolds to plant in the veggies beds for pest control. Instead of pansies and petunias, I'll plant basil varieties and other annual herbs in their place. I've not had any luck trying to start flowers from seed, but I do well with herbs. This seems like the most economical choice, and besides, herbs are beautiful, too!

Well, the kittens have been spayed and neutered, and are back to their sibling ways. We were a bit nervous that their bond had been severed, as every time Oreo looked at Miller she hissed and growled like a wild cat. It wasn't the happy reunion we were all hoping it would be. But after their operations and a few days of being quarantined, they are back to normal. Taking the occasional nap together, grooming each other and running at break neck speeds through the house after one another!

It's a snow day here, and Spring seems so very far away, yet I know it will be here soon! Maybe I'll go step inside my greenhouse/sauna for a quick pick me up before I get back to work. Have a wonderful day!

Many Blessings,
Kelly

This post is linked to Joybilee Farm's Homestead Abundance Link Up!

February Updates

Hello, Friends! Since it's been a while since I've posted, I thought I'd include some kitteny cuteness! (Plus I don't really have any pictures to go with my updates!) Here is Oreo and Miller, napping together. Oreo is on vacation up at my mothers, visiting her kitty cousins. Unfortunately her vacation was a necessity, as both her and her brother have reached maturity in a certain area of their lives (nudge, nudge, wink, wink!) and their appointments for "fixing" are not until next week. The kiddos and I really miss her, but Miller seems rather lost without her. He has taken to being my shadow, especially around bedtime. He cuddles with me and follows me around until I'm settled in bed for the night.

Last Sunday our friends from church came over so that the man of the family, Chris, could fix my Internet. Once again he proved to be an absolute wizard!!!! He has also offered to fix up my ancient desktop computer, which has sat over in our mudroom/office for about a year, untouched. I would really like to be able to use the old computer, especially since in all likely hood, I will be homeschooling Teddy Bear next year. Having 2 computers would be wonderful.

There isn't much to really report on the homesteading front, at least not anything happening now. We getting ready to gear up for sugaring season, which we are ramping up this year. We asked some friends that live up the road from us if we could tap their trees, and they very graciously agreed. The trees are easy to get to and there are lots of them! The kiddos and I will be collecting the sap from these trees so that Daddy will only have to worry about the trees down on the road. He doesn't want us collecting those because traffic is heavy down there. 

I've been really lax on planning the garden this year, except for knowing that it's going to be bigger this year! Last fall we expanded the garden plot, so that will need some attention before it's time to plant. I'm thinking of planting our corn their. Tomatoes will be going in containers on the deck this year. I'm hoping this will discourage the horn worms and I know it will keep my chickens away.

I'm planning on starting my herbs, tomatoes and green peppers sometime during this week. I have a plan for starting the tomatoes and green peppers, so that I'll have a better yield from the green peppers and won't have to buy seedlings for the tomatoes. 

My goals for the garden are to grow as many of our own veggies and herbs as I can. Without having a planned surgery this summer, I will be taking over the garden again. I'm a bit nervous, but more excited to get going. 

Miller is applying for some undercover spy work in the Middle East. He's got the head wrap down, but I'm thinking  that he might want to forgo the red, white & blue color scheme. I'm thinking earth tones might be more appropriate.

It's taken me some time, but I've reached the stage where I'm seriously considering raising our own meat birds this year. We will have to have help when it comes time to butcher, but I'm pretty sure we can do it. I'm also realizing that it may be time to cull our flock. We have some ladies that just aren't pulling their weight. We can't afford to feed hens that aren't laying. This means having to say goodbye to some sweet feathered friends, but it needs to be done. I have 2 girls that I know for sure may need to go, as they are the only 2 "Big Girls" that lay blue eggs. We've only gotten 2 eggs from these ladies since early in the fall. I'm giving them until late March or early April to pick it up.

Well, it's time to get going. I hope you all have a great day!

Many Blessings,
Kelly

Flock Block Take 2 and A Craft

Sweet chicken ecstasy- nothing but feathers and dirt when the girls and
James get down and dirty taking dust baths! I felt almost like a Peeping
Thomasina!

Remember my homemade flock block? Well, the temperature dipped down last night, so I figured the JIC's (Jerks in The Coop) would be holed up in the coop today. I do NOT want any more boarders in the basement, so last night I made another flock block. This time I had a lovely assistant.

I don't know why the picture is blurry. Hope no one has motion
sickness that views this!

When making the flock block this time, I didn't add any apple, and I used 3 whole eggs. I think the addition of 2 more eggs helped in holding it together better. I also put all of the recipe into just one loaf pan. It baked at 200* for about an hour, then turned the temp up to 300* for about another 2 hours. I took it out and let it cool on a wrack. I tried to get it out of the pan and learned a valuable lesson: use Crisco or butter to grease the pan, not just canola oil. Last time they came right out of the pans. This time my Darling Hubby got it out of the pan after I had given up. (I just love that man!) the block sat out over night to dry out a little bit more.

Flock block baking right along while our waffles and bacon stay warm
for dinner. Told you I hate to run the oven for just one thing!

My DH put the block out in the coop this morning. When I checked on the chickees after lunch, only a little corner was pecked at. {sigh} No one looked injured, so that's good.

Earlier this afternoon I took a break from housework and culinary efforts for the animals to make a Valentine's Day craft. I don't have very many Valentine's decorations because I'm rather fussy. It's been hard to find decorations that go with my country decor and that I'm willing to shell money out for. So I looked on Tipnut.com's Valentine's Day page for inspiration. While perusing the pages, I thought of my own craft to make that would be cheap and easy to make. Here it is:

Finished product! Whaddya think?

It was soooo easy, and only took a little bit of time. What took the longest was getting just the right heart shape for templates. I used scrap paper to make my templates, but you could use a manila folder or card stock. I plan on making more of these in the future. Here is what you need:

I wasn't sure which buttons to use!!

2 sheets of felt
4 heart templates in small, medium, large and extra large
hot glue gun
marker for tracing
2 fabric scraps
twine or ribbon
decorative buttons or other doo-dads
scissors (you could use pinking shears for an even fancier look- I was too lazy to dig for mine!)

Here is what to cut: 1 small heart, 2 medium hearts, 2 large hearts and 1 extra large heart
I cut my hearts out free form, but if you want them to all be alike, you could find a template and increase or decrease the size using a scanner and printer. When I went to cut them out, I folded the felt in half and traced the template with a marker.

Then I laid out my hearts and used a glue gun to glue them together. I flipped over the hearts and spaced them out to where I wanted them. Next, I took a length of twine twice as long as I wanted it to be and made a knot at the top to hang this from. Using the glue gun, I attached the twine to all three sets of hearts.

I took the 2 scraps of homespun fabric and tied a single knot in the middle of each. I then glued these between the hearts. After letting the glue cool and dry I flipped everything over. Play time! I took out different buttons and trims to find the perfect look. Here's what I selected for the top and bottom hearts:

Chickee buttons of course!!!!! I just couldn't resist ;0)

This would be a really great craft for kids. If younger kiddos are making these, you could use good ol' Elmer's glue, though it would take longer for things to dry. I'm thinking you can do lots of different shapes for the holidays, or even for year round.

Well, I'm one tired and sore Mama with a busy day tomorrow. Have a lovely evening, Friends!
Blessings,
Kelly

[The] Baking Is For the Birds

Now, I realize that some of you are going to think I'm off my rocker. I can't say as though I blame you. I've been doing all sorts of weird things with food lately, (like using them in the bathroom!) but now I am baking for my chickens. {insert eye roll here} This endeavour in the kitchen is not a labor of love, but of necessity.

See that hen up there in the picture. Let me introduce you to Bigfoot. (We have monster truck fans in the house!) Bigfoot and 3 of her flock mates have recently taken up residence in our basement. It seems as though the rest of the flock (that we not-so-lovingly refer to as "the jerks in the coop") were bored during our last cold snap, and decided to peck at some of those lower in the pecking order. We lost 1 hen to this horrible behaviour. My DH had gone out to the coop one evening to check their food and water, and discovered our dead hen. She was laying half in/half out of a nesting box. We had no idea how she had died (at that moment anyway) but she had been pecked. Whether this had occurred before or after the time of death, we were unsure of. (In case you are wondering, we are currently thinking of opening our own Chicken Scene Investigation practice. Kidding! :0) We chalked it up to the inevitable fact that livestock die, and moved on.

The following week I was alarmed to have Teddy Bear come screaming into the house that he saw "meat" on one of the chickens and he was very upset. I ran out to investigate, and discover not 1, but 2 very injured hens. So we set up chicken triage quarters in the basement and have been making the jerks in the coop go out in the run every day. We still ended up with yet another injured girl, but fortunately my DH discovered her early.

I did quite a bit of research on line about why chickens turn to this disgusting behaviour, and there are many. I'm pretty sure that the answer to our riddle is quite simply boredom of being cooped up. (No pun intended) So I looked for suggestions to help this. Most of the articles I read suggested offering the chickens something else to peck, rather than their fellow flock mates. I remembered seeing a Purina Flock Block at our local Tractor Supply Company, and thought that that would be a great idea for the chickens. But it would be a very bad idea for our budget! So I went about finding a recipe for a homemade "flock block". It was not easy, I really had to sift through a lot of links that the search engines brought up, but I finally found 2 different links, both on message forums. Here they are: Alberta Chickens you will have to scroll down a bit to find the recipe. Backyard Chickens I've read quite a few of the other pages from these links and found many other good ideas, and some really bad ones (like the one where a neighbor suggested giving them Styrofoam to peck at or putting Vick's Vaporub on the injured birds.)

This is what I did to make my own "flock block".

And here is my recipe:
2 C. oatmeal
4 C. birdseed
1 C. cornmeal
1/4 C. olive oil
3/4 C. molasses
1/4 C. water
1/2 C, honey
1 small apple, chopped
1 egg, shell crushed and added as well

I mixed the dry ingredients well in a large bowl.

Then I added the wet ingredients, and the apple. I also added half of a peanut butter sandwich that my middle child did not eat at school yesterday for his lunch.

Using a rubber spatula I spread and packed the mix into 2 very well greased loaf pans. (I used Crisco, but lard would be a good choice, too, if you have it.)

I used a bamboo skewer to make a hole for hanging before I put these in a 300* oven for an hour and a half. Then I turned off the oven and let them stay in there for another 30 minutes. I then removed the blocks from the pans and set them on a cooling rack. Unfortunately, one of the blocks broke in half despite my efforts to carefully tip it out of the pan.

I put the flock blocks back into the oven to dry further and left them in there until the oven was completely cool. Now it's time to give one of these to the jerks in the coop. I put an old shoelace through the hole of the block that was not broken and headed out to the coop with it. It broke in half. {sigh} So I hung up the half with the shoe string and put the other half on the floor of the coop by their feeder.

The Jerks in the Coop.

I couldn't wait around to get pictures of the chickens pecking at the block, but by the next day, it had been completely consumed! They liked it! I kept the next block for if we have another cold snap or (dare I hope!) a snow fall where the chickees would be confined in the coop again. We had snow (for all of 2 days!) earlier this week, so I put half of the second block in the coop. My DH had also built a shelf in the coop to give them some more room. These two measures seem to be helping.

I left out the sugar, salt and reduced the baking soda for the chickee's corn bread.

Above is Star, chowing down. Pictured below is Flower, who for once was quiet!
(Can you guess who named these girls? I mean, really! Star and Flower?)

And now for some more gratuitous photos of our kitty cat Merlin. She was absolutely fuming that I was making those bird brains a treat and won't even bothering to open her a can of tuna!

"Is that for me?"

"What do you mean "NO"?!!!???!!!"

Watching from the top of the basement stairs as the girls in the
basement chow down on corn bread.

"Just leave that cage door open for a minute and I'll get my own chicken treat! MWAH-HA-HA-HA!"**





*I do honestly realize that all of this pecking is a part of regular chicken behavior, as horrible as it is, and not a matter of chicken personalities!
**I really have no idea what Merlin was thinking, but I think it's a pretty safe bet that I'm pretty close!


I'm hoping this is helpful for all of my fellow chicken owners. If you don't own chickens, though, and are fond of feeding wild birds, this would be a great idea to make for them as well. Have a lovely day, Friends!

Blessings,
Kelly

How Low Can You Go?!

 I'm referring to the temperature of course! Brrrrr!
Good frosty day to you all. It's been a slow (and freezing!) start to the day up here on our hill. The kids had a 2 hour delay, (o.k. Scratch the early morning grocery shopping) so I thought I'd take them with me to Bible Study. Go to start the van up and it won't start. Scratch going anywhere today! So the kids and I put on our snowpants, hats, mittens, etc. to bustle down and wait for the bus. And we almost missed it. Almost!

Deceptively bright and sunny!

 Anyway, I've decided that if you can't beat Old Man Winter, you've just got to join him! Hence the snowman theme in the house and activities with the kids. I've been thinking of some fun and different things to with them. Here's what I've come up with so far: 

Our dining room table .

1. Make snowman shapes out of grated bar soap.

2. Make a blizzard in a bottle.

3. Whip up a (small!) batch of Snow Nuggetts (a.k.a. Muddy Buddies or Puppy Chow)

4. Add some glitter to plain homemade play dough and sculpt igloos, snow men, polar bears, etc. Let them harden.

5. Make some ice luminaries out of tin cans.

6. Put out a suet feeder for the birds. (they don't seem to like the seed in the other feeders!)

7. FINALLY string some cranberry and popcorn for our fine feathered friends.

I've also been trying to come up with some Groundhog Day activities and treats (Feb. 2) and  for Valentines Day as well. Do you have any other winter crafts or traditions that you do with your family? If you do, let me know in the comments section below, or if you're a facebook friend, you can post it there.
Warm and cozy blessings to you!
Kelly