Growing Up

Goodness, this spring is flying by and things don't look to be slowing down any time soon.  We have been so busy with our garden, track meets, school and work.  Oh, and a very special birthday just happened.  Our little girl is 5 years old now.  I can't believe it.  Where has the time gone??  Wasn't she just born?  Didn't we just move to our new place with her being this tiny little thing?  I guess I blinked and now 5 years has gone by.  Sad, I know, but I wish she would just stay little forever. 

Our daughter isn't the only one that is growing up faster than I would like.  Our 15 year old son is getting more mature acting everyday.  That is no doubt a blessing and I never thought I'd see it happen.  He is and will always be my baby.  I've probably babied him more than I should have, but considering his early years, I guess you can't blame me.  Or maybe you should.  You decide!  :) 

I've been noticing little subtle things in this last year that all teenagers go through, but there have been big things that have really made me stop and think, "Wow, this kid is turning into a grown up!"  He went to a concert this spring with some youth from our church.  He invited his girlfriend and one of his good friends to go.  They and a couple other kids rode with one of the adult sponsors and on Sunday, the lady came up to me and told me what a polite boy I have and how he held doors open and acted very appropriately with his girlfriend.  I was floored by the compliment!  I always expect my son to be polite around others, but to have her come find me and tell me these things, just made me very proud of the young man he is growing up to be.  He must have left a good impression on her! 

Another thing that is making me stop and think, is the hobbies and interests he is getting into.  He is starting to wean himself away from the video games (Thank the Lord!) and he is wanting to learn how to weld.  He plans on working for his grandparents this summer on their farm and is hoping his grandpa can teach him how to weld.  My dad is a very good welder, so I think he will learn from the best.  Hopefully he'll be able to work on some projects that we have around our place and soon be able to build his own.  I am seeing all sorts of projects that he can build for me on the horizon!  (Hee, hee!)

I know these stages in our children's lives are something every parent goes through, but until you go through it personally, it never registers in your mind how real it is.  I am the farthest thing from a perfect parent, and I don't know if I know anyone who would think they are perfect in raising their kids either.  We all like to sit around and commiserate together on what we screwed up on or how we would have done this or that differently.  As long as we are trying our best and doing it with love and understanding, we are as close to perfect as we ever will be. 

Spring Thaw

The last couple of weeks has kept me quite busy so I have neglected my blog.  After the thrill of valentine's parties wore off we were hit with quite a nasty blizzard.  I can't remember the last time I saw the amount of snow on the ground in this area. 

We had plenty of warning that this "Blizzard of Oz" (as so many people have been calling it) was coming.  We made sure we had plenty of food on hand either in the freezer, the fridge or in the pantry long before the stores were rushed and ran out of milk and other necessities.  I figured I went through the proper preparations and had things ready for several days of being snowed in, now the weathermen will be wrong and we won't get a drop of moisture.  Well, I was wrong and the weathermen were right-for once!  Sorry, it just seems they talk up all these storms then they are a disappointment.

Anyway, back to our "Blizzard of Oz" that is on the horizon.  It started Wenesday, February 20th.  The school district that I work in let out school at 1:00.  I headed home in near white-out conditions at times and could typically see about a half mile ahead of me.  I wasn't too worried about the drive-I've driven in worse conditions.  I stopped by and picked up my daughter from preschool and we trekked home.  The roads weren't bad at this point, but I knew they would get worse as the evening wore on. 

My son finally arrived home and then followed by my husband a few hours later.  We made sure all the chickens had plenty of food and water and shut all the cats up in the garage.  The storm settled in Wednesday night and by the time we woke up Thursday morning, there was about 10 inches of snow covering everything.  My husband thought he would be able to get to work, so he got out on the tractor and bladed the driveway open.  Once he got out to the road, he thought better about trying to drive down the road.  The township road grader hadn't gone down the road at that point, so it was pretty deep.  The grader did get down the road about 7 a.m., but the road had either blown shut or more snow piled up and it was way too deep to drive down shortly after that.

We enjoyed the day at home and felt fairly lazy all day.  There aren't many days we get to do that..  The kids and I ended up staying home on Friday as well due to school being cancelled.  My husband did finally get to work Friday, but it was slow going.  Friday wasn't as snowy as the day before, so we were able to get into town and get our son to a Tae Kwon Do test.  We ended up with about 13-14 inches of snow.  For our area, that is a lot.
 
Saturday came with news of another storm heading our way on Monday.  This one was going to have substantial winds and snowfall.  Great, that's all we need is more white-out conditions.  School on Monday was called off due to blizzard warnings from weather stations.  Monday morning came and went with not much snow.  A few little flurries showed up before noon.  After lunch the snow started coming down.  It was heavy at times, then lightened up.  My husband came home and it really let loose.  The wind was blowing pretty bad and roads drifted shut pretty quick.  Tuesday morning we dug ourselves out and decided it was day best spent inside by the warm fire.  I did get out and take some pictures. 

The crabapple was flocked with about 2 inches of snow.

Our back door was blasted with a layer of snow.

The back door of the garage. The cats weren't sure they liked this view.

 

All in all we recieved about 20 inches of snow.  Like I said earlier, we haven't had this much snow on the ground at one time in a LONG time.  A week later and we are finally about thawed out.  There are still piles of snow here and there, but we are starting to see snippets of spring.  My garden got some much needed moisture and there is talk of more on the way.  Hopefully it is in the form of rain and not snow.  I've had my fill of the white stuff for a while! 

Food For Thought

I've been trying to find a cheaper way to feed my chickens over the years and have started looking into growing my own.  I've dug around on the internet and just couldn't seem to find the best way for our situation-until now! I have heard about fodder in the past, but didn't know if it would be a source of complete nutrition for my girls or not. 

I don't feel comfortable going completely free-range at the moment.  I do let them out from time to time, but with our schedule, there are days when I leave in the morning and don't get home till after dark.  Living as far out as we do, there are plenty of predators around that would love to have half a dozen chickens for a tasty dinner. 

Case in point with our ducks.  We started with 9 and are now down to 2.  Something has picked them off one by one.  I'm afraid we'll have no ducks soon.  They don't like to stay up around the house anymore since the stray dog that showed up tried to retrieve one.  (He has since found a better home.) 

Feed prices are the main reason I am trying this new system.  I'm still going to buy commercial feed, but I don't wan to depend on it for their main source of food.  I'm in the R&D phase of this right now, so we'll see how it goes.  It helps a lot that I have a solid source of my starter.  I am using wheat for my fodder.  I know lots of people use barley, but we grow wheat in our area and it is very easy to get.  I have a 5 gallon bucket in my kitchen at the moment that I am going to use-that is if I can keep my daughter out of it long enough!  She loves to dig in it like a sandbox. 

I'm only trying one tray at the moment.  I took an old coffee can and filled it about half way with water. I put just a tiny splash of bleach into the water.  This will help kill any bacteria or fungus that might be on the wheat.  I placed 4 cups of wheat into the water and stirred with a wooden spoon to distribute the chlorinated water around.  I let that sit for just a couple minutes then drained it.  I then filled it back up with water and stirred again.  This sat on the kitchen counter for about 9 hours.  Once it had soaked, I spread a layer of paper towels in the bottom of a seed starting tray.  This is to keep the roots from attaching to the tray.  (Not sure if this is really necessary, but we did it.  Remember, this is my R&D phase!)

I've been keeping the wheat damp and it is starting to get little green sprouts!  The first morning, there were little white spots starting to show up at the tips of each kernel.  The second day there were a few more.  By the third morning, there were lots of little green-looking tips.  This should take about 6-9 days to complete a full tray, depending on how big we want the sprouts to be. 

This is what the sprouts look after 5 days. 

 

 

I think I'll let them go another 2-3 more days and feed my girls on Saturday or Sunday. 

 

There will no doubt be changes to our process, but it shouldn't need a major overhaul.  We are going to cut back to only 2 cups of wheat for the next tray.  Four just seemed to be too much once we spread it all out. 

 

Once we have a system up and running, I'll post some more on this new venture!

Chicken ER

This weekend we let our chickens out to roam around the farm.  It was chilly and very windy, so they didn't venture too far out.  Most of them came out the front door of the coop, pecked around a little and then would head back in.  Saturday I let out the younger group and they seemed to enjoy it.  Sunday came and I let out the older pen.  Most of them would run out the door happy to be outside enjoying the sunshine, then once they felt the wind, the turned around and ran back inside. 

As I was outside talking to my old girls on Sunday, I noticed there were drops of blood on the floor.  I became concerned when I walked further into the coop and found even more blood on the floor.  It wasn't so much to become concerned that a predator had entered the coop, but it was enough to make me start looking over each one and try to determine the cause.  I found one chicken in the storage area with a little blood on her back like she got picked on, but it wasn't more that a couple little spots.  It wasn't gushing to the point of making drops on the floor.  I let her hang out there so she could stay away from the others and avoid more pecking.  I went back to the others that were still inside and noticed one hen's feet were very bloody.  I picked her up and noticed one of her toenails was broken and bleeding a lot.  I picked her up and immediately removed her from the coop.  I took her to the garage to get her and myself out of the wind.  I had my son bring me several tissues to help stop the bleeding.  It took a good half hour to get it to stop, or so I thought.  It started bleeding again, so I took her inside to wash her feet off and keep trying.  About an hour after I first noticed the injury, we finally got the bleeding to stop. 

After she was cleaned up and bleeding stopped, we took a couple drops of fingetnail polish and put it onto the nail to help seal up the injury.  I put her into a nesting box with clean litter and she happily sat there for the rest of the evening.  I think she enjoyed the extra pampering and the privacy of the nesting box.  I'm hoping the rest of the hens leave her alone for a day or two. 

She must have caught her toe in something in the coop.  I guess it's time to do some much needed spring cleaning in the coop again. 

Counting My Blessings

Yesterday was a day that all parents of teenage drivers fear.  Your child runs into the house scared to death and yells "I just crashed my car!" 

My 15 year old son had just left for practice at 5:35 a.m.  It's only 18 degrees outside and dark.  He didn't even make it a mile down the road and something broke on his car and sent him spinning into the ditch.  I wasn't there, so I don't know 100 % what happened, but from what he tells us, the car started to drift toward the ditch and when he tried to bring it back to the center of the road, it over-corrected and spun into the ditch.  He wasn't on his phone, because he discovered it was dead when he tried to call us to tell us what happened. 

He ran almost a mile back to the house, in the dark, in the cold and probably shaking like a leaf-not from the cold, but from pure fear that it happened.  Once he burst through the door, we thought he was mad about something, until my husband took a better look at him.  He was cold, shaking and not able to explain what happened.  Had he been any closer to our house, his car would have ended up in a three to four foot deep ditch.  The outcome could have been terrible.

I am so glad we have taught him that seatbelts should always be worn and to keep the phones put away.  He has been an avid seatbelt wearer since he was very little, so that has followed through to his own driving habits. 

All day I was in a very somber mood, trying not to think too much about it.  It's amazing how one little "wreck" can cause you to look at life and run through possible outcomes.  I hope that is the worst wreck he has in his driving future.  If it is, then he will be lucky.  I've know other kids that weren't that lucky and I'm sure their parents wanted a different outcome too.  I found myself thanking God yesterday several times for keeping my son safe and watching over him.

I think it also made my son a little more tolerant of his dad and myself.  We never heard gripping or complaining last night.  He did what he was asked and actually was pleasant to be around.  Not that I wanted something like that to make it happen, but since it did, I think it opened his eyes and made him appreciate what he has. 

New Year, New Ideas!

A new year is upon us and all the new ideas keep rolling in from all sorts of places.  I will be the first to admit that I am a Pinterest addict.  And due to that addiction, I have lots of projects that I'm just dying to get started on.  Unfortunately, time and money seem to keep me from embarking on that journey.  I will keep pinning, and one day, when I have more of both of the above resources, I will tackle that ever-growing list. 

One of the things that I did get accomplished recently wasn't on one of my boards (at least I don't think it was), is a set of "curtains" for my hen's nesting boxes.  I've had a terrible time keeping pine shavings in their nesting boxes for a number of years.  They get into the nesting boxes and like to camp out, scratching and fluffing the litter all over.  They also have a bad habit of eating the eggs in the nesting boxes if they are left there all day.  I am not home all day since I work, so by the time I get home from work, get out to take care of chores, I am usually cursing them for eating the eggs and emptying the contents of the boxes. 

I read somewhere (sorry, can't remember whose blog it was), that they used curtains on the boxes.  According to the author, the hens like their privacy when laying eggs, but don't like to stay in the dark for all that long.  The curtains also discourage the hens from egg-eating.  I finally got the ambition desperate enough to get out and get it done. 

I had several empty feed bags that were sitting around and decided to find a staple gun, a pair of scissors and start cutting.  I just guessed on the size that I would need.  I had plenty of bags to use, so I just started cutting away.  I stapled it to the top of the box and trimmed to about 2 inches above the floor of the nesting box.  I wanted them to be able to see into the box a little, but wanted it dark enough to discourage the camping out habit.  Once I got the piece stapled at the top, I cut strips about 1 1/2 inches wide and 3/4 of the way up the stapled piece.  This makes it easier for the hens to get into and out of the boxes.  Once I was done making noise and disrupting their afternoon, I grabbed a hen or two and put them up into the boxes to show them it wasn't anything new or scary.  After the first day, I noticed an egg, still in on piece and clean, sitting in a nice clean pile of pine shavings.  I was so excited and praised my girls for being such good chickens.  A few eggs were still on the floor of the coop, but in one piece.  The next day, there were a few more in the nesting boxes, in one piece and sitting on clean shavings.  I was ecstatic!  Yesterday, I went out and there were five eggs in boxes!  I think they are learning quickly!

I know I should have done this years ago, but I am still learning.  I'm no chicken pro by any means.  I have had chickens for several years, but it's a learning process-what works, what doesn't, revise and try again. 

Apples, Apples Everywhere!

A few weeks ago we took a day trip to a local apple orchard.  There aren't very many in our area, so when we found this one, we loaded up and headed that way.  Unfortunately, I left my camera behind, so the only pictures I got were on my ancient Blackberry.  They were not very good, so I won't be posting them.  We picked for about an hour in a couple different places in the orchard.  We picked three boxes of wonderfully sweet, crispy, crunchy apples.  The orchard owners said to find a tree, taste the apples and if we like them, pick.  That's a perk of pick-your-own orchards!  You get free samples while you pick!  Both my son and daughter ate apples while they picked.  We were all quite sticky and full when we were done.  It was a fun family day.  Those are few and far between in the fall due to my coaching habit!  :)

Anyway, now that we have three boxes of apples sitting on my floor, I have to do something with them.  Don't get me wrong, we are loving the fresh snacks and easily accessible lunch/breakfast foods, but I forget how busy I am on weekends and they sit there staring at me begging to become applesauce or apple pie.  Well, I have mades several batches of applesauce and also made some fritters.  Those were to DIE for, let me tell you!  I can't make them too often or I will be gaining some unwanted pounds. 

An apple pie has been calling my name, but I am terrified of making pie crusts.  I have attempted several in past years and they always end up sticking to the counter and tearing as I put them into the pie plate.  If they don't stick, they end up so dry and crack as I roll them out.  I would get so frustrated that I would end up throwing the whole thing in the trash and sulk.  I finally decided to suck it up and try again.  My mom always said use "ice cold" water.  I did and I can happily report that it was a success!  The crust was flaky, but not too dry and it didn't tear as I put it into the plate.  I filled up the crust with apples, sugar, cinnamon and a little cornstarch to make sure it wasn't too soggy.  I put a crumb topping on this pie.  I didn't want to tempt fate and mess up a crust in my second attempt in one day.  Again, no pictures.  Sorry.  It was eaten before I thought to take any. 

Since I had successfully made an apple pie, I decided to use up some of my apples that have been staring me down.  Apple pie filling was made and processed in a hot water bath.  This is not a very clean job, at least not in my house.  I had peels everywhere, syrup sticking to this and that and pots full of water and other things cooking on my stove.  Six quarts of pie filling were made and I had to stop with that. 

It was getting late in the evening and I had other little things that needed to be done.  You know, dishes, dinner, hanging with my kids, nothing big!  ;)  I'm just kidding!  My daughter loves helping me, so she was in the kitchen asking what she could do to "help" almost all afternoon.  When she got bored, she would go play, then not too long after that, she was back asking to help again.  A 15 year old isn't too thrilled to help mom in the kitchen, so he stayed out of the way unless he got hungry.  Typical boy, right? 

I'm excited to try a pie with my filling, but I better not for a while.  My waist-line isn't very happy with me eating the last few pieces of my first pie.