Chicks

This will be my first spring from the last four where I will not be ordering chicks. The first year I ordered chicks, I became overwhelmed with chicken injuries and ended up given them to a neighboring farm. The next year that I ordered chicks, I lost most of them to Marek's disease and a mink massacre.














The following spring (2007) I estimated my mortality rate and ordered twice as many. So far I've lost only two. One of those was to a neighbor's dog. Time to get a paintball gun.

So we still have 22 chickens on our little farmstead. Our refridgerator is full of eggs, despite many egg salad sandwiches, angel food cakes, deviled eggs, egg noodles and creme caramel. I think I might start making my own mayonnaise.

Twelve inches of new snow

Twelve inches of new snow. Not a problem, though. Snowblower started ok, electricity and phone still on, and plenty of food in the house. And no where we need to be anytime soon. And this is good, heavy snow, perfect for snowmen and snowballs. Yesterday I took a snow-day from work. Rendered lard, made chicken stock, and baked an angel food cake. A strange mix of smells coming from the kitchen, I assure you.

Photo Intro

I make homemade soap. This variety was mint chocolate chip. The chips were colored with chocolate and the light green base was colored with liquid chlorophyll. The scent was peppermint oil.





I also garden, and preserve food by canning, freezing, etc. The tomatoes, peppers, onions and herbs in this pot eventually became a batch of spaghetti sauce.

Scout and Pepper, two of the various outdoor cats that have adopted us.

White, tan, brown and green eggs from our 22 chickens, living in the original chicken coop on our 1912 farmstead.

I'm not sure how often I'll add to this blog. Could be every day, could be every few months. We'll see.