The Rotten Truth

We lost “sister”, one of our hens last week, it was sad….but we got over it real quick. I know, doesn’t that sound mean?

After losing Trigger, our dog about a year ago, I decided not to get too attached to another animal and so that’s just what I did. We call the hens cute lil names and have fun watching them…but they are each other’s best friends, not us. So when we lost sister, I was sadder for her hen-mates than I was myself. …..

The Rotten Trugh is: Egg production has SLOWED down this week and one of the hens that is laying has a stinky egg….like gag me with a spoon stinky! 1989 flashback.  You know it’s stinky when you crack it, it is odiferous and dry heaving immediately ensues.

 Since the hens are in mourning or in protest for whatever reason, I am embarrassed to say I bought eggs this week. Yes, it’s true.  I was hoping I wouldn’t run into anyone I knew at the store, mainly because I’m pretty proud to be a chicken farmer I feel a little less regular and a lil more like a natural live off the land or little house on the prairie minus the outhouse kind of mom. 

 I did buy organic, free range yadda yadda yadda eggs and my first thought was the color was very strong almost a fake brown orange like they stayed in a tanning bed too long, second the white stuck to the shell and third the yolk was much smaller than ours. Tasted the same though, so there you have it.

The tanning bed “brown” organic cage freee store bought eggs & one of our “brown” (looks more like cream)happy cage free hen eggs.

Another Rotten Truth: When Tim’s not home for dinner, I just don’t cook….it’s cereal night. And I don’t think I’m alone I’m pretty sure women can live on coffee, salad & cereal  but men are a whole different story. Meat in the morning, meat in my hot lunch and Meat with a side of starch for dinner (insert Tim the tool man taylor grunt here). I love to cook for Tim because he pretty much likes every meal that’s hot, but my lil midgies are an easy please dinner crowd….last night I took it a step up from cereal with fruit kabobs & cheese quesadillas. They loved it!  By the way a neighbor gave me new tortillas to try & they are melt in your mouth amazing! Tortilla Land All-Natural fresh un-cooked tortillas, I really like that they are only made with 5 ingredients & they take a short 60 seconds to heat on the stove….soo yummy!

But tonight is a whole different story, my man is home & I’m off to cook with some BEEF…organic beef that is!

let's talk manners....

Our fam has been working on table manners, ie: don't talk while eating, don't smack your lips while chewing (yuk) and wait your turn to talk at the dinner table. Pretty simple, yet I catch myself yelling across the table "close your mouth while you chew" all the while I've got an unfinished bite in my own mouth Yikes ( I quickly close my own mouth hoping the midgies at the table won't notice.)

Well, recently the midgies and I were excited to see the sunshine in the morning so of course we decided we were in need of a breakfast picnic....lets call it "breaknic"  with coffee, yogurt and a lil bible story on Samson (boys dig this story) anywho I was feeling very proud of our little house on the prairie moment when we were rudely interrupted by members of our family that lack manners....

Rule # 163:

 Never lick the bowl clean

 Lu Lu & Sweetie Bird

Rule # 349:

No Double Dipping

Lu Lu was offended by the double dip so she took off.

Happy Manners To You!

Chicken Scratch

Chicken Scratch…they love it! I’ve been giving the girls scratch, I throw it in their yard and they go crazy for it…kinda like catnip but not… maybe it should be called chickynip…doesn’t sound quite as nice! Actually it sounds dirty whoops!

Speaking of scratch….I’ve been blog watching since I seem to have no get up & go of my own! I found a cute project over at less than perfect life of bliss…she called this her blessing board.  I really liked the idea so I used some leftover fabric, paint and an old picture frame I was planning to get rid of. So I like to think I made it from scratch since I mainly used leftovers….aside from the lettering…not bad eh?      Here is what I started the project with....

 

I had fun making a few of these fabric flowers....



Here is the final product...our Thankful Board, I love that there is no chalk dust...just write on the glass with a dry erase marker!

My 5yr old helped me make the list, I plan to change it out each week & involve the whole fam! (Tim's rolling his eyes)

The letters came in a set complete with a nail file to "rough" up the edges!

This project was simple and will be a great reminder to us that we have so much to be thankful for!

If you like this project you'll enjoy Julie's blog that I recently found!

  

Happy Thursday!!

Spa Treatment

It has not been a Glamorous week on the farm.

Tuesday evening I was putting the girls away for the night and noticed Gordie was on the floor and not on the perch like the others. She was squawking and walking funny, well she had fly tape stuck to and wrapped around both of her feet! Fly tape is the worst. Little did she realize she was having a spa treatment called a “wax” and any wanted or unwanted hair in the way would soon be removed with the fly tape…sorry that your first waxing was so traumatic Gordie!

Yesterday LuLu had a lil chicken spa time. She had what my sister calls  “dingleberries” on her bum and they needed to be cleaned off! So off I went to the barn with Gloves a bucket of warm soapy water & TIM!!  Thanks baby for helping me clean the dingleberries…you’re the best! So LuLu had a little soak in the tub and personal scrub and now she’s good for another year! (We all hope!)

Did you know that that 1 cup of cooked egg will provide you with 34% of your daily value of Protein?



waiting for leftover pancakes this morning

A lil 5k run around the field to burn off their pancakes

Happy Friday!

Hen Hiney!

Our lil hens have some hay to scratch in their lil yard now and they ARE happy! So I thought it would be a good photo opp...but apparently they don't like the paparazzi because all I could get were pics of Hen Hiney!

I tried whistling to get their attention

Isn't that the fluffiest lil bum you've seen?

 Butt they just wouldn't look at the camera (butt...get it?;)

Gordie seems to have missed out on the fun in the yard....when you gotta lay...you gotta lay!

In other news, I've had plans for these old guys for some time...

I'm working on plan "A" and there is a good chance I'll have to resort to plan "B" and there may possibly be a chainsaw involved.

oh but not what you're thinking ...no chainsaw art like you see on the side of the road. I'll leave that to the professionals!

Happy Wednesday!

teeny weeny itsy bitsy lil polka dot...egg!

Yesterday one of the girls layed the cutest lil egg, I just had to share some pics...it's hardly bigger than a grape!

Here is the tiny lil thing among some monster eggs. The egg crate is a favorite gift I received for Christmas from Crate & Barrel.

Oooh here is a super cute egg crate you can find at Anthropologie.....you NEED this!

My 5 yr old modeling the itty bitty with a monster egg!

        Any guess as to what is inside that tiny egg??????

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No Yolking around....it's all egg white!

There are a few names given to no-yolkers....."dwarf", "wind" and.....wait for it....."fart" (of course that one is our family favorite). The fart egg is usually produced by a young hen whose production has just started. Our hens have layed about 3 fart eggs over the past year as well as 3 "jumbo eggs" of which 2 had double yolks.   I hope you enjoyed your EGG  Fact Friday!

                                 

my 8 lil hens!

Here are my girls...somehow they became the inspiration to naming my blog! Last Mother's day My husband, kids & I all took a trip to Dells (our farm supply store) and there we picked out my Mother's day gifts, all eight of them! Here are a few pics of the girls, they certainly brighten my day and are pretty simple to care for! Their names are Big Momma, Chicken Nugget, LuLu, Auntie Bub, Sweetie-bird, Sister, Blueberry & Gordie. Big Momma was the largest when we bought them, but she has been out-grown and is probably the smallest now.

Here are too many pics of my peeps enjoy!

Chicken Nugget, isn't she cute?

All the little Peeps just hanging out!



It's moving day, the girls are moving out of the house to their own pad....in the barn!





My husband Tim added chicken wire to a stall in the barn to make it safe for the little chicks, he was able to use old laying boxes  from a delapidated  hen-house left on our property when we bought it. There are about 10 boxes for the hens to lay in, often we find 3 or so eggs all in the same box...if it's really cold, they all will lay in the same box because it's already warm!

 Gordie, she was the lucky hen chosen as show & tell  for Preschool!





Happy Chicks heading out of their yard for some free time!



Chicken Run!







Not so Big Momma



Dyed eggs left by the Easter Bunny. We've also had white eggs left for us on April fools! We have fun neighbors!!