Chicken Soap

There once was a handsome cockerel name Vegas, who freely roamed the land

and crowed over his first love, Reno.

Vegas was brokenhearted when he lost Reno in a tragic accident.  To ease his pain, Ugly Betty was moved into his castle and  roamed with him about the land.

Granted, she claimed none of the beauty of Reno, but she did eventually come into her own.

But her beauty was simply not enough, especially when Vegas became enamored with a feisty red head who escaped the confinements of the coop to roam freely, too.

Vegas loved the red head (literally), and was devastated when she was returned to the coop.  He circled and circled the coop seeking her, but to no avail.

The red head had returned to her first love, Romeo, who ruled the coop.

Now, another beautiful babe, Juliet was upset when this certain red head returned to the coop.  In a rage,  Juliet flew out of the coop and into the trees.

In a state of revenge, Juliet then abandoned Romeo to join Vegas and Ugly Betty in the free land.

Now, you would think Vegas would be satisfied with either the beautiful Juliet or  Ugly Betty-who is after all, his own kind- but, no!

Vegas turned his back on the two available chicks…and on freedom!

For in his small chicken brain, he believed love was worth it.

Vegas flew INTO the coop, and after a dual with Romeo, declared himself

KING OF THE ROOST- and confinement?!!

And there he remains, sacrificing his freedom for love of one redhead.  Or could it be for the love of multiple redheads?

Feathering the Nest

After a summer of gardening and babysitting, the time has come to finish decorating and settling into our home.  We’ve been here just over a year, but it doesn’t quite feel like home yet.  So, I’ve been enjoying every minute of trying to remedy that. I’ve rearranged and changed the decor in the living room, removed a table and added valances and comfortable chairs to the kitchen,  made shades , rewired and stripped lamps and picture frames, and more.

More pictures when I’m finished.  Now, I have to get back to making pound cake to use up the excess eggs our chickens are producing!

Whata Summer!

Wow! Talk about a busy summer! The garden is finally slowing down, and so am I.

The trailer is finished, and my mother-in law is finishing her move.

Today was my last full day of baby sitting the grandchildren. Ava starts day care on Monday, and Colin starts Kindergarten Wednesday. I’ll help in the afternoons still, but I should have more free time.

And that free time will include blogging again, pottery, soap making, cheese making and finishing up some of the house projects.

So stay tuned!

That’s what I’m talkin’ about!

Real fresh food.  It was such a joy to eat our dinner last night. Ribs with BBQ sauce made from our tomatoes.   Home grown potatoes, with freshly picked green peppers, smothered in butter.   Fried green tomatoes, using tomatoes picked just a couple of hours before, freshly ground flour and cornmeal to bread them, and eggs from my chickens to make the flour stick!

Yep, that’s right!  The girls have started laying-early!  I’m so proud!

Produce that has been trucked in days before, and sat in stores for who knows how long, just does not create the flavor of a personal garden.  So good… Sigh….

Back to the tomato preserves that are boiling on my stove top as I type…

Tomatoes, tomatoes and more tomatoes..

21 pints of spaghetti sauce,  6 pints of tomato sauce  and my table is still full of tomatoes.  Dried tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, tomatoes with okra and maybe even a couple of jars of catsup should use up what’s on my table now.

(There are three times more tomatoes on my table today than are in the picture from a couple of days ago.)

Lots more about the garden, successes and failures,  in future posts…

Fun Fourth

We decided to have a little fun and be unique on the Fourth.  No hot dogs or burgers for us!  Pizza on the grill, corn on the grill, and cheese cake from a pressure cooker!  Plus, yummy sides like fruit salad, lemon bars, and home grown vegetables.

Of course, no Fourth would be complete without a little swimming and sparkling!

God sure has blessed America…and this family.

Blog Neglect

This blog has suffered from neglect recently…this might explain why:

Today

6 am- Rise, care for chickens and dogs.

6:30 am- Pick field peas and tomatoes in big garden.

7:30 am- Plant 8 pepper plants in small garden.

8:00 am- Pay bills

9:00 am- Prepare tomatoes for dehydrator

11:30 am- computer time, lunch break

1:00 pm- shell lots of peas and watch Twilight with daughters and mothers

4:00 pm- wash and can peas.

9:00 pm- blanch and freeze excess peas. Clean kitchen

10:00 pm- prepare pizza dough starter for tomorrow.  Remove tomatoes from dehydrator. Write on blog.

Thank goodness Casey was here to mop, clean and make dinner.  Don’t know what I would have done without her today!

I have so many posts in my head right now…but they will have to wait…because I don’t smell too great right now…

Pressure and Preserve

The pressure canners have been boiling full throttle around here lately-46 quarts of green beans so far, with more beans, tomatoes and field peas on the horizon.  I’ve come to the conclusion that if you are going to bother with 7 quarts,  it takes just a little more time and energy to can 14 quarts of produce.

And you get twice the bounty!

Putting up the garden produce leaves little time to use the stove for dinner, so I drug out my Kuhn Rikon Duromatic Duo  pressure cookers that have been in my cabinet for a couple of years.  I’ve used them twice, maybe, before now.   I picked the beef stew (except I used deer meat of course!)  from Pressure Perfect to make, and it was, well….perfect!  I’m looking forward to more experiments with these pressure cookers.

Some of the garden zucchini  and green beans were preserved using the dehydrator.  But mostly store bought stuff has been dried so far.  Bananas, onions, peppers, celery,and mushrooms are filling up the jars quickly.  Some vegetables have to be blanched, but other than that, it’s pretty easy.  Food Drying with an Attitude has an interesting recipe for rhubarb fruit leather, and I’m looking forward to drying tomatoes and storing them in olive oil in the fridge.

Imagine those tomatoes with fresh goat cheese!!

Ugly Betty

Vegas was acting more and more like a dog, so to maintain his chicken-ness, Ugly Betty was added to our flock  recently.

I almost didn’t recognize her as a White Crested Polish because her crest is pecked off. Her name may change after she grows her white crest back.  Vegas seems quite taken with her in spite of this.  He has been crowing his approval ever since she arrived.

From a pot right outside my kitchen window…

Family, Friends and Food

The past month has been filled with family, friends and food.  We’ve celebrated birthdays, hosted barbeques and fish fries for friends, attended a family reunion, and enjoyed our house guests–mother, brother, niece, daughter with grandchildren have all stayed a few nights this month.  And we visited our daughter in Lafayette and my friends Susan and Karen provided wonderful meals and conversation when I visited with them in Many.

Caring Cousins

Amid the joy of family, the gardens started producing.  Check out the Garden & Greenhouse tab for photos.

More soon…