Sprouts Day Two

Morgan napping on the porch today taking a break.

She has been doing a lot of barking today and yesterday.

Guess she is tired out from all the excitement.

Second day of the lentil sprouting experiment. I put a paper napkin on top because the lid doesn't close all the way.

I rinsed the lentils twice today with the filtered water. The water does get mirky in between rinsing. I did a little more reading and evidently the rinsing is important to keep the sprouts from molding.

Duh... I could have figured that out when I saw the mold. So, I need to rinse for a good reason, not just to keep the water looking clear and sparkly. OK

Little Messy Missy asked for a close up photo of my egg basket. So, here is a link to a picture (My egg basket when the chickens were young and laying lots of eggs.) Those were the days!

It is going to be in the 60's tomorrow! I can see myself actually getting something done outside. I'm very glad there will be some warm weather.

Peek at the Past

(March 14, 2009)

Country Mouse

I suppose we have mice around here,

but this is the only time I have seen one or any evidence.

Maybe we have sneaky mice?

I still have and use the Photo Drop widget. I found it originally at Apple dashboard widgets but I don't see it there anymore. I suppose if you really wanted it you could find it on the internet somewhere. I'm afraid to download stuff from sites I don't know. 

(4 eggs today)

~:>

Smiles

Sprouts

The sun is out today and the chickens are happy.  I collected two eggs this morning and had them for breakfast.

These six were waiting for me this afternoon.

The coop is wet and muddy and yet these eggs are in fairly clean condition.

I decided to try out sprouting the lentils I had in the cupboard. I sorted out the damaged lentils, didn't find any rocks, and rinsed the lentils with tap water.

Then I put them in a jar with water from the refrigerator that has been through the filter.

Lately the tap water has had a very strong chlorine smell so I have been using the filtered water from the refrigerator.

My thinking behind using the tap water for the first rinse was to use it to clean off any buggy type things with the scary water.

We are the last house on the road. I have heard that that can cause the water to have a concentrated smell of chlorine. I know I should call and find out what kind of chlorine they use for treating the water.

The old type of chlorine would dissipate if left to sit out a day or two, but I have read that the new form of chlorine in use in some places will not.  

It is kind of hard for me to believe that these lentils are actually going to sprout. I mean, they look so dead and dried out and they have been in that package for who knows how long.

The plan is that I change the water twice a day until I have sprouts to eat and share with the chickens. It will be so neat if they actually do something!

I have a lot of blogs that I follow and I try to read them at least once a week or more often. I was very surprised today to read that Lee at Central Coast Gardening (gardeningwithchickens) mentioned me in her blog. She is working on setting up another blog just about chickens. I enjoy reading her blog about gardening (I used to live on the central coast of California) and her chickens. I got the idea for my chicken ladder roost from her blog!

When I write this blog I try to write just as if I was talking to my daughter and friends sharing my thoughts with them and putting down thoughts as if I was writing a journal for my grandkids to read someday. They may not be interested in my blog, but maybe their kids will want to read it?

I sure wish I had something like this that my Great Grandmother Callie Clarinda Meeks wrote that I could read. I know that all the everyday things that she did would make fascinating reading for me.

Peek at the Past

(March 13, 2009)

Google Maps!

[8 eggs today]

I ate two!

~:>

Smiles

Two Light Brahmas and An Australorp

Amazing, but I got a picture of Screamer and Pastey in the same photo.

They don't hang out together very often. Screamer is in the front and is the bigger of the two. She yells at me when I collect eggs.

Pastey is sweet. She survived a bad case of pastey butt when she was a chick and she has short legs and is smaller. 

One of the other chickens I can recognize and give a name is HenRoo. She has a large comb and wattles, struts around like a rooster, and she has a half grown crow.

I don't think she lays eggs. She has cast herself in the role of guardian of the other hens and tries to be the boss.

She clucks and makes a lot of noise but the other hens don't really pay much attention to her other than to get out of her way. Poor HenRoo.

Tom picks up old veggies from the market for the chickens so they get some greens. I have been reading about sprouting seeds and aside from them being good for me to eat I thought they would make a good treat for the chickens. 

I'm still in the searching for information stage. I did find this video that makes the process sound easy.

I think I will give it a try. I've got some lentils in the cupboard.

Peek at the Past

(March 12, 2009)

This was fun to build.

I like cutting holes in the wall. LOL

[4 eggs today]

~:>

Smiles

Chickens Warming By Shed

The chickens are no dummies!

They know where the warmest spots are on the property.

They like the spot next to the green house best, but there is snow there.

I was up early with Kristine and got a photo of the snow in the planter boxes. I added some leaves and more snow later.

I read that Google is shutting down the Page Creator and this may cause some problems? Info here. One of my Pages above (Garden) has gone missing. I haven't seen a message on my Dashboard, so I don't know if this is going to affect my blog. Wait and see?

I have been searching around trying to find out more information about the change that affects the templates and links. It seems that this changeover has been going on for quite a while, but Page Creator is finally being shut down. I started this blog at the end of 2008, so I hope I am OK.

I did finally find this page that has more information than I want to know. But I guess I should check it out and see if I have any potential problems? I have the bury my head in the sand reaction to all this. Maybe I'll just wait and see what happens and hope for the best.

I know I'm chicken!

Peek at the Past

(March 11, 2009)

This photo will enlarge when you click on it.

That was a pretty morning!
Hard to capture, but the little branches were lit up by the sun.

[1 egg today]

The hens don't like snow evidently.

~:>

Smiles

Snow Last Night

Surprise! It really did snow last night. By this afternoon a lot of the snow had melted and we let the chickens and Morgan out to stretch their legs.

Kristine said she didn't have much trouble driving in the snow this morning once she got out to the main road.

I really like how the snow makes the forest look so pretty. I don't even miss the green leaves on the trees.

I guess I am a winter person.

.

Only problem is I can't get many of my projects under way until it warms up around here

Morgan would like to join the hens in the scratch treat, but she knows I don't want her licking up the chickens food.

So she watches. I know. Sorry, Morgan.

It just isn't fair that the chickens get to eat

and she has to watch.

Kristine wanted biscuits, so I made biscuits on the wood stove. They turned out pretty good. I'm getting much better at cooking on the wood stove. 

Peek at the Past

(March 10, 2010)
It's amazing. Everything still looks the same.

[6 eggs today]

~:>

Smiles

This Dark Brahma is the chicken at the bottom of the pecking order.

I had a terrible time trying to get these photos because she runs away from me, Morgan, other hens, leaves, etc.

The hen wanted to eat corn with the other chickens, but even the smallest Wyandottes would run her away.

Poor hen.

But I don't feel too sorry for her because she is a big fat hen. Well, maybe not fat, but she's not missing any meals.

She must eat after the other hens have had their fill.

I wonder if she is the Dark Brahma that can't remember how to find  the coop door.


I would like to give her a name, but I can't tell the Dark Brahmas apart. I can only pick this hen out of the mix when she is getting pecked and picked on.

One especially good thing happened today... my dentist appointment was changed to a later date this month. Neat! I didn't want to go to the dentist!

Peek at the Past

(March 9, 2009)

It is supposed to snow tonight too.

[4 eggs today]

~:>

Smiles

Hail And Rain

Snowing? No... that's hail!

The hail happened a few times during the day, but didn't last very long.

Kristine said she remembers one year up here when six inches of hail was dumped in ten minutes.

She said it was like driving through a slushy.

This hail was just enough to cover everything and then the rain would come and wash it away.

The hail was sure fun to watch from the nice warm house. The chickens were not pleased at all and stayed in their coop.

I cooked hamburgers in the chicken fryer on the wood stove. 

Kristine brought me home a book. Yay! So, I'm going to go make a hot drink, curl up in my quilt and read my new book. 

Peek at the Past

(March 9, 2009)

Eating fresh food is working. I eat very little packaged food.

[2 eggs today]

~:>

Smiles

Hugelkultur - First Step

I love my happy chickens! We were all happy to have some time in the sun. I sprinkle scratch in this area for them, but not much because Morgan will try to lick it up. Bad dog.

Big fluffy chickens!

Today since the sun was out I woke up enough to actually get outside and carry some old cut wood that has been laying around for ten years or so. The wood is mostly pine and hasn't decayed very much. But it is full of water and heavy.

Tomorrow it is going to rain so I left the wood uncovered so it will get a good soak before I put on the next layer. I tried to keep a space between the boards and the logs so the wet logs won't help the boards decay.

I read that some people put down a layer of snow on the logs before they start layering. Hmmm... it might snow tomorrow?

I found a discontinued blog that has some neat photos of hugelkultur beds compared to regular planting. Kinda neat to see how the bed works in real life in a home setting.

Peek at the Past

(March 7, 2009)

[6 eggs today]

~:>

Smiles

Computer Problem?

This has been a no news day. (except that all my Yahoo email went poof!) So... just so I have something to post I'm going to find a photo from a few days ago to put up.

The snow glare has whited out Morgan a bit. She is asking me to let the chickens out. The chickens are yelling at me to let them out. I think I did let them out later after I decided it wasn't going to rain. I didn't want to have to put the raincoat back on Morgan.

Things are so dull around here that I didn't even cook dinner. Kristine went out and picked up burgers and fries from the local burger place.

I did run across this piece of news when reading blogs:

SusiesBigAdventure was hacked. This has made me nervous because I need to change my passwords, (I guess) but I hate to do that because I have to go through the whole business of making up new ones and then remembering them. Ugh!

I hate spammers and hackers!!!

PS:

Missy (Little Messy Missy) has a problem on her blog and this is the only way I can contact her because she has noreply email and the problem is that I can't leave a comment on her blog. My advice is for her to change her comments to popup so there will be a comment box in a separate window for people to use. Right now no comment box shows up under her posts. If someone else can get to her comments let me know, ok? Maybe it is just my computer?

Peek at the Past

(March 6, 2009)

Sheesh... I was in bad shape last year.

[2 eggs today]

~:>

Smiles

Coop Ladder

The chickens are being very sneaky because I have yet to see any of them on the ladder roosts. Maybe they hop off when they hear me come outside?

I think the weather is finally getting to me because I couldn't get warm this morning (even when I stood in front of the wood stove) until I went back to bed. Yep! I gave up trying to deal with the cold damp dreary morning and crawled back in bed to read and warm my bones. 

Kristine says it's so cold because the cloud cover is gone. I guess so and also because of all the rain and then the snow. I don't know if it is the temperature as much as the dampness.

Hopefully, the sun will be out tomorrow. I've got stuff I want to do.

But look at those poor chickens standing out in the cold pen waiting for me to let them out to search the snow for snowy thing to eat. Yeah,  they make me feel like a wimp. But now I'm a warm wimp.

Kristine found this little critter in the hallway upsidedown and helpless. She looked him up in the Lone Pine bug book and it is from the Darkling Beetle family. A Stink Beetle! Yikes! I hadn't noticed one in the house before, but Kristine says she sees them outside.  I wonder if the chickens eat stink beetles?

The book says the bug stands on its head and puffs out stinky stuff, but that some of them just stand on their heads and fake the puff. I saw a lot of photos of stink bugs on Google Images that don't look like this guy. I hope the rest of his friends stay outside!

Peek at the Past

(March 5, 2009)

I'm very glad the migraines are staying away.

[4 eggs today]

The hens and Morgan were out today.

~:>

Smiles

Potato Leek Soup

Morgan kinda blends in with the snow and is hard to see in the photo. It was hard to get a photo with her in it because she was running back and forth chasing snow squirrels.

It was a damp cold day. I like the cold weather better when there is a lot of snow. Seemed like a soup day.

I made a super simple potato leek soup by leaving most of the ingredients out. Some of them I didn't want to use (the hot stuff and the spices) and some of them I didn't have (the parsley or cream.)

I washed three leeks very, very well and chopped them, chopped some garlic and added them both to a pot with a couple of spoons of butter. Salt to taste, covered and let simmer low but not brown, for 10 minutes.

Then I added three cups of chicken broth (from chicken breasts, and three chopped potatoes. Covered the pot and let it cook on the trivit on the wood stove until the potatoes were done. I mashed up most of the potatoes with a potato masher. Simple soup.

I think we may be getting a sunny day tomorrow,

or at least not a rainy day. 

Notes: The chickens got out for half a day. Tom got a bale of straw and put it in the shed with the chickens feed he got a few days ago. I gave up on the computer. I would like to mess around doing some uninstalls, but I don't have any re-install disks. So, if I mess up my OS I'm cooked. 

Peek at the Past

(March 4, 2009)

[4 eggs today]

~:>

Smiles

Snow Surprise!

Morgan got to run around today for an hour or two, but the chickens had to stay locked up.

We are supposed to get a break in the weather tomorrow and have some sun. But, we were supposed to have rain today not snow. So?

I hope the sun forecast really happens. There isn't that much snow, so it should all melt off if we get a sunny day.

If we start having harder winters with more snow and rain, I am going to need to make some changes to the coop and pen.

I could cover the pen top and sides with plastic tarp so the hens would have a dry spot outside. I haven't had to do that because the longest the hens have had to stay inside has been around five days and that only happens a few times a year.

I have some old fence wood that I could use to build a new chicken coop this summer. I fantasize about what kind of chicken coop I would like to build and keep photos of coops I like.

Kristine picked up a "My Book" backup drive for my Mac and I have spent hours trying to get it to install. Arrrgh! I gave up for today. I'll tackle the problem tomorrow.

She got me the My Book Essential 500 and I should be able to just hook it up and run the software, but, no, it has issues with formatting and not running the software. I am going to call the customer service number tomorrow if I can't figure out an answer.

Peek at the Past

(March 3, 2009)

I don't know what happened to Marion.

Snow last year today.

[8 eggs today]

I guess the hens liked the wooden eggs?

~:>

Smiles

Hugelkultur? Skillets? Eggs?

Yesterday during a walk in the sunshine I took this photo of our poor empty planter boxes.

I'm going to use the Hugelkultur idea and put fallen branches, twigs and logs in the bottom of the planter boxes. This is a before photo to spur me into gardening action when it ever stops raining.

The plan is to put a layer of wood at the bottom of the boxes, then a layer of chicken pen stuff, then a layer of twigs, then a layer of leaves and then dirt. The wood is supposed to act as a sponge and hold water in the soil through the dry California months.

I'm good for everything but the dirt. Well, maybe I do have some good dirt? I have been raking and piling up leaves for ten years. I'll go check those piles of old leaves. It would be so great if there was beautiful composted dirt at the bottom.

While searching for info on hugelkulture I found info on permaculture, where I found info about building ponds, building sheds out of rocks, dirt and trees, etc., and then info on iron skillets.

I'm interested in all that stuff, but especially in iron skillets. This fellow wrote a big article about using iron skillets and then he made a video. He explained that in the '30's and before skillets used to be machined smooth. Not anymore. That's why grandma's skillet was so good.

Here is the video he made of his old skillets. More "how to cook an egg stuff," but I think he overcooks his eggs. Neat skillets.

Here is the page that got me sidetracked when I started clicking on all the links. 

Peek at the Past

(March 2, 2009)
I love my little chicken pot lid holders.
Last night the rains started up again,
so the chickens and Morgan won't be able to go outside this week.
Maybe there will be a break on Thursday?

[3 eggs today in the wood shavings)

I put some fake eggs in the nest boxes until we can get some straw. I took the eggs out of the nest boxes because some of the hens were going broody sitting on the fake eggs. I finally got the brilliant idea to take the fake eggs out of the nests when I collect eggs to keep the hens from going broody and then put the fake eggs back in the nest boxes when I lock up the coop at night. We'll try that and see what happens. 

~:>

Smiles

Education and Free Range Chickens

The chickens were out today and went free ranging in a wider area than usual. I think they were happy to be warm and out in the sun having fun finding stuff to eat.

I was searching around for information about chickens that free range in forests and I came up with this pdf titled Creating An Environment For Free Range Chickens. Ok, I thought, this should be interesting.

But! It is not about chickens except by way of comparison. The article is about how to raise children to be "free range chickens" vs "battery hens."

I never thought of education with free range chickens in mind, but it is true that I had some teachers, very few, who taught their students how to think, how to learn, and to recognize their capabilities and expand them. Most teachers I had treated us as robots (or battery hens.)

I never though of my chickens free ranging as an example of an ideal learning environment. Works for me. Amazing! You just never know what you are going to find on the net.

Peek at the Past

(March 1, 2009)

Oranges?

I think I must have been desperate for something to post.

Those were great oranges!

[3 eggs today]

Laid on the wood shavings.

~:>

Smiles