Blueberry Whole Wheat Pancakes on a Rainy Day

I'm feeling a bit better, moving at a slow pace and getting back into blogging after a time out. I even felt good enough to make pancakes for breakfast! Pancakes, macaroni and cheese or spaghetti are my go to feel good foods when I'm trying to be extra nice to myself. I love real maple syrup too.

My back is not hurting now, but I'm  not doing anything. I want to start back to work cleaning up the chicken coop tomorrow. I plan to be very careful. No wheel barrow pushing tomorrow.

I've been looking around on YouTube for some ideas about the deep litter method of maintaining chicken bedding and found this video. I'm going to try and do the same thing using the leaves, bark, and litter I find on the forest floor. I'll have to give the feed store a call and find out if I can buy a bag or two of silage. Or I could scatter some scratch around on the ground.

I think this chicken tractor works for this fellow because it looks like it is in a fenced area where dogs couldn't get at the chicken wire and tear it open. Also the raccoons around here could reach in through the large chicken wire and grab a chicken. Neat idea.

It should be sunny by noon tomorrow so I want to put in at least a couple of hours working in the coop or pen. At least I will make a start.

The molting chickens look like they have been plucked, but they are starting to grow their new feathers. I hope they get feathered out before the cold weather gets here. They don't seem to care about getting wet because they were outside standing in the rain.

Peek at the Past

(October 17, 2009)

Molting chickens last year.

Click on these 2009 photos

and they enlarge.

Happy Hens

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul.

And sings the tune

Without the words,

and never stops at all.

~ Emily Dickinson, 1830-1886

I'm thankful for Hope.

The hens are stuffed with melon. Some of them came up on the porch and ate melon pieces and then left for better pickings in the woods. This poor molting Light Brahma came back to this cantaloupe and had it all to herself. She looks bad but she is growing in a lot of pin feathers. Now all three of the Light Brahmas are molting. The plastic is covering up firewood for the wood stove.

The chickens went to this sunny spot in the woods.

I walked around back there under the trees and it is warm and peaceful.

I almost stepped on this Wyandotte. It wasn't as light as it looks in the photo and the sun was shining in my eyes. The photo shows how fast the dirt dries out after two light rains. This hen was nice and warm and didn't get up when I got closer to take the photo. I watched the hens dust bathe and found that some of them peck in the dirt and find things to eat as they lay in the depression and kick and dig and fluff their feathers in the dust. I didn't realize they ate and dusted at the same time. Smart little hens.

This photo is here just for fun and laughs. I made buttermilk pancakes for Kristine this morning and for some reason the last pancake was thicker on one side and didn't cook through. So this was my solution. It was just uncooked on the end. When the girls were little I used to have a lot of fun making animal shape pancakes. I got this no side iron skillet a few years ago and it makes flipping pancakes so much easier than using the sided skillets. Sometimes I use it for tortillas or as a lid for the dutch oven or other skillets.

It was very nice talking to Kathleen tonight!

[no eggs today]

Smiles

~:>