It's FRIDAY!!!

Let's start something new for Fridays on our blog. Let's call it Fun Friday: Funny things the chickens did this week, or share funny pictures of the chickens or just funny things in general (i.e the kids (not the goats, but those are welcome too), the husband, the wife, the dog anything!! Well, I'll start us off.

Last night, I went out into the coop to count chickens after Easton had locked them up. Well, we are missing 1 black australorp, not sure where she could have disappeared to...... ANYWHO, as I was searching the coop for her, I shined my flashlight to the perches. Well, I look over and my RIR/Mix leans ALLLLL the way down and stares at me. She was the only one who did it. It scared the crap out of me as well as

made me giggle. Just to see her sloooooowwwwwly bend down to take a peek at what I was doing was enough to make me laugh. It was almost like, "Ok, you disturbed my beauty sleep, um, do you mind?" Hahaha!

I usually don't give scratch to the chickens, but lately I've been tossing some out. Well, as soon as I opened the door to the covered side porch, SQUEEEEAAAAKKKK, they ALL came rushing over. It was a blur of feathers and combs. I don't know if I remember ever seeing a creature or animal move THAT fast just to get some grain. It seemed like a couple of the roosters, including Mr. Picket himself, were going to flog me. They all jumped up on the porch and waited for the grain to rain down.

As for the eggs in the incubator, they are doing great!! I'm not sure if the EE egg will hatch, it's not looking too promising, but there are plenty more that I'm sure I can hatch.

Now, for the chicken picture:

Have a GREAT Friday everyone. Stay safe and keep the chickens in line!! See you all next week!! We will let you know what happens this weekend. Maybe josh can help me build a bigger run for the chickens....?

I smell trouble...

Well, we've had a pretty mild couple of days. We had to install an alarm system on the boys' bedroom. Why you may ask us..? Well, let's just say Sam woke up for what I guess was a midnight snack around 11:00pm on Friday night. I got up to go to the restroom, and well, there's Sam, crouched in the refrigerator and has a bottle of ranch dressing.... Lord knows if he ate/drank any of it!! Than, as I turn the corner, the lazy susan (which is VERY hard to open at times), is wide open. Flour strewn all over the place, potato chip "fries" are all over the floor, large pasta shells and cereal, THE WORKS. Oh man, the look on that child's face!!

You may be asking yourself why did she title this, "I smell trouble"? Well, the alarm on the door went off last night, proving Sam was going to get out of bed to get his 'midnight' snack. Well, as I got up to put him back to bed, I smelled something.... odd, and sour. I thought to myself, "That's strange... I really can't smell anything with taking the medication that has lowered my immune system now I can't breath, but why is that BURNING my nose!?" Well, low and behold, I looked outside on the side porch to the coop (which is screened in, and the coop sits right out the side porch), and low and behold, there is a SKUNK trying to figure his/her way into the coop! Really?! I guess the alarm to Sam's room must have scared the stink out of him/her!! I never want to smell something that strong again!

I went out to check on everyone and do my morning chores, and there they were, little footprints. Of course I didn't have my camera/cell phone on me, so I didn't get a chance to get a picture of the prints. But sure enough, there were scratch marks on the door!! Thank goodness for a guillotine door and another door with a piece of wood over it! Who know what we could have lost last night!

If you haven't checked our Facebook lately, we added pictures of the family. Sam is of course the ornery looking one! Well, this has been quite a day. I will give everyone an update on Wednesday about the eggs... They are doing FANTASTIC!! I still want that candler.... maybe I'll ask for one for Valentine's day... Hmmmm.....

And the winner of the decal is...

TRACEY MERCHANT!!! Congratulations!! If you want to email us your address, we will get this out to you next week: picketsponderings@gmail.com . On my way to the post office right now to send out our last 2 giveaways. I've had quite a week with Sammuel, our 2 year old.

We got 9 eggs yesterday, meaning EVERYONE laid an egg! WOO!!

Despite all the rain yesterday, we had quite a scare with Sammuel. I went out to gather the afternoon eggs, and everything seemed fine. Sammuel was taking a nap, I came back in to draw myself a warm bath, and sat in there for a little bit. Well, about 10 minutes later, I heard a loud voice. I thought my oldest son, Easton, had turned up the TV. Well, he didn't. I heard a loud voice say "Hello!!!" Than, "Go see if you can find your mommy or whom ever is home." GREAT, I thought to myself... Easton opened the door to a stranger, just what I need. So I got myself together and went to the front door, and here is this strange man with a wet child in his arms, dressed in yellow. I initially thought, that's strange, is this guy broken down and looking for a phone to call someone?? As he walked closer, I noticed it was Sammuel!! He was dripping wet! What scared me the most, was what the man told me...

"Ma'am, I found her (him, but Sam has long hair, he's excused, he did save my child however...) in the ditch down by the road (we live by a highway... and no one knows how to drive the speed limit)." I'll tell you this much, my heart has never skipped a beat that quickly as it did yesterday. He was cold, wet (ok, DRIPPING) and super muddy. I brought him to the bathroom, where my warm bath was still nice and warm, put him in and washed him off. After that, we got some snuggly pajamas on him and I went to check how he got outside. No doors were left open or anything. So as I walked into his room, the window was wide open and the screen torn out, dinosaurs on the ground by the chicken coop. There under his window was our milking table... yeah, he climbed out of the window, looked like he played with his dinosaurs a bit, and eventually made it to the ditch, and I guess laid down!

Oh Sammuel, one of these days... I don't know what I'm going to do with you! Let's just say we had to put screw where the window goes up and down at.... I HATE these windows anyways....

Off to collect eggs.... and hopefully no more little boys....

Did you know...?

Here are some really interesting facts on eggs....

- You can slightly scramble them, and than put them into ice cube trays to freeze and use later on! So those eggs you bought from the store, and have no intentions on using them just yet, freeze them!!!!

- Crush up your eggshells for your houseplants. This will act as a great compost for your houseplants and add lime to the plant.

- Use half an egg to use as a little planter to get your spring/summer garden ready! Than when you're ready to plant, just place the entire thing in there, eggshell and all. It will decompose and add nutrients to the soil for the new plant!

- Candle holders!! That's right!! Ever gotten some of those little tea lights that don't come in an aluminum holder? Well, you can use the egg shell as a holder. Just place in the egg shell, light and voila!! You've got an egg candle holder!

- Ever have those disgusting brown stains in your coffee pot or favorite coffee mug, and can't get your hand in there to clean it out? Well, break up some egg shells, and place them into the mug/pot and swish them around. The egg shells are abrasive and should help remove those nasty stains!

- Did you know that you can also use egg shells as a calcium supplement??? Wash the shells in warm water. But don't remove the membrane (aka the strange white stuff that is still stuck to the egg). This membrane contains important nutrients that can help with arthritis. Lay the pieces on paper towels and leave them to air dry. Once the shells are thoroughly dry, break them into small pieces. Put these into a food processor or whatever you have that will grind them into a fine powder. The old fashioned way of putting them in a bag and using a rolling pin to grind them will give your arms some well needed exercise. Keep this in a covered glass in a dry cupboard. Than, put 1/2 teas of powdered egg shell into a small dish about the size of small dessert bowl (roughly 5" wide). Add the juice of half a lemon and mix well. The mixture will start to foam and bubble, this is normal. Leave the bowl at room temperature for about 6 hours. (The longer it is left, the less gritty you will find it, though leave no longer than 12 hrs)

1/2 teas of the mixture equals 400mg of normal elemental calcium. It is important to take 400mg of magnesium citrate at the same time. These two supplements should be taken together and in equal amounts. It is best to take them with foods to help the absorption rate.Three egg shells would contain roughly 5,400mg divided by 400mg = approx 13.5 doses. Take by spoonfuls, washed down by water. You will find it pleasant to taste.

- A fantastic facial cleanser! (You'll have egg on your face! :o), ok that was lame, but you get the idea!!) Mix about 2 egg yolks with about a tablespoon of water, and place on your face for about 2-3 minutes!

- Shampoo..... yeah, I said it! You can put eggs in your hair! So, if the kids get into eggs, than it's ok! It will make their hair healthy. Mix with olive oil and water. Lather into your hair, and rinse.

- Clean your leather! Jackets, couches, chairs, shoes, etc. Just use the egg whites and lather onto the leather and wipe off with a clean cloth. Gets all the grime out!!

- Pest control! Use crushed up eggshells where you have the most problems with pests, and when they crawl over it, this will tear their exoskeleton and get rid of them, in a nice way I guess.

- Different ways to cook them of course!! You can boil them, but our family prefers to steam them! We put ours in a little steam basket with boiling water. Pop the lid on the pot, and let the water boil for 15-20 minutes. We like ours a little soft, so we boil the water for about 15 minutes. Than, ROLL the egg on the counter and it should be easier to get the shell off, without losing half the egg white. But be sure to let the egg cool down!!!!

Hope you enjoyed this blog... I thought it would be different, and I was working with eggs today. Attempting to blow them out to start on our Easter craft, but it didn't work out too well. 4 blown eggs with the exception of cracking about 10 others!!! But we froze those eggs, so they won't go to waste. And soon, I'm going to start on our little garden area!!! Still thinking about putting the "garden" on top of the coop or next to it... We will see!!! Happy egging!

The Eagle

We have finally found out where our chickens are going. We've had two disappear in the past two and a half months....

Josh let our dog, Sarah, outside, and followed right behind her. She rounded the corner of the house where the coop sits. As he walked around the corner, he spotted the Eagle sitting on a naked tree, eye balling our chickens. Well, we now know where our BJG, Cheese, went last week. Darn Eagle!! If it's not our beagle, Jack, it's the eagle.

Anywho, we moved our black australorp girls to the coop where all the other chickens are. They have been in the same pen with the muscovy ducks. Henry and George (the drakes) and the 3 muscovy hens. Henry is a very special duck. When he was about 5 months old, Josh said, "Let's see if he can't fly!" He threw him up in the air, and low and behold, the darn duck can't fly... yet. Well, it seemed after that, Henry, our very sweet drake, decided to not be so sweet afterwards and decided that it was high time he learned to fly! No more than a couple weeks later, Henry was flying down to the lake with George and the girls. George, on the other hand, has always been very rude! His rudeness as rubbed off on the girls. When we got the black australorps, they came with a rooster (oh joy, I thought, more roosters.....). Well, this rooster was in the pen with the ducks for maybe 2 weeks when George decided that he was going to attack the rooster and pretty much smash him. The rooster is in quarantine right now with feather and weight loss. Unfortunately he didn't make it. He became blind and absolutely underweight. We think he got frost bite as well, from how cold it was and the drakes not allowing him into the nesting house. It sounds mean to say, but I really didn't need him in the first place... We have 4 roosters already....

Tonight we are going to have Chicken Marsala for dinner! Sounds fantastic! I've only made it one time homemade, but I'm hoping this next time it turns out a little better.... We have also put up our first item for sale on EBay!! I am VERY excited about this, although it has turned out very hard to find it on the website..... We shall see how it goes!! Just do a search for "Little Chicken" and select buy it now! You will see one of our little rhode island reds!! Well, on to doing the daily chores. I'm hoping George is going to behave himself today!

Incubation time!!

Well, the little goose eggs I put into the incubator the end of December decided not to hatch. It's a shame, but you win some and you lose some, especially when it comes to mother nature. However, I am putting in some new eggs to incubate! Some of our own, not shipped. I'm wanting to try about 6-9 eggs (ok, that really does depend on the amount of eggs I get today), and seeing what the chicks will look like! I'll put them in today, so 3 weeks from now, I'll hopefully have a posting about new baby chicks! This should work out great.

We just opened up a new Facebook page, called Picket's Ponderings. Yep, that's right!! It's named after our beautiful white rooster, Picket. I will have all kinds of give aways with the grand opening on Friday the 20th. It will be a random drawing, so keep an eye out! You might be the one to win the prize!

Well, I'm off to collect some more eggs for the incubator!! I'll take some candling pictures next Wednesday, so that we can all see how they are developing! We should have a fantastic outlook with this hatch!!! LET'S INCUBATE!!!

Chicken and Rice Soup

YUMMY!! Ok, can I say that again? Or shall I say DELICIOSO!! Ok, well here is the recipe and the steps.

Chicken and Rice Soup

1 cup of minute rice (I made mine in the microwave so I could start on other steps, make according to the direction on the box, and set aside after cooking)

9 bouillon cubes

2 quarts of water (8 cups)

2 whole chicken breasts, with skin and bones, this makes for a scrumptious broth.

Boil all of this together on med-high heat, until the chicken is no longer pink.

After the chicken is done cooking (supposed to be about 20 minutes or so, mine took longer because it was frozen), cut into cubes. It doesn't need to be perfect. Heck, you can even shred it!! Keep the water and bouillon you boiled the chicken in, you need this as your stock.

1 Carrot

1 Celery stalk

1 Onion

Onto the other half of this recipe. Dice up carrots, celery, onion, and other veggies that you like in your chicken soup. Sauté this in a skillet with about 1-2 tablespoons of butter and the diced up chicken. Just until the onions are soft and pearlescent (yep, that's what it's called when they are "see through" onions). Add all of these ingredients (minus the butter, I use a slotted spoon or a "colander" spoon to get the vegetables out) to the stock pot holding your chicken broth.

3-4 TBS butter (not margarine, you don't want pure grease, yuck!)

4 TBS flour

*~*OPTIONAL OPTIONAL OPTIONAL*~* (Did I mention this ingredient was optional??)

You can substitute the butter for about 1/2 a cup of the broth, but this does need to be thick enough to put into the soup. Not stuck to a whisk thick, but almost gravy thick, do ya know what I mean???? I used this instead of the butter, it didn't work out for me, and the broth should have enough fat in it from when you boiled the chicken.

In the same skillet, bring together 3-4 tablespoons of butter, melted, and about 4 tablespoons of flour to make a roux (a thickened butter/fat base). Get all the lumps out of the mixture. If you can't get the lumps out, pour the roux into your broth, and use a hand blender to mix it up. It doesn't need to be thick, just sort of creamy. I used my Food Network ® Immersion Blender that I got for christmas!! Thanks Mom!!! Let this boil for about 5-10 minutes just to get the taste throughout the entire stock. Last, yet not least, add your rice!!! I put a little bit of curry powder into my soup, just to give it a slight bite. And Vóila!! Soup!! Good luck and if you have ANY question, please feel free to give me a ringle or a comment!!

And I did all of this while the cat was meowing at me... now as I WRITE this, she's finally fallen asleep. Just as bad as kids!

Also, a new way to "hard boil" your eggs. I did this for Josh yesterday, and the yolks were actually softer. Take a pot of water with about 1-2 cups of water, place a steamer basket or steaming pot into/onto the pot. Gently place your eggs in/onto the steamer. Cover with a lid and allow to boil on med-low for approximately 20-25 mins. I usually do this about 23 minutes. Than take out your eggs and let cool down in a bowl of ice cold water for 15-20 minutes. Yes, I let mine cool this long, or else you risk losing half the egg in the shell. Now, when you go to take the shell off, don't just crack on the sides and start peeling. You want to make your first initial crack, and ROLL your egg on the counter, that way it cracks everywhere instead of just a few spots. This seems to make peeling a little easier and sometimes (now I didn't say EVERYTIME) makes the egg not stick to the shell.

Happy Cooking!!

TnChickHen!!!