Monkey Lobster

meet the girls

We really are liking getting to know them.

good egg, bad chicken

Those eggs are pretty special.  I've never seen hollandaise sauce quite so yellow before. Maybe it's because those chickens have been eating my baby broccoli, cabbage and overwintered spinach!!!!

They have a pretty big spot out back with lots of greens to eat and bugs to catch so I don't understand why they insist on my garden.  I have RE-PLANTED pea not twice but three times because they think it's fun to dig them up and snack on them.

The fence is pretty high and I have learned to cover the coop with bird netting so that they cannot launch themselves off the top and over the fence, but I have a very clever escape artist and then the others just follow. 

So I clipped their wings. One wing of every chicken so they are lopsided and fly crooked. I wish I had done it years ago, it was much easier than I expected. I used these directions.

So far.........................peas are finally coming up.

the art of chicken catching

Melts my heart.

preparing for pysanky

I totally get the welcoming spring with eggs thing.  Having had very few all winter long, our chickens suddenly started to lay eggs again.  We have made frittata's, pancakes, egg salad, fresh pasta, we might as well dye some.  And look at the size of those eggs!!!!! Beat that Spidey.  

For many years I have wanted to try pysanky.  This is my year, and I am ready to go.
Eggs have been blown out.
Colours are ready, and the fun part comes next.
 

new coop

So here is their new coop (a family gift from my mother, thanks mom).  And here they are at night trying to roost on top of their coop instead of in their coop where it's safe.  So far we have had to pry them off, squawking bloody murderer and place them on their roosting bar.  But they are happy in the early morn to have the outdoor space to scratch at before we get out there to let them out.

Now if I can just remember not to break the eggs in my pockets.

fox on the coop

So far we have been lucky.  Our chickens have roamed free, but the other morning we woke up to a fox standing on top of the coop.  I yelled at it through the window but it just ignored me, so I had to go outside to chase it away.  I have heard that once a fox finds them it will keep coming back.......I've read Fantastic Mr. Fox.

So they have been in their coop since, what am I to do?

broody hens and potatoes with balls

They just sit in their nests all day.  We are constantly kicking them out but they desperatly want to be mothers.  I am a little sad about it, they lay infertile eggs but they don't know that.  Some instinct has kicked in and they are tacking that job very seriously.  Maybe next year I will get a couple fertile eggs and let them give it a go.This is the first time I have grown potatoes.  A few weeks ago they had beautiful little flowers, and now they they have balls!!!!Although I have been away for most of the summer and my garden is not what I would like it to be, there are still new treasures to find every day.  Mama Amethyst left a comment on many post back about the satisfaction growing food on my own little piece of earth.  I have always thought that it was important for me, and after investing three years of my time (and compost) into this garden I am feeding my family from it. 

I still have goats, a root cellar and more fruit trees in my plans, but for now I am enjoying the fruits of my labour. 

tomatoes and eggs

What's up with these eggs?  Some are so big, others so small, and some of them look, well, constipated.  Here have a closer look.Last night we had a threat of frost, but no worries my tomatoes were warm and snug under their TunLcover.  Particularly helpful if you are trying to grow a garden in Finland.

Three Short Tales

Do bears eat chickens?  Last night as I was getting the kids ready for bed I noticed this bear playing out in my yard.  We watched her for a while out the bedroom window.  She eventually made it over to the chickens, climbed over their fence and sniffed around their coop.  At one point she ran towards them and they all scattered as we made loud noises from our window.  She got scared and ran away.

So do bears eat chickens?

 Cause for celebration!!!!!!

Cyrus  is now totally off of his anti seizure medication that he has been on for the past two years.  Although this is very exciting it has also left me a little, (O.K. a lot) on edge since he has been seizure free since he was put on the medication.

Cyrus has also started to talk a little bit.  He now calls me MAMA!!!! For a year now I have longed for him to put those two syllables together.  He also says Baba (father in Turkish), hi, up, yo-yo (yogurt), we-we (sea-weed), Bootie (you know those yummy puffs), egg, and nuts, in addition to the thirty-some
signs he uses.

 

The third tale here is pie that I feel the need to share..................................

Quick and easy skillet pot pie.  I think that every pie crust recipe should have you make enough to use and enough to freeze.  Crusts take time to make and freeze and defrost so well and are no trouble to double. 

So I started with a left over frozen crust from that pie party , cut and cooked up some onion, carrots, potatoes, peas and cooked chicken in about 1 tbs of butter.  Once cooked I threw in a handful of flour and poured about a cup of milk and stirred until it all thickened.  I topped it with the crust and baked it at 375 for about 35 minutes.  Really, all in that one skillet and just as tasty if there had been 3X as many pots to clean.

Spring eggs from the new chicken tractor

One day I will have a nature table for the kids, but for now my window sill is my very own seasonal display.  I put a pinch of soil and grass seed in these egg shells and soon they will have new green grass growing. And just like Maude "I like to watch things grow".

And here is the new chicken tractor.  I wanted a move-able coop for the girls, so they could have access to their food, water and nesting boxes while working in the garden .  We introduced them last night and so far not so good.  Chickens should roost, and they spent the night confused, on the floor of their coop.  I dreamed last night that I was trying to find an adequate roost for myself. Although their new run is three times the size as their old one, they spent the whole morning trying to escape and find a way into the old coop to nest.  One of them actually made it and laid an egg in the old nesting box.  I feel terrible, anyone have any ideas?