What to do on a wintery snowy day!

Just as I thought spring was in the air.......Grrrr.. Damn you old man winter!
So what do you do on a farm on a wintery day? Well Cleaning the coop is out! Cleaning up for spring??? Nope!!!

Ok well indoor things to do. hmmmm.... Oh! you make pickled eggs of course!!

Things you need for pickled eggs.

Eggs (fresh farm eggs of course)
Vinegar
Pickling spice
Garlic
Salt
Water
And a big ol' mason jar

Hard boil, cool and peel your farm fresh eggs and put them in your mason jar.
In a large pot mix together.

1 cup of white vinegar
1 tbsp pickling spice
1/4 cup water
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp garlic ( or more depending who you are trying to keep away)
Bring ingredients to a rolling boil.
Remove from heat and pour over eggs.
Let cool and put in the fridge for 3 days before serving.

Yum!!! My Hubby is gonna love these.

So that took a half hour.... now what?

Well I decided to hang out with my Peeps and feed them a little left over rice.

The little peeps I added to the flock seem to be doing just fine.

And Moma is still sitting

She's giving me the eye.

Well after all the fun and games , it's time for supper.

Jon and I are a big fan of quick meals, so this is one of our fav's

Bed of rice, cubed chicken breast, a can of Campbell's cream of chicken soup, broccoli,

stove top stuffing and shredded Cheddar cheese, pop it in the oven for 20 minutes.

Totally yummy!

Mission accomplished Monster's fed!

Long day over with, tomorrow starts fresh.

Maybe I'll make a tea, do a little knitting or lounge around with the Meow's!

Life is good here on the farm, even on a snowy day! 

Baking Day!!!

 Baking day at the Adams farm is really a full day. I do after all live with 3 rather large boy's and the bake goods do NOT last long. So today I decided to go a little over board.

So We started with Chocolate chip muffins. These are great because they are peanut free and a nice addition to Cody's lunch. (he's a bit picky).

                  Then I decided that maybe we needed some cookies for home and lunches.

Soooo.... I made double chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter for my hubby. (he just likes to eat the dough and most of the time, if he is home the dough never makes it to being cookies. lol!)

I was on a roll and decided to just keep it going.

next, I did cinnamon rolls, which are another of my Hubby's favourite.

These turned out great! add a bit of butter and they are heavenly!

Jon wasn't home when they came out of the oven, what can I say!!! They were calling my name.

Well once the house was smelling sweet and yummy, I thought about what else I needed to make to keep my monsters bellies full.

Bread! They love bread!

Cody will eat just bread all day if I let him, no butter or any kind of spread, just bread.

White bread for sandwiches and traditional Scottish buttermilk bread, for me

to munch on while baking up a storm.

Fresh cornbread, just cause it's pretty yummy and it seems right to have in this old farm house.

While in my baking frenzy, I happen to run out of eggs....I know right!

How does a chicken farmer run out of eggs?

Well again, it happens to go right back to the hungry monsters that dwell in this old farmhouse.

So I had to run out to the coop and rob the eggs right out from under the hen's. As you can imagine there was a lot of grief and clucking, but in the end she gave up 2 eggs.

 After swiping a few more eggs, the rest of the crew tried to escape for a little fresh air.

Here comes the big guy!

Hey! no one invited you guys out here!!

So after chasing them back into their pen.

Back to baking.

French crust bread to eat with soup's and stew's or pasta.

                                                     And last but certainly not least!

Braided egg bread..... my favourite!!!!

So the kitchen counters are full of yummy treats to fill the bellies of rotten monsters that always seem to say...."Mom there's nothing to eat, can you make me something, I'm staving." Even though they get 3 big meals a day and snacks in between.

And now I have the afternoon to lay back and be lazy!

Maybe knit a bit. That's not to say that I wont here every 5 min.... Mom... Come see this! Look what I did in my game. lol Oh well!

 Update!!

Our Broody little Hen is doing great!

She is still sitting, she's doing well.

We have given her food and water but we are not really sure

If she is eating very much

But she seems to be doing fine.

This being a leap year the chicks should hatch on the 29th of  February

We will keep you posted.

                                                               

Maybe spring is almost here!!!

When out in the coop the other day, we noticed one of our hens sitting in her nest. It's not uncommon, however when we went back in that evening she was still on her nest! Jon decided to see what she would do if we put more eggs under her and with a few clucks and growls, Jon placed 4 more eggs under her. It worked! She has been rendered BROODY!!! She hasn't moved, not to drink or eat, which worries me a bit but perhaps she thinks its to cold right now and will continue to drink and eat once it warms up again. The weather looks good for the rest of the week and we are hoping all goes well for her.

Sweet little thing!! Can't wait to see little peeps sneaking a peek out from under Mom!

In the mean time Proud Papa and I still can't see eye to eye. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure he has it out for me. He wont let me in the pen to change their water or feed them, soooo.... Jon get the privilege of taking care of that pen. He chases me every chance he gets. and gives me the look of death from the roost when I'm in the Orp pen. I hope we will get along better and I wont have to run out of the pen screaming and kicking the door shut in his face and listen to him kick and scratch the door on the other side once he starts to get to go outside. Until then, Him and I...mortal enemies lol! Who'd a thunk I would be saying that about a Rooster! When I took this picture, I had to open the door and put the garbage bin in the door way to prevent him from coming at me. I know it sounds silly but he can be quite persistent and mean. He is after all pretty big at 10 lbs, and those claws.... Yikes!!!

Well here he is before he charged the door, giving me the old stink eye!

The Orpingtons have had their pen scraped down to cement and freshened up.

They seem to be very happy with it. With the weather being warm and cold so quickly, it was getting damp in there and we all know what that leads to.

So on the weekend, my wonderful Hubby and I cleaned it up. As you can imagine they were very helpful!

 We just added two little guys to this flock and they seem to be doing fine.They get a little peck here and ther from the big girls but they do have to learn their place.

By the time spring is officially here we should have close to 60 Orpingtons in our flock and

30 Chanteclers to boast about, not to mention the other eggs being collected to be placed in the bator.

Our Broody hen is sitting on eight pretty little eggs as we speak. I guess we will see if she manages to do anything with them. Here's hoping! They will be due at the end of February, I'll keep up to date and post as much as I can on her progress.

Cross your fingers everyone!

                                           

Can't wait for spring!!!

Well as the weather goes up and down , cold and warm, it just makes me feel the need more and more to plan for everything that needs to be done this spring. Planning for more pens to expand the coop. Building runs, planting all the gardens, getting ready for the poultry auctions and shows. We are thinking about building a whole new separate coop as well. (Sigh) Ever feel like the so much to do and you just don't have enough hands or time???
Well luckily for me I have a husband who is not just willing to do all this crazy stuff with me but loves the time together and I have friends who are more than happy to help. So the planning begins.

                            In the meantime, we have 42 more eggs in our little bator.

             I just never get tired of seeing those little critters. I am a hatch o holic after all.
                 24 little chanties and probably about 10 to 12 orpingtons running around.

inside brooder

                                                               


                                                              sun room brooder

                                                               sun room                                                                                                                                                                


                          Not to mention the main flock.The eggs just keep on coming....

                                                        
                                                    and the cats just love to help.

So that's all that's up at the farm!

Tomorrow we clean the coops and spend the afternoon

BAKING!!

I'll add the recipes as I go!