Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Duck egg?


The girls found and extra large egg yesterday. On the left is a white egg from either Sonja (Blue Andalusian) or Heather (brown leghorn) who just started laying in the last week or so. In the middle is an egg from Alice the Ameraucana.

Could this be the first egg from Harley on the right? Hubby and the girls looked it up and he insists that Welsh Harlequin ducks lay cream colored eggs, but I am not sure.

Juju says we should make brownies to test it.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Thanksgiving

It was a quiet (and warm) day here. We had a couple neighbors over for a shared meal. While preparing food I thought about where the food came from.

1. chicken raised by us
2. pickles, cucumbers grown by a neighbor & canned by me
3. butternut squash grown by a neighbor
4. pumpkin for pie from the museum (sweetened with local honey)
5. raspberry chipolte jam made from homegrown raspberries by a friend
6. all eggs used from our hens

All else from the grocery store and Costco.

Hmm.

Thanksgiving was a traditional harvest festival adopted to focus on early pioneers not starving to death. I would like to have it be a harvest festival for us also. I want us to appreciate the work involved in feeding ourselves.

The girls proudly told our guests the name of the chicken we were eating (Quesadilla). Juju made the biscuits we served herself, and Mesha helped with the chocolate mousse pie.

I have 2012's goal.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Loss


Cadbury was gone this morning.

I found the cage open when I went to feed him.

We don't know if someone left the door open, or he jiggled it until the latch slid (as he has done in the past) but he was neither under the shop or the deck - his usual hiding spots.

Mesha briefly mourned before asking "Can we get a girl and boy rabbit now and eat the babies?"

I guess sometime in the last year he had moved in her mind from pet to possible breeding livestock.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Saturday Night at our home

We are partial to post apocalyptic movies. Currently we are watching both seasons of Jeremiah on Netflix. Any idle screen time I try to spend knitting. At least I know that if electricity becomes unavailable we can huddle up in our sweaters.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Knitting project

Although this will not be posted until after Christmas, this project is the coolest thing I have ever done.

After I had moved out to be the city girl in college, my little brother had sheep. I don't remember them much. I remember one was named Wilma. That there was a little brown one (that I have found out since was my mother's) I remember hearing about hoof rot, and needing more bedding hay. But to a neo-urban princess, this was all background noise.

The sheep were sheared, as sheep usually are, and mom and dad found themselves with bags of wool. They were cleaned and carded and stored until a time they could be used.

And they were stored.

The sheep were sold, my brother graduated from high school.

The wool continued to wait.

My family moved across country to Minnesota.

And stored some more.

My father died and the wool went with my mother to her new house.

And the wool was stored again. Some was given away I am told.

My brother is now 36. For 20 or so years Mom has had this part of his history. He is now a urban man, he has no interest in gardening. I suspect that he only does major yard work if it will improve his property value. Spends his days in an office, his evenings with friends. I cannot imagine him with livestock of any kind. I am quite sure he shakes his head when he reads my posts, possibly trying to figure out how, exactly, we could have the same parents.

This summer, Mom had the wool spun. It had to be reprocessed first, but I have a grocery bag of yarn, of which I am making an afghan. I need to have 9-12 patchwork squares done. I have 3 done.

The beauty of this project nearly makes me cry.