The long winter recipe

I started reading The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder to Rhiannon last month.  As soon as we read the chapter about Ma baking a green pumpkin pie she begged to make one. 

I had expected this reaction, having made more than a few recipes from the Laura Ingalls Wilder cookbook myself over the years. 

So back in September, when harvesting our pumpkins I peeled and sliced a small green pumpkin, seasoned out like an apple pie & froze it.

Tonight we finally made it. 

 I told her she could eat it for breakfast. (After all, Almanzo ate pie for breakfast in Farmer Boy)

Two Peas

All of our pea seeds are old, and I guess it was inevitable that not all of them were viable.  Of the two rows planted in April, only 2 came up.  Rhiannon helped plant them while I transplanted celery into the raised bed in the backyard.

We were going to go to the Ppatch this morning, however sleeping in is what happened (7:30!)  So now the plan is for after dinner.

Toasty warm inside

It had been snowing most of the day.  The chickens were alternately crowding into the coop or huddling up to the house.  The kale, I am sure, is frozen with the other greens under the white blanket.  Only Riley was truly thrilled.

After dinner Rhiannon asked if I would build a fire.  I told her yes, if she would bring in an armload of wood from outside.  In a blink she had on boots a coat and mittens and headed out to the small woodpile off the back porch.  Soon she was in again with 4 small logs and Riley right behind her carrying a 5th.  I put them on the rack and she was outside again in a shot, Riley again behind her.  She brought in a second armload but did not pause to see the already roaring fire and went back outside.

She did not come in right away so I went out to check.  She was filling the small green wagon with logs.  When full she pulled it the 8 feet closer to the steps and started unloading it.  Bemused I opened the door for her and stacked each piece in the rack.  Thinking all the while that I had the role of Carrie in On the Banks of Plum Creek when Laura and Mary are bringing in wood during a snowstorm.

They brought in all the wood.

I think Rhiannon would have too.  She was rosy cheeked and grinning as she loaded her second wagon with split logs.  But it was close to her bedtime so I told her to leave that one by the back steps.

Her father asked her why she brought in so much more wood than was asked.

Log rack after Rhiannon brought in wood.

"Well, it will come in handy if we get a snowstorm or zombie apocalypse." she answered in that oh so serious tone of an 8 year old.

I can't really argue with that.

My tub floweth over

This morning the girls and made the trip to Kiowa to pick up 4 chicks. 

It didn't work out quite like that.

We picked up the 2 Welsummers,  layers of dark brown eggs to replace Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum (Cuckoo Marans)  I admit some hesitancy in this as they do have a reputation of being loud.  But they are also colorful and new to us.

Also on hold were 2 Iowa Blue chicks.  These I picked because I had never heard of them before. Their heritage is mostly unknown but the story is good.

The Iowa Blue was developed in the early 1900's near Decorah, Iowa.  A folk legend tells the story of a white Plymouth Rock hen emerging from under a building with a clutch of chicks colored solid chestnut to striped.  Old-timers tell the tale that the chicks were sired by a pheasant.  With its plucky attitude and proud carriage, the Iowa Blue is a dual-purpose homesteader chicken, known to be an excellent forager.  Hens will go broody, exhibiting good maternal characteristics.  Though very aware of their surroundings in a free-range situation, the breed is fairly docile and not particularly flighty.  (Quoted from the Iowa Blue Chicken Club)

They are also supposed to be a smaller hen, not quite a bantam, but with the 2 bantam cochin frizzle roosters . . .

Honestly that was all I was planning to pick up.  I do want a couple new Amerucanas to round out our color selection, but I was going to wait until the local feed store got theirs in.

Then Mesha saw this chick:

She announced (to the amusement of the people working) that she had 3 weeks of  allowance with her and she wanted her own chicks.


This one is a Silver Campine.  It is the most colorful chick I have ever seen.  Under its wings it is patterned similar to a Bengel cat.  She also picked out a black cochin.



Then Juju found the buff bantam silkies.  To be fair, last January she used her allowance to purchase chicks and I bought 2 for her sister.  Turnabout seemed fair.



Chris had mentioned he would like Brahma hen.  They happened to have them in the Elizabeth store so we stopped there on the way home.  We picked up 2 buff Brahmas, 2 black giants (not sure what makes them different that the Jersey giants but they were 50¢ cheaper) and 2 Golden comets.

With the 3 pullets we got earlier there are 17 chicks living in the guest room bathtub.

I do not plan to keep them all.  But I plan on losing some to cats, dog, or carelessness.  Others I will trade (in theory) for meat rabbits.  The rest will go to the poultry swap in June or July.

Yeah, that's the plan.

foxes

Last night after dinner Hubby sent Mesha out to gather eggs.  We have a red light on inside the coop at night now and they are back to laying 4-6 a day.  She skipped out in her knee high converse shoes with all kinds of plans to hold her 2 large fluffy cochins before coming in again.

A few minutes later there was a high pitched scream.

Hubby and Juju headed to the back door in a rush.

The scream continued.

Mesha came running in sobbing, her shirt front full of the eggs.  An animal had meowed at her, she told them after a few minutes, but it didn't sound like a house cat.  It was kind of a bark too.  And the chicken door was still unlocked.  "I wanted to drop the eggs and run, but I didn't, I didn't break one" she said sniffling proudly checking her impromptu egg basket.

Hubby went outside and locked the hens up.  There was no sign of an animal, but he heard the dogs nearby start barking.

He snuggled with her on the couch and told her she had startled a fox, and it had done its strange & eerie bark in return before taking off through the neighborhood.

We see foxes a lot in the area.  There was a den across the street under Miss Vicky's deck until this year.  We see them running down the street and jumping easily over the six foot fences in the alley.  But we don't have a rabbit problem, and see very few mice.  I would rather have them in the neighborhood than either rodents or the deer I hear people complain about.  They are an important part of the food chain.

Mostly we are happy to see them.  But watching local wildlife from 50 feet away is quite different then having them spook you in your back yard.  They have been quite interested in our livestock since we moved the ducks to the back corner of the property.  But other than losing one quail, we had not known they "hung out".

This is why farms have watch dogs for their flocks I guess.

Maybe Juju should have named them Mutt & Jeff