1st egg!

It is no surprise to us that Tweety is once again ahead of the class.

Weekend plans

Tonight I am reading a book about growing wheat in your backyard. And listening to Skinny Puppy.

Strangely, for me, it works.

the bunkhouse

Top L-R . . . Mina, Daffodil & Tweety

Bottom L to R . . . Jane Doe & Shelly

First snow

NOTE:These photos are from today and a couple days ago.

Well, we skipped the whole fall foliage part of the season - The streets are covered with green leaves. The shrub by the back door will probably hold its frozen green leaves until spring.







The girls are quite put out. Tweety and Jane were very vocal on where they were choosing to place the blame for this turn of events. All of them stood in the doorway for about 20 minutes. I passified them with warm breakfast of corn and oatmeal. But they were still squawky for the entire morning.






This is the wire cover to the hen yard. It should melt this afternoon or else I will have to knock it down so it won't collapse. But from the upstairs window it looks like a white roof.











After spending the night accidentally locked in the garage, Butters was also unimpressed by the icy ground. He spends a lot of the time in the chicken run - trying to catch one of squirrels that are always after the veggies etc we toss in. He is of yet unsuccessful, but I expect to see one laid out on the back step before spring.

bake off

Today I started with a dozen duck eggs.

Now I have chocolate chip cookies, lemon ginger zucchini bread, apple raisin bread, and banana bread. And a completely trashed kitchen.

The weather is wet, as it has been for most of the last week. So it was the perfect day to test the egg theory.

All the bread came out denser, the cookies came out too crispy for my taste.

I should probably test again. Just to make sure.

Also I have cider in the percolator and apple rings in the dehydrator. I acquired 2 bushels of apples this weekend with the time honored question - "You gonna finish that?" Well it was a little more involved than that (but not much)

Mad as A . . .

It feels like I should be building an ark.

I'm so glad hubby built the chicken house on legs - cause under it is where they have been hanging out all day. I have the heat lamp on inside - not because I think it is cold, but I want them to be able to dry out before going to sleep.

I put down new straw today - good thing, because there is puddles in their yard now, without the extra layer it may have been a lake. The one bale I didn't have encased in plastic is sprouting.

Where was this weather during the growing season?

Duck egg baking

So I will admit to taking the easy way out.

I baked 2 batches of brownie mix brownies. Both baked in a glass pan, put in a cold oven and baked at 325 for 1hour.

verdict.

The chicken egg batch was its usual gooey brownie goodness. Even the next day (which is as long as they last around here).

The duck egg batch was firmer, dense and chewy. And, superior in satisfaction.

I think I need to test with another, from scratch, recipe - Just to make sure