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State of the pantry:

• 9 pints sweet and sour pickles
• 4 quarts hot dill pickles
• 20 quarts tomato sauce
• 3 quarts + 15 pints corn and tomato soup
• 16 half-pints+ 1 pint salsa
• 2 4-oz of hot peppers (mostly jalapenos, some hot cherry, some habanero)
• 2 pints + 2 quarts tomato vegetable soup
• 12 half-pints + 3 cups cinnamon/nutmeg applesauce
• 10 quarts grape juice (refrigerated but not canned–we’ll drink it all pretty quickly :)

This represents about half the total food we canned–my mom took about the same amounts of the tomato sauce, soups, salsa, peppers, and applesauce as are listed above. We also gave a few cans away. We would have had more pickles, but the crock pickles went bad–probably too many cukes for too little brine.

Now I just have to figure out where to store it (small house, no basement, everywhere else freezes in winter). :) Yay, maybe I can get more computer stuff done; we’ve been canning almost every weekend from the beginning of August until now.

It falls quickly for guinea keets. (meanwhile Blanco/a gets cuter).

The incredible bearded women:

Guess what?

Another canning weekend. My mom and I did 14 quarts of spaghetti sauce. With any luck we’ll get that much more from her garden, then maybe we’ll buy tomatoes locally to do salsa.

This is our new rooster, Negra Modelo (or Sr. Modelo, or Macey). He is an Ameraucana, born earlier this year. We got him from the Klossners. He spends a lot of time stalking hens, grabbing them by the tail and then quickly jumping on them before Red comes over and knocks him off. We have him penned separately until Red stops attacking him on sight. He’s a really pretty boy; sure hope he works out OK.

We’ve been spending a lot of time trying to convince the chickens to go home to the new coop at night. They are conditioned to go to the old coop at nightfall, and it’s hard to break habits. Two nights ago we got all but 3 hens and Negra, then today it was just Negra (who had to be lured into the coop storage area using a hen).

At least two of the baby guineas are ker-plonking (hens). Whew. We’re still not sure if the white Ameraucana baby is a pullet or a cockerel; it acts kinda cock-ish.

Moving has not affected egg production. We have over 7 dozen in the fridge. Phil better get his ass over here or I’m going to have to distribute them at work.

The first tomatoes came in this week which means we started canning (although we did do a couple of batches of pickles already). This time it was Corn and Tomato Soup; soon we will be doing tomato sauce, salsa, peppers, and other tomato and pepper variations. Our crock pickles were a disaster; probably too many cucumbers and too little brine, so they went moldy. Oh well, maybe next year. Our cucumber vines had some kind of blight so we didn’t get many anyway.

The little birds made it into the new coop first. See that triangle at the top? They managed to fly up there and escape to the main coop two nights in a row (8 feet up). Today I put some mesh up there, for their own protection.

We had to transfer them one at a time from the old coop to the new one. We’re keeping them in for a few days, until hopefully they won’t go to the empty coop anymore.

Or not so empty, because later this week we’ll be picking up another rooster (and possibly a couple of hens) from jkk. Which will bring the total to 26-28 birds (depending on hens).

This little dudette didn’t make it. She never really ate properly and petered out on Friday night.

One of the keets isn’t looking so good, either; is eating ok but having a great deal of trouble at the other end. It spends a lot of time under the heat lamp. The other chicks and keets are quickly outgrowing it. Poor thing is all dirty; we keep cleaning it, it keeps pooping itself. It does seem to like blow driers; after one cleanup effort it stood on the palm of my hand while I dried it, and it didn’t even try to run away. Hopefully it will either correct itself or expire on its own; the alternative is no fun.

I say ‘it’ because keets are not vent sexable and thus ‘it’ to us until they start making ‘buck-wheat!’ noises (or not) in about 7 weeks.

The remaining 5 chicks are 90% certain to be pullets (hens), although I’m having my doubts about the little yellow one.

Invisubul corn plant? Or, chick high by the fourth of July.

all arrived OK, although we think one of the Ameraucanas might not make it (she is not digesting food well). Also, it’s really weird going to the post office and picking up live animals. That image link goes to the gallery where there are like a hojilion new pictures, some of which are video.

It’s not enough that the Japanese make great tractors, they have to make them look Japanese, too. :)

The Pixar folks got Frank the Combine SO right.

Finished painting. Now if only we could find someone who does blown-in foam insulation and who would actually call back. None of the interior work can start til we get that done.

Unfortunately, we lost Squeak last Friday to unknown causes. She had been under the weather for a few weeks; tried mite dusting, yogurt, and keeping her in a quite spot, but to no avail. I had been just about to start getting her broody to raise the chicks we have coming in 2 weeks. I’m hoping we can get the silkies to do it instead; otherwise it will be heat lamps and the kiddie pool again.

We ordered a new tractor today, a Kubota L5740, a mid-size one. No cab, because we will be attaching a backhoe. Also ordered a front bucket and a 6′ bush hog (larger won’t fit through the woods). 0% financing, although it’s a bit disconcerting taking on debt again, especially as it cost way more than our car. Rather than paying it off fast, we’ll probably make payments and put extra in a high interest savings account every month.

Yet another sign we are hicks. Rusty pickup truck, riding mower, commercial mower, tractor, chickens, guns, and having gone to the emergency room with a chicken-related injury. And we once used an old toilet as a planter in the yard. Window air conditioners (not our fault–no basement, no duct work). OK, not the Subaru. And the fact that our new chicken coop is nicer than most third-world human housing. Not the servers and vanity domains, or the complicated a/v setup. Tacky lawn kitsch…could go either way. But here’s the thing. My boss has a barky dog and he got an anonymous letter from a neighbor in his mailbox about it. Here, nobody can either hear or see whatever annoying or eccentric thing we chose to do. I can no longer even fathom living somewhere where we’d be in a position to annoy neighbors, nor do I want to.

Dude, I can’t wait to drive that tractor around. Seriously.

Also, check out the Squidbillies art! Deerbait and Moon #1.

-epe

The Spore folks reconsidered after a lot of bad press and complaints. So, our pre-orders are back on!

The new John Williams score for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is out. How can an 80’s kid possibly resist?

Not to mention a Richard Cheese-ified version of the Indiana Jones theme on Itunes (Plus, so no DRM, if I read the fine print properly).

Baby chicks–Ameraucanas– (and keets–pied) should be here by June 27th or 28th. With any luck the coop will be mostly done, if we can find someone who can blow in insulation before then. If we’re super super lucky, we will get Squeak and the silkies to raise them.

Icky’s on chemo. So far so good, but he can’t have any doggie visitors for awhile. We still aren’t exactly sure what’s wrong with Cupcake’s liver and lipomas, but she goes in for more work on Thursday.

-epe

Coop II work continues. I feel queasy thinking about all the inside work that has to be done before we can get chickens in (insulation, wallboard, plastic sheeting, nestboxes, chicken dooors…) We’re hoping for more Ameraucanas and some pied Guineas this year.

Icky starts chemotherapy this week. He’ll be on Chlorambucil and Prednisone.

New coop project is finally of the ground. Had the neighbor from San Diego up to do the foundation and brick work. (Yes he’s a neighbor and yes he lives in San Diego… <(^.^)> )

Pictures so far are here:

http://erkkila.org/gallery2/v/Projects/ChickenCoop2/

Make sure you check out the cement truck :)

-pee

We used to worry that we didn’t have enough space in the chicken coop for 18 chickens. Apparently there isn’t (64 sq feet), and the way they’ve chosen to remedy the situation is by having chicken cage match fights every night.

First one Rhode Island Red turned up with a bare, bleeding rear. We put her in a cage in the barn. Next day we noticed another one, so we set up a little pen in a kiddie pool in the barn. Not a big deal; last year every one of our hens and the rooster ended up with bare spots. At least there are two so they can snuggle together when it’s cold.

Next one of the silkie hens turned up with bloody peck marks and tears all over her back. She was starting to moult anyway, so we moved her into a large guinea pig cage in the house. She is VERY quiet for a chicken and managed not to stink up the house like Squeak’s been known to. We were ready to let her stick it out another month until her feathers came in.

But then, yesterday, Squeak was making weird neck motions as if she’d been injured. We figured the silkie hen was healed at least, so we swapped them.

This afternoon we went out to check and as we opened the coop door, only 4 silkies hopped out. The moulting hen was nowhere to be found. We feared that the others had killed her and covered her with litter (not intentionally; they do a lot of digging and scratching during the day). Then we heard some plaintive ‘buck, buck buck’ing coming from somewhere inside the coop. We have the waterer on 4 hollow cinder blocks set tall-wise…this little chicken had managed to wedge her way INTO one. When we extracted her from the block, we saw why, or perhaps saw a result of her wedging in head-first…her entire tail and back end feathers were picked almost completely off and most of her back end was torn skin! Paul had to make a quick run to Country Max to buy another cage…we now have a chicken duplex in the kitchen. Now get this. While I’m home waiting for the cage, I put the silkie in with Squeak. That ‘poor’ silkie pecked Squeak 2 or 3 times! There is no empathy in avian society.

At this rate we’re going to blow our coop budget on 18 individual cages or pens. WTF?

The cookies keep on coming. My mom made gingerbread men (don’t have the recipe for that, maybe eventually I’ll add it) and I made a bunch of Bonbon Cookies. Mom had to make a bunch more of the Chocolate Marzipan Pinwheels and chocolate-dipped stars (Again, linked recipe is not the actual cookies made, which were from a Mrs. Fields book; but it’s similar. I’ll get around to adding the Mrs. Fields one, I hope).

Yesterday I also prepped Good Eats Beef Stew for today when Scott and Jenna and EJ visit; also am working on a pot of soup in case they wanted lunch (probably not, but it will certainly work for my lunch :).

I love having time off; finally time to cook and bake.

Today:

Walked 1 hour.

Mom started ahead of time with Chocolate Dipped Stars. (Come to think of it, I don’t think she used that recipe, I think she used the Mrs. Fields recipe but I don’t have it in front of me right now).

Then we did the dough for:

• Ribbon Cookies
• Chocolate Marzipan Pinwheels
• Nutmeg Logs

Went home. Fed and walked dogs. Fed chickens. Cooked nutmeg logs and just barely finished in time to take Grep to the vet. While mom stayed at our house and cookied the pinwheels, Paul and I bought chicken feed, a small waterer and feeder for Squeak, peanut hearts for chickens, and rawhide for the dogs, gassed up the truck, and picked up a box from the post office. Went home. Helped mom dip stars and a few pinwheels in chocolate at her house. Went home and baked Ribbon Cookies. Ate leftover lasagna standing up in kitchen. Typed cookie recipes into wiki. Did this blog entry.

Imminent collapse. Putting off the Christmas cards.

What we’ve been doing for the past week and a half. Pergo, wall painting, new rug.

This is what a morning walk in December should look like.

The mutant pointsettia from Lowe’s. This is ONE plant.

After years of attempting to dry hot peppers by stringing and hanging them in the loft, we decided this year to go with a more reliable method. Lately it’s been staying warmer longer into the fall and thus the heat isn’t on as much, thus making conditions less favorable for drying…which means we’re lucky if half the peppers are in decent shape when it’s time to use them. Either they turn brown, or they mold, or they just look not so nice; especially the habaneros, which are very likely to mold. So we decided to pick up a dehydrator. A piece of advice…if you’re drying a huge batch of habaneros and jalapenos, you might want to put the dehydrator out on the porch or outside, if possible. Fortunately Pee suggested this ahead of time…our porch is now suffused with a powerful mace-like stench. But a few peeks have verified they’re all drying nicely (cut in half, but so far they’re holding their color nicely). I should try fruit leather next and see if it ends up with a peppery flavor; that sounds so good I might throw a jalapeno in the blender with the fruit!

We have a contractor (Mike Means) up doing some clearing work on the field north of the house, every time he finishes for the day we scurry out and review the damage to mother nature while cackling gleefully. He’s done a great job so far I’m anxious to see the results once we collect/burn off all the scrub and get some grasses planted. I’m looking to find some more or less native, deep rooted grasses to plan there under the remaining trees, then get mowing down to 2-3 times a year with a brush hog for the majority of it. Watching the big front shovel with a “thumb” attachment is mesmerizing.

The 5-6 grape vines we marginally take care of delivered a whopper of a crop this year, Erica and her mom spent the weekend making jelly (or grape sauce if it doesn’t set up!) and juice. The juice is incredibly tasty by itself, but my preference is to mix it 1/2 and 1/2 with some diet orange sunkist.

Found an old steal/iron cap on what looks like a well/spring head down in the western ravine this weekend, uncovered it while cutting a few cherries back so we could get the brush mower through it. I have no idea what it really is or what to make of it. I think it’s relatively new though, or at least repaired recently.

We kicked squeak off her golf ball about a week ago, 3 months being broody is quite enough. The other chickens are kicking the crap out of her, but other then the pecking order working it self out she’s looking much better. One sure sign is that here comb (the wiggly bit on the top of a chickens head) goes from a pale while/pink to a glowing red as she spends more time being active a chicken type things. I also claim that it grows bigger, but the jury is out on that.

Today is, besides being Grep’s 12th birthday, also the hatch date for our second set of chickens from last year. Unfortunately, our favorite, Beardo, didn’t quite make it; she got taken, probably by a fox, on Monday the 23rd. :( We were too complacent since all previous attacks had been in the afternoon; this time it was at 7:40 am and all I found was a pile of feathers near the barn. Of course, Pee was out of town so I feel guilty.

We have not had terrific luck with birds. Of 37 we’ve had in the past year or so, we lost 19 to predators (mostly fox/dog/coyote, 1 to hawk), 3 to illness (all guinea fowl), had to kill one rooster for people aggression, and we have 14 left alive. We nearly lost a silkie hen to a hawk the other day, if the silkie roosters hadn’t come along and kicked its ass.

At least we get to watch Ellie the IG this weekend!

Inspired by Stupid Creatures I’ve been thinking about making a few sock creatures. This one I called Zagmund and gave to my friend Michelle for her birthday.

Here’s a polar bear in a miniskirt (click for more pictures). Not too monstery.

ob.chicken:
Squeak after a bath. Her back is all ripped up so she’s still in the house. With hers, 7 eggs today, yay! (6 yesterday, 7 the day before…)

And, of course, Rochester Small Dog Playgroup pictures from yesterday. We had a 10 IG day!

They’re here. And I think I already pulled something in my back while laying down wood chips and straw.

jkk: ‘The Taj Mahal of chicken coops’