Saturday BlogRoll call

The Laughorist comes to us from Pawlie Kokonuts. This is a smart, funny blog about mundane {and not so} things.

To Love Honor and dismay is a question and answer blog from Dr. Andrew. Got a relationship problem, ask the Doctor and his readers for a solution.

The New Homemaker. This is lynn S' Blog and website. Lots of useful links and discussions going on over there. A must read.

Wheel is a daily blog from another Kansas gal, abbagirl74.

Enjoy your blog surfering. I have to brave the cold and do some work. My husband came home last night and told me he bought my birthday present. He is going to bring it home today because I need it soon. {My birthday is at the end of this month} I'm guessing it's something for Thanksgiving. I'll let you know.

Where should we feed the cat this time?

Yesterday morning, I was out feeding the animals and peeked in on Mother Hen. I saw the tip of a beak sticking out from under her wing. I was very excited, but didn't bother them because I had to go into the city.

Once I got back home though, I ran out to the barn to see what type of chick I had this time. I was surprised to find 2 hatchlings! One out of a brown egg, one out of a green {Mother hen pushed a bannie egg away from her, dead egg} How exciting!
Here is Mother Hen and her new chicks. She is trying to herd them away from me, which is a good sign. We had worried that they might not be eating or drinking, but it looks like that not only is she a good sitter, but a good mother as well.
She is still sitting on a couple of eggs. She herded the chicks away from me, then tried to gather the eggs back under her in the new spot.

Now that we {or actually Mother Hen} have successfully hatched out eggs, now let's see if we can get them to reach maturity.

The weather is still wacky. The high today will be 30 degrees less than yesterday. This hasn't been an Indian summer, at least we don't consider it that because of the freeze we had to deal with. This is a late ending swing season, we have to be on the look out for massive storms.

We also got our propane tank filled. $1.85 US a gallon. Much better than last year at this time, $1.99 US a gallon. We ordered a full tank, which turned out to be almost 400 gallons. That should last us 6 months, longer if it stays this warm.

I am NOT making meth

Rice flour is not something you can find in any grocer. Don't let those food writers fool you. I have looked for rice flour, I really feel the need to make tempura. But alas! I can't find it, so had to make it myself.

It wasn't that hard to do, simple soaking of rice {overnight}. Straining and reserving water, putting the rice and some of the water through a blender, than pressing it for a few hours to allow the water to drain.


My husband came home from work and spotted this in the sink.
You making meth? Trying to get some extra Christmas money? It's not meth! You could have smelled it down the block if it was. Of course he just smiled at me.

The almost finished project as of this morning. It is still drying out to be stored until I am ready to use it.

It was 87F {30c} yesterday. What happened to the 25F {-3c} we were having? I couldn't enjoy the weather, actually I was a little ticked. The freeze killed all my plants so there was nothing in the garden to enjoy the warm weather. We cleaned the yard, preparing for snow that might never come, too hot in the house to do much inside {the house is ready for winter, not like I could open a window.}

Peanuts

We planted our peanuts at the same time as our sweet potatoes. They need a soil temp of 70f. They were Virginia Peanuts, the large ones that are sold for snacking.

Last year we had a decent crop, and seed saved for this year. Unfortunately, this crop didn't do as well. We have talked about heading over to the sand pit that's a few miles down the road and buying some sand for the garden. That will help several of our plants be more successful.

We are just going to eat these and re-buy peanuts for next spring.

I have two articles out in this months All Foods Natural newsletter, and one just happens to be on Thanksgiving. D-day for our turkey is November 20th, I will warn everyone that I will be posting about our first turkey slaughter on the 20th, and post it on the 21st. {So those that want to avoid it, can. }

My husband and I have sat down and wrote out what we normally have for Thanksgiving dinner. With the 100 mile Thanksgiving Challenge, we have discovered that we have just about everything that we need here, the only things we don't, are coffee, sugar, and chocolate. We can live without the chocolate pie, but coffee. . . we need to figure something out or we will have a very grumpy day.

Any one else taking the 100 mile Thanksgiving Challenge? How are your menu plans coming along?

Don't forget to vote my US friends!

I have what feels like a decent sized migraine coming on. I have no idea what triggered it, maybe the excitement over finally waking up and not having the teens out front. I found where they were getting out at, and sealed it up. I didn't have to sit out all morning to do it either. They are a brazen bunch.

I have done my research, and think I know who is pro-NAIS and who is sitting on the fence. Not one person{here} running for an office is anti-NAIS, makes me have so much hope for the future. I have also ran into the problem of, this one is on the fence about NAIS but is against something else that I feel is important, yet the pro-NAIS is pro this other issue. ~sigh~ My husband is taking off work early so this afternoon so we can go vote.

It happens I guess

I was going to forget the whole thing, not even mention it. But then I realized, it's all part of it, so I should share.

Yesterday my husband was in the barn, hanging herbs for drying, while I was on the other side of the barn cleaning out the goat pen when I found half an egg shell. Normally I would have ignored it and tossed it in with the straw I was pulling out, instead I picked it up and saw that the inside had this white, dry skin in it. I called my husband over to look at it. You think Mother hen hatched one out? I asked, he thought it looked that way. Mother Hen is one of our bannies, she had taken up nesting in the goat pen. My husband and I stood there listening, and we heard it. I bent down to sooth Mother hen, and she went all rooster on me, hissing and puffing up, threatening to take my eyes, I managed to get my hand under her wing, and there it was. We have our first homestead hatched chick!As it has been getting below freezing, and the fact the Mother hen does not want to go into the coop, where she would be safer from predators, we thought it best to bring the little guy inside. Mother Hen is so determined to sit on the remaining 6 eggs {2 green, 2 brown, 2 bannie} that we weren't sure if she was getting the chick to food and water. We brought the chick, who was hatched out of a standard size brown egg, into the house. Setting up a quick box brooder with shredded paper, a waterer and some food. We hung a heat lamp over the top. My boys were thrilled about it.

With all the chicks we have brooded inside, we have never had a problem like this one. At 2 am I hear my husband hitting the floor, I jumped up wondering what had happened. GARFIELD! Then me cursing and spring over my husband off the bed. I chased the cat through the house, and caught up with him in my youngest sons room, under the bed. The chick was dead.

More cursing, and disposing off our first homestead hatched chick. We have never had this problem before. The cats had always stayed clear of the chicks. Maybe because it was solitary? I don't know, I only know I am not happy. My husband says he will go about building a caged brooder so this won't happen again.