(almost) wordless.

Muscadines.

Hen-brained

Our chickens are flipping nuts. Pancake chicken went broody in February (January? Too tired to search through the archives here...) and started this whole mess. We have had broody chickens and baby chickens seemingly non-stop since. We hatched out QUITE a few - first because it was so new to us, second for the chicks, and the third batch was really just because we missed our window of opportunity to break her (Pancake chicken, again) of being broody. The eggs were already developing so we let them be born into full-blown chicks.

And then a few weeks ago Cindy (one of our original Rhode Island Reds from Tractor Supply) and Pancake chicken (jeesh lady!) and another Australorp went broody all at the same time.

In our more populated coop (we have several), there are three nesting boxes. All three were populated with a broody hen. This was NOT OK. We scooped all three of them out and plopped them on the ground unceremoniously and took their eggs away (like 21 or so?). The unknown Lorpy got the idea and never looked back.

I have been chucking Pancake chicken and Cindy out of the nesting boxes daily ever since.

Kerplunk.

Yes. There are ways of 'breaking' them of being broody. The most popular method seems to be putting them in a small cage (like a rabbit cage) with nothing under them and no nesting material so their belly and nether regions cool down and they snap out of it. Some people say that dunking their lower halves into cold(ish) water will do the trick; again bringing their temps down so they snap out of it. The latter doesn't work - ask me how I know - and we are so busy that I'm afraid if we put them in a wire cage we'll forget to let them out before something bad happens.

So every day I go down and pluck them out and set them on the ground all floofed and upset and bawk-bawking.

This warmed my heart, though:

Broody and offended. Together.

They are hell bent on hatching something. Or nothing.

Progress!

We've been working. The redneck has been busting his butt tryinging to get as much of the house done as possible - we're still reeeeeeeaaally hoping for it to be ready to move in to by Christmas. Ish. You know. Somewhere thereabouts.

This has nothing to do with the house. This is my son's newest favorite - plums!

Happy boy post-plum massacre

Mr Snarkles meets Henrietta

Siding and roof is done! Woohoo!

New septic tank. Baby is for size reference. You know. Works better in this context than a quarter...

Epiphany

Ummm... I just had a realization....This beaut of a (half-built) landing is RIGHT OUTSIDE the back door. Which is connected to the kitchen.

Back door. Siding is complete now, and it looks awesome!

Another angle

From inside...

Why is this significant? WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

This means that my stand alone propane burner, kind of like this (but older and rustier) ... is right outside the kitchen door. Meaning that canning, brewing & chicken plucking can happen right outside the door, and not turn my kitchen (/whole house) into a raging humid(er) inferno. How often do you wish that the bounty of summer didn't coincide with summer weather?

Yaaaayy!!

Holy Crap...

...where did August go? Seriously! I turned around and the yawning expanse of summer before me is now behind me - just a small blip in the road behind me. Hot damn where did the time go?

My parents were up for most of the summer (they left today) to get the exterior of the house finished. And it *just about* is. Woohoo! Three years of living in the woods in an Airstream, and the end goal is in sight.

Kinda.

My parents and the Redneck have spent the summer toiling away against the weather to get us a finished shell. And it shows. Our (future) house is beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. White pine siding, metal roof, porch, idyllic setting...

We have had some losses this summer - most notably my beloved grandfather passed. While it was a long time coming, it was still a very sad time for us. The brighter side is that everyone - everyone - went to the funeral. We had a nice little fast family reunion. I got to meet my amazing 9 month old niece for the first time. We stopped by to see my godmother on the way back, fresh out of surgery and looking amazing (and her sister. SO GLAD to have gotten to see her, too!). We found out that 3 days in the back of an F250 is rougher on me than on the Mr Snarkles (who had NO problems riding, minus one 20-minute stretch of gas-induced screaming). We got to see my godfather who drove up to upstate NY from CT for the funeral. MY sisters, my cousins, my aunts, my distant aunts, my distant cousins.... It was great.

The Acorn spent most of the summer away and his grandmother's - and boy oh boy has he grown! Wow! I missed so much...

I'm not a church goer, or the most religious of people, but the way I'm feeling about my life right now - and this may just be the exhaustion, post birthday let down, and impending cold talking - can only be described as blessed.

He hangs out during the day during construction...

Getting there!

Framing inside has begun!

This will be my new view coming down the driveway... yay!

Dexter, supervising.

The Redneck and the Mr Snarkles

Mr Snarkles Snuggles

(almost) wordless.

I can't help but think that he knows something I don't know...

...and the summer flies on

This summer is flying by. It's been almost 2 months, 2 batches of chicks, me going back to work, a foundation, a birthday, outer walls, outer walls getting stained, a porch getting started, and a death in the family since I last wrote. I think. I know there's been more than that, but those are the big talking points. Yup. A lot of shit is going on here. My Redneck and my parents have been working like crazy getting this house built, while I have been back at work. The bebe gets to stay at home and supervise. Not a lot of time to blog, but a lot of exciting things!

Babies!

Baby!

We FINALLY caught them coming out of the shell... not hours later like usual. And I could actually hear them peeping inside the shell before they managed to bust out - so cool!

Supervising the house-building

Baby snuggles are often necessary after a hard day's work...

Finished(ish) foundation!

The bebe is clearly shocked to have his first farmer's tan so early in life

House bulding pics soon!

(almost) wordless.

Almost perfect

Good Things Come in Threes

Last Saturday, I took this picture:

PC2

It is of Pancake Chicken 2, stoically sitting on her batch of eggs. It's down to 3 - she kicked one out a week or so ago. I have no idea how chickens know when a chick isn't developing, but they do and they don't waste any resources on trying to hatch a dead egg. (although they will go broody and sit on golf balls, fake eggs, etc. Go figure)

The next day, I went out and peered into the hutch at about 8 am and sat very quietly to try to tell if I could hear an pipping sounds. I couldn't.

Aparrently my hearing is bad, because an hour later I asked the Acorn to go feed th critters, and next thing I know I hear an excited "THE BABIES ARE HERE!" over and over.

Last time we missed this hatch by about a day, but this time we couldn't have missed it by more than an hour. When we went out to inspect, the little bitties were very much very wobbly on their legs, and their down was still slightly damp. So cute!

First we took the babies out to see if they were ok

Then we took mama out to get her out of the way. Then we checked to make sure there wasn't an unhatched egg we didn't know about (there wasn't)

Then we stuck mama hen back in and let the bitties go back themselves

*heartmelt*

A day later, they're zooming around cheep-cheeping, just like they should be. It never ceases to amaze me when animal babies left alone do exactly what they're supposed to. It kind of restores my sense of right and wrong in the world...

And a bonus video of the chicks going back in under their mama for the first time:

(almost) wordless.

So happy to be living somewhere with weather again.

Progress!

This September will mark the third anniversary of my moving out here to NC. Yes. Time has gone by that quickly.

While my goals and motives have not changed (much) in that time, so many things have happened that I was NOT expecting. I would not trade anything that has sprung up in my path for anything. How can I when this happened:

Not shown: the puppies, the chickens (Henrietta is apparently NOT a chicken)

Getting the land cleared, the Airstream in, the garden in, the chickens in, the well pump installed, electricity hooked up...a lot has happened. And now I am THRILLED to think that we are BUILDING A HOUSE. Finally :)

This is huge for us. We have all of the amenities and necessities, but living out here the way we do can be a bummer now and then. OK, really just during a massive rainstorm when I have to put my shoues on and leave one building to go into another (albeit 10 feet away, but still) to pee in the middle of the night. Pregnancy was a blast, folks.

But I digress. We have a permit in hand and will be breaking ground as soon as we can.

Behold:

It's mowed, so it must be true. Coincidentally when we moved here I planned on putting our garden here.

I am so excited.

Upside Down

My mother is pretty much the best mom ever. Now that I have a big kid AND a little baby in the house, I really don't know how she worked a (more than) full-time job, made all of our food at home from scratch, and took care of us with my dad working an hour away (ie, he got home late and left early).

Not only that, but when we went to people's houses, had meetings, etc (both of which seemed to have happened a lot - or at least that's how I remember things), she BAKED stuff to take.

There are two things in particular my mother used to bake. Both from her copy of The Joy of Cooking. Butterscotch Brownies, and Lightning or Whipped Tea Cake. Both recipes are only found in the form I know and love in the 1975 edition, and both are awesome. I highly encourage you to try them. They are dead simple and so tasty!

And forget about Christmas. We would make 3 - 5 different kind of cookies, decorate them all (just to put it in to perspective the last year we lived in the US and did this on a large scale, we were 10, 5 & 3 years old. And food coloring was involved. You do the math), package them (with ribbon!) and distribute them to friends, neighbors & colleagues.

While I always made me own cakes on my birthday (as soon as I was old enough to... which was pretty young. I don't remember when it was...), every year on my Dad's birthday she makes a Pineapple Upside Cake. And ohmygod it's the best thing ever.

I went through a phase of craving my mother's pineapple upside down cake. I have the 1946 edition of the book (blue cover) here with me (the 1997 edition I left in storage. It sucks) in NC, and so excitedly made the Pineapple Upside Cake.

It's probably a good thing I accidentally left the camper door open for less than a minute while I got something from the fridge outside said door.  The chickens swooped in and ate it (they respectfully left the pineapple rings on the plate). But it was obvious from the batter and the way it baked up that this was NOT my beloved cake.

I humbly asked my mom how hers was so good... and here it is folks. The secret to her amazing AMAZING cake.When she was here with me after the bebe was born and I FINALLY could manage to get out of bed - the craving for this cake kicked in. Full force. I made the cake.

The topping is a la the true recipe, and the cake part is the aforementioned Whipped Tea Cake. Whoa. Mind blown. Alas, it does not exist in any other edition that I have found, and so she scanned her recipe page and sent it to me:

Original page

I made the bottom cake portion true to the recipe - I happened to have cake flour on hand, and we needed to buy sugar anyway.  In Japan cake flour was not easy to come by, and we never had white sugar in the house. Only light brown (my mother does not pack her brown sugar when measuring. Ever.) My mother never had cake flour - and this recipe never suffered from substitutions.

It was exactly what I wanted needed, and was amazing.

Yesterday I craved it again. I didn'/t have any pineapple in the house, but I have a whole bunch of frozen fruit. I happened to have an open bag of cranberries, so used those. Awesome.

Soft cake. Crispy edges. Gooey nuts. Ohmygod.

RECIPE (PINEAPPLE VERSION)
Adapted from the Joy of Cooking

Topping:
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup walnuts
8 slices of pineapple*

Cake:
1 3/4 cup cake flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup + 2 1/2 teaspoons milk**
1/2 cup room temp butter
1 tsp of vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Make Topping:

1.  Melt butter in a 9-inch (you know, the regular size) cast iron pan.
2. Add sugar. Stir until all the sugar is wet. 
3. Turn off heat.
4. Mix in nuts
5. Lay out the slices of pineapple in a ring with one slice in the middle on top of the topping.

Make Cake:

1. Sift cake flour, salt & sugar into a bowl.
2. Add eggs, milk & soft butter.
3. Beat the hell out of it with a hand mixer. You're aiming for light and fluffy here.
4. Fold in baking powder.
5. Pour on top of pineapple & topping
6. Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes, or until done. You don't want to overcook it - the sugar topping will burn
7. Let cool - but only kinda.
8. Flip the cake out onto a plate when the cake is cool, but the topping is still a bit warm. If you let it cool all the way down, you'll leave the topping behind in the pan.
9. Hide somewhere alone and eat the whole damn thing.

Cranberry version:
I did the same as above but substituted one cup of cranberries (what was left of the bag) for the pineapple. If I were to do it again (and I will) I would do a whole bag (2 cups) of berries and add a dash of cinnamon. I did not adjust the sugar level - with the berries being frozen they stayed in their berry form and I liked the tart pops in the sweet topping. If you don't, you could always cook the berries a bit in ONLY the butter (until they burst) and then add the sugar. You don't want to cook the sugar as it'll get too hot when it bakes and you get grainy topping. It's ok if you're into that sort of thing. I like it gooey.

*most of a can. Leaves enough pineapple juice for a cocktail with a slice or two for 'garnish' :)
** Yes. It seems silly. But you have to have the 2 1/2 tsp milk. Trust me on this.

Number Two

No. This post is NOT about poop. Regardless of the fact that my life revolves around poop. (Did he? When? What color? How much? Is he working on one now? Oh get over it. Someone's days revolved around your poop at one point, too)

No. Now that the baby chickens have been out of the brooder for almost six weeks now, we have yet another Australorp that has gone broody. Many people find this to be an annoying trait in a chicken - they have to be sequestered and so take up space, they don't lay during this time, they're often nasty as hell... but I am super excited about it.

For one thing it means I get more chickens this year. I had wanted to add meat chickens and a few more easter eggers (especially now that Road Runner is no longer with us... *sob*). We decided not to this year due to the arrival of the bebe... But I got the 3 baby chickens, and now Pancake Chicken Part 2 is sitting on 4 eggs.

...and it means that we will have more babiness to ooh and ahh over soon. Love it!

The Redneck and the Acorn moved them into the conveniently now available brooder coop yesterday, and that will be PCNT's home for the next several weeks. We have hopefully learned from our mistakes and this time around *should* go smoother.

Pancake Chicken #2

Pancake Chicken, the original

(almost) wordless.

This sight does leave me wordless.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to the BESTEST Mom!

My mom. You inspire me, mom. Love you!

Not Another Baby Blog

This is NOT going to turn into a baby blog. I promise. Not like when I promised that this wouldn't become a chicken blog. No. This is for realsies. Hence you haven't heard a lot from me. The Little Squeaker is taking up all of my time and energy... and will continue to for a little bit longer. Can't help it. I will be going back to work in a few short weeks and I want to drink him in while I can :)

Eek!

Zonked out bebe. I know that I should put him down and nap myself, but it's too hard to resist the little snuggly guy

However, we have managed to get out into the garden...to look. Haven't planted a damn thing this year. (thank goodness for volunteers!) But it's nice to know it's *resting* (sure. 'resting'. Let's go with that...) and waiting for me for next year!

Irises! Thanks to the best Godmother, ever

Could be a bumper crop!

Rosemary and Sage are choking out the mint. Really.

Last year this was the strawberry bed...

Muscadines!

The wild grapes are thriving, too.

Neglect

I had this whole blog post about how sometimes when you feel that you have neglected something it is actually perfectly capable of thriving and will surprise you by doing so. I had great analogies and whatnot lined up with pictures from my garden and all that good stuff and everything. And then I neglected to write it.

And it's not that any of this is no longer true. I neglected my garden last fall when I found out I was pregnant and just about lost my grip on sanity, and I neglected it this spring due to being morbidly rotund (read: VERY pregnant), and am continuing to neglect it now that the little guy has arrived and is taking up all of my time. Although how he manages to do so sompletely without doing much more than sleeping on his part is a minor mistery to me.

But while I hole up in my little coccoon of new mom-ness, the outside world continues to thrive and grow despite my neglecting it. My artichokes are back, my heirloom garlic I planted spring before last came up (it never did last year and I seriously thought the chickens had 'tilled' that bed too much for anything to still be alive in it), my horseradish is back (thanks Aunt Jennie!), volunteer lettuces are up (since I neglected to rip them out they went to seed....), volunteer mystery brassicas, carrots from the year before last that the chickens topped are producing green tops, parsley that died back is back, my herbs, grape, fig & blueberries are all here.... it's pretty damn cool.

Artichokes. Love that they're a perennial here

We haven't been neglecting the chickens. I just like to add a picture of them every now and then

Best example of neglect, ever. These were planted who knows when... when my now 60year old dad was a kid... they are all over the property and no one ever does anything to them.