Canning

I saw 100% juice (tart cherry, blueberry and blueberry pomegranate) at the grocery store last week. I immediately thought they might make nice jelly. I did some research and yep, I can make jelly from them. I just need to get some no or low sugar pectin and I'm set. And hopefully it will "set". :)

I joined a canning group on Facebook. They talk an awful lot about pressure canning. I'm scared to death of pressure canning. I just picture it exploding in the kitchen. But the idea of pressure canned chicken, chili, and soups sounds so wonderful to have on hand... I think I need to master water bath canning first, then try pressure canning.



Sale going on now! Enter ENDOFMONTH20 for 20% off! Ends 1/27/12

Soil Bag Gardening?

Someone on Facebook posted a link to an article on "soil bag gardening". It looks like something I'd like to do this year. The ground where the vegetable/herb garden will be has been compacted by horse hooves for the last few years. Even if I till it, I'd still have to amend it. For this idea, you take a bag of topsoil, poke holes in the bottom for drainage, place it where you want it, slice open the top and plant your seeds or seedlings. Easy peasy. In the fall, remove the plastic and there you go. You can also do something similar with straw.

Winter Finally Showed.

The girls enjoy some lettuce in the snow.

We took advantage of the last 50 degree day and enclosed the bottom of the coop with three spare pieces of plywood.

Lace at 8 months. She's getting so chunky!

Winter in Sight?

Today was 56 degrees F... tomorrow is supposed to be low/mid 20's and 4-8 inches of snow. My husband came home early from work today and raked some leaves out of our walk-out. I asked him to grab his drill since it was still so nice out. We "winterized" the coop. I had him screw three pieces of plywood around the bottom of the coop for a wind-block. We get viscious winds from the south. The blocks are on the north, east and south. The west is where the door is. Yes, bad winds out of the south... strange, I know, but our property is lined with woods on the north and far east. South is a 20 acre farm field with woods on their far south. If that makes sense... :)

Anyway, they were already checking it out. I'm crossing my fingers that they don't start laying eggs under the coop... they are finally using the nest box.

Planning The Pasture

Spring will be here before I know it. Shoot, I feel like it's already here. This winter has been highly unusual for Northwest IN. We should be in the 20's with snow... it was around 50 today. We've had snow on the ground TWICE so far this winter. Now, I don't particularily like winter. I don't like our recent winters where we've had numerous days at or below 0. However, I'm kinda concerned. Either we're going to get slapped with a huge snowfall soon, or we're going to have a horrendous bug season this summer.

Anyway, back to the point, planning the pasture. My girls have a 12x7 dog pen as their enclosure. I'm planning on either picking up a 10x10 pen with double gates or building some sort of tractor. If I can swing the pen, I will let them out in it at limited times, or every other day, some sort of schedule so they don't tear up the grass. At least with a tractor, I can move it around, but it would need to be predator-proof or resistant. I'm leaning more towards the 10x10 pen with double gates. That way, I can line up one door with the existing door and not have to cut any holes in the existing pen. And, I can technically shift the pens to give one area a break/reseed.

The ground cover is mostly clover and weeds right now. In the area where either the pen or tractor will be, I'd like to plant something else. Something more durable, but nutritious. I've been doing some research and found there are special poultry blends of seeds. It also seems like deer forage might work. Basically, a blend of ryegrass, flax, clover, buckwheat, millet, and alfalfa. I'd also throw some herb and wildflower seeds in there just because.

RIP Goldie

Two days ago, we lost Goldie, the 5 month old Buff Orpington. She had been acting funny for a few days. She wasn't roosting with the other two and was very docile. She was normally quite flighty. Two days ago, she didn't leave the coop at all. I went to check on her in the afternoon and her vent was caked with poop. I went back in the house and got paper towels wet with warm water to rinse her off. She let me do it and didn't struggle. I set her outside to see if she'd stand, nope. I picked her back up and set her inside the coop. As I was securing the door, she started flapping around, fell over and was gone.

Jon dug a hole and we buried her in a corner of the pasture. I was already planning on planting wildflowers there this spring. Jon did a bit of research and found out that the flapping around is a sign of a heart attack. The other two have been acting fine.

The woman I got my chickens from is getting Easter Egger chicks in the spring and I'll get two more from her then.

In other news, Lace has finally started laying. I got one tiny egg from her that day and another today.

First Snow!

It's December 9th and we just had our first real snow. Unusual for this part of Northwest Indiana! We got just under an inch. This was the first time the girls had seen snow and it was hysterical! Normally, they are clucking at me once they hear me coming and then race out of the coop once the door opens. They were quiet this morning. When I opened the door, they started to come out, then quickly retreated :)

And they took turns looking outside. I was laughing too hard to put their ladder in place :)

Goldie was giving me funny looks...

And flew to my shoe...

Took a bold step onto the snow...

And back onto my other shoe...



Now this is quite unusual for this little girl. She is my flighty one. For her to sit on my shoe for 15 minutes was quite brave of her.

Then Ruby decided she wanted out. She started eyeing me too and I told her that I am NOT a perch and to not even think about it.

And flew to the sawhorse perch to survey the snow.

Finally, Lace came out and tried to push Goldie off my shoe. She wasn't in the sharing mood.

Lace discovered the scratch and mealworms, which brought the other two running.

They better get used to this! We're going to have much more!