Another Visitor

My wife and I were relaxing one afternoon on a blanket in our back yard. We let the chickies run free and enjoy the day as well. They wandered aimlessly for over an hour. Then, something unusual occurred. They all gathered within a 3 foot circle and completely stopped making any noise and were motionless. We were very curious at this event, so we took a walk over to where they were. To our surprise they completely surrounded a neighbor's cat. The cat was laying on his back completely relaxed as if he was asking the chickens to join him. GOOD THING THE CAT WAS NICE AND SMALLER THAN THE CHICKENS! (I am sorry but I didn't get this event with a photo. By the time I got the camera, the appeal to the chickens was over).

Chicken Salad

Well you know I had to laugh at myself the other day. Being vegetarian, I had a whole new take on the phrase chicken salad. It was 7:00 am on a Thursday morning just about ready to head out to school. I was in the kitchen chopping up romaine lettuce, mushrooms, cheese, celery, broccoli sprouts and topped the whole thing with dried crushed egg shells. My wife comes in and said "what are you doing". I replied "making a chicken salad!". She looked at me with this blank expression, then I showed her my creation and when she saw the crushed egg shells on top....she got it. It was a salad FOR our chickens, not a salad MADE with chickens!

Eggs Anyone?

I wish!!! Nope, still no eggs. I keep hoping to find a couple when I go out to feed the chickies. I was told that they will be laying around 4 1/2 months. Well, we are at 4 1/2 months now. Just in time for it to get colder, which will automatically trick the chickens into laying less eggs. Hmmmm. I could install a heat lamp, but that might mess up their natural rhythm. I guess I will just wait it out and see what happens, with six different breeds of chickens, one is bound to push and egg out here soon. You will be the first to know when it happens...with pictures and all!

Dinner Guests

No! Stop! Don't even think we are eating our chickens for dinner! Just the opposite. During these cool, low humidity evenings, we really enjoy eating supper on our back patio. Our back patio is a slab of concrete right behind an old rundown detached garage. Sounds appealing doesn't it. Well it is! This garage allows us to focus on whats behind the garage. Wonderful things like the Salsa Garden, the kids swing set, gentle rolling hills of my cousins 11 acre pasture and of course the chicken condo! So every time we get the chance to dine on the patio, we let our feathered friends run free and enjoy the yard as much as we do. It is almost like clockwork, as we near the end of our meal, our feathered friends find their way up to the patio for some much appreciated table scraps. Chickens will eat almost anything, but we found they really, really, really like Mac - N - Cheese! As the sun goes down and we finish our glass of wine, we watch the chickens one by one retreat back to their roost. Ahhhh! This is the life!

Hummus Anyone?...don't you just love saying Hummus?

Hummus is an amazing Mediterranean dip. You can go wrong with a Mediterranean diet...especially the Red Wine part!


Easy Hummus (compliments of VegWeb.com)

Ingredients (use vegan versions):

    1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas
    1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
    5 cloves garlic, peeled
    2 tablespoons sesame oil
    2 tablespoons raw sesame seeds
    1 tablespoon flaxseeds
    2 teaspoons Old Bay seasoning
    1 teaspoon lime juice
    1/4 teaspoon cardamom

Directions:

Open the can of chickpeas and dump into the blender juice and all. Add everything else and blend the heck out of it!

Source of recipe: I was hungry, it was far too hot outside to be messing with the stove, and I started opening cupboards...even El Hubbito liked this!

Makes: about 3 cups?, Preparation time: 5 minutes, Cooking time: n/a

Found a treasure!

I was referred to a health store today by a friend. It is called Healthy Alternatives in Florence, KY on route 18 across from the Florence Skate Park. A little on the pricey side, but they offer a lot of stuff you simply cannot get at your local grocery store. Many local grocery stores carry maybe an isle worth of "health food", but this is a whole store full of it.....PLUS half the store is for vitamins, protein, fish oil, herbal tea etc...

I left the store today with Meatless meatballs, kettle cooked potato chips cooked in avacado oil, Tofurkey Italian Sausage, 3 boxes of crazy sounding herbal tea, some interesting spicy seasoning packet to add to my Quinoa and last but not least Organic Apple Cider Vinegar (with the mother), which  I usually drink straight. The cashier took off $5.00 for being a new customer!

Sure beats driving to Jungle Jims!

Little Helpers

My Backyard Friends are starting to prove themselves worthy....in many ways. Their chicken coop resides right next the "The Salsa Garden". This is my garden that I use to create the best salsa in the world! Tomatoes, Cilantro, Onions, Peppers...It's all grown here. Now that summer is coming to an end, I figured why not let them free range in the Salsa Garden! To my surprise, no tomatoes were touched. They sure did eat a lot of bugs though. Now, I wouldn't let them in the garden in the spring time, as I feel they may eat your tiny plants and even worse, they may "scratch" the roots right out of the ground looking for bugs. Under the apple tree is another favorite hangout of theirs. They just love apples that have fallen and split open.

Hey Look! Another Backyard friend! This little guy actually found himself stuck in the chicken coop a few weeks ago. I bet he will think twice before going back into there again.

They're getting bigger!

I will save you from daily shots of my chickens growth. Here I have posted a few more "baby pictures" if you will. As you can tell, they are still very friendly and easy to handle. I used a large cardboard box to transport them from the house to the back yard. At the time, I would keep them outside for about an hour. I felt it might be too tough on them to go back and forth between conditioned air and high humidity.

I chose to purchase 6 different breeds of chickens as to just getting one. I am glad I did. They all offer very different personalities. I was also told that most of the breeds I chose are also good egg layers. I do have a couple that will only lay about 2 eggs per week. The six breeds I chose are: Austalorpe, Light Brahma, Dekalb Aberlink, Silver Laced Wyandotte and a Buff Orpington. They seem to get along quite well. It is pretty clear which on the the top of the Pecking Order. It is Socks, the Light Brahma....she is such a Diva!!!