I KNEW IT!!

I looked outside and guess what I saw?!?! 4 Red-Breasted Robins!!

SO it is official. It is SPRING!!

The Signs This year of Spring

So even though there is still an average of a foot of snow every where in our yard. There are Still some Sure signs that spring is actually here.

1. The sure smell that spring is here... .Skunk! Yep, the poor skunks are coming out of hibernation and in their sleepy hazy filled brains are not avoiding the cars. So we have on more then one occasion had the privilege of smelling skunk.

1A. The Smell of spring! There has been in the air that very distinguishable smell of spring. Hard to pin down but Anyone who has lived more then a couple years with winter turning into spring knows that smell. It can smell different depending on if you are in the city or country side, but it is there nonetheless.

2. The sounds of spring such birds chirping me awake. This is something that I actually don't mind being awaken by. And today I heard a crane! Yes a crane!! (I also saw one flying) SO That means they are back and spring is here!

There is also the Awesome sound of snow melting and water

3. The Sight of Spring!! I Saw a bald Eagle!! Yes a Bald Eagle and I saw it like 3 or 4 weeks ago. I expect to see a Red Breasted Robin hopping around Any Time Now lol

4. The Temperature of Spring! It is 50 degrees outside and in the spring that means shorts and sandals :D (In the fall that means sweat pants and layers)

Trinity will now go outside and spend 2 or 3 hours outside before she gets cold. I am thinking of sitting on the deck to drink my morning coffee... Yep, it getting warmer outside.

5. The taste of spring is Very similar to the smell of spring... you can't quite put your finger on it, but everything just tastes better. Of course it could be because we just happier in general.

6. And last but not least is the work of spring. We laid out some chicken manure on the lower garden. Stirred the compost pile and started our first seedlings! Cherry tomatoes first in the hopes that they will come first and we can enjoy them before the large tomatoes. Also started the peppers with the longest growing season. Daryl set up a Great lil "green house" in the basement. Basically he wrapped plastic on around a table with 2 lamps in the basement. It 4 sides and a roof. Plastic goes all the way to the floor. Heat pad under the seedlings to keep the roots warm and a small heater inside the plastic to help keep the humidity up. It perfect for small seedlings.

LONG winters

As the end of Jan draws near I realize that I am SICK of winter.... :(

The other day there was a tiny warm up.. the snow was melting a bit, there was sunshine & I heard that wonderful sound of melting snow! I look forward to the real melt & promise of spring. In the mean time...

Trinity still bundles up everyday to go out and play with the "Chicken Kittens" as we call them, Daisy & Iris. I have made an "executive" decision to name all our future cats a plant or flower name in honor of my cat Flower, who died here tragically on the farm our 1st spring. Pretty flower names for the girls and fun names like, Dandelion or Thistle for the boy kitties...

Daisy & Iris were free kittens that came from an “unwanted” litter. They were tiny lil cats and SO friendly. We put them in the back part of the chicken coop separated from the chickens. There was lots of space to explore, run around and this way the chickens could also get used to them without pecking their eyes out. Our rooster jumped high to watch these new invaders. After a day or two, he decided they were no threat to him nor his hens.

The kittens were allowed to go outside after about 4 days. They went into the yard we use in the spring time for the meat birds. After a few days it didn’t take long before the kittens found ways out of that yard. They were exploring their new world.

We locked them up in the coop every night to protect them from the wild tom cats that roam the area and would see the new kittens as a threat to their territory. We also let the kittens roam freely among the chickens when they were about 2 months old. Every once in a while you would hear a funny sort of “Bah Boock” from a hen as a kitten rubbed up against them.

They caught their first mouse while Trinity watched. She proudly brought it to the house to show us!! We explained that the next time she should just leave the mouse for the cats to eat and NOT pick it up. :D

Since they have arrived, they have been a source of great entertainment for Trinity. They have done their job. Caught mice & given us all laughs as they play in the snow. They like to chase us around when sledding and the greet any & all who come to our house. We were SO fortunate to get such Great tempered cats. Here is to a LONG healthy & happy life.


For now they are still sleeping in the coop at night and fed 2 times a day. Spring time will bring a lil change for them, less food from us & they will be allowed to roam at night. Oh.. and since they both girls, a spading is in their future...




Here are some more pics of our kittens ~ Enjoy

Butchering Time

First I would like to apologize for how long it has taken to get another post up. I am officially taking over so it shouldn't be so long between posts.

This post is about butchering egglayers. The 2 other times we butchered chickens, they were meat birds. They were younger, bigger and tender. These were about a year old Rhode Island Reds. We gave them a good life, feed them good food and Trinity gave them lots of love.

This time we had some help from 3 friends. There were only 11 birds to do. Next spring we will be ordering 24 meat bird and hopefully have more friends help. The hardest part is the plucking! But ironically the feathers on these birds came off rather easy so that helped the process along.

Of the 5 of us doing the work, 3 of us were amazed at the whole biology of the bird. We took apart the gizzard, liver and anything else that took our fancy. One of the things I found facinating was the development of the eggs. I guess it makes sense, but I never thought about it before, but the egg is created yolk first in a tiny lil orange dot that grows large, then is surrounded with the egg white. Lastly the egg shell is developed over it all. We found that each chicken had varying stages of egg development from the tiny bit of orange to an almost fully completed egg.

2 members of our party thought we were crazy and just wanted to get the job done!! After all was said and done, everyone went home with chicken meat. We found that the meat, though flavorful, it was a lil tough to eat baked. In chicken soup though, it is Very yummy!

Thanks to Aaron, Kristopher & Holly for helping us! Here are the pics from that day.

Holly is taking pics... She wasn't too sure about helping with the gross part.

I am showing Aaron the gizzard and Kristopher and I couldn't help but poke at the egg yolk we found.

I am instructing Aaron & Kristopher on how to butcher... Not sure what I'm pointing out here. The ironic thing is, all I know is what I figured out the first 2 times we did this. I really have NO idea what I'm doing and think I need to find a class on how to butcher.

Here are the different stages of egg...

Proof that Holly actually Touched a dead bird! Arron & Daryl are getting down to the last part.