5 Eggs a Day and Happy Chickens (Double Post!)

Hi and Welcome back to the Chicken Coop!

#1- 5 Eggs a day
I am proud to announce that all of my chickens are laying!
So we get 5 eggs a day now!
I am so impressed with my girls!
Well here are some pictures of the eggs we got today!

Here are the 5 eggs we got today!

The egg on the far left is Daisy's then Bertie's

then Ethel's then Lorsey's and then Sybil's!

Above is Daisy's (left) compared to Bertie's (right).

Daisy's Eggs are taller and darker, Lorseys eggs

are taller an a little bit lighter than

Daisy's. Bertie's are lighter and rounder,

Ethel's are almost as tall as Lorseys

and are lighter almost white, and

Sybil's are round and darker.

Here is Daisy's (left) again compared to Ethel's (right)

It is so cool how created Chickens and their eggs!

 

 

 

 

 

#2- Happy Chickens!!

Some times we let are chickens out to forage in the garden, and it is SO funny to watch them!

So here are a couple of pictures of them foraging.

Bertie. Planning escape! :)

The Rhode Island Reds are so funny

to watch them forage!

Lorsey posing for the camera! :)

Happy Chickens.

Daisy is so pretty in the green!

Ethel loves being in the mint! She is

so funny!

Sybil is so pretty!

Well hope you enjoyed!

God Bless,

Ruthie Lynn

Gardening Tips: Tomatos

Hi,

It's Lillie.

I was thinking....

I have lots of people ask me what the milk cartons are doing in my garden.

So here is why they are there:

Tomato's don't like to get there leaves wet. and when there leaves do get wet this happens:

 

So what can we do to stop this? My Mom figured it out!

 

 

How do you do this?

first you buy milk

Then After you have used up all the milk you take a pair of scissors and poke holes in it:

 

But WARNING Don't put more than one hole in the bottom of the carton. Why? Because then all the water will go strait out the bottom instead of all the holes.

Then you take your tool of choice (This year i used my hands :- ) ) and you dig a hole in between two of your tomato plants.

then you place the Carton in the hole.

 

So now next time you need to water your tomato plants you just stick the end of the hose into the Milk carton and the water goes strait to the roots of your tomato plant.

 

When its full it over flows!

How many cartons should i use?

Well that depends on how many tomato plants you have. I have six tomato plants and five milk cartons.

Thanks for reading and i hope that the lord blesses the rest of your day!

Lillie

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

What is this??

Did you guess?

It’s asparagus!

The part you eat (the tall, tree like part) are the shoots it sends up  when it is trying to grow more stalks.

Kinda cool, huh?

:)

 

jk

Chocolate Peanut Butter Rice Crispie Bars

This desert has quickly become one of my family’s all time favorites, as it takes 15 minutes to make and tastes so good.

Not only are these bars fast, easy, gluten free, and so deliciously wonderful, they also aren’t that bad for you.

Instead of using marshmallows, you use brown rice syrup. This is a simple, healthy way to get the great stickiness you love in rice crispies without the sugar.

And instead of plain rice crispies, try brown rice crisps (we like Barbara’s brand). They don’t taste any different than the regular kind, and are better for you to boot!

Here’s how you make them:

You will need these ingredients:

- Brown rice syrup

- peanut butter (the non refrigerated kind works best)

- vanilla

- salt

- brown rice crisps

- chocolate chips

 

First, place a medium sized pot onto the stove. Scoop a bit more than 1/3 cup of brown rice syrup into the pan along with 1/3 cup peanut butter, 1 tsp. of vanilla, and a pinch or two of salt.

 

Warm on medium heat and stir until smooth, soft, and well blended.

Add 3 cups of the brown rice crispies, and stir well.  Remove from heat.

Once the crisps are well covered in the peanut butter mix, stir in 1 cup of chocolate chips.

Press mixture into an 8”x8” pan, and let cool for a few minutes in the fridge.

 

Wa-la! One tasty, chocolatey, gooey, sorta healthy and gluten free dessert!

 

 

 

 

jk

Sunflowers

This year we (accidentally) planted a bunch of sunflowers near the gate to our chicken pen. Well, actually, the birds planted them by throwing the seeds off of the feeder nearby. Near mid July they peaked in gorgeousness, and we had a beautiful view!

 

The sunflowers brought our homestead more than just a cheery view- they also brought back the honey bees! Our entire family was so excited to see all of the bees buzzing around our sunflowers. We were a bit discouraged (and nervous) last year when we didn’t see any kind of bee buzzing through our gardens. This year, though, the flowers were teeming with bees! I am so grateful that the Lord blessed us again with bees!

I was also surprised to learn that not only bees pollenate flowers and vegetable gardens. Did you know that hornets (those nasty little buggers) can do the same? I still dislike them, but hey, at least they are good for something!

 

May you be blessed!

jk

Where oh where did the three sisters go?

So glad to be back up and blogging again! What a wonderfully blessed summer we have had! From play productions to gardening to enjoying lake life, this year’s edition of summer has been truly incredible.

We have a whole host of blog posts ready to be posted. From honey bees to chicken eggs to drought days, we hope you’ll enjoy catching up on life around here.

 

May you be blessed!

jk

Cherries!

 

 

This year our family has been so blessed to be part of a group that receives fruit in season from a wholesaler. Our first batch of scrumptious goodies came a few days ago- cherries!

With a total of 8 full bags of cherries, some cherry recipes were in order. But first,we would need to de-pit the cherries we wanted to freeze for later.

Mom ran to get a de-pitter at a kitchen outlet near us while I started pulling stems off. After three bags of cherries, the white bowl used for mixing was overflowing-and we still had 5 bags left!

The de-pitter arrived and I proceeded to de-pit the cherries. I must have been going a bit too fast, because after about the 20th one, the de-pitter sprung open and broke.

Whoops!

So, there Mom goes back to the kitchen store to get a new, non-breaking cherry pitter.

Lillie and Ruthie both helped after that, and the process sped up quite a bit.

We were a bit unsure of what to do with these cherries, so neighbors and family were handed bags. :)

The rest of the bags are slowly being eaten down by our family. We are considering making a cherry flat pie. Anyone know of a good recipe for those?

 

Until Thursday, friends!

jk