Critter and project updates

Still haven't managed to get to my computer for some real posting, so via iPhone pics, here's an update on some of what's been going on around here.


We were getting lots of these (like 18 a day), but cold weather and short days have the girls laying only 4-9 a day now. Haven't seen a white egg from Miss Blue in about 3 weeks. Either she stopped laying, or she's hiding them somewhere.

The girls are enjoying the new pen I fenced off for them.

And Dunderhead, with his wicked unruly eyebrows, seems recovered (knock on wood).

It is getting colder, and according to LJ, it started snowing after I left for work.

This is just pretty. Snapped while hiking the trails on our property. We've had some raging storms over the last week, so I doubt this lovely web is still out there.

I made this stool for our library so I can reach the top shelves, and I have begun organizing my books. I ordered a roll of dust jacket covers from Brodart, and have only managed to get about 1/3 of my hardbacks covered.

I also made a woodbox for in the house. I got the andirons for $8 at an antique show, painted them satin black (they were a really awful antiqued gold before), and mounted the box on them. I put legs on the back of the box. Works well, holds two sling-loads of wood, keeps bark and chips off the floor, and is PERFECTLY square. I'm pretty proud of that last part. :) (Please excuse the unfinished tile work on the hearth, and the lack of baseboard on the wall...)

Also been working on this little side table I just picked up at the thrift store. It took me about two hours to chip out that awful concrete and glass mosaic. Yuck. Makes me sad, as originally this little table would have had tiles made by, or in the style of, a company like Taylor, Catalina, or Malibu. I've had a few of these tables with their original tiles intact, and just love them. I'm going to refinish this, and see if I can get repro tiles that will fit. If anything, I only paid $7.95 for it, and have some mexican tile that I could make work.

I made some of this (mandarin ginger marmalade), as well as apple sauce and blackberry jam, and learned that the Ball recipes put too freakin much sugar in everything. Luckily, I've skimped a bit, except for the blackberry jam, which unfortunately came out painfully sweet.

I also took some of our pig fat...

And rendered some lard. It's awesome! Though, the crockpot method was gross, and slow, and a pain in the butt. A gal I know swears by the dutch oven method, so I'll try that next. If I don't get a dutch oven for my birthday next week (Mom hinted I would), I'll go out and buy one. We need one anyway. :) (Lard is cooling below. Came out pure white once fully cooled)

And that's about it for now. Gonna spend the weekend cleaning and prepping for Thanksgiving.

Have a great weekend!

In between rain showers, we get a lot done

In between (and in the middle) of rain showers this weekend, we managed to get a lot done!

Old house- I packed up a ton of stuff for the thrift store, we moved a bunch of fencing, and brought our glass top stove back to the new house. It's sitting in the garage right now, but at least it is closer to being inside!

Gravel- With the most awesome tractor, we spread gravel in the driveway, outside the back door, and down to the chicken coop so we aren't ankle deep in mud every time we go out there.

Pigs- The pig fence is complete! Woohoo! We've got all the insulators up too, and just need to get another set of grounding rods, run the wire, and install the charger. We even got a roof on the pig hut (pig palace A-frame that's big enough for a small horse). Hoping to get the porkers within a week or so... Fingers crossed!

Geese- Our mini goose (seriously, so tiny I don't think she's a Toulouse) has developed an unfortunate habit of chewing on the African. I put some ping pong balls in the brooder, and they seem to distract her a little bit. Regardless, I've had to take the African out a couple times and towel her dry. As listed earlier, we added a little boy to the mix, and he is quickly becoming my favorite. LJ and I lock the pups up each evening and each take two goslings to hold for a half hour or so. They like to snuggle up under our chins and sleep. They don't have super great control over their necks/heads just yet, and fall asleep with their little heads backwards, sideways, lolling over each other. Really very sweet. I'm going to be a little sad when they are big enough to go outside. Only a little sad, because no matter how often we clean out their tub, they are stinky. Noisy little buggers too. If we're in the room, they're a-screeching, trying to get our attention.

Chickens- The baby chicks are only about a week and a half old, and we think we might have a little boy in the batch. One of the Ameraucanas, the cutest one of course, is a crazy little bugger. It puts its little head down, wings slightly out, and scratches. Then it launches itself across the brooder, often at other chicks. When we pick it up, it doesn't really struggle, just fixes a beady little ewok eye at us and glares. Ugh. The rest are still a bit scaredy, and it worries LJ, because our Golden Girls are so sweet. I remind him that the buffs weren't really very friendly until about 2.5-3 weeks old. We'll see how they do.

We are down to 11 Golden Girls. Live and learn. On Saturday, we left the coop door open so they could explore the run for an hour or two while we ran into town. Well, when we came home, there was half a chicken wedged between the wire and the board at the base of the fence. Apparently our cat, previously uninterested in the chickens, snagged a sleeping girl through the wire. Skid ate a leg, a breast, and the head was MIA. Ugh, at least she ate most of it instead of just killing it and leaving it like a dog will. Don't know why that makes me feel better, but it does. Well, the loss prompted us to get the hotwire up (which we had been planning to do that afternoon anyway), and we also ran a second row of smaller chicken wire around the inside of the coop. It attaches to the inside of the 4x4 that serves as the run fence base, and secures to the main fence about 2' up. This keeps the girls farther away from the fence, and out of reach of the cat. As for the hotwire, Cammi has already gotten a taste of it when she sniffed too close to the girls, and we're waiting for the yowl that will tell us Skid has learned about it too. Other than the loss, the girls are enjoying the run, scratching in the dirt, and testing their wings. We put a couple half-rotten logs in there, both for shade and for fun, and they've been scratching and pecking away at them. Happy girls!

All in all, a decent weekend work-wise. Maybe we'll get some sunshine this week, and I'll be able to get some plants in the ground!