Tag: Broody chicken

Summer Delights

Yesterday was miserable! My day started with dog and chicken chores in the rain, not a gentle summer shower, a torrential downpour. I had moved Broody Girl to the auxiliary chicken run and chicken tractor the day before and had put her in the chicken tractor with some amusing effort the night before. Her food was in there, but not her water. She squawked unmercifully until well after dark. Figuring she was better off in the tractor since it was raining, I attempted to put her water in with her, but she dove past me into the run in the rain so I just left the door to the tractor open. Now I have heard that turkey’s are stupid enough to drown in the rain. That may be an old mountain tale, but Broody Girl was stupid enough to stand out in the pouring rain nearly all day instead of going back inside the tractor. Last night I felt sorry for her and returned her to the coop, very wet and very agitated.

The first thing she did was go to the nesting box and I ran her off. She is showing me her wet displeasure. This morning she exited the coop with the others and has stayed outside. Yay!

Once those chores were done, I spent 90 minutes in the dentist chair getting a temporary crown on the tooth I broke 7 weeks ago when I went to Northern Virginia to pick up Grandson #1 for the summer. As soon as I got home from that, the dentist did a build up so the tooth wouldn’t break anymore until he could see me for the crown prep. This is not a fun time. It is my 6th crown.

As we were headed home, still in the pouring rain, we picked up the power washer as scheduled and in spite of the rain, our neighbor with my help cleared the covered front porch and open back deck of plants and furniture and he power washed both. He was soaked from the effort and the rain and I was also from helping to move furniture and the hose from front to back.

Today is still overcast and has rained off and on, but not like yesterday. The weather broke enough after we returned the power washer for me to do some harvest. It is definitely that time of year.

The two trips out to the garden resulted in a huge bowl of mostly hot peppers and another of tomatillos. A few tomatoes are getting picked each day and a few lemon cukes. The counter full of goodies encouraged me to haul out the water bath canner, a box of jars, and the other necessaries to put some of it away for the winter.

The cayennes were strung to dry, the habaneros and a couple pounds of tomatillos were made into another batch of the I No Longer Have Taste Buds XXX hot sauce (son said it was wonderful), the jalapenos pickled for hubby, the rest of the tomatillos canned in quarters and the lemon cukes pickled in a dill brine.

One afternoon’s canning session cooling on the counter. A good addition to the goodies accumulating on the shelves for winter consumption. As I’m a rather adventurous cook at this age, the XXX hot sauce must be documented so I can duplicate it next year. My basic idea came from a visit to Mexico where the woman house staff made a salsa for us from Jalapenos, tomato, onion and garlic. That one is good too.

I No Longer Have Taste Buds XXX Hot Sauce

a dozen or so medium Habanero peppers

2 lbs (16-20) tomatillos

1 medium onion

3-4 cloves garlic

2 Tbs. lemon juice

1 tsp pickling salt

1/2 c fresh of 2 Tbs dried cilantro

In a heavy non reactive pot, heat a couple of Tbs of Olive oil and saute the onion, chopped coarsely. Quarter the habaneros with seeds (gloves are advised), peel and chop the garlic, remove the papery husk, wash and quarter the tomatillos. In a blender, place the peppers, garlic, tomatillos, sauteed onion, lemon juice and salt and blend until fairly smooth. Pour back into the heavy pot, add the cilantro and simmer for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally to keep it from sticking. If you are going to can this for shelf stability, it should be water bath canned for 20 minutes in pint or cup jars. It will keep for months in the refrigerator if just packed in hot jars and lids with bands applied.

I do love this time of year. Enjoying the spoils of our garden and the labor of putting is away for winter enjoyment. Soon I will be canning tomatoes and tomato sauce nearly every day, but it will be so good later.

Life is an adventure!

August 19, 2014
Olio – August 6, 2014

Olio: a miscellaneous collection of things.

As our last week with our grandson this summer is closing and since he was such a good traveler last week we gave him another afternoon at the Frog Pond, the public pool. He enjoys this outing. The pool has a large shallow circular pool with an island, an umbrella that showers water down and a small frog shaped slide then an attached deeper pool with two water park type tube slides into it. He slides and gets out, slides again, then gets into the shallow area and plays splash tag with other kids. Neither of us got in with him today.

Broody hen is winning. Yesterday, I repeatedly removed her from the nest, put bags of ice in the nest (she sat on them), and finally blocked off the nest (she moved over one). This morning, after I blocked off both of the ones she prefers last night, she had moved over yet another one and was sitting, puffing up and pecking at me when I try to move her. I have pulled her out of the nest and put her in the pen several times today and just a few minutes ago, I found her again, sitting on an egg. In the past 11 days, we have gotten only 2 eggs and she broke one of them.

Yesterday, I brought in several pints of jalapenos and pickled them for Jim, who eats one with nearly every dinner I prepare. There are dozens of Ancho peppers turning red, a pint of so of red cayenne’s, a handful of Habeneros. The Tomatillos skins are beginning to dry and split, showing the fruit inside.

This morning, our neighbor who has been gone for 2 years, having returned a couple of nights ago, came down to visit and say hello. He tried to help get my solar charger on the electric fence to charge the fence. The charger will shock you if you touch the connector with a wire, but won’t charge the braided wire that the charger requires. I sent him home with a grocery sack full of rainbow chard and several jars of various jams. He will be helping us over the next few weeks to get our porch and deck re-stained before winter.

Our eldest, father of the visiting grandson, will be here this weekend to begin setting up scaffolding and caulking between the logs of the garage so that we can begin staining again. Log homes require frequent staining until the logs have absorbed enough of the oil stain, then it can be done with less frequency. Knowing what we know now, though we love our wood house, we probably would not have built a log home, rather one that was easier to maintain.

The weather over the next few days is to be cooler and wet, so the final outings with grandson will have to be of the indoor variety.

August 6, 2014
Broody Girl

On July 3, Brown Dog, belonging to our neighbor feasted on two of my United Nations flock of cull chickens, after causing significant damage to the chicken tractor in which they were housed. On July 4, eldest son and I killed the remainder of them and frozen them for stewing chickens plus 1 rooster, the Buff Orpington, the King of the Domain. He had gotten too aggressive toward the hens and toward us. Neither of the then 14 month old hens was showing any signs of broodiness though I really had wanted a self sustaining flock and hen set chicks. The next day, Brown Dog managed to scare the teenagers enough that one flew out of the pen the dog couldn’t get in and he trotted home with a young Buff Orpington pullet in his mouth. Brown Dog hasn’t been seen since then, and the Buffs are maturing to a point where I expect the 3 that are 22 weeks old to start laying very soon and the 20 week olds to begin within a couple more weeks. Since July 4, we have averaged only 1 egg a day from the two adults.

Beginning night before last, when I went to check for eggs and lock up the girls, I found one of the mature hens sitting in the nesting box that they both use. I chased her out, took the egg and closed them up for the night. The next morning, she didn’t come out to eat with the rest of the girls and sure enough, she was on the box again and puffed herself all up at me. I chased her out again and found her there again last night, this morning and this afternoon. This evening, though there are no eggs to collect, I put an upside down bucket in that nesting box. She is quite indignant with me, puffing up and trying to peck my hand when I shoo her away. She probably won’t be too amused to find the bucket in her space, but now that Cogburn is in freezer camp, it is pointless to let her continue to be broody as there are no fertilized eggs for her to sit. Silly chicken.

I have 15 Rainbow Ranger chicks due here the end of the first week of August to raise in the second pen and chicken tractor and I don’t need Buff Orpington chicks in the coop that won’t mature enough to put in the freezer this fall. Perhaps next spring I will replace Cogburn with a new young rooster and let one or more of the hens go broody and see if we get chicks in the coop. For now, I just need to break Buttercup’s heart and her broodiness.

July 24, 2014