Chicken Surgery

Life on a farm is full of adventures and occasional mishaps.  Unfortunately I experienced some of these mishaps a couple of weeks ago.  There is always a danger when you have chickens and dogs around that they will collide.  By collide I mean kill each other.  By kill each other I mean the dogs get the chickens.  I don’t envision a chicken ever taking down a dog. 

Honcho, my jack russell had been doing really well and had not bothered the chickens for months and months on end.  It was a nice Saturday so I had the chickens out roaming the back yard and the orchard.  I don’t know what happened with Honcho but he lost his mind.  I looked out of the house and saw that he had one of the top hatters (the ones with the crazy “hair hats”) in his mouth.  By the time we could get there it was to late.  The top hatter did not survive.  Honcho was quickly reminded that we don’t do that to chickens and tied up so that he couldn’t do it again.

Sunday we were outside again and Honcho got loose and attacked another chicken.  This time it was one of the New Hampshire Reds we call bossy.  We were right there when it happened and were able to separate the two.  Surprisingly Bossy was still alive.  It is very rare that a chicken gets attacks and survives.  We started surveying the damage and find that he broke her skin on her back between her wings.  There was no blood but there was a gaping hole where you could see all her insides.  I felt sick and terrible that it happened.  Unsure of what to do we grabbed some antiseptic spray that we use on the cattle and gave her a good spray.  This spray also happens to be bright purple so she really started looking lovely.  The next issue is what we could do to hold her together.  We thought about pine tar that we use for the horses hooves since it is so sticky but it is pretty stout stuff so that was voted down.  The next best thing we could come up with was super glue.  Into the house I ran and came out with a fresh pack of super glue from the dollar store.  I held Bossy while Michael started gluing.  First he glued skin together and then layered her feathers so they created a thick hard shell that held everything together.  Everything seemed to be secure so not knowing what else to do we just let her back in the pen. 

It has now been a month since the incident and Bossy is doing great.  Her wings don’t lay as flat against her body as they used to but she is alive and doing well!  She also still has purple on her from her antiseptic so she is really looking cute.  Overall for a backyard surgery it seemed to go well and we are pleased with our work!  Regardless, we are going to keep our day jobs.

Spring/Summer Buzz

We have finally hit what is hopefully summer.  Or at least spring.  We had been teased with many warm days but had also gotten tricked with very late freezes.  Not just one but multiple.  It has really thrown a loop in some things around the funny farm.  First off our pecan trees took a big hit.  Hopefully they make it through it all ok but so far the signs have not been good and we may be seeing some major damages across the orchard.  We had lost all of the fruit early on which isn’t a huge surprise but the pecan trees being damaged like it appears they are is more of a serious issue.  Only time will tell!  Other with trying to keep up with the weather changes we have gotten in new baby chicks, had a new filly born, planned the garden, worked on the house and in general just stayed busy with our crazy lives.  More about that will come soon!

                With the weather warming up it is very hard to stay motivated with my sewing.  I have fallen behind with my blocks for quilt guild but I finally got sewing again this weekend and am slowly catching up.  Below are some pictures of my most recent blocks, please excuse the cruddy phone pictures!

 

These are all paperpieced blocks that I have done for this project (Maybe I have even posted a few of these before?).  I really enjoy paperpiecing and the crisp and accurate lines you can get with it.  The last block shown that is clearly unfinished has given me more headaches than one can imagine.  The challenge was to find a star block, create it and share it at our next meeting and then create a block that someone else brought.  I thought I would try something different  to bring to the group and wow it has been a trip for me.  Maybe it has just been my time off or maybe I am just not paying attention.  There are a million mistakes but at this point I just want it done.  One of the big mistakes is visible in the picture but I have decided I am not going to change it.  One can only have so much patience for a single block!  Can you spot the mix-up?  I will hopefully finish the last section tonight, sew them all together and be able to call it good for this block and move along!  I can't wait to see what everyone else has done next week and try somebody else's design!

Rigatoni Pie

                I love pasta.  And carbs. And more carbs.  Have I mentioned I love carbs?  I often look for new ways to treat myself to carbs besides the ol’ spaghetti and red sauce meal.  Last night I tried a new recipe called rigatoni pie.  I found the recipe at http://quick-dish.tablespoon.com/2013/02/27/pasta-pie/ and knew from the moment I saw it I had to try it!  Who would have thought to stand up rigatoni in a spring form pan and add tomato and meat goodness on top?  I sure would not have thought about it!  I did make some changes to the recipe.  I used ground beef instead of turkey because it is what we always have on hand.  I also added green chili to the meat/sauce to give it extra flavor and added whatever spices from the cabinet that looked good, not just red pepper flakes like the recipe calls for.  Bottom line: it turned out amazing.  I thought the arranging of rigatonis would take a long time but it really didn’t!  It was a quick meal!  I baked it at 350 degrees for 20 minutes and then had it under the broiler for about the last 3.  I loved it, Michael loved it and we will eat leftovers again today and love it! 

Quiet!

Sometimes life is pretty quiet on the funny farm.  This would be one of those times.  There really has not been much going on and I am ok with that!  Daylight savings time allows for Michael to be outside working late into the evening and me more daylight to do things after work.  The weather has been amazing! Yesterday when I got off work it was in the high 70’s so as soon as I got home I washed the car. I still had plenty of daylight after that to check on the chickens, gather eggs and make it to the grocery store and back all before dark!

                As far as orchard work to be done right now life consists of trimming trees, changing water and cleaning out sprinklers.  At the ranch we only have a few cows left to calve and then it will be time to work them.  Working them consists of branding, vaccinating and castrating all the bull calves.  The calves are just the cutest things ever and I love going out to see them!  We will probably do that in late April.

                I have been getting a lot of sewing done and hope to get more done this coming weekend.  I will set out to travel again next week so I will take advantage of this while I can!  I am up to speed on my blocks for quilt guild so this weekend I am going to work on a burlap and lace table runner.  I may make placemats as well if I have any leftover material.

                Like I said, not much going on so just assume that no news is good news!

Shopping!

                This week my job took me to Albuquerque for a couple days which meant I got to have an evening for shopping.  I love the chance to explore and try new stores and I received a recommendation for a good one this week!  The store is called Buffalo Exchange (www.buffaloexchange.com) and it specializes in “New and Recycled Fashion” and was a blast.  Basically, it’s a consignment store with a vintage and eclectic feel.  It is filled with great finds from clothing to shoes to jewelry and lots in between.  The selection was great and I had to practice extreme self-control in order to not spend every penny in my wallet.  I ended up purchasing a beautiful turquoise ring for a very affordable price.  The stone is oval and a lovely green with some dark striations through the middle.  I am wearing it today and loving it!

It was fun to shop in a store that doesn’t specialize in cattle and horse feed.  Living in a small town it is easy to get in a shopping rut of the same things over and over again.  Adjusting to limited shopping options was one of the more difficult things I faced when I first moved to this desolate area.  I remember a specific shopping experience awhile back when I went shopping in the “big city” about three hours away.  I called my mom ecstatically (who is also my favorite shopping partner) when I found a pair of jeans at Ann Taylor Loft.  I was so excited because it was the first time in almost two years that I bought clothes at a store without “tractor” or “feed supply” in the name.  It is the little things in life!  I honestly don’t mind shopping at the “country” or small town stores as their clothes fit me well, they usually last a long time and they fit my life style.  Surprisingly, my very large collections of high heels and fancy shoes from my college sorority days don’t get used very often anymore!  Living without all of the typical shopping options saves some pennies and also makes going to bigger towns that much more exciting.  I was an avid shopper before and I still am but my purchases have just happened to change! 

The Couscous Incident

The other night while I was making chicken alfredo I was reaching to get some items out of the fridge and knocked out a Tupperware container filled with left over couscous from supper the night before.  Not only did it fall from high up in the fridge (we have one where the freezer is on the bottom) but it happened to explode all over once it hit the ground.  Couscous went everywhere.  There may have been a few choice words that jumped out of my mouth but I grabbed the dust pan and hand broom and started cleaning it up.  There was a pretty wide area of impact so I just swept up anything in the area.  Turned out our floor was pretty darn dirty.  Because the entire container had been ruined I decided that it would be good chicken feed.  This also meant that it didn’t matter that I empty the dust pan into the Tupperware container, it was going to go outside anyway.  I set the Tupperware on the counter to bring out to the chickens later and went on with my supper not thinking twice of what had happened.  Boy was I wrong.

                Yesterday when I started making dinner I opened the fridge and saw the Tupperware container that had the couscous in it was on the shelf in the fridge.  I turned to Michael and said, “You know, we don’t need to keep this in the fridge, it’s for the chickens.”  Michael gave me a confused look and said, “Why would it be for the chickens?  It’s perfectly good for leftovers.”  At this point I got worried.  I proceeded to tell Michael, “No, it is what spilled all over our filthy floor the other night.  I swept it up and had it on the counter to go to the chickens.  Everything spilled and I put all the grime back in the container, the chickens will love it.”  All I was returned with was an even grimmer look from Michael.  The next words out of his mouth were, “Well, I sure missed that.  I ate couscous for lunch!”  My goodness, did this really happen?  I am surprised this man is not dead on the floor.  I have not swept or mopped our floors in… a very long time.  The things that went into the container are indescribable.  I guess I have learned my lesson.  Either feed the chickens right away or make sure the food makes it into our usual chicken scrap buckets.  I guess it is just a strengthening of the immune system!

Spring Chicken Order

                On our snow day Michael and I sat around talking about what we need to do to get ready for spring/summer and some of our garden and animal goals.  One thing we have spent a lot of time debating is what chickens to add to our flock.  We went through the catalog and each marked the breeds we wanted.  We then combined our lists and found out that we selected 18 breeds.  That is a little much considering we already have about 30 chickens at home!  We worked to narrow down our list and finally made our order yesterday.  Maybe making the order after snow-ritas (see “snow day” post below) wasn’t the best idea.  We sort of threw the narrowed down list out the window and ended up ordering A LOT of chickens.  We ended up with about 60 on our order.  There are still 3 breeds that weren’t available for the delivery date we wanted so we will still be making another order.  My goodness we are going to have a lot of chickens! 

                When deciding on which ones we wanted to order we used some strategy.  I am pretty darn crazy about spreadsheets, in fact, I love them.  I assembled a sheet that broke down the breeds into categories.  This allowed us to have a good overview of what our overall flock will be like.  Our categories are: ornamental, layers and meat birds.  Our ornamental list is probably the most fun.  We won’t rely on them to lay eggs and may have to keep them separate from our established group due to the picking order, etc.  We picked three kinds of bantams and a few varieties of top-hatters in addition to some that are just crazy looking.  They will have no major purpose except being fun to watch!  For the layers I ordered a lot more araucanas because they lay the beautiful green/blue eggs and I am down to one layer in my current flock.  I want to increase my colored egg production so this will aide in that.  We also selected some other hardy varieties that will be consistent layers.  As far as the meat group I don’t believe that there is much explanation needed there.  We also selected a few breeds of ducks which I am excited about because I have never had ducks before.  We have selected some that will be grown for food and some that are good layers/setters.  I can’t wait!

                The worst part about ordering was that I got all excited to get them and see what they will look like but they won’t arrive in the mail until the last week of April! I am just not sure how I will ever wait that long!  I have no choice but to wait so this will be a great practice in patience, and also give me time to build a bigger coop and run because I am going to need it!