Our First Egg

Sunday night we received our first egg

It's a pale green color.  Here is another picture - I put a stick of chapstick next to it for a size reference.  The plate it is on is white, and the towel is brown - for color references.

Eggs - Store bought, colors, and nutrition

Store Bought Eggs

Eggs in grocery stores are mass produced.  The chickens that lay green eggs are more rare and therefore are not the "mass production" type of birds.  That's why you won't find green eggs in grocery stores.  There are also birds that will lay pink eggs, no really PINK, and they are even more rare than the green layers.

When buying eggs from a grocery store, the brown eggs are no different than the white eggs.  They both have the same nutritional content when bought from the grocery store (mass produced eggs).  To sum up my research, back in the day, white eggs were mass produced by the cheaper birds that were fed cheap food.  Brown eggs were raised by farmers and families and had a more diverse diet of weeds and bugs and this would enhance the eggs (flavor and nutritional content.)  

Mass producers realized that people wanted brown eggs, so they got brown chickens and started mass producing them.  However, they're fed the same cheap food as the white layers, so their eggs come out with the same nutritional value and bland mass-produced flavor - but with a higher price tag. 

The moral of the story - store bought eggs are going to have the same nutritional value and flavor regardless of their color or price.  Eggs from birds that are fed a better diet - outside of a facility - are going to have a better flavor and a better nutritional content.

In fact , research has shown that home raised chicken eggs have these features (compared to store bought/mass produced eggs):

• 1/3 less cholesterol• 1/4 less saturated fat• 2/3 more vitamin A• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids• 3 times more vitamin E• 7 times more beta carotene

Why Green Eggs?

Personally, I wanted green eggs because it's different and funny and because when I had chickens on my dad's land as a teenager, half of them laid green eggs.  I have read in a variety of places that green eggs are slightly different nutritionally, specifically that they have lower cholesterol levels.  

Regardless of "green eggs" being healthier - it's clear that home grown chickens - with access to sunlight, exercise, bugs, and a diverse diet - produce much healthier (and better tasting) eggs.

In case you wanted a few more interesting facts:

• In 1974, the British Journal of Nutrition found that pastured eggs had 50 percent more folic acid and 70 percent more vitamin B12 than eggs from factory farm hens.
• In 1988, Artemis Simopoulos, co-author of The Omega Diet, found pastured eggs in Greece contained 13 times more omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids than U.S. commercial eggs.
• A 1998 study in Animal Feed Science and Technology found that pastured eggs had higher omega-3s and vitamin E than eggs from caged hens.
• A 1999 study by Barb Gorski at Pennsylvania State University found that eggs from pastured birds had 10 percent less fat, 34 percent less cholesterol, 40 percent more vitamin A, and four times the omega-3s compared to the standard USDA data. Her study also tested pastured chicken meat, and found it to have 21 percent less fat, 30 percent less saturated fat and 50 percent more vitamin A than the USDA standard.
• In 2003, Heather Karsten at Pennsylvania State University compared eggs from two groups of Hy-Line variety hens, with one kept in standard crowded factory farm conditions and the other on mixed grass and legume pasture. The eggs had similar levels of fat and cholesterol, but the pastured eggs had three times more omega-3s, 220 percent more vitamin E and 62 percent more vitamin A than eggs from caged hens.
• The 2005 study Mother Earth News conducted of four heritage-breed pastured flocks in Kansas found that pastured eggs had roughly half the cholesterol, 50 percent more vitamin E, and three times more beta carotene.
• The 2007 results from 14 producers are shown here.

Here is just one of the sources I've looked at:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/2007-10-01/Tests-Reveal-Healthier-Eggs.aspx

The flock is complete

Saturday night we picked up three birds from the fair to finish out our bird family.

A Buff Orpington - known for being calm and friendly birds and they lay large brown eggs 3 times a week.

An Ameraucana - known for laying medium size blue eggs 3 times a week.  This bird was a CHAMPION at the fair and I have a picture of her ribbon to prove it :)

And a Black Australorp - known for being friendly, peaceful, and dignified.  They lay large brown eggs 5 times a week.

We will start to name all of the birds now that we have our flock.  

Here are the birds that we already had:

(breeds are unknown since some are mixed - but will be determined soon)

The hens (4 in all):

The rooster:

Home Grown

Our tomatoes, onions, and potatoes were doing great, but our garden was pretty empty besides weeds.  It took two days to clear the weeds out of the empty rows, and once it was done I decided I wanted to try to plant a few more things.

The only things that will grow now are broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, and cabbage so that's what I bought.

Here's part of the garden where the new vegetables were planted.

The long walk home

After living here for a year, we finally got down to the one restaurant in the small town next to us last week.

Chuckwagon Restaurant just sounds country doesn't it?

Johnathon ordered a burger that was larger than mine.  It not only had the typical burger patty, bun, lettuce, tomatoes, and onion, but it also had a sausage patty and a fried egg.

He ate almost the entire burger.

Jeremiah had a kids' burger and green beans.

After dinner the boys decided they wanted to walk home.  In fact they started to run home.

While it was along the main road through the town and there were cars going by, it's still out in the country so it's not too busy.

I drove along with them, pulling to the side of the road in front of them, waiting for them to run past me about a quarter mile, and then driving past them about a half mile and pulling over again.

They made it.

2.6 miles, running almost the entire way.  Laughing and smiling the whole time.

When they got back to the house, I had to drive past our driveway and make a u-turn to come back because of the median in the road.  This is what I saw when I pulled into the driveway:

Faith just doesn't know what to do

This is a good video for being able to hear what guinea fowl sound like.  It's also a good video to see that our dog isn't eating the birds (yet).  She could have gotten to them but she didn't.

Okay, so I will admit that about 5 minutes later one went right past her and she playfully snapped at it.  She could have bit the bird (and eaten it) but she didn't even touch it.  She wants to play and luckily, so far, she understands that she can't actually touch them.

I never claimed to be a genius

We had a watermelon growing in our garden for several weeks.  We kept watching it, waiting to cut it off and eat it.  Finally the day came.  Just as I broke the watermelon from the vine I realized that the watermelon didn't have a hint of yellow anymore... it was ORANGE.  

It wasn't a watermelon!  

I had planted the watermelon and pumpkin near each other and the storms that washed away most of our soil must have messed with the placement of the watermelon and pumpkin plants!

Here was the "watermelon" the day I cut it, and realized it was orange...

And here is our pumpkin - five days later.

The good news is that there are two more growing, and this time I will be smart enough to leave them alone until they're ready to be harvested - as pumpkins.

Poopers' final resting place

A few days ago we made Poopers stepping stone to place over her burial site.

And here is where it's been placed

One man's trash...

As we clean out the woods of 50 years worth of trash, I'm always fascinated by the things we find.

This bottle must have gotten so hot, the thing is completely melted

I WISH we could figure out what this said... 

This is a chair... the seat is at ground level, so the legs are buried in the ground

Washer and Dryer anyone?

There were 4 stoves - so far

J&J, Jergens, and Hydrogen Peroxide

Does anyone remember Crass Soda?

How about a 1965 glass Mountain Dew Bottle?

Yes, he was in the woods too.

A horse from a swing set

Bennett Elementary signs

How many people own an outhouse?

When I bought this property there were a few "shacks" just behind the treeline.  We sneaked up to them and took pictures of them because I was actually fascinated by them, but before we could close on the sale of the house, the lender said they had to be torn down for insurance and safety reasons.

The seller tore down the three shacks that were visible and left a huge pile of debris behind.  He didn't touch the two buildings that were 100 feet away and about 10 feet deeper in the woods.

I thought one of the buildings looked like an outhouse and I joked about it.

About 6 months after moving in, I had started to clear out the debris by burning it in the fire pit we built and cutting down the grape vines that were growing like crazy in the woods.

Little by little I got closer to the narrow building that I called the outhouse.

Finally the day came where I was able to open the door.  And yes, it really was an outhouse.  There was even a roll of toilet paper inside.

No, it doesn't smell despite his worry

How many people have a real outhouse on their property?

It's been 7 months since we uncovered the structure, and it is still standing.  I realize I should probably just tear it down and burn it too.  But I also find it funny when people come to our home and we're standing in the yard and I can say....

"Oh, and if you need to use the restroom it's right over there..."