Finally, daylight and sunshine

The last batch of chicks was finally able to experience the great outdoors today.  After I let the adults free-range, I opened the coop door for the chicks.  A few of them came out, but it took awhile for the rest to get brave enough.

The chickens wouldn't come out... (pun intended)

They sure are pretty birds.

The crazy part is that when I went to put everyone to bed there were six of these guys that were outside the run, under their coop, chirping and scared.  They must have managed to squeeze out of one of the gaps in the fence.

Just in case you wanted to know

It has been all over the news that the 17-year cicadas were going to swarm the East coast this year.  

For those of you that aren't near the East coast, this is what you're missing.

These are the shells of the creatures that crawl out of the ground

 The shells are all over the place.  They cover the walls of the chicken coops, the edges of the goat pen, the tarp over the hay, everywhere.

A small section of the back of the chicken coop

From those creatures, comes these flying things that make a ton of noise.

And here is a ten-second clip to hear the noise they make.

Still growing

Still haven't made the trellis for the cucumbers and squash

Sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts

Sunflowers

Carrots and Parsnips

Lettuce

Green Beans

Onions

Tomatoes

Potatoes way back there

Apparently the coolest place to hang out is....

This is where I've found the birds each afternoon.

Too close to the end

Today while I was working on the coop I noticed Big Red standing at the corner of the chicken run.  She looked a little funny, but I didn't think much of it since the others hurried over to the corner with her, wanting to be let out.  

About 30 minutes later as I walked by, I saw her again and knew something was wrong.  I opened the door and while all of the birds reacted normally, hurrying over to get out and free-range, Big Red sort of turned half an inch but didn't move.  

I scooped her up and immediately knew there was something wrong and it was probably that she's egg bound.  None of the birds stand around like this and none of them would let me scoop them up the way she did.  And, as soon as I had my hands around her, I felt how huge and swollen her abdomen was.

Being egg bound means that an egg is stuck inside her.  If she can't pass it within 24-48 hours, she will die.  I don't know how long she's been like this, so I'm not sure how much time I have.

I carried her into the house and with one hand cleaned out half of the sink and filled it with warm water.

Never did I think I would have a chicken in my sink.

Sorry for the dirty lady in the picture, I didn't think I'd be posing for any pictures after all the yard work.

After a 30 minute soak I put her in my shower so she would be contained and away from any excitement outside.  She immediately went to the bathroom, but there was no evidence of egg.  I gave her food and water and saw that she age, but she wouldn't drink.

A few hours later, I made a tub of warm water with Epsons salt and sat down with her.

You can see her eyes closing in this one

She soaked for about 25 minutes while trying to squeeze something out.  I can tell she's uncomfortable, but I'm just not sure what else to do.  Even my internet research isn't helpful as they say I should be able to feel the egg inside her, which I can't, and some of their solutions involve going into her vent, which I know I can't do.

I bundled her up, dried her off, and then put her back in the shower with a heat lamp, water, and food.  I'm going to take some yogurt and molasses to her in a few minutes as that's what another chicken friend told me to do.  

I don't want her to suffer but after reading up on how to "humanely" put her down, I'm sure I can't do any of those things either.  

Strawberry Projects, Take Two

I knew I had to get these strawberries taken care of before they go bad so I got in the kitchen and started washing and cutting this morning.

One gallon of strawberries

One gallon after they've been hulled

The parts the chickens will be thanking me for later

 I decided to start off with the jams.  My first batch was going to be a four-berry jam.  I found a recipe for triple berry, but the bag of mixed berries that I bought to go with the strawberries had three in it (blueberry, raspberry, and blackberry).

I had to mash up the fresh strawberries first.

And then mash up the mixed berries.

 And then the cooking got started.  The jam only has fruit, sugar, and pectin.  Pectin is what makes it turn into gel.

You're suppose to fill the jars up and I had this tool that had a cool way to measure how full the jar was.  The math teacher in me was all excited when I noticed it.

Things did get a little messy.

But things turned out well.

It tastes great.  The only issue was that some of the jars didn't seal.  This was my first time canning and I was doing the hot water method.  I have a few theories as to why they didn't seal so hopefully the next batches won't have the same issue.  This just means we have to eat the jam sooner than I planned.  I can't complain about that.

The youngest son declared it good.

I started another batch of strawberry-rasberry jam and my fingers are crossed that the jars will seal.  We've already tasted it, and it's just as good as the first batch.

 The dried strawberries were also done so I peeled them off the screen.

And sealed some for saving.

Then I made some fruit roll ups.  I made strawberry-banana flavored ones and I'm about to make 4-berry ones as well.

Last, I made some strawberry-lemonade concentrate.  I froze them in ice cube trays and later I will transfer them to sealed bags for storage.  I'll just have to add some water and it will make a great summer drink.

I'm tired, and it was a lot of work, but I'm so glad that I did it.  I need more practice to make sure I can seal the jars properly and find more counter space to work with, but hopefully by this summer I'll be a professional.

We still have a gallon of strawberries left so I'll be drying more of them tonight and then I'll be done.

Until we go picking again.

One small step towards homesteading

I ordered a dehydrator a couple weeks ago and it's been sitting on the table waiting for fresh produce for too long.  So this morning we went to the local farmer's market and bought some strawberries (and some yummy bread and pure honey) and then we went strawberry picking to get even more strawberries.

They measure by the gallon and we had over four gallons.  We picked three baskets/gallons ourselves and we bought 5 quarts.

As soon as we got home we got to work.  I washed and cut the tops off them while the youngest used an egg slicer to slice them up and spread them out on the dehydrator trays.

Six trays of strawberries are drying today and should be done between tonight and tomorrow morning.

A cookie sheet of strawberries is in the freezer.  Once they're hard, we'll seal them with the FoodSaver and put them in the basement freezer.

Then we'll start on making jams for the first time ever.