I'm not sure if she's hungry or just curious

I've been keeping Faith out of the kitchen so that she doesn't go crazy about the bird, but today she came in a few times and didn't even blink an eye at the strange "box" taking up half the kitchen floor.  And then I took off the sheet.

I actually let the child help in the kitchen

Today we made mini pizzas.  Just the typical recipe of English muffin's cut in half and then a scoop of spaghetti sauce, three slices of pepperoni, and some mozzarella cheese.  He ate one for lunch and the rest were put away to add to school lunches this week.  Normally I would freeze some, but the freezer is a bit full right now.

Sadly, the entire time I was beating myself up because I couldn't stop thinking "I could probable make those muffins..." and "Next summer I will have my own spaghetti sauce from my tomatoes..."  and "I have that recipe for making fresh mozzarella cheese...."

Someday.

Candeling

There is a thing called candeling that is done to chicken eggs.  It's basically shinning a flashlight through an egg and trying to see what is inside.  I candeled every egg tonight, and took pictures, but I really have no idea what I am looking for or at.  It seemed like all of the pictures online had veins running through them, and I didn't see that in any of my eggs.

I did see a couple that had a dark lump that would move around, which may or may not be good.

Another major problem is that I have no idea when some of these eggs were laid since I didn't realize Silkie Sue was hoarding so many eggs.

In any case, here are some of the pictures I took.

I think this is a bad egg, that circle around the left side is a "blood ring"

This darker area would move when I'd turn the egg over

Another darker mass that would move when the egg was rotated

We have a Chicken in the Kitchen

I've been worried about Silkie Sue for awhile.  I don't think she's eating very much, I've been putting water next to her nesting box but it always seems to be dirty or empty 10 minutes later, and I'm not even sure that any of the eggs are "good".

So I brought her in the house...

Holy Cow how many eggs is she hiding?!?!?!

Stupid Birds

Within about 20 seconds, the guinea attempted to get out of the fence, in the same exact spot, three times.  I think this is enough proof and didn't take pictures of the next 87 times she tried to do the exact same thing.

Carrie and her weird ways

I was waiting for Buffy to finish laying an egg and Carrie decided to hang out.

And then she decided she wanted to get IN the coop...

Now, you have to share...

I've been wondering how the other birds were laying new eggs in the same box that Silkie Sue was in.

Now I know

Gardening is around the corner

I had planned to rent a tiller to get my garden ready.  Then I realized I wanted to scrape the top layer of dirt off some areas to expand the garden, which would require a bobcat or tractor.  So I figured I would have to rent that AND a tiller.  And then I found someone who would come and do the work for me, and only charge me $25 more than what it would cost for me to rent the equipment.

It was getting dark when he finished

 Good timing too, because check out my tray of lettuce seeds.  They don't go into the ground for a couple weeks, but clearly I need to start measuring the rows and planning things.  The first seeds go into the ground the first week in March.

A whole tray of lettuce

Fertilized Eggs

If you've ever wondered what a fertilized chicken egg looks like, this is it.  

The egg on the left has a white-ish circle in the middle of the yolk, that's the fertilized one.

A weekend of work

This weekend was a major weekend of work.

Saturday we spent the day pulling trash out of the woods.  I was determined to do a final trip to the scrap metal yard so we were getting serious about finding everything.   We dragged another water heater out, a washer machine, an oven, a piece to an old tractor, a huge propane tank, a metal headboard, and tons of rusty cans.

We even found this saw.  I thought about hanging it up in the house, but figured I have enough "stuff" already.

Saturday night, I got my February seeds planted inside, on the dinning room table.

The cups on the right were the ones I made out of shredded newspaper

ALL of the cups like these have various tomatoes

This whole tray is a variety of lettuce

Sunday I was outside with the chainsaw, my favorite tool.  I have been meaning to cut up some trees that I had to cut down a few months ago and dragging dead trees and branches out from the woods.  I was trying to clean up the back side of the house.

After seeing the pictures my son took - I need to work on NOT making faces when I'm working

I also borrowed a hacksaw to cut the tires off of a bunch of rusty rims we found in the woods.

Sunday night we picked up a trailer I rented and went to get some mulch.  Shoveling mulch is far less fun than it sounds.  I thought we got a good amount, until I saw the piles we unloaded.  Looks like I will be getting more.

Monday morning, we loaded all the scrap metal in the trailer and headed to the recycling center.

The dumped pile.

The payday

Don't get too excited, this money plus the money we got from the last load, is going to pay a landscaping guy to come do some work in my garden today.

The day had only just started.  From here we went to Lowe's to pick up some stuff I needed, then to pick up some pallets of wood for another project.  We went home to eat before heading out to get 2 yards of soil that we shoveled into the garden and into a raised flower bed I've been working on, and then to another town to pick up an old swing set and slide that I'm going to use for the goats.

Honestly, I had another pair of strong(er) hands to help with the shoveling of the soil and the swing set, or there is no way I could have gotten this all done.

I didn't get everything I wanted done - I still want to get a load of mulch, and I didn't get a load of hay like I wanted to... but my body is pretty darn sore today.