Para Mi Almita

For her birthday, my good friend, Almita, wanted me to give her a bread making lesson. She wanted to learn how to make whole wheat bread. This post is not on how to make bread but what I did to make it look like a birthday gift.

(for some reason, the pictures came out blurry, click on the picture to see it more clearly)

First of all I gathered together the supplies that I thought that I would need.

I then took apart the food containers.

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I then spray painted them the various colors.

Next, I took off the label from the can of wheat and used it as a template for the pretty scrapbook paper I used as the new lable.

I love the vintage label that I found for free here.

I then applied the label to the food container box.

Then I re-assembled the boxes.

And filled them with their corresponding ingredient.

And there you have it.... A lovely birthday gift....

For a lovely friend.

Nice job Almita!

Now There's Five

Last week wee discovered that a forth chicken has started laying. It was Rocky, one of the younger Barred Rocks. And now today....I have found five eggs. I'm not sure who the fifth girl is but she lays speckled eggs.



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It Was Twins

So after making scrambled eggs for dinner, I found that the huge egg had double yolks. Mmmmm delicious!!






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OUCH!!

Today I went out to tend the chickens and found that Julia had laid this enormous egg. I guess that she was jealous that I said that Black Jack's egg was a little bigger. So now the competition is on.




This is Julia's egg today compared to her egg she laid yesterday...ouch!




This is Julia's egg next to a Costco extra large egg...ouch! ( I wonder if it will have double yolks, I'll have to wait and see; Jack wants to see it when he gets home from work.)




This is Julia basking in the sun resting after such a feat.

We've Got Another Layer!

Okay... It's official, we have another layer. Black Jack is now laying. I heard her in there this morning singing the laying song ( bawk bawk bawk Bagawk!) so now that's three for her. I suspected it was her but now I am sure. What a good girl!





- That's her right next to the egg.




The one on the left is Black Jack's and the one on the right is Julia's. Black Jack's is a little lighter in color and a little larger.

Strawberries

I harvested these little yummies today. The trick was to keep them out of reach of the chickens when I let them free range. They may have eaten a bunch of my blueberries, but I won the strawberry booty. Thanks to my DDIL, I have inherited three little strawberry plants. I am taking good care of them...mmmmm.

Where's the Shell??

This morning I went out to check for eggs. As of now, only Julia is laying. She has been for a couple of weeks now. Well, this morning there were no eggs in the nest, but I saw something inside the coop under the roosting board. It was actually an egg with NO shell. It just had the membrane around it. Pretty cool! I hope that this means that someone new is starting to lay. Otherwise I am going to have supplement with something high in calcium. I'll check into it and update later.




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Tommy the Tomatah

I have been watching this little guy growing in the garden for a while now. Jack and I got a few good laughs too.








We became quick friends and now we do everything together.








Tommy helped with harvesting some corn and making lunch.








Jack and Tommy having a few laughs at lunch.









Killer took to Tommy quickly too.








Welcoming the new egg to the family.









Oops...I guess she's not going to be hanging around for a while. Although she is just as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside.









Tommy trying to not get too close to the heat.








" Dude...you okay?"

















"It was nice knowing you."








-********************BREAKING NEWS!!!********************

The grand kids came over and fell in love with Tommy the Tomatah.....it was NOT a happy ending.... Sorry Tommy.













Hazel...you are such a dork!



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SOMEBODY LAYED AN EGG!!!

Just before noon Jack Jr. Comes into my office and asks "Did you put a fake egg into the nesting box to encourage the chickens?" I said " I put in a golf ball." He said " no, an egg."

We both dart out to the backyard and look into the nesting box and sure enough...a cute little brown egg. My guess is that one of the Rhode Island Reds layed it. One little problem is that someone pecked a hole in it so we won't be eating that one. But I can't wait to open it up and see what's inside.





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Backyard Bugs

Jack and I have been working in the yard all day. I spent most of it digging in the dirt. I came across about a half-a-dozen of these ugly guys. It's called a Jerusalem Cricket and it's about 2 1/2 inches long. The chickens just love them...a tasty snack I guess. I had to be super brave to pick them up and bring them to the coop and I was wearing gloves.



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"What The Hawk!?!"

Sunday morning I slept in. Jack let the chickens out into the run. I wake up to the sound of commotion and loud "BAWK BAWKS". I go out and at first glance it looks like one of the chickens is out. I head toward the coop and what do I see? A beautiful brown and white hawk. It looks at me as if to challenge me, then flies up to the wire above my yard. My poor girls were traumatized. Several of them had bloodied beaks from trying to protect themselves. I guess that they are just too stupid to know that they were safe behind the hardware cloth. If you look closely, you can see blood running down Rocky's beak, poor girl. They are doing well now. I am now more aware of the skies when I let the girls,out to free range.





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Pumpkin Patch (Pumpkin Sex)

Here are photos of my pumpkin patch at the beginning if summer. Notice how lush the leaves look. So healthy and green. Notice the pretty yellow flowers. These are the male flowers. The female flowers are lower, under the foliage. My guess is that the grand design was to attract the bees with the longer stemmed male flower, then the bees will pollinate the female flowers, and what you get are beautiful pumpkins by the end of summer.


Past experience has taught me that sometime Mother Nature needs a little help. Hence, pumpkin sex. When I noticed the female flowers finally blooming, I would break off a male flower, tear off it's petals and swirl it around inside the female flower. And voila! Pumpkins

Starting to turn color.

Taken this morning. The leaves are dying but the pumpkins are almost ready to harvest and cure. Hopefully they can hang on till Halloween. I will cure them by cutting them from the vine about four inches from the pumpkin and put them in the green house for about ten days. This will cause the shell to harden and keep the fruit fresh for a longer time (4-6 months) if kept in a cool place not touching each other.











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