Melissa's Farm Trip 1

Guess what?

Chicken butt

Alright......I'm done.  haha

My nephew wanted to come with me to the farm so I bought him along.

After seeing my baby chicks....we went outside to explore the farm.  Melissa and her family have a ton of land with lots of animals.  It's wonderful.

There's lots of hens and roos free ranging.

We went to the big chicken coop.  It's guarded by a beautiful dog.  Here's my nephew with the dog.  The breed of the dog is a great pyrenees.  They are gentle dogs to guard chickens and he does an great job protecting them.

We walked in the coop.  There were two chickens each in a nesting box.  One barred rock was laying an egg right in front of us.  Melissa couldn't believe it.  All this time she's never seen the chickens lay an egg.  She just goes in and the eggs are there.

Here's the egg.  I collected it.  It was nice and warm.

Here's the hen who laid the egg.

Here's some other hens just sitting on eggs.

One nesting box had 3 eggs.  It looks like an egg from each breed of chicken.

This is an up close picture of an ameraucana chicken.

We came back into the coop a little later to see another chicken lay an egg.  It was amazing!!  haha  This particular girl didn't want to get off the egg and we made her mad.

We heard another chicken proudly clucking that she just laid an egg.  A rooster was even clucking all proud.  Only thing....the hen we heard didn't lay the egg in the coop.  She laid the egg in a old barn.  We went to look and discovered a bunch of eggs.  13 today.  One was very warm which we knew was the one that was just laid.  The others one of which was cracked we didn't want to take a chance on so Melissa said we could feed them to the pigs.

Here's the pigs.  They are huge.  This picture doesn't show you how big they are.  They loved the eggs.  They didn't touch the cracked one though.  They sniffed it and walked away.  For a pig to not touch it you know it's bad because they eat everything.  haha

So the top green-ish egg is the one we found in the old barn and the brownish one is the one I saw being laid.

There's some goats and mules on the farm too.

After our farm visit it was time to head home.  My nephew was hungry so I took him to panda express which is his favorite place.

Melissa had given me some farm fresh eggs.  I also got to bring home the egg I saw the hen lay.

When my chicks grow up this is what they will look like.

Top:  plymouth barred rock  (light brown eggs)

Middle:  australorp  (brown eggs)

Bottom:  ameraucana  (colored eggs)

I can't wait until my chickens are adults and laying eggs for us.  :)

Backyard Chickens Update #4

Hello.....and thanks for stopping by my blog.  I haven't blogged in a while.  :(  Blogging takes time to sit down, gather your pics and decide what you're going to talk about.  Honestly, the last few weeks, I just haven't wanted to sit down and blog.  That makes me a little sad because I love to blog.  It's so easy to get behind though.  Sometimes after a long day at work staring at computer screens, the last thing I want to do is turn my laptop on.  

Okay so moving on......Hopefully, I can catch up on my blog posts and stay caught up.

So.....I went to my friend Melissa's farm to meet my little chicks.

I walked into the room where they were in a big plastic tub with a heat lamp.

There's 10 total and I get to pick out 5 of them.

Here they are cuddled in the corner.

They are adorable and it's cute when they peck your finger or hand when you try to pet or grab them.

Here's the littles "peeping".  :)

Here's one of my favorite ones.  I hope it's a hen.  :)

Backyard Chickens Update #3

Be prepared for the cuteness........

Fluffy little baby chicks.....

This is a picture of my baby chicks that was taken yesterday.  The first one hatched on the 11th and each day there have been a few hatching.

I'm going out to see all the babies and hold them on Sunday so by the end of the weekend or early next week you will get to see a new update.  :)

I'm warning you now....this is just the beginning of all the cute chicken pictures that are surely to come.  haha

Farm Stand 4/15/16

I went to my favorite farm stand today to pick up a few things.  The stand just opened a few days ago so I was excited to be able to stop in today.  The farmers that own the stand is the ones I got my CSA share with.  That starts in May.

The layout is a little different that last year.  I like it.  It's nice and open.  Feels much bigger.

There was a bunch of flowers, herbs, and some veggies.  Here's some zucchini plants that made me smile because the seed shell/casings are still attached.  

Here's a lot of different starter tomato plants.

Some flowers....I got these marigolds.

Here's everything I got......

2 big broccoli heads

large carrot

large cucumber

green beans

marigolds

2 different lavender plants

basil plant

My total was $14.85 after my 10% discount was applied for me being a CSA member.

2016 Garden Update #6

My garden update for the week.....

Here's my greenhouse.  It's packed full but still not packed enough.  haha

Here's some sunflowers.  The back on the left is my squash balls.  I have 4 sprouts in there.

My mother ordered some hens and chicks and dropped them off the other day.  She kept a few and planted them.  I planted a couple of them.  They are pretty cute.

Hens and Chicks up close...

Here's some of the succulents I planted.

I made a trip to the dollar tree during lunch one day.  I picked up a small glass fish bowl, some pebbles and 4 glass containers in pretty bright colors.  I loved these as soon as I saw them.  I think they would make a cute gift of a plant.  We will see.  :)

I also bought a few more hanging plants with coco liners.

I planted a succulent in a pot with some pebbles.  I have an idea for this and I'm also going to re-pot this in one of my glass containers.  More on this later once I'm finished.

Here's the small glass fish bowl.  I added some rocks on the bottom for drainage.

I then added some fresh soil.

I picked a succulent and planted into the dirt.

I then added some rocks.  I have this succulent sitting in my kitchen window.  I might take it to work to sit on my desk by the window.

I learned something really interesting this week.  My husband asked me if chia seeds were the same as chia pets.  I went to the internet and searched and found this.

Q. Is it the same seed as in those chia pets? A. Yes, those are chia seeds! They sprout into microgreens, which you can add to salads or sandwiches, or just eat plain. They are similar to alfalfa sprouts in taste and texture.

How cool is that?  I had no idea.  I took some seeds from my bag and planted them.

The flowers on chia seed plants are beautiful.  

My sunflower garden is doing really well.  One morning, I had some doves trying to eat them though so I've made a fencing area with a net to try to keep them away.  It's been working so far.

When I caught the doves trying to get to my sunflowers I saw a bluebird flying around.  I figured I would check the bluebird house that afternoon to see if there were any eggs.  Sure enough when I carefully opened the bird house I saw nesting and I peeked inside and saw 4 perfect bluebird eggs.

My mother brought me some starter plant that she got.  Tomatoes, eggplants and peppers.  My nephew picked out some tomatoes and peppers starters to grow and my mom said I could have the rest.  I have them in my house sitting with the seedlings I planted last weekend.  I will plant them for outside after the frosts are done.  I don't have any sprouts for the inside seedlings yet.  Soon...I hope.  Last night and tonight we are supposed to get frost so I've been tucking in everything I have in the greenhouse just in case.  I don't want to lose any more plants.

Cheesy Veggie Quinoa Bites

I came across a blog for a recipe on Cheesy Veggie Quinoa Bites.  It looked delicious and easy so during meal prep yesterday I decided to make some for a snack.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

It's only 5 ingredients...which is a good thing.  Nothing complicated.

1 cup cooked and cooled quinoa

1 cup (4 oz) of shredded cheese (I used colby)

1 cup chopped and cooked vegetables (I used broccoli)

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

Mix everything until combined.

Spray a mini muffin or regular cupcake pan with non-stick spray.  Add mixture to tins and press down to pack in firmly.  Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.  It took mine 18 minutes.

How yummy do these look?

They are very tasty.  My husband loved them.  He said "wow that's a lot of flavor".  You can use whatever veggies you want.  I might add some fresh bell peppers next time.  I will be making these again.  They would be good for a healthy breakfast too.

Backyard Chickens Update #2

I'm so happy to share with you that I have baby chicks hatching!!!  :)  I can't wait until they are all fluffy and pretty.  :)

I'm getting two Plymouth Barred Rock Chickens.

Two Ameraucana Chickens.  (The chick hatching in the blue egg is an Ameraucana)

And one Autralorp Chicken.  :)

Those chicken pictures are from a book I just finished reading from the library.

I found a mat I want.  It's at the store And that!  I might go tomorrow during my lunch break to see if they have it.  Isn't cute?

I'm so happy my chicks are hatching.  Since they are at my friends farm, I'm planning on going out there this weekend to see and hold them.  :)

Now I will leave you with some chicken humor....

Dollar Tree Finds

Over the weekend, I went to the dollar tree.

I went in for a weed barrier and ended up finding some other goodies.  

I bought:

-2 weed barriers (for a project for a path to my green house)

-2 packs seed starting pots (used for my indoor seed starting)

-2 hanging baskets (in greenhouse)

2 coco liners (in greenhouse)

-1 4 pack of fly catcher rolls from raid  (to put in chicken coop to catch flies)

Everything I got has a purpose.  :)