Name my hen - starts tomorrow...

Tomorrow, on my other blog I will be asking for name ideas for my little unnamed hen. If you've got any go on over and comment on that post. Click here!

Worlds of wonder

I love terrariums and for a new post I had to make a few. You can read how to do it at the other blog. It's the perfect activity for those of you who don't want a garden yet but do like plants...

Check it out, ya'll

On my other blog we are having our first contest with actual prizes! It's a recipe contest so go check it out!

My broody Donut

I have a cute little hen who thinks her eggs are fertilized and won't move - that's called going broody. I'm not sure yet what to do about it but here's a cute video of her getting mad when I'm trying to get my other hen's eggs out from under her.

Painting the roses

I have never had roses before but this new rental we moved into has some bushes. I pruned them a little - but they were so out of shape it would take a long while to get them looking really good. But still, the few first blooms are beautiful. I'm not a fan of the roses you get at the store but these fragrant beauties have won me over! Aren't they stunning? And they are soo much prettier in person.

I love this!

Spring has arrived down here and with it comes one of my favorite things. I just wrote a post about this on my other blog(including the how's and why's) but I have to say one of the best warm weather activities...well, that may be pushing it - when it comes to chores it's the tops but it may not beat boating, picnics, and the like. Anyhow, I just love hanging my laundry outside. I haven't had the chance to do it since living in Provo but it's just as great as I remember. For the past week we've been hang drying our laundry on our new clothesline. It's so relaxing and enjoyable. And the novelty of it helps get me motivated to do my laundry! Have you ever hung your laundry out of doors?Isn't this a cool clothesline contraption?

Informative post on Wild Onions

Last week when our neighbor was mowing his backyard it smelled strongly of onions and so we began to wonder if he didn't have some wild onions in his backyard.
So yesterday when I was out inspecting the yard to make sure their weren't any eggs being layed in weird places I saw that we too have wild onions. I was really excited by this - it hearkened back to my childhood when I dreamed of being a hunter/gatherer and living in the woods - what was that book called?

Anyhow, we pulled them out, took them in, washed them and set to work.





I first minced the bulbs and the stalks about a third up the stem. I sauted this in butter- meanwhile cooking some white rice in another pot.



Once my rice was done I added the softened onion, some butter, and salt to the rice. I fluffed with a fork and took a bite. It was excellent. My kids didn't want any though they seemed excited enough as we gathered and cooked. So I ate the whole thing myself. Ahh...feels good. I have now reached Martha Stewart status.....

Well, that's not the whole story - within about twenty minutes there was some rumbling - a lot of rumbling. And some unmentionable things that go along with indigestion and bloating - I'll spare you the details and let your imaginations do the work. Needless to say, I was sick to my stomach for a good hour.

Wild onions and garlic grow all over the United States in many different varieties and none of these varieties are poisonous. But...they just might give you gas, bloating, and diarrhea. They say to try a little bite of one first and see how your tummy reacts. I did not do this but would whole heartedly recommend it. They also say that eating wild onions will create a natural bug repellent. I would add that some of the side effects of eating wild onions create natural people repellents too. For a good 24 hours...and counting.

As for me and my house...our eating of wild onion days are over. My tummy still rumbles when I look at these pictures.

Or better yet, let them grow and sell them. Marketing it as a quick bowel cleansing program where all of that gross stuff appears in your toilet. I have already tested it on myself and it seems pretty effective...

Shameless plugging

Well, if you weren't annoyed by my mentioning of my other blog yet - get ready to be real soon because I have a favor to ask of all of you! If you haven't checked it out - go and see what it's all about. And if you have and you like it - post about it on your blog. We are really trying to make a resource out of this but the only way to do that is by getting our name out there - and we can do that by word of mouth or by google. But we are still on page three of google when you search for backyard farming. We really would like to get ourselves to the top of page one but we need more readers for that.

So...we're calling in all of those favors - if there are any owed - to help us out on this!

Oh and by the way - we can tell where people are coming to our site from and the few of you who have already linked us from a post are making a BIG difference! So now , I owe you!

p.s. After being asked a few times - Yes, that's me in the photo. Even Mike said he wouldn't recognize me. So, if I ever needed to spy on him or if I was in some situation where I didn't want him to see me - all I'd have to do is cover my face? I guess Lois Lane isn't that dumb after all for not recognizing Superman because of his glasses and hairdo...

New post on Backyard farming...

Ok, everyone - I am so darn excited about this other blog. Today I am posting my first project - growing potatoes in a trash can - and I've had so much fun researching and completing this one. I am also sooo happy about those who are contributing (Marisa & Meghan) to make this blog even more full of good tips and ideas. I really hope it will become a great resource as well as an inspiring read. Within the next few weeks we are going to start posting something new every other day. Tell everyone you can about it and go and check it out!

Backyardfarming.blogspot.com

Little Red Hen

So, as I said before I got four new chickens. I had heard when you get new chickens to keep them isolated for a week or so to watch them and make sure they aren't carrying disease or anything. Well, I only have one coop and didn't want to go to the trouble of making anything else so Saturday when we got home I threw them all in together. Besides a little pecking order stuff going on, everyone seemed A-Okay. Well, this morning I went out to feed them only to discover one of my little red bamtams, "Paprika" laying flat on her back - dead - with her eyes rolled back in her head. The rest of the chickens were kind of hanging out in the other corner and looked at me like, "You finally got here! See what happened?" Well, I was totally caught off gaurd and actually pretty disgusted and so I picked her up with a shovel and put her body into a trash bag.

My next thought was that I would have the first case of avian bird flu in the U.S. and that my entire family was going to die. So I called a vet and here's how my first two calls went:

"Do you guys treat chickens?"

*Pause*"Umm, no. We don't."

"Do you know of any vets that do?"

"Uhhhhhh. Hmmm...no. Well maybe such and such but I really don't have any idea."(Of course sounding a bit disgusted with the whole thing)

So luckily I live in college station which is home to Texas A&M. The "A" standing for agriculture. I was able to find a place on campus that would treat farm animals and said for $15.00 they'd take a look at my dead chicken without running any lab work or anything on it. The scientist on the phone reminded me the cost of that would be worth more than my entire flock. Ya, Ya...so we finally got there.

Oh and before I go on - yesterday Elijah ripped down a board I had nailed into a tree he liked to climb - forming a ladder to make it easier to get to the branch he likes to sit on. Well, within ten minutes of ripping that board out he stepped on one of the huge nails that was being used to hold it onto the tree. So, needless to say - he's real hurt and can't walk today.

So I walk into the place with a 6 year old hanging on my back - remember I am just about 6 months pregnant - and a toddler following behind - and oh yeah - I am carrying a dead chicken in a trash bag. Oh, and it's raining so we made this trek through the rain. It's probably not necessary to tell you I wasn't feeling too happy about the traveling circus I was a part of.

So after about a half hour the guy comes back - and let me say he really was really nice - and tells us the chicken was not sick and probably got it's head stuck under the chicken wire and the trauma made it freak out and it's lung filled up with fluid and it died.

Oh good - we are not going to die. I actually didn't feel too bad for little Paprika. I was just really glad I hadn't infected my other hens and my family with any life threatening illness.

So, in the end...I just lost my fourth chicken in as many months. These things are hard to keep alive around here! As for my other chickens - the other bantam(which is a mini type of chicken) is named Cinnamon and you can see her in the image above. The big black one - that is molting - is named Shera - because she's large and in charge. And the last one you can't see is named Donut and she's our favorite. She sits on our lap and lets us pet her and she's really pretty and when we get a good picture of her I'll post it.

Introducing "Backyard Farming"

Together with a few friends we have started a new blog! We are really excited about it and hope it will be a helpful tool to not only our friends and family but everyone that finds it - so it's not really a personal blog. It is pretty sparse right now but with time we hope with time it will become a great resource. We plan on adding book reviews, practical instruction, and articles about our experiences with backyard farming. Eventually it will have a website linked with it to add even more features.

Take a look and pass it on!

http://backyardfarming.blogspot.com/