Driven to egg-cess

It felt like Christmas in July...or Easter in August or..what month are we in? Surprisingly enough, apparently our young pullets are just as confused, as we are flush with eggs once again! Yesterday saw eleven eggs come from the coop where our 15 hens and pullets have been fairly well cooped up since before the holidays. But, despite bitter cold temperatures and more snow than anyone would ever wish to be subject to, our new batch of pullets are laying!!

So...as you can tell, our fridge has been filling up rapidly with eggs! I bet you're wondering....so, Jen, Mike, just what ARE you going to do with six dozen eggs?

Well, Mike took ten of them the other day, boiled them up and made a huge batch of delicious tuna salad. Of course, that was before I brought 11 eggs in yesterday, so unfortunately that left us with the house, zip, chickens +1.


So, we started digging through cookbooks! The first on the agenda this evening was bread pudding - that did in four eggs!

Of course...once I cracked those four open, this was what I found...two double yolkers!! Otherwise I might have tried to use a full half dozen :)

And then we decided we wanted to try homemade pudding...after a bit of whisking, stirring, tempering of beaten egg yolks and a bit more cooking and stirring - TaDa! Homemade chocolate pudding! There are six of these individual servings hanging out in the fridge to chill, and we're hoping they turn out quite tasty!

I imagine the weekend will see quite a few more recipes full of eggs - omlets, bread, marshmallows, egg salad...and whatever else I can find to use up some eggs! I might just scramble up some eggs for the cats!!

Rise and Tan...

Despite being thoroughly covered in snow here in western NY, we haven't fled south for warmer climes. No, we're working on completing that inevitable process like anyone who lives in a land where temperatures plunge far below freezing every winter. We're converting our blood to molasses.

But, while waiting for this to occur, to make the cold more tolerable, and to pass the time, we're trying new things!!

I can see my mom now...wondering what other hobby we've decided to pick up....;)

Lifting the spirit

There's something inherently spiritual, I think, to the art of making bread. And when one takes that process clear from the grain on through, it sees the baker gain yet another level of appreciation for this artform. Can you imagine the expression on the very first bakers when they happened upon the miracle combination of ground grain and wild yeast that lifted a ball of dough skyward?

So...as many before me, and I'm certain many after, I have developed a hearty appreciation for the effort and outcome of the breadmaking process. Mike and I screen our wheat, sorting the last of the husks and so on from it, pour it into the grain mill and work our muscles against the grinding of the burrs. After grinding sufficient enough flour, it needs to age for a bit. I tried making bread with two week old flour last week, and that was a touch young - so we're going to let the next batch sit for three. Once we find the magic time, we'll keep ahead of the supply, grinding now what we'll need for the future.

Courtesy of my friends over at the Green Branch, I've been playing with a few different recipes. Some that are 100% wheat, one that definitely isn't. The all wheat recipes are something of a leisurely process. You start with a biga(starter) and a soaker, softening the grains and freeing the gluten from the wheat. Those two rest overnight in a cool place(your fridge, or in our house, the kitchen counter), are brought together the following day with the remaining ingredients. After that, the dough is worked quite similarly to doughs with white flour. The bread from this process is rich, dense and hearty, and has quickly found a place in our meals.

The recipe for this loaf was from a book called Peter Reinhart's whole grain breads : new techniques, extraordinary flavor. I must say, it's a great book, and I'm certain I will add it to my cooking resources when I decide to visit a bookstore again. Thankfully, we have access to an awesome library system and make use of it as often as possible.

We tried another recipe from that book today. Bagels! And not just any bagels, rye/whole wheat bagels. As with the bread, it starts with a biga and soaker, which I got going yesterday. Today, I combined the two kneaded the quite stiff dough, then let it rise for about an hour and a half. At that point, we were ready to start turning the dough into bagels!

Here are the formed bagels. Really easy to do, just roll the dough into a rope just like when you played with PlayDoh as a kid, then connect the ends into a ring! Mike was much better at the process than me, and made certain that I allowed the proper 2" round hole in the center.

After that was a one minute plunge into alkanized water. What is that, do you ask? Well, it's easy enough to make - boil water, add baking soda. Tada!!

Post boil, prebake. The bagels grew significantly after the boiling! After this it was into a 450 degree oven for half an hour.

Tadah! Beautiful, aren't they? We haven't tried them yet - they're still cooling, but they definitely look good enough to eat! Assuming they taste as good as they look, we're planning on doing big batches of these then freezing them. Why give Tim Hortons our hard earned money(not that we do that often) when it really wasn't all that hard to make on our own! (Not to mention it's nice to get to use the oven when it's only 15 degrees outside....;)..)

Now, for that one recipe that is decidedly not 100% wheat(although I am working on gradually introducing more whole wheat to it). I know, you were on pins and needles, weren't you? Okay, okay, I won't keep you in suspense any longer!

The other recipe is the one that produced the dough for the phenomenal crust for these pizzas. The recipe was posted by a friend on GB(click here to check it out) and I've simply fallen in love with this easy process. The dough's ready to use in three hours, though it's better the longer it sits, and is one that you can make up and leave in the fridge, using it as you like for up to two weeks. From what I can tell, if I were to make up a batch of pizza crusts, I could make 6 crusts out of one batch. The longer it sits, the more of a sourdough tang it developes(yum!). I've made small loaves of bread with it, but really love using it for pizza dough. It's really nice to have it in the fridge, knowing if we get craving pizza I can just pull out a couple of hunks of it and have pizza in half an hour or so!

Tanning

No...we're not developing an affinity for tanning salons, nor are we sneaking off to the Bahamas. Over the holidays I tackled my first batch of rabbit pelts, and am quite happy with how they turned out! Grand total I think it took a total of two weeks' time between the time spent in the pickle and the time spent drying and working the leather until it was supple. The process was both easier and harder than I had expected, but I'm glad I gave it a shot, as it cements our intentions of raising dual purpose breeds in our rabbitry. I've my second batch in the first(and weaker) pickle right now - I'll tackle the first step of fleshing the hides this evening before strengthing the tanning solution and leaving them to soak for another week or so.

So, without further ado, here are some shots of the furs.

Oh, and the bagels were delicious!!! :)

Twas the night before...day of...and a little after...

Yeah, we know...it's sure taken us long enough. Bear with me as Jen is using this as an opportunity to teach me how to make updates too. The holiday was a small family affair as it was just us and my baby sister Mandy and her 3 y/o daughter Munchi (my name for her).
Papi (that's me) put up the tree and put the lights on it while waiting for decorating help to arrive from Ohio.

These are some really great animal bell ornaments that Jen's mom has gotten for the tree the past few years. The baby had fun showing off her barnyard knowledge by identifying them as she put them on the tree.

Munchi and Papi putting the angel on top of the tree.

Munchi poses in front of the tree she decorated (I just put a couple of the hand blown ones up near the top for her). Good job, huh?

Santa Claus came! Look at alllllll those presents.

Munchi did a great job cleaning up the wrappers as she went. (If we waited for the end we probably woulda lost the little thing).

Munchi became such the expert unwrapper that she's giving Jen some help.

Another round of cleanup...man, she's getting good.

Here Idgy tries to get in on the action while trying to avoid detection by an affectionate toddler.

Ooooh..what'd ya get Auntie Jen?

Is that all there is?

Papi said that Santa asked him to put a special present somewhere it would actually fit.....now where could that be?

Awesome! A tricycle! (I can't help but wonder if it shouldn't really be called a TRYcycle while one is working out the mechanics).

A picture for posterity.

Idgy is more than happy to fill an empty lap.

Apparently we wore her out.

Hopefully everyone had a wonderful holiday. We sure did. Perhaps now that there are two of us on the job, this thing will get updated more often.....well, we can hope.

Winter's Bite

Our little farm is firmly clenched in winter's teeth as we've hunkered down this past week. A mass of arctic air has gripped the center of the country for a while now, and this week it spread east to make us chatter in it's fist as well. Luckily enough for us, we'll climb back into double digits this weekend, but the single digit highs have certainly had us shivering this week.

So, Mike and I are hauling hot water out to the barn three times a day for the rabbits and chickens, and otherwise staying in the house unless shovel duty demands we attend to the driveway.

But, weather like this is perfect for pouring over seed and nursery catalogs, and that is exactly what has been taking up the vast portion of Mike's time of late, as he's researched and studied various permaculture options for our place.

You know you've gotten a lot of snow when...

Your porch looks like this....

Your front yard looks like this...

And....after getting the driveway to look like this...

The snowblower engine looks like this.

Yup. I broke the snowblower. REALLY broke it. Good thing this was one our our finds off Craigslist's free page, huh?

Kinda sad, though....we just got it running yesterday...just enough to decide we'll give it a go tomorrow. And then. Boom. Dead. Gone. No Workie.

At least it held out until we were ALMOST done with the driveway. So hopefully we can find a rebuild kit, and see just how good JB Weld is.

On other fronts...everyone's doing well here. We've 20 baby bunnies in the barn...

...that are thankfully being kept warm by the diligent attention of their moms. The 20 babies are from three of our does, two of whom are first time mamas, and for Amber, the third, it's her first live litter(she lost her first litter due to a bad batch of feed). They're doing great, despite temps in the teens and windchills well below zero, and we're quite happy with our girls!

The chickens are doing GREAT! Our three newest hens(the ones hatched by our mama hen this summer courtesy of eggs from my friend Vanessa) have started laying! We've been getting between 3 and 4 eggs a day from the six hens now, which is just phenomenal considering it's winter. We're not sure when to expect the new batch to start laying, but once they do we'll be flush with eggs once more!

Giving Thanks

Mike and I spent Thanksgiving out at my mom's this year, and we had a great time. The weather threatened to keep us homebound, but cleared up enough that Thursday morning we got up and headed out, getting to mom's around 10:30 - leaving plenty of time for me to help mom wrangle all the sidedishes.

We got to hang out with my great grandmother and Mom's boyfriend Ed, and had fun talking and teasing and laughing. It's nice to get to spend holidays with family.

Mom loaded up the truck yet again - I swear, by the time she's done her house'll be empty and ours will be full! We planned to go hunting why we were there and ended up having to pass on that, as I started fighting a bug(still working on that). So, it was a nice few days of relaxation.

On the way back home we picked up a rabbit from the breeder we got our stock from - Mike's calling him Splotches, and he looks very similar to Josie. He'll stay with us over the winter to help get some outside bloodlines into the mix, then he'll go back home.

Here's some shots of the gang...rabbits, cats, dogs, and chickens :D

Blue loves playing in her hay!

"Hellllooo?"

Our new chickens :D

"There's supposed to be heat coming from that register..."

" I love my toy."

Look what I found under the bench!

Meet Sam...she's my mom's cat(formerly my gramma's) and boy does she know how to relax!

Look! Sam and her little sister Gracie!! We were flattered Gracie came out to see us :)

Yeah, I know...I know...

Ok...apparently I forgot to post this one...wrote it back on November 3rd...stay tuned for more recent happenings...working on those now!

I'm slacking. Really, I don't mean to!! It's just been busy, and when it hasn't been busy, we've been taking the chance for a little R&R. But...I know ya'll are just on the edge of your seats wondering what's doing up here...sooo.



My mom came to visit!! :) We had a great time, though I just realized that we didn't manage to take and pictures! Shame on me!!!!! Mom came out the weekend of the 24th for a bit of an escape, and celebrated my birthday with Mike and I. We went out to dinner Saturday and had carrot cake for lunch Sunday. Mom got to see all the stuff we've been up to since she first saw the house(which was gradually filling from the Uhaul as she left). I got to show off the chickens, and the rabbits, too. It was perfect timing, as we had three litters in the rabbitry that weekend - Cocoa's barely hours old litter, Lily's 6 week olds, and Cocoa's last litter at 11 weeks old, so she got to see the full range. And no, I didn't feed Ma rabbit - the freezer was empty!!



But, we did butcher the eldest of those litters last night - tonight I'll get it all wrapped up and into the freezer, and we'll be set for meat for a while! Lily's litter, the Lilliputians, were moved into the growout cage, and we should see some really nice growth on them now that they have to room to grow. Lily's happy to have her cage to herself again, though she'll be moving tonight - we're going to switch Josie and Lily, to have an experienced doe next to each of the new does. Hopefully our next breeding cycle will pan out much better. Amber did kindle the 24th - unfortunately, she had the babes on the wire, and it was much too cold for them to survive long - they were gone when I found them. She had 8, though, so we're really hopeful for the next go 'round. We'll be breeding Amber and Lily next week, I think.



Other than that...well, we've only one of the kittens left. Ghostie's still with us, and getting cuter every day! I swear though, she's like Fizzgig from the Dark Crystal...cute as can be but skittish and loaded with teeth! The rest of the critters are doing well...Idgy and Willow adore the new bench we built under the living room windows(pics later!). Mom helped me make cushions for it while she was out, and now, well, Willow is QUITE appreciative!



The chickens are doing well...we do have a rooster among the three that our broody Buckeye hen hatched, so he'll be freezer bound when we butcher the broilers, as will our last EE hen, Jackie, as it's been close to three months now since we've gotten eggs. Our new group of pullets are eight weeks old now, and I think here in the next couple of weeks we may ponder letting them out to meet the rest of the hens and start ranging the yard.



Let's see...not sure that there's anything else of note...just same stuff, different day!!