snack time

Today in the grocery store I saw this:







I never knew bugles came in flavors. When I was a child, bugles were simply strange shaped corn chips that came in a box...a red box to be exact. And we (my sisters and I) loved them because they fit perfectly on our fingers and we would pretend we had very long fingernails.  Then my brother came along, and he'd make comments about eating his fingers and chomp down very loudly, so they became just something to eat after that. I mean, eating fingernails is a gross thing. So he killed the fun in eating them off our fingers.

But I was very surprised when I went online to get the picture to discover that there is actually FOUR flavors now - corn, nacho cheese, caramel, and chocolate peanut butter. For some reason, those last two don't sound appealing to me. I like both of those flavors, but simply cannot imagine them on corn chips. Perhaps that is why Food Lion only carries the original corn and nacho cheese - its clientele has a simple palate.

Sometimes it's nice to have a childhood throwback.

the Saturday surprise

Geese eggs take 27-30 days to hatch.

When our first hen went broody, I counted out 27 days on the calendar. I was fully expecting an egg or two of the four to hatch this coming weekend.

But I forgot one minor but important detail. Chicken eggs hatch in 21 days.

Saturday was busy with yardwork and a few errands. When I went out to gather eggs and check the feed, I suddenly stopped near the door and exclaimed to Bobby "I hear a lot of chirping!!" Imagine my surprise when I open the door and see a little fuzzball very close to the door, and another near the nesting box. I quickly closed the door so it wouldn't fall out, waited for Bobby to get closer, and we opened the door again. We saw not two, but three!  Then we realized a fourth one was hiding behind the curtain.

This the 4th time we've had a hen hatch our eggs, but the first time we've ever had a 100% hatch rate!  I know the next two months they will be prone to getting smooshed, pecked, or snatched by a hawk, but we are so pleased with how well this Momma hen is doing.  She's kept them warm, protected them from the other chickens, already had them outside the house and pen today, managed to get them back inside the pen and the house, and is breaking up corn for them in addition to the starter feed we put out for them. (We had to make an emergency run to Hudson's in Clayton Sunday - the only ag supply store open on Sunday - to get the starter feed as we were not ready for them!)  We were not expecting more chicks this year, but they're here. There's another hen who has been trying to set, but so far we've not let her have any eggs. If I can get the pen to the other coop repaired I might move her and some eggs there and let her see what she can do...maybe.

tomato pie

A month ago, a friend of mine posted a recipe on Facebook for tomato pie. I had never heard of it before. I read through the ingredient list, and was surprised to see that everything in it I either already had or could easily get. I've now made three, and might make another one tonight.

Ingredients:
4 tomatoes, thinly sliced
1/4 c basil
1/2 c chopped green onion
1 9" deep dish pie shell
2 c grated cheese (such as mozzarella and cheddar)
3/4 c mayonnaise
1 tsp salt
1 T minced garlic
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375. Bake pie shell for 10 minutes. reduce heat to 350.

While crust is baking, lay tomato slices in layer on bottom of plate or collander. Sprinkle with salt. Let drain for 10-15 minutes. (I put paper towels between each layer to help absorb the moisture from tomatoes and this helped quite a bit with the runniness in the 2nd pie.)

Put tomatoes in the bottom of pie shell. In a small bowl,  mix all the remaining ingredients. Spread on top of tomatoes. (Carla's recipe called for layering tomatoes with spices and putting cheese and mayo on top, but the 2nd time I mixed it all together and it tasted just as good).

Bake for 30 minutes or until lightly brown. Cut into slices and serve warm.

trying something new

After 5 days of no phone or internet, I can finally post to my blog again!

Our chicks are all laying, and we have acquired a rooster - which means our eggs are now fertilized and hatchable. But we were quite shocked when one we hatched (Leghorn Ameracauna mix) started brooding the first of the month. (For non-chicken owners, that means a hen is gathering eggs to set/sit on for hatching.) That's quite young to be doing that. And since chickens all tend to use the same nesting area or two, not matter how many are available, that means ALL the eggs wind up under the setting hen. Unless you mark them, lift up Momma hen's bottom and pull out the unmarked ones every day WITHOUT getting your hand pecked to a blood pulp. I used a shovel once as a guard between the hen and myself, and still got at least one nasty peck.  So brooding hens are never a great thing unless you can find a way to isolate them and their eggs from the rest of the flock. And right now, that's not an option.

But years ago, I read that you could put a curtain up over the nesting box - and no other chicken would go inside to lay. I decided to give it a try.

We took an old piece of fabric (and every time I see it I wished I had trimmed it up), two push pins, and up went the curtain! And it has worked, with one exception. When the hen comes out to eat or drink, she won't go back in the box unless we notice she is out and lift the curtain up for her. So there's been twice she's started sitting/setting on fresh eggs, and we had to prod her out. Today we lifted the curtain, thinking she would go back to her eggs (she's done that before), but nope. Even after I gathered all the fresh eggs out from under her, she moved all but two from her box and stayed in the middle. So I simply moved the curtain over one and put her last two eggs at the edge of the box for her. By the time I made the next picture, she had already claimed one of them.

So if all continues to go well, we could possibly have four biddies by the end of the month. I'm not anticipating it, as there is no guarantee the eggs are fertilized. And our Momma hens have never had a very good hatching/survival rate. But I'm just so excited and amazed that the curtain works!!!