Nifty threads

This week i thought i would have a hand at embroidery. I had some plain undershirts of Liam's that i thought would look nice with a little something on the front of them. It took a little bit to get the hang of it, but once i had it it was a lot of fun. I can't wait for it to be warm enough for him to ware.

New pen

Over the weekend Matthew and I put our heads together and built a new pen for the baby geese. We decided to move them in to the sun room at the back of the house, because I was tired of the small from there pen. We wanted to make it big enough so it would last them until they get moved outside. After the geese are moved i am planing to clean it and then put day old meat chicks under the heat lamp in there.

New homes for geeses

Over the weekend Matthew and I put our heads together and built a new pen for the baby geese. We decided to move them to the sunny room at the back of the house, because I had become tired of the small from there pen.

One week old

Our six French Toulouse goslings are now one week old and growing like weeds! We have 4 "tufted" and 2 plain. At the present they are hanging out under a heat lamp in our laundry room. I have to start working on their outside house very soon as they are out growing their little box.The plan is to raise them till the fall, keep 1-2 breading pairs for next summer and put the rest in the freezer (which will be hard because they are very cute right now, though i guess it will be easier when they are grown and i am hungry). With any luck we will be able to keep a cycle going for years to come.

Oat bread

I have started making a new kind of bread that has been a big hit around here. Its called Country white bread and it is from Whole grain breads by machine or hand, by Beatrice Ojakangas. I have been using a local, organic unbleached hard white flour (wow what a mouth full) and organic brown sugar. I also like to brush the top of the loaves with water and press on some flaked oats for a nice finish.

Makes 1 loaf

1 c warm water

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp brown sugar

1/3 c oat flour

2 2/3 c bread flour

1 1/2 tsp yeast

Put water and yeast in a bowl and let sit for 15min. Add salt, sugar, oat flour and half the bread flour. Beat and then let sit another 15min. Slowly add the remaining flour until you're happy with the consistence. Knead about 5 min. Put dough in a greased bowl, cover and let rise about an hour. Punch down, shape into loaves and put into a greased pan. Slice top of dough and put oats on top. Proof bread then bake in a preheated oven at 375* for 30-35 min.

-Enjoy

Minty meringues

I had a go at making meringue yesterday and it went really well. I made Martha Stewart's Peppermint Meringues with Chocolate Filling, but with my own spin. It was wonderful to go out to the chicken coop and collect eggs not more then 15 minutes before whipping them into a stiff white foam. I piped the cookies onto a backing sheet, baked, and then dipped the bottoms into melted semisweet baking chocolate! YUM YUM YUM

Rolling and shaking

Our little Liam has been on the move this week. Not only can he now roll from his tummy to his back but vise versa and is almost sitting up for a minute before falling over. I fear it will not be long before he is crawling away, so this is the perfect time for us to start baby proofing the house. We as parents realize that "no" must be said sometimes, but we are not interested in chasing Liam around the house the whole day ripping things out of his hands. My plan is to move things we do not want him to touch or are unsafe up out of reach and to move his toys to floor level. Turning our house into a happy baby zone is going to take some time (a lot of our electric plugs don't even have face plates let alone baby covers) and we don't have much time but in the long run i think it will make everyone a whole lot calmer.

The new girls in the hen house!

This week we have some new arrivals to our farm. My mother came bearing four Rhode Island red chickens to add to our flock. They are sisters to some of our girls(from the same batch of hens as ours from last summer). She had twenty-one birds and only enough room for fourteen in her coop this winter so we have some lovely new ladies to help round-out our seven into a wonderful eleven! I was a little worried about introducing the new chickens to the flock as we have had some trouble with the trio we bought a few weeks ago, but its almost as though they were there all along. With no more then a few feathers flying and a few squawks, none of them seam any worse for wear.

11 Chickens
5 Cats
(soon to be more as Ginger is due any day now)
And
3 Humans

Beautiful birthday

Yasterday was my 22nd birthday. It was wonderful. My mother came to stay for a few days and got to spend some time with Liam, Mathew and I. It was a wonderful gift in itself; i missed her very much and it was great to have her puttering around the house. We made a chocolate cake with cream cheese icing and on Monday night Matthew brought use all out for dinner. At the moment i'm waiting for my present from myself to be ready for pick up: Four day old Toulouse geese!

A kitty for Liam

There is a new cat at the farm. We found him in the barn about a week ago and have since invited him into the house on a part time basis. We have named him Mr. Blue and we think he is about 3-4 months old as he still loves to play and has not quite grown into his paws yet. He spent the day yesterday sleeping at Liam's feet and begging for bacon. I think he will be a wonderful addition to our family.

7 Chickens
5 Cats
3 Humans

New chicks

It has been about a week now and our new Americaunas are starting to settle in. We found a trio, two hens and a youngh rooster. They are beautiful little things, the hens are silver and black and the Roo is silver and brown. They are still quite small, only about 12 weeks, so we still have time to get them used to people. If everything goes well we should be exspecting wounderful blue/green eggs in about two and a half months.