Dingo had her puppies on March 10th - 4 girls and 3 boys, all healthy but for 1 umbilical cord issue that has since healed up nicely. We also found out that dingo is in fact a dingo! A "Carolina Dog," also known as the American Dingo, she is a true wild dog of the South. We've lost a couple birds now, I think all due to chicken hawks. We're down to 5 Australorps, 1 game hen, 1 game rooster, and 6 game chicks (8 weeks and still impossible to sex). Dan found a cool corn snake. Thankfully it is not living in our house...though that might eliminate the other animal issues...
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Finished the compost shed, so no more burying toilet bucket contents!
Now that the saws are finally in good repair, Lance and Dan have been getting a lot of use out of the chainsaw mill. The chickens like to play in the sawdust.
Saturday was also the 21st day that Henrietta had been sitting on her eggs (21 is supposedly the magic number for chicken gestation). A few days before, I tried to figure out if there was anything actually growing in there by pressing a flashlight against the back of each egg while I looked at it through a toilet paper tube. Most of each egg just seemed dark, and I couldn't tell if the shell was too thick to see through or if the darkness was actually a chick, but there seemed to be some spiderlike veins inside the smaller end. I felt hopeful that maybe they weren't all duds after all. Saturday came and went uneventfully. Yesterday morning while the kids were getting dressed for church, I climbed the ladder with tube and flashlight in hand to check for any changes, as Henny was off the nest to take her every-other-day binge, and found a pile of trembling, peeping eggs. I picked one up just as the first tiny beak started to break through the shell. Amazing! When we got home that afternoon, two had escaped their shells. Late this afternoon we were up to seven, maybe eight. It's hard to count as there are only 2 that look unique (“the yellow one” and “the darkest one” - the rest are tan and striped like chipmunks) and Henny keeps them all tucked under her most of the time. Isaac dug up some worms for them which got almost all of the babies out at once and I can't even begin to describe the cuteness that ensued. Good gracious, they are precious.
It seems like most of our warm days this winter have coincided with rain, but the last week we had several mild days that were actually dry. Which gave the opportunity for several bonfires, desserts in the dutch ovens, and late nights playing under clear, starry skies. I have always had two different dreams of Ideal Winter. The first involves a Swiss ski chalet and unlimited hot cocoa. The second is basically an extended autumn that hardly resembles winter at all. I gave up on dream one long ago, but dream two is fulfilled on a regular basis here.
I've been asked several times how I meal plan and cook for so many without an oven or refrigerator. It's really not been too bad, especially now that most of the nights stay quite cool (mostly low 20s to low 40s). I have been able to consistently plan and shop for at least a full week's worth of meals without need of a mid-week “booster,” though we sometimes grab some extra fruit or a special treat when we're in town. We keep a large Igloo cooler and a small overflow cooler outside the back (always shady, north-facing) sliding glass door, so I am able to reach our perishables without having to step outside. Our indoor stove is a two-burning camp stove hooked up to a 20 lb. propane tank. On occasion, we build a campfire and use the dutch oven outdoors over hot coals with coals piled on the lid to perform the task of baking, but it's going to take more practice to consistently get the goods evenly heated. When I have a high-carb craving, I usually put dumplings in a stew or soup or make some fry bread. I did get so desperate that I attempted brownie mix pancakes once, but I wouldn't recommend that. The staple homemade desserts (as opposed to the store-bought dessert of choice: generic Fig Newtons) are no-bake chocolate oatmeal peanut butter balls, no-bake chocolate peanut butter bars, cinnamon-sugar tortillas, truffles, fudge, sopapillas, and toffee. Oh, and GORP, if that counts...
Here are some meals that frequent our table: Breakfast: pancakes (usually with bananas, apples, peaches, Craisins, black walnuts, and/or pecans, always with lots of cinnamon and vanilla) breakfast burritos grits with poached eggs and cheese oatmeal (usually with a can of peaches) potato pancakes/hashbrowns French toast omelets, creamed eggs on toast, huevos rancheros, quiche, or something else egg-y Lunch: PB&J/PB&honey/PB&banana tuna salad sandwiches chicken salad sandwiches (either with apples/grapes & almonds or Aunt Thelma's delicious pineapple & pecan) soup/chili grilled cheese/ham & cheese green salad, usually Caesar or Tex-Mex nachos/quesadillas mac & cheese (with tuna, hot dog, or chili thrown in) pasta or cold pasta salad dinner leftovers Dinner: squash, pumpkin, or sweet potato soup spicy black bean soup tortilla soup chili clam chowder chicken & corn chowder potato soup chicken & dumplings ratatouille rotini w/ sundried tomatoes, walnuts, garlic, basil, & Parmesan spicy vermicelli pork & pineapple curry kielbasa & sauerkraut w/ apples and potatoes chicken & lentils enchilada skillet Thai curry with rice Filipino dinner (layers of rice, ground beef, crushed pineapple or mango, chopped tomatos, raisins, coconut, and Spanish peanuts – don't knock it til you've tried it – so good!) quinoa stir-fry pork mango picadillo pulled pork fajitas with guacamole burritos/tacos beans & rice with coconut milk and cilantro stroganoff skillet hash OK, now I'm getting hungry. The younger four kids have come down with a mild case of the flu, and no one slept very well last night thanks to a symphony of nose flutes and hacking percussion. We slumbered well-past 8:00 and were awakened by a desperate dog and anxious chickens. Henny has made herself a little nest atop Dan's strawbale wall and at last count was sitting on nine eggs, but the other two birds are still locked in their coop/prison at night. Morning chicken duties generally fall to Gideon, as his boots slip easily over his footie pajamas, and he loves any excuse to snuggle on Penny. We just finished a yummy breakfast of huevos rancheros smothered in last night's spicy bean soup. Lance took Isaac to work at Tom's with him, hopeful that staying out of the house will keep them both from succumbing to infection. I am soaking my feet in hot water with Epsom salt (they are sore from running up and down our hill too often lately in my slightly ill-fitting combat boots) in front of the sink while I wash the breakfast dishes and sip instant cappuccino. Havi is sitting on the floor in the center of a hollow square surrounded by Dingo, her Dumpy duck, and Gideon's two plush Angry Birds, wildly waving her arm as she “leads” an improvisational Sacred Harp-style song. “48 on the top!” she yells. “La, la, la, la-la, la, sol, la!” She tries to ignore the dog, who scoots over to gently gnaw on her foot. The boys have been playing “Biblestudy” up on the bunk bed, a current favorite activity in which Gideon reads several verses from Genesis to his little brothers and yells at them for not paying attention. He mentioned the other day that he plans to be a pastor when grows up, but he'll only teach from Genesis, as “that's the book” he “knows best.” After failing to be able to answer several rather basic questions I posed to him about Moses, Abraham, and Joseph, he clarified, “Well, not all of Genesis. Just chapter 1.” Now the boys have cleared off the table in order to play with Ezra's fire station LEGOs. As they build an army of red robots, they all softly sing Twisted Sister's We're Not Gonna Take It in three different keys, which makes me laugh.
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LyssI plan to use this blog to keep track of ideas and information, to hold myself accountable to my goals, and to give others the opportunity to observe the challenges and triumphs that ensue. Archives
April 2016
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