Roosters, Hens, and Eggs!

 

Henrietta is finally comfortable and relaxed and has started laying! Her eggs are large in size and a lovely sea green color. 

The two hens that have just recently joined my little flock lay small-medium sized brown eggs. 

All in all everyone is getting along and I haven't needed to buy eggs in almost 2 weeks!

No Preservatives Please

One of my goals that accompanies moving into the country is to break my prepackaged, sodium laden, preservative packed foods. Yes their low in calories, as long as you don't eat the whole box.... oops.

Have you ever looked at the ingredients list on the bread bag? Natures Own was one of my favorite store bought breads. It has 20 ingredients. Seriously? Here they are:
Stone Ground Whole Wheat Flour, Water, Maltitol, Wheat Gluten, Yeast, Contains 2% or Less of Each of the Following: Butter (a Trivial Source of Cholesterol), Salt, Dough Conditioners (Sodium Stearoyl-2-Lactylate, Monoglycerides, Calcium Peroxide, Ethoxylated Mono and Diglycerides, Datem), Cultured Whey (Milk), Vinegar, Natural Flavors, Calcium Sulfate, Monocalcium Phosphate, Yeast Food (Ammonium Sulfate), Soy Lecithin.

I have given it up since moving. I now make my own via a bread machine. There are 6 ingredients in my bread now. Water, sugar, salt, flour, dry milk, yeast. That's it. It's fantastic. Tastes amazing. Makes the best grilled cheese sandwiches.

I also have given up store bought cereal. The amount of sugar in a bowl of cereal is enough to run a toddler for an afternoon. Home made granola cereal is so much fun though. As long as you don't burn it. :) And I can change it every time I make it and it's like a whole new cereal. Sunflower seeds, peanut butter, almonds, raisins, cranberries, wheat germ, even baked apples. Everything adds a new flavor and each has it's own nutrition value. Well wheat germ doesn't add much flavor but it's nutritious.

One word. Bisquick. My grandmothers secret to amazing pancakes. Holy preservatives Bat Man. So easy to mix up a batch of home made "bisquick" without the preservatives. It's not like they help preserve a healthy body. Botox would do a better job.

I'll keep adding to the list of foods I've learned to make to avoid the prepackaged - quick and dirty - foods. Next up: The Bug's favorite: Kraft Mac and Cheese.

The Cutest Dino Onsies

Since it was raining out this morning I decided to use nap time as craft time. We LOVE dinosaurs around here so when I discovered some plain white onsies in the little mans stash of clothes I couldn't help myself.
The applique design is from some embroidery files from my stash. The fabric is from some of my favorite newborn sized outfits. I found 8 other white onsies and I have many more dinosaur embroideries to play with it. Yay!

A Handful of Hornworms

Literally.

I've picked so many hornworms this spring/summer/fall that I've started to wonder if I shouldn't have found a way to eat them. Like deep fried and covered with chocolate.

When a Bird Bath isn't

I didn't manage to capture a picture of the crime but here is the evidence of my bird bath visitor.
Can u see the path? It starts in the upper right corner and makes a U around the bird bath.


There's nothing like looking out your bedroom window and finding a horse in the flower garden drinking from the bird bath.

We call the horse Trouble because that's all she is, trouble. Trouble finds any way out of the fence that she can. Half the acreage here is fenced for the horses but she is just not satisfied. The grass is always greener on the other side. Now that the fence is up all the way around she has learned to step on it to reach the grass on the other side and has it so squished in places that she lets not only herself out but her black and white friend and occasionally the other gray out too.

I do appreciate the help with the lawn care though since my weed eater has a broken fuel line. Just wish they would spread the fertilizer out a bit more.