After the Hatch

Our chicks are nearly three weeks old now and they are growing so fast! They started out so very tiny. These guys are less than 4 days old.

Here they are about a week into life.

We ended up with a couple chicks with scissor beak. One of them is fairly pronounced, the other is relatively minor. Here's Skizzers. Amazingly, she eats and drinks just fine, even though her beak is crossed.

And we have one who's legs didn't develop quite right.

We had her separated from the others in their tank, but she got too big for the box, so now she's in her own chicken mansion. And now I have a spare bedroom that looks like this:

Now at nearly three weeks old, they are over half way feathered out and just about ready to go outside to their grow out pen. 

New Spring Chicks

Things sure have been busy in our house lately! It all started about 7 weeks ago when our favorite rooster, Deuce, was attacked and had to be put down. We were planning on incubating some eggs this spring because we wanted to have some of his offspring, but that cold, snowy day in February was much sooner than we anticipated. But if we wanted eggs he had fertilized, we knew we had to act then, so we collected eggs for about a week. With the super cold temperatures, we didn't know how many of those eggs would develop and hatch, but we decided to give it a try anyway.

We started out with 42 eggs. After candling on day 7, we were down to 36. On day 18, we had 35.

On day 21, they started hatching. Hatching continued all the way thru day 24.

This was our first time incubating chicks, so I was just a little obsessed with watching them!



We ended up with 26 chicks. Two more of them died during the hatching process, But considering the temperatures when we collected the eggs, we had about a 75% hatch rate and I was very happy with that!

An Afternoon at the Kelsay Farm

Today, we went to Kelsay Farm for family day.

 

The husband tried out the pedal pull

 

Here's Ott,A's husband, Ott,E, on his turn.

 

And here's Jeannie from Jeannie's Gym Journey leading the Women's Division (which she won!!)

 

(The emcee of the event, Joe, is married to Amy from 2 Maids a Milking.)

We climbed up to the top of straw mountain

 

And checked out some cows...and some 16 day old babies!

 

 Lots of fun for the whole family. They also have an awesome corn maze, hay wagon rides, and much more! If you're close to Indy, make sure to check it out...and grab a milkshake while you're there!

Not Just Another Day

I like my job, some days better than others. Most of the time, it's ok. It's a paycheck, and in these tough times, that's more that many people have. Then there are days like today. I had a great time out in the field and learned a lot!

It started with the drive to Rensselaer.

Lots of windmills up and down I65

LOTS of windmills

Just to be clear here, I WAS NOT DRIVING!



We're getting closer...I see cornfields!

Now that we're here, everyone is checking their points

Then we spent some time in the corn fields

Did I mention the amount of time we spent in the corn fields?

Then we saw some random goats in a drainage ditch

Maybe I'm just a city girl, but I can honestly say that was the first time I've ever been driving along and look over to see goats right at the roadside!

Soon, the day is almost over...and we were getting to that deliriously tired state

"They call me S to the C, yo'

And that corn behind me makes your Fri-to"

Wait...What?

To be clear, she did NOT say that.


Oh, I almost forgot; we spent some time in the corn fields

And saw a few windmills on the way home

It's days like today when I go home and realize how lucky I am to be paid for this!

As Promised, a New Post

As part of my love of summer, I had my first weekend of canning last weekend. We now have pickles and salsa!! Dill pickles are a favorite around our house.



So how can you improve on something the kids already like? Make it yourself (with a few helpers, of course)!

We start by picking cucumbers from the garden. Explaining to my husband that we want to pick them before they get seeds the size of a small child is still something we're working on, but we'll get there. Then we wash the veggies and slice, or cut into spears. Before we load the jars up, we put a grape leaf in the bottom of the jar. That's a TOP SECRET tip I learned from a CI to keep the pickles crunchy. Then we load the jar up, until it's about an inch from the top, with cucumbers. Next, add sliced onions, diced fresh garlic, and dill. Make sure to really get all those ingredients down into the jar, not on top of the cucumbers. Last year I used dried dill courtesy of Watkins spices, but this year I grew my own and used fresh. While all of this is going on, I boil a mixture of vinegar and water on the stove. I would never do more than a 50/50 ratio on this. I actually prefer about one part vinegar to 3 parts water. And of course some canning salt. Pour the boiling liquid over the cucumbers and can as normal.


The next item on the canning to-do list is salsa. I canned, and canned, and canned last year and all of that only got us through September! So I vowed this year to make so much salsa I never wanted to see the stuff again. This is basically the same thing I made in my earlier post, but adapted for canning. A word of caution with salsa, make sure you follow directions! Because of this, I'm not going to post my recipe, but rather link you up to some good resources.




Pick Your Own.Org is a great resource for all your farm fresh needs. And best of all, all of their canning recipes are verified by USDA to make sure your home canning experience does not include a trip to the hospital because of botulism. Another resource is the The National Center for Home Food Preservation. Basically the big deal with salsa is tomatoes are a low acid food, therefor on the border when it comes to canning. I always, always add lemon juice to my salsa to up the acidity.

Canning was something I took up last year and will probably continue to do for years to come. Hopefully, you'll give it a try and never have to wonder where your salsa came from. Stay tuned for jellies, and a couple months down the road, applesauce and apple butter!

Summer Salsa

I love summer. Really, love it. And not just because my birthday happens to be July 8 (hint, hint) or my favorite holiday is July 4. There are so many wonderful things about summer. But on my top five list is fresh produce. Normally at this time, my garden would be full of all the ingredients I need. Unfortunately, someone didn't get my tomatoes planted in time, so we're a little behind. Fortunately, the great guys at Youngs farm opened their stand up today, so we're in business with the first fresh salsa of the year!



I bought four tomatoes, one large onion, a clove of garlic, an ear of corn, and a couple of green peppers. I also used some of my jalapenos I canned last year, a couple tablespoons of vinegar and a few tosses of kosher salt. Why kosher? I have no clue, but that's what I had in the cabinet. My husband claims he doesn't like corn in the salsa, but I do, and he eats it anyway.

I love salsa because you can make it however you want with varying ingredients. Hopefully soon, I'll have salsa completely from my own garden and I'll have some yellow tomatoes and red bell peppers to make it more interesting. I love to make different versions of it almost weekly during the summer. I'll try to get some pictures posted this summer of different things we make with the salsa. In the mean time, visit your local growers and make some salsa!!