Squish The Bug!

Hosted by Cecilyand Caitlin

Taking His Tractor for a Walk

In the Windowsill

Top shelf: About 30 Cannonball Tomatoes
Second Shelf: About 30Mortgage Buster Tomatos
Third Shelf: About 30 Purple Cherokee Tomatos
Bottom Shelf: About 30 Green Peppers

Tom's

Green Peppers. Definitly not as far along as the Tom's are. They were started a few weeks later though

I think that I am going to be doing a lot of canning come the fall!!

Actually, I think we may sell some plants before they go in the ground. We're going to have tomatoes coming out of our ears!

The "Berrrrr" Cake

For Buddy's Birthday this year, I made him a "Berrrr" (Bear) cake.

It was dead simple.

I made a chocolate cake from an easy scratch recipe. One 8" circle, one 6" circle, and five jumbo cupcakes.

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Cut one of the cupcakes in half, this makes the ears, and position the circles like above.

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Position a large Ramekin on the tummy, and a smaller one over the nose, then ice the rest of the cake with chocolate icing.
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Pop the two ramekins off. Give them to your hovering children to lick the edges.

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Fill in the holes with a Light chocolate icing

(I used a white icing, and added a smidge of cocoa powder to tint it)

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On the paws, use four chocolate M & M's & a chocolate circle. the eyes are Hershey kisses stuck in upside down. The nose is another chocolate circle, and then the mouth is red M & M's

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A berrr cake!

We bought a cow

In following our "living local" plan, about a month ago, we bought a quarter of a cow.

Locally enough, that when we went to order it, Hubby walked over to the farmer, and placed our order.

We would drive by the field every now and then, and speculate on which one was "ours."

And wow, is he tasty. Hardly any fat, and very very good.

The Mighty Tiny Chicken Ranch - Part Two

Yes, we have chickens.

Ten little chickie's, about a week old.

The breed is "Chantecler" which was bred in Quebec, to withstand our Canadian winters... these chickens are less likely to get frostbite.

Right now, their 'brooder' is Buddy's Mr. Turtle pool. At first we had them just in the pool, but they were jumping so high, we had visions of finding frozen chicks in the mornings. They are so tiny, they need to be kept at 90 F, and, our basement is cold. If they jumped out of the pool, where the heat lamp is, they wouldn't be able to get back in, and we'd find little 'chicksicles' the next day.

Hubby added wire to the inside of the pool, and then since there was still a draft, hung old towels around the outside. They seem to be very happy in there.

We are building a 'chicken tractor' for them for once they are big enough to move outside. The chicken tractor can be moved around, so that they can peck & scratch in different places. Also, we can move them to where we have grub infestations. Which at the moment, is pretty much the whole lawn.

You know that kids song, about the one little duck with the feather on his back? Well, we definitely have some lead chicks..... the one little chick with the feather on his back, he lead the others with his 'peep peep peep.'

Chuckles & Buddy went with Daddy to get the chicks. Chuck held their box on her lap the whole way home. Daddy caught her singing to them a few times.

Anytime Daddy takes Bud down to visit, he spends the whole time calling for me. "Mooooom.....mmmmmmooooooooommmmmmm....." It's like he's saying "Mom, do you know what Dad has down here?!?!?"

The hens are supposed to lay about 200 eggs per year each, and they are supposed to continue laying throughout the winter.

This works nicely into our plan of purchasing food as locally as possible.

The Mighty Tiny Chicken Ranch

Ten little Chicks, snuggled into their new home.
(Chickens..... they poop. A lot)

View of the "Brooder" from above.

You can see the wire we used so that there was no danger of them jumping out.

They are currently living in Buddy's Mr. Turtle Pool. As long as the boy doesn't get any ideas about going for a swim with them, this should work out.

(I have visions of going downstairs and finding him filling the pool with a hose)

The towels are because it is quite cool down in the basement, and we could feel a draft near their home.

Daddy with one of his 'chicks'

(I think it's funny that, on Friday night, my husband "went and picked up ten chicks." I can really have some fun with this one.)

The chicks right after they arrived home, before we put up the wire & towels.

Sniff

I cried when it was done.

But she's happy with it. Because the hair had been layered, it wasn't quite long enough to be donated for cancer wigs.

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Hosted by Cecily