Wordless Wednesday

Oh, crap (literally) the grackles are back.

More Babies!

The mailman delivered more babies to our farm yesterday.  When we order baby poultry from a hatchery the chicks are delivered through the US Postal Service.  Ours left the hatchery on Wednesday and arrived yesterday. 

We will keep the chicks in a little wading pool in the loft of our farm shop for the next two weeks.  We keep a heat lamp on the chicks.  It's easy to tell if they are too cold because they will all huddle under the heat lamp.  This morning they were just about right.  The chicks were not all huddled together - they were spread throughout the pool.   We keep fresh water and a little feed avialable to the chicks at all times.
The wire mesh keeps the chicks in the pool.  The first week they aren't jumping but by next Friday they will be jumping and we would hate to have one jump to it's death or become Cesear's, the seed warehouse cat, midday snack.

CUTENESS ALERT

Ok, I have to tell one way too cute story.  When the chicks arrive the instructions say to dip each chick's beak into water.  It gets thier systems going - I think.  Well, son #3 was helping me do this.  He would get the chick out of the delivery box and I would dip the chicks beak and put it in the pool.  We had just finished up when #1 and #2 came back from doing their chores and #3 informed them that he and Mom had just gotten done baptising all of the chicks!  Then he wondered if maybe we shouldn't go baptise Patty and Repeat, the new baby calves.

Oh, the joys of living on a farm!

 So that should be enough cuteness for you to make it through the day.  Have a good one!

Hard Boiled Eggs

Thursday, before our town's St. Patricks Day parade, our Friends of the Library group had a bake sale.  Since I'm still kitchenless my baking is somewhat limited.  So, I cleaned out the boys egg supply and put cute little green tags on the cartons that read FARM FRESH BROWN and WHITE EGGS.  They sold very well but I had several comments about how hard it is to peel boiled eggs.

Buff Orpingtons Chickens - they lay brown eggs.  The guy
with the red comb and waddle was the meanest chicken in the
county but, someone ate him last summer.  We heard he was tastey.

Then, yesterday one of our employees brought dinner for all of us.  Eric made chili and deviled eggs because he just felt like cooking Thursday night (Joe please take note!).  The deviled eggs had chopped bacon in them - YUMMY.  Never have done that before but it was really good.  Eric and his family have laying chickens as well, but he had his wife pick up eggs at the grocery store so they would be easier to peel (Older eggs peel more easily than fresh ones because there is more air inside the shell.)
 
I have a solution for peeling fresh eggs!  I read this somewhere a long time ago - probably Martha Stewart - and it actually works.  After you cover the eggs in the pot with cold water, put salt in the water.  Not a teaspoon or tablespoon - I mean lots of salt.  When I do a dozen eggs (My boys love hard boiled eggs - they eat them like apples) I use a 1/4 cup of salt.  The salt taste does not come through the shell.  But those eggs just pop out of the shells.
 
I don't think there is anything dangerous about doing this but try at your own risk.  Enjoy!

Spring Has Sprung!

I am happy to announce that son #1's cow had her calf 4:15 pm, yesterday afternoon.  Mother and daughter are doing fine.  Patty (Named in honor of St. Patricks Day) was kicking up her heels in the pen this morning!






Mom cleaning up Patty

Are you my mother?

Son #2 reported he saw eight robins while doing chores last night!  I think the old wives tale goes that the robin has to get snow on it's tail three times before spring is fully here.  If that is the case - let it snow!!

Now how does this work?

Wordless Wednesday

                                 It doesn't matter how old you are there is always homework.

To Eat It or Not To Eat It

For supper last night we had pit barbequed beef.  Every other year for as long as I can remember our county Cattlemens Association has done a pit beef barbeque at our county fair.  It is the best prepared roastbeef in the world and the first bite made me smile all over. The best part is that the Cattlemen make extra to sell so we can enjoy a taste of summer all year round.

Certain people in this family have to have ketchup on their roastbeef which I consider sacrilegious but that is another topic.  Any way I got a new bottle of ketchup out of the pantry and I noticed that across the front in bold letters a new label proclaiming this ketchup had No High Fructose Corn Syrup in it.  I let out a gasp that caught #2's attention.  He read the label after I showed him and of course he wanted to know how his mother could buy such a thing.  Obviously, on one of my weekly pilgrimages to the grocery store I grabbed the bottle of ketchup I always buy out of habit and never looked back.
 

With all the commotion #1 and #3 also showed up.  The discussion then led to why the manufacturer took the corn sugar out.  As I explained to the boys, there is a lot of misinformation about our food and that sugar made from corn is perfectly fine to eat.  All three boys decided that it was awful that the fructose was taken out of our ketchup.  Number 2 went so far as to say we should just throw out the whole bottle.  Number 3, who is affectionately known as the human garbage disposal in our family, was a little more practical and offered to eat the entire bottle for us.  I informed the boys that since ConAgra already had a our money we might as well eat the ketchup and pay better attention to labels from here on out.

Here are some facts about high fructose corn syrup that you can bank on:

High fructose corn syrup is simply a kind of corn sugar that is handled by your body the same as sugar or honey.

“When high-fructose corn syrup and sugar are absorbed into our bloodstream, the two are indistinguishable by the body.”
Joan Salge Blake, M.S., R.D., L.D.N., Clinical Associate Professor at Boston University’s Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association, Redbook, June 2010

Many people do not realize that high fructose corn syrup is composed of the same simple sugars found in table sugar and honey — glucose and fructose — in virtually the same ratios.

“White sugar, brown sugar, sucrose, honey, maple syrup, even high-fructose corn syrup are all roughly the same mix of the simple sugars called glucose and fructose.”
Joy Bauer, M.S., R.D., C.D.N., Nutrition and Health Expert for The TODAY Show, Woman’s Day, May 1, 2010

A sugar is a sugar whether it comes from corn sugar or cane sugar. All are safe and natural. Your body can’t tell the difference.

“Regardless if it’s honey, cane sugar, high fructose corn syrup or just plain sugar, we metabolize it the same.” Carrie Taylor, R.D., L.D.N., Registered Dietitian for Big Y Foods, ABC 40 News At 12, April 8, 2009

This information was taken from the Corn Refiners Association website. 
I am disappointed that food manufacturers are giving in to special interest groups that see corn sweetners as a threat.  Corn sweetners have been on the market for fourty years.  These sweetners are an economical source to use to keep food prices in line for the consumer.  I find it very interesting that corn is being blamed for high food prices at the same time that manufacturers are taking corn out of the foods they produce.  Hmmmm...

It's Melting!

                                  Goodbye snow.  Hello mud and mush!