Chicken Centric

It's the first day of fall and my garden is winding down.  My chickens are 12 weeks old this week and they have been making lots of big chicken noises and been going outside every night.  They stay much closer to home than the other roosters did.  They wait for me in the garage until I come out and then they stay right by me.   The bad thing about that is there's lots of chicken poop in my garage. 

My shirt says "Dutch."  Not a different word. 

Rosemary is the calmest one.  She stays right by me and lets the girls pet her. 

My manicure lasted 18 days.  Don't let me get a manicure again.  They're so frivolous. 

The final sunflower surviving before they were fed to the chicks. 

Garlic, good for more than repelling vampires.

Yesterday we planted 31 cloves of garlic.  Or as Youngest would count them, twenty eleven.  After we planted them we covered the bulbs with Papa's Poop Organic Fertilizer and straw. 

Last night it rained buckets along with thunderstorms.  The straw got padded down nice and flat, along with the sunflowers.  Speaking of sunflowers, everyone should know that they're chickens favorite.   Along with compost piles. 

 Also, SEEDS!  I harvested Calendula seeds!   It was really fun and easier than expected. 

Baking Day

Yesterday was my day off, it rained all day, I had no commitments or wedding planning to do, and I didn't change my pajamas.  Perfect day for some cooking.   I like to cook, and I LOVE to eat, but I'm not someone who goes off inventing her own things.  I need a recipe.  Yesterday I cooked a spaghetti squash from the garden from lunch with homemade alfredo sauce.   I used too much milk in the sauce and scaled it when I was scooping out the innards of the squash for the chickens, but it still tasted okay.  Edible. 

While the squash was cooking for an hour, I prepped dough for English Muffins.  This is the second time I've made them and they are really yummy.   Oldest requests them often.  I made 25, but only got 14 in the freezer.  The others were enjoyed yesterday and saved for school lunches today.  I always feel so cool when I make them, they are fairly easy and look so fancy and real! 

It was a productive Sunday and made my house feel cozy and smell good. I learned two important things however:  
Chickens LOVE Spaghetti Squash
Chickens will poop all over your garage if you let them out when it rains.  I mean EVERYWHERE. 

Supervised Free Range

Tonight after dinner I let the Cluckers out for the first time.  I was planning on working in the yard and garden, so I thought I would be around to watch them.  They are 9 weeks old this week and really enjoyed chasing crickets.  They got into my garden and tried to get at my tomatoes, and wandered around the front and side yards.  They are such good chickens.  I had to come inside to get Youngest cleaned up and the neighbor ran over to tell me her dog got loose and was chasing the chickens, she couldn't catch her.  I came out to lots of squawking and barking but we finally got the dog cornered and no harm was done.  Peanut was cornered in the garage, but she seemed to be okay too.  By 8:30, all 6 chickens were back in their coop and settled in for the night.  They have started using the higher roosting pole, probably because they're so big now.

In garden news, my sunflowers have all bloomed, my triticale and hairy vetch is sprouting, along with my fall carrots and lettuce.  I left my mini-homestead for 3 days last week for my sister's wedding, and everything survived.  I didn't water, and relied on Oldest to fill the chicks food and water.  I got my first manicure of my life, and so far it's going on 6 days and looks pretty good.  I haven't dug in the dirt much with it though.

Their first taste of freedom

We enticed them to leave the coop with tomatoes and beans

Please ignore the poorly landscaped stairs.  They're a work in process