Friday Happenings

The chicks are growing and becoming more feathered.  They will be moved to the same tractor that the meat chickens are in, as the meat chickens are being butchered this next Friday.  The chicks definitely need more room, as they are larger chickens to begin with anyway.  lol

Here is the pig pack.  As you can see from their noses, they love to dig!  They have dug up rocks and dug in the leaves, so when it is time to butcher them, the ground will be ready for the garden this next spring!

Here is our new Rooster, still haven't named him yet.  He is much larger and has feathered feet on the outside of his feet.  I believe he is a Maran rooster.  He hasn't come into his "roosterness" yet, as he is still young, but will soon I am sure.  Notice the wood chips in the bottom under his feet?  These were made by us with the new chipper/shredder we traded wood for.  It works great.  Even made up some bark mulch so to speak for the end of the house in the flower bed.  Looks and smells great!

Here are the tractors in place for the winter with the midget white turkeys on the left, meat chickens in the middle (which will be where the Buff Orpingtons and Light Brahmas go), and Narragansett turkeys on the right.  We will be putting some sort of barrier around the back and sides for the wind and rain to keep a little more out.  Probably using bales of old hay we have.  Just have to chip wood or mulch leaves for the flooring to keep the deep bedding going.  They still get let out on alternating days.

The midget white turkeys.  We are going to be butchering two or perhaps three of the toms which would leave us three hens and one tom.  Then we will see in the spring how many hens get broody and have more.

The meat chickens are looking/growing great.  The two Wellsummers that are left, I know one is a hen and am not too sure if the other is a hen or rooster.  Those we will be keeping but since they are about the same age as these guys, they have been hanging out together.

Here's the Narragansett turkeys.  That is one of the babies right in the middle.  They are growing so fast.  Not sure on the sex yet, but we weren't sure for a while when we got the others also.  Both will probably be butchered for eating sometime next year.

So, there I am, putting all the makings for sloppy joes in the crockpot and I am stirring it up with the rubber spatula, when I pull out the spatula, it looks like the photo below.  I laughed so hard my eyes watered.

Here is the spatula and the piece I had to then fish out of the crockpot.  Guess I don't know my own strength when I am stirring.  haha.

Anyway, got the best book at Half Price Books last night called Crazy About Crockery by Penny E. Stone.  This is where I got the sloppy joe recipe and boy does it smell wonderful.  I am making hamburger buns for this for dinner tonight, they are in the bread machine mixing and rising as we speak.

There are soooooo many great recipes in this book, so if you get a chance check it out, not sure if it is at the library or not, but it only cost $4.98 at Half Price Books new.

Have a wonderful Friday and rest of the weekend!!