Did She "Toot"

I think one of the chickens passed some gas and this came out.  Pretty small and it did not have a yolk.  I mixed it in with 2 other eggs for my breakfast omelet one day.

A green egg, the small white egg and a brown egg.

A green egg, the small white egg and a brown egg.

My Horrrible Experience

We experienced the worst weather in Central Illinois than we have had in 25 years in the last 48 hours. We've had snow, horrible winds and way below zero temps.  I've went out several times today to check on the turkeys and chickens and on my second trip out I noticed the chickens couldn't get to their water because it was drifted over 18" in spots so I went in the run with the shovel (the run is only 4' high so I am stooped over the whole time). Shoveled them a path and backed my way out, about 20' and couldn't get out. The latch had fell and I was locked in the run at -9, wind chill -25. Lucky Ian was home today so I called him to come out and save me. I was properly dressed but even at that my fingers were frozen. When I came in the house I cried for over 5 minutes while trying to get them warm. I forgot to tell you I am claustrophobic!  I can tell you for sure that this will never happen again.

Whizbang Chicken Plucker

Just ordered the majority of the parts to make The Kimball Whizbang Chicken Plucker. I will be able to use it on the chickens and turkeys this year and will cut the work of dressing them down to just a few minutes. Can hardly wait to get the stuff so Ron and I can start making it. This is our winter project and I love doing projects.
The parts will ship out of New York today so we can start working on it real soon.

http://whizbangbooks.blogspot.com/

Baking with Hannah

During the Christmas Holiday my 17 year old grand daughter Hannah came over and spent a couple of days.  She wanted to bake when she was here so the first day we made 2 loaves of cinnamon raisin bread, 2 loaves of cinnamon bread, 1 ham and cheese braid and 1 turkey and cheese braid using the left over meat from Christmas day.  Everything was absolutely delicious.  The next day we baked a batch of Cool Whip cookies.  I sent her home with the cookies, 1 cinnamon bread and 1 cinnamon raisin bread.  We had a lot of fun baking and look forward to her wanting to come and bake again with this old lady. 

Hannah

Back, Turkey and Cheese Braid; Front, Ham and Cheese Braid.

Ham and Cheese Braid.

Cinnamon Raisin Bread.

Cinnamon Bread.

Feeling Horrible About This Blog

Looking back at the lack of posts for 2013 makes me feel horrible.  I can use the excuses I've been busy, don't know what to write about, or the real truth is I am just to lazy and need some inspiration.  I plan on posting at least 3 times a week this year and hope I can keep up with my promise.  So those of you who are still reading the blog please stick with me and I promise I will do a better job this year.  Thanks

Free 2014 Small Farms Winter Webinar Series

Last year I shared with you the schedule with permission from U of I Extension the summer Webinar and am sharing the winter one with you.  You don't have to live in Illinois to register and enjoy these.  Please feel free to share with your friends as they are always very helpful and very educational.   

Announcing the 2014 Small Farms Winter Webinar Series which will air each Thursday afternoon online starting January 9  (1:00 pm – 2:30 pm Central time) with the following dates and topics:

 

Jan 9     Managing Layers on Pastures

Jan 16   An Overview of the Philosophy & History of Organic Agriculture

Jan 23   Pumpkins and Gourdes

Jan 30   Approaches to Small Scale Farm Composting

Feb 6    Organic Pest management:  Insects

Feb 13  Organic Pest Management:  Disease

Feb 20  Organic Pest Management:  Weeds

Feb 27  Asparagus Production

Mar 6    Small Orchard:  Insects Management

Mar 13  Small Orchard:  Orchard Management

Mar 20  Small Orchard:  Disease Management

Mar 27  Growing for Ethnic Markets

 

To Register online, go to:  http://go.illinois.edu/winterwebinar

 

For more information, contact: 

 

Miki (Michaleen) White

Program Coordinator,

Small Farms & Local Foods

Unit 10, Knox County

University of Illinois Extension

Phone:  309-342-5108

Email:  miki7047@illinois.edu

Snow, Beautiful Snow

Because of the snow we got last night the 4 turkeys that were going to be butchered were spared their life for another week. Instead we cleaned up the pine branches and when they were done I cleaned the nest boxes and added some fresh straw for the turkeys and chickens. When I was doing that Ron put the snow blade on the tractor so I could plow the drive. While I was doing the drive Ron fixed the front gutter of the shed. We have to get some parts for the back gutter so that one will have to wait until later. We worked outside for about 3 1/2 hours and I enjoyed it so much. I am an outside person and get out as much as I can.

The white pine tree lost several branches, knocked down the gutter on the front of the shed and broken it on the back.

More branches from the white pine.

Still more branches.

Branches were on the roof of the shed.

Side yard, doesn't it look so pretty.

Back field and woods.

The driveway after I spent about an hour or more with the plow clearing it. Beautiful job.