November Birthdays Recap

On November 9th, our dainty princess celebrated her 5th birthday. She woke up on that wet November morning and chose to wear a long white flower girl dress, ballet tights and slippers and a tiara.

She had asked for pierced ears for her birthday. Damon had a hockey game that night, so we left early and stopped at the mall and had her ears done before the game. We met Grandpa there and he took her clothes shopping and she bought 2 dresses (one of them quite fancy). Then she went to the hockey game in her gown and tiara, danced around the stands and showed off her beautiful ears to everybody who would look.

The next night we had a proper birthday dinner. She was allowed to pick any restaurant she wanted or any home cooked meal. Last year she chose a very exciting homebaked macaroni and cheese with a rainbow heart cake. This year she chose chicken nuggets, home fries, and a salad of spinach, pomegranate, cucumber and a raspberry vinaigrette, with a chocolate heart cake. She opened a few presents including a candy pizza from Grandpa.

Just 8 days later, we celebrated a big milestone with Patrick as he turned 16! He is a very sensible boy, so it was a very subdued affair. After I picked him up at rugby practice he opted for dinner at home (stuffed chicken breasts and stuffed potatoes from M&M Meats).  It was a very low key affair.

Big smoke.

After a substitute teacher failed to hand out her invitations in the message bags two days in a row, Hanna's party had to be rescheduled. My mistake, I should have followed ALL of Virginia's Birthday Party Etiquette Rules.Virginia's Birthday Party Etiquette 101 rules .  Finally on December 10th, she had her Sugar Plum Fairy-themed birthday party.  The theme was the only mathematical option, Princess+Ballerina+Christmas decorations=Sugar Plum Fairy.  Obviously.

Gathering party supplies.

Table set and ready.

Princess Loot boxes with a bit of candy, cookie and candy-shaped hair decorations, stickers, a notebook, a ring.

Hanna's menu, tea sandwiches, a fruit tray and chocolate milk or pink lemonade.

5 party guests and 2 big sisters had a blast. 

4 friends in a very tiny bathroom.

Blowing out her candles.  I take no credit for the cake, I think Dr. Seuss decorated it.

 I had planned themed activities that involved glitter glue, snowflakes that wouldn't stay on the sticks and ribbon that wouldn't stay curled, but discovered that they all had the most fun when we went out to play in the barnyard.  They took turns holding hens.  They were all impressed when they had a turn holding a "baby rooster".  And for me, the highlight was watching them work in pairs to "walk the goats".

I am so glad that Hanna enjoyed her party!

  Predictably, the goats walked them.

Next year, I'm going to skip the glitter glue and go with the obvious Farm-themed party.

The AFTER table.

Holiday stuffing recipe

This is my favourite recipe for stuffing for Thanksgiving and Christmas turkeys.  It has never failed to produce moist delicious stuffing as long as I've cooked it in the bird.  I once had a relative who was fussy about where his stuffing was cooked and he always ended up with dried out stuffing.  Perhaps we should have read more into that than we did.  Anyway, here is my recipe:

"Moist Bread Stuffing"

1 cup butter\
2 cups diced celery
1 1/2 cups chopped onions
1 1/2 cups of sliced mushrooms (OPTIONAL)
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley (or substitute with about 1/8 cup dried)
2 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon poultry seasoning
1/2 teaspoon pepper
15 cups bread, cubed (I purchase brown bread for this, but I will also use up any bread that I have in the kitchen)
3-4 eggs, slightly beaten

Begin about 1/2 hour before the turkey is due to go into the oven. 

In a large pot over medium heat, melt butter.  Add celery and onions and cook until tender, about 8 minutes.  Add mushrooms if desired, cook for about 2 more minutes.  Remove from heat.  Add parsley, salt, poultry seasoning and pepper; stir well until thoroughly mixed.  Stir in bread cubes and eggs; mix together well until all bread cubes are moistened.

Stuff it into the cavities of the bird.  If you are not stuffing the bird, you can bake it in a covered, greased casserole dish for the last 30 to 45 minutes of roasting time.

Ew, This is a really unappetizing photo of the stuffing next to the cranberries. 

Happy Dead Rats

Since Wicket was killed in August, the rats have moved back into the barn. Boy do I miss that cat. At the end of August, Matt put out poison bait stations which started working last week. I found one dead rat outside the chicken coop on Monday and on Saturday there was another one in the chicken yard. There is one job I don't do. I don't do dead animals, I change poopy diapers, clean up animal poop, vomit, you name it, but I leave dead animals to Matt and Damon. I feel like I did my time when I worked for 4 years as a veterinary assistant through high school. Damon threw the dead ones into the ditch. Today I found what appears to be a dead baby rat inside the chicken coop. Little Griffin (almost 3) says very clearly, "S'okay Mommy, Damon can trow it in da ditch wit it's mommy and daddy. Den dey can be a happy dead rat family." Awwww, so sweet.

Farewell Penny

(photos by Lucky Mutt Photography)

We lost our dear friend Penny.

One morning she could not get up. We stood her up and she would just collapse again. She was weak, and finally one morning she could not even lift her head and breathed her last breath.

Daisy and Lily cried for a few hours.

A photo taken by us on the day Penny arrived here.

She was such a shy and gentle goat. And she was even wise. We weren't sure of her age when we got her in 2009, but based on the educated guesses of others, we thought she was about 10.  It was obvious by her demeanor that she had seen rough treatment and had not experienced a lot of attention before, so as she slowly learned to trust me I repeatedly promised her that I would always protect her and keep her safe. We bought her hoping that she would produce a doeling, and she gave us 2 beautiful healthy doelings.  She was a wonderful mother, which was good because I was an incredibly nervous first-time goat owner.  Even though she was shy with strangers, she encouraged her daughters to be social and would peek her head out of the barn door just to make sure they were being treated kindly. 

(photos by Lucky Mutt Photography)

In her last days, I offered Penny food and water by hand, rolled her daily to prevent sores and she seemed very grateful for my efforts.  I just hope that I did all I could to fulfill my promise to her.  Rest in peace dear friend.

Phantom Bird

I heard a thud, I ran outside to see if there was a stunned bird lying underneath the big front window. Nothing was there. But when I went back inside, I saw this on the window. Don't look at the trees, look at the white imprint that was left on the window.


Upon closer inspection, I can see individual feathers and feet. It is hard to see with this camera, and taking photos of anything on a window is difficult as I keep getting reflection from inside the house.

Out and about

Maybe I should watch more TV, but I get my kicks watching these things roam around my property! Hilarious.

Determination

I'm trying to do barnchores while the kids ride their bikes, but it isn't so easy.

Griffin: Me going to climb that tree.
Me: Griffin, why don't you ride your bike instead, Mommy can't catch you if you start to fall right now.
Griffin: No, me going to climb that tree.
(tries to climb tree, but can't reach bottom branch)
Griffin: Help me Mommy.
Me: Sorry Griffin, if the tree is too tall, then it is too tall for you to climb.
Griffin: Me going to climb that tree.
(moves his bike to the bottom of the tree and uses it to climb up, Hanna flies up the tree and joins him)

Me: You be careful there Griffin.
Griffin: Ha ha, me climb that tree.

Goodbye hatchlings!

I recently watched our hen Ginger act as a surrogate and hatch eggs for our friends. They wanted a few new chickens for their small flock, but didn't have any broody hens, and with fall coming on fast, they wanted to avoid the use of a heat lamp after the chicks hatched. So we lent them Ginger. She did an excellent job, hatching 6 of 8 eggs (she threw one egg out halfway through, and another one began to hatch a few days too early and died before fully hatching).

Old Penny is very maternal, and was very interested in the cheeping babies in the next stall. If she could have, she probably would have brooded them.

Ginger is very protective of the babies, and moving her and the chicks to their new home was a bit stressful, but they are settling in nicely.

Baby photos

The chicks are starting to grow in wing and tail feathers already. That's Griffin's "Spiderman" in the stripes.

This is Hanna with "Gigi".


Kira with her chick lovingly named "Vulture".



Campbell's "Moneyman" is huge compared to his "siblings".



And "O.J." is still endearing him/herself to everybody.



It is so funny the way they all move together as a family unit.

Hatched!

6 out of 6 eggs hatched! The chicks are beautiful. We were all delighted with the black chick, we've never had a black chick before. The kids fought over naming rights for that one, Damon won. I am guessing that he/she is half barred rock.

O.J.

Gigi

Spiderman pecking Mama Jill's beak.

Baby Jesus

I don't know this one's name yet.

Hatch countdown!

Only 8 days to go! Jill is being a very good broody hen. She gets up off her eggs when I feed the chickens in the morning, she eats, drinks, poops, and then settles back on the nest for another 24 hours.

Another hen, Ginger, has been broody for a couple of months. I have had a hard time with my Buff Catalana hens going broody, and in the past when I have tried to take them up on their offer to hatch eggs, something always went wrong. They would get nasty and throw a tantrum and accidentally break a nest full of eggs, or they would refuse to sit on the eggs and would try to brood an empty nest. I told our chicken loving friends about my broody hens and told them they could borrow one to hatch their own eggs. Ginger volunteered for the job and a week ago, I set 4 of their eggs and 4 of my green ones under her.

We will probably send Ginger to their house so she can raise the babies for them and either join their flock when she is done or come back home.

And apparently broodiness is contagious. If anybody wants to borrow a broody hen, you know who to ask.

Turkey update

We still have 11 turkeys. Here they are a week before I left for the cottage, they were quickly getting too big for the small enclosure next to the turkeys, so I moved them to the large turkey coop (aka temporary goat birthing room).

It seemed like within days of moving them, they doubled in size. Now they are HUGE, and they make that wonderful gobbling sound (they are ready to speak to Carrie, the turkey whisperer).

Once I got home from the cottage, I set up their outside enslosure using old calf panels held together with ties. They LOVE being outside and they love eating grass and weeds, and in no time they had devoured everything green in their small yard. A week earlier, that area was full of uncut grass, dandelions, clover and plantain weeds.


We are going to have to extend their yard, in the meantime, they are enjoying garden clippings and table scraps.