Easter Egg Hunt

Our local Volunteer Fire Department (who's fire house sits on the far side of our pasture) hosted an Easter event at Mayo Park today. Mayo Park is a campground only about 1/2 mile from the farm set on Mayo Lake. They were having games, food, bounce houses, the Easter Bunny and an Easter Egg Hunt.

Myself, Neil and my MIL spent about 3 hours enjoying the kids at the event. They spent a lot of time in the bounce houses (which are always a huge hit with my kids), did the egg hunt, had hot dogs for lunch, played some more... it was a fun day!

Day on the farm.

It was a pretty typical day here at the farm.

Our new chicks are doing well as are the new rabbit kits. I always worry about new babies while it is still getting cold at night. I tend to check in with the little ones first thing when I go out to do chores. The chicks are under their heat lamp and the kits are snug in their rabbit fur lined nest box so hopefully all will be well with them as they grow.

I had started mowing the lawn yesterday and managed to get that finished up today just before lunch so I felt pretty productive. The lawn looks tidy as usual once it is mowed. I can tell already that this year our lawn/former neglected pasture it going to be even more full and green. It is amazing what routine mowing can do for a weed covered area... no weed killers, fertilizer or other chemicals have ever been used just mowing. That simple act keeps the weeds from maturing and setting seed and allows the grasses the room and resources to grow.

I do have a bit of exciting news to report. We sold our Irish Dexter heifer calf today. A very nice gentleman from south of us in NC is just starting up a herd and is starting out with about 6 heifers. He came out to the farm this afternoon to look at our small herd and at the little heifer we had for sale. He is an experienced livestock man so I am happy to have her go to his farm. She will be well cared for... which is always my worry when selling our animals. She will stay here for a while yet until she is weaned at six months old... about the middle of June. We still have our bull calf available for sale. If we don't sell him he will become our freezer beef for Fall of 2010.

I started a new batch of sourdough bread tonight. It is a recipe I use that has a long (12-18 hours) first rise so it will sit out all night doing its thing. This long rise time allows for a more sour tasting finished loaf.

Bunnies for Easter?

This morning during chores I discovered that both of our American Chinchilla rabbit does were pulling fur. I have to admit I have been so busy that I haven't been counting the days since I put the buck in with the does. I thought I had another week before they were due to kindle.... I guess not! I put nesting boxes in both of their hutches and filled them with fresh straw. Both does immediately started gathering straw to nest build with. They both seemed agitated and would often stretch out and pant and then jump up to arrange the nest box some more.

As much as I would have liked to stick around to see how things progress I know that my presence only causes the does stress. I did all that I could do and planned to come back in a few hours.

After lunch I snuck back out to the barn. I discovered big fluffy wiggly piles of rabbit fur in both nest boxes. I pulled back the top layer of fur to confirm the presence of kits (and snapped the photo above). I replaced the fur and let them be for now. I find it is best not to handle the kits too much the first few days. I will wait 3-4 days before I pull them out of the nest box to count them.

I got a bit into the Easter mood by making Rice Crispie Eggs for the kids to decorate. I made the eggs up while the kids were outside playing.

When they came in all I had to do was melt some chocolate and pour the sprinkles into a bowl. A very quick and easy Easter treat... if they last until Easter that is!

Sourdough Ciabatta

So, my new sourdough starter has been doing well so far. I have been using it to make my standard sourdough loaf, pizza dough a few times and pancakes. But, I have been looking for another interesting style of bread to make with my starter.

I headed to my favorite place online to find bread recipes... King Arthur Flour... they had quite a few sourdough recipes to choose from but I was intrigued by the Sourdough Ciabatta. I had never made a ciabatta loaf before but always wanted to try it.

This recipe came together easily. I used my KitchenAide mixer to bring the ingredients to a slack dough and then let it rest and rise for 2 hours. Formed it into three loaves and let them rise once more for 30 minutes before putting them in the oven.

The kids and I ate one loaf for dinner with a Pot Roast I had in the crock pot all day. The remaining two went into the freezer for later use. I will defiantly be making these again.

This and That

I was happy to see this morning that all sixteen chicks survived the night out in the chicken coop. They were all piled up on each other when I opened the coop door and popped up at the sound.

I found another turkey egg on the floor of the coop and slide it under one of my broody Buff Orpington hens that is sitting on two other turkey eggs for me. So now she has three and seems quite happy with her post... pecking at my hand when I check for any chicken eggs under her.

One of our Muscovy ducks has laid her eggs in the hollow tree stump out by my raised beds. She is sitting on about twenty eggs. I also have two nests of duck eggs in the barn and one in the chicken coop. If they all hatch out I will have plenty of ducklings this season!

I managed to get my hands on our rabbit buck at feeding time today and removed him from the does. He has been with them for about three weeks now. I have been so busy that I haven't had the time to catch him before now. You see he is wise to my presence when he is with the girls and will stay out of reach in their pen. This morning though he made the mistake of eating with his back to me. A swift move on my part and I scooped him up and returned him to his adjoining pen. All went well until he jumped into his pen and ripped three holes in my shirt with his back feet. It was a nice t-shirt too!

This afternoon, Neil and I took the kid's out to lunch at a restaurant and then visited with friends (classmates of Neil's from HS) in Durham, NC. One of Neil's friends was here visiting from "up North" and it was great for Neil to see her and for me to meet her for the first time. We had a wonderful visit and the kids played while we had some adult time. What a relaxing afternoon!

New chicks!

With the recent sale of 11 of my crossbreed laying hens along with the loss of two of my purebreed hens this winter to the cow's watering trough I am significantly down on laying hens. Our local Southern States feed store was selling chicks this weekend so I headed to town to pick up a "few" purebreed chicks to add to the flock.

I returned with 16 baby chicks! Four Rhode Island Reds, four Barred Rocks, and eight Americanas (I think). They are straight run... which means that they are unsexed. I am hoping for at least 50% of them to be hens but more would be better.

I got them settled into the brooder with a heat lamp, waterer and some chick starter. Baby chicks are so cute...

Asparagus... yummm

The kids and I cut the first asparagus crop of the season from the garden this afternoon. Not a huge haul but enough for dinner. We like our asparagus cooked simply. A little olive oil, salt and pepper and oven roasted for 10-15 minutes. It was so sweet and tender crisp... it was hard to share with Neil.

Earlier today the couple that purchased our Nigerian Dwarf goat, Mary Jane, twin bucklings in January came to pick them up. They were staying here until they were old enough not stop nursing as the new owner's didn't want to bottle feed them and so I could wether them at three months old for them. Also, the new owner's needed to build a suitable goat enclosure before bringing them home.

I had kept them penned up from their breakfast this morning so we didn't have to go chasing them all over the pastures when it came time for them to go. I always get a little sad when we sell an animal that we have raised. I know that we can't keep them all so I just try to find the best homes I can for them.

Soon after the goats left we had more visitors arrive. I had listed some of the kid's books and puzzles that we never used on our local Freecycle site. A nice family came and got them and will put them to good use and will keep the items out of a landfill somewhere. If you don't know about Freecycle I encourage you to sign up with your local chapter and start finding new homes for your unused items around the house.