Pete & Teri’s Next Big Adventure

Sausage/Kale/Goat Feta Scrambled eggs

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• 1 big handful of kale from our cold frame
• 4 big eggs from a neighbor’s chickens (ours have better things to do than give us eggs these days)
• 1/2 lb ground Italian sausage from Deck Family Farm
• 1/4 cup goat milk from our morning milking (thanks Drama Queen!)
• 1 tbsp butter
• A few slices of goat milk feta from yet another wonderful neighbor
• Salt and pepper to taste

Thoroughly mix eggs and milk (plus salt and pepper if you like) in a jar. Extra points for using a Kerr/Ball jar.

Wash and chop the kale while the butter warms up in a hot frying pan over medium heat. I guess medium heat; this was made on a woodstove. Once butter is bubbling a bit, quickly saute the kale, keeping it moving, just until it becomes a darker green and wilts. Remove kale to another dish, leaving pan on medium-high heat (or rather, adding wood and opening the air inlet a bit).

Break the ground sausage up into small bits in the pan and keep it moving till well browned. Reduce heat to medium and (after a final stir) pour in the egg/milk mixture. Let this cook until it’s solid about halfway through, then mix in the kale and scramble it up.

When it’s close to done, drop the cheese slices onto the top.

(first three images are scaled-down; click pic to see full size)

Peck peck…

Crack!

Peep…peep…umph…

Hello!

(images below are scaled-down; click each one to see full size
or click here to expand them all)

The Asian Pear tree has leaves as lovely as any other’s flowers.

Cover crops of clover and cereal ryegrain are so pretty it’s almost a shame to till them in when planting the next crop. In some places, I’m experimenting with just opening a hole in the clover cover and planting into that, cropping the clover surrounding the transplant to let in light. Might mean less weeding, which is always a good thing.

Radishes…fast and reliable, they really lift your spirits when you’re looking at everything else you planted and wondering where the heck it is. These were planted from last year’s seeds. Several radishes were allowed to complete their whole cycle undisturbed, and when they died in the fall it was an easy matter to strip the seedpods off into paper bags. I crushed the pods in the bag with a beer bottle and sprinkled some of the resulting mixture here about a week ago. The greens, being early and abundant, are almost worth more to us than the spicy little radishes themselves.

Turnips and Kale are having a riot in the cold frame. We’ve been taking several large helpings of kale every week, along with some turnip thinnings – the greens are a little sandpapery when raw, but wonderful steamed.

Purple flowers by the house…this is our third spring, and I’m not sure I ever saw these in that place before. There are always surprises waiting here!

This is a close-up of pollen settled onto the Letsgo…for a few days, everything had a yellow haze around here.

Random decoration from a previous tenant.

Garlic plants are looking great!

We have about 26 hops vines going, thanks to a friend who let me dig some rootstock from his patch. An essential beer ingredient, we are currently paying about $4/ounce for the dried flowers, so this may be one of our more practical plantings.

There was recently a 2,200% tax increase on the tobacco I like…these TN86 tobacco seedlings are my response to that. It’s a shame; of all taxes I pay, a sin tax that is largely spent on medical care is one of the most palatable, but with close to half my salary going to taxes, tolls, and other government fees, I don’t feel the urge to pay more.

Ahh, spring!

This photo was taken yesterday, at which point we were pretty certain that at least one (and possibly two) of Shygirl’s eggs had actually hatched. We’d heard some peeping, and it sounded distinct enough that we were fairly positive that it was not coming from inside of an egg.

This morning, as part of my usual morning chicken chores, I filled up the little chick-sized feeder (actually a plastic lid for a mason jar) with fresh chick starter food and set it back into the broody box.

I then proceeded to leave the coop to dispose of the copious and incredibly pungent poo that leo (another hen who is trying to go broody, but has no eggs to brood upon) had left (betcha didn’t know that broody hens only poo once in a 24-hour period, and boy does it build up in there).

While outside, I overheard the rustle of movement in the broody box, and then suddenly a whole chorus of peeps and cheeps. I ran back to the coop (well, actually, I moved quickly yet carefully back to the coop – one does not run around semi-wild chickens without creating a screeching mass of panicked birds flapping around your head – ask me how I know this). As I bent down next to the broody box, I could see Shygirl at the feeder – and lo and behold, there was a tiny little 2-inch-tall black and white chick standing IN the feeder, chirping. And as I looked further back, I could see two more, even smaller, same-colored chicks standing at the edge of the nest, also chirping.

I was about to run back to the house to get Peter, when Shygirl turned around and walked back to the nest and the remaining four eggs. She talked to the chicks the whole time, and as she settled back in, she lifted her wings, and each chick picked a spot and dove under.

I was thrilled – we hadn’t been sure that any of those eggs would actually hatch, and now here we had three new baby chicks!

Later in the afternoon, it was the same routine. I’d refilled the little chick feeder, this time with Peter in tow, hoping for another glimpse of the chicks. After waiting for a bit with no results, Peter headed on to other tasks. I stayed. Sure enough, about 5-10 minutes later, I heard that chorus of cheeps.

This time, all three chicks from before were at the feeder, and Shygirl was teaching them how to eat. And at the nest: one more super-tiny, freshly hatched chick. Now there are four.

Shygirl is still brooding those last three eggs (while simultaneously mothering the ones that have already hatched), so we may have more babies arrive over the weekend.

Speaking of new babies, Aberdeen’s little girls are doing great. We had them outside in the sunshine for about an hour today, and the robust bay was prancing and jumping and testing out her still-wobbly legs. The black girl seems a little more frail, but she wanted to do everything her sister was doing, and did her best to keep up. Here they are at one day old (these photos were also taken yesterday – it’s hard to believe, but they’ve actually grown some since then).

And last, but not least, Drama Queen’s twins are now one month old. Nikabrik, the multi-colored boy, is big and sturdy, and already acting a little bucky (it’s cute – for now). Lulu (short for Hullabaloo), the bay-colored girl, is a total sweetheart.

Both goatlings are full of energy, and love to run and jump and play. But they both especially love to climb. And they especially especially love to climb people. Like me.

And one happy mama.

Earlier today, I was feeding the chickens and doing some general clean-up in the coop, when I was startled by what I thought was a soft “peep!” I went inside next to the broody box, and sure enough, heard it again. Then I ran to get Peter so he could hear it too. It appears that at least one of Shygirl’s eggs is going to hatch! (Or possibly already has, though I’ve read that you usually hear them peep from inside the egg up to a day before they peck their way out. The reason we don’t know for sure is that mama hen will keep the newborns under her so they stay warm and dry until the rest of the eggs have hatched.)

And Aberdeen… she’s in labor again! This time it looks like it’s for real. Her contractions have been getting harder and closer together throughout the day, and we’re expecting her to reach the pushing stage at any time.

We fully expect to have anywhere from one to three more goat babies by the time we get to bed tonight, and possibly some baby chicks as well!

More news when we have it…