Chicken Coop, no Chicken Coupe

Magic Man is very talented.  Here in the Big City North, he has a magic shop, theater & party room, and a workshop normally used to build large cabinet-styled stage illusions.  But then he has this wife who, on occasion, makes special and strange requests.

You may recall that about 6 weeks ago we brought home some baby chicks.  They lived in a brooding house for a few weeks, but grew so quickly we needed to transition them to a chicken coop.  I worked on design after design, never quite satisfied with the final idea.  Then one night, it came to me in a dream.  My girls need a Chicken Coupe.

Magic Man shook his head when I approached him with the request.  He took my sketch and "disappeared" (ha! pun intended) into the workshop.  A few days later, he called me to the workshop, handed me a can of primer and a brush and instructed me to get busy, priming the coop inside and out. (I found out just how limber I am not).  I primed on day one and painted the next day.  Day three we added the almost finishing touches.  It was enough for the girls to move in.

So here is their new home, the Coop de Ville.  The nesting area is under the hood, feeding station in the trunk.  The girls can roost in the driver's seat and enter the run through the passenger door.  We can open both side doors or the hood and quickly clean the coop.  Functional and fun - I'm happy.

Coop de Ville

 The girls love sitting the in Driver's seat.  Oddly enough, that is Daisy on the passenger side.

Driving Miss Daisy

 It is difficult to see, but there is a chicken run, that ghost-like image in the photo below, for the girls.  It looks a bit like a submarine.  The run has a "conning tower" to roost and observe the surroundings.  Alas, Magic Man will NOT let me paint the run yellow.  All together now, let's sing "We all live in a yellow submarine..."

Chicken run

I'll be adding more sections to the run as the days grow warmer.  I hope the girls won't think they are gerbils.

Two Weeks and Growing

Ooops!!  Someone forgot to hit the post button last week.  The Golden Girls are developing into haggard looking pullets.  This must be their awkward stage.  No, me thinks "awwk" is for parrots.

From last week...

It's nice we only have an occasional snow in the Big City North.  The Golden Girls spent happy hour outdoors these last few days.  

How quickly The Girls are growing!  Everyday they change; I sit and go through their names, making sure I can identify them.  Yes, they are changing that much.  Two weeks ago, all six fit in the feeder; today the feeder holds only two.  New feathers sprout by the hour, and fuzzy feathers are everywhere, or maybe it's the pollen from the trees.

The brooding house is 3 times as large as the day we brought them home.  The outdoor pen is twice the size of the new brooder.  They run every inch of the new space.

This my first experience with chickens.  They are fascinating to watch.  Here they are the day they came home.

The GG first day with us.  They were about 2 weeks old, I was told.

After one week, not much changed.  Still cute and fuzzy, but they were bigger and food consumption had not increased.

Two weeks and the girls are unrecognizable.  Not only are they sprouting feathers, their colors are pronounced and richer.  It is easier to tell them apart.  Annabelle is still the leader.  She flits and sits atop the cardboard box they call home-in-a-home.  She dares another to share her space.  Edie is the friendliest and most vocal.  She takes after her name sake.

Holy Cow.  Look at all those feathers!

The Girls love the outdoor pen.  Back to the brooder late afternoon, they sleep most of the night.  Tomorrow we're expecting rain, I'm expecting unhappy girls by evening.

The GG love the outdoor life.  

 Oh, and the appetites have increased, by 3 fold.  It's time for a bigger dish!

I learned a valuable lesson.  Keeping water clean is a challenge.  They've grown into Mr. Whiskers', the magic rabbit, water bowl.  We change it several times a day - and night.  Granddaughter and I love to sit and watch the girls and we noticed they love to jump on things, then sit.  So this was the test.  Elevate the water bowl on some bricks, and put additional bricks all around the water bowl.  The water was untainted for 36 hours.  

Awards and "It Must be a Sign"

What a weekend...

     In case I failed to mention this tidbit, Magic Man and I moved from the Big City to the Big City North last summer. My job keeps me racing back 300 miles to the Big City every couple of weeks, but that's another story.
     This past weekend, my dear friend M and I headed south.  He did not know he was the recipient of the prestigious "Volunteer of the Year" award at the FRC Regional event.  Surprise!!  Neither of us could participate this year due to conflicts, but I had to get him there for this one day AND keep the award a secret.  It was good to show up, even for a few hours.  We missed the kids, the volunteers, the coaches - and they missed us (hurray!).  Good, good times.

M sharing the joy with another recipient

      Did I mention how much we enjoy the kids?  These students are great!  They are innovative, creative, and a lot of fun.  They ARE our hope for the future.  STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) events are an inspiration to learn and apply learning.  They are, contrary to popular belief, not always the "smart kids."  They simply have a hands-on activity that gives them the desire to learn and to express themselves.

Teams create and design their uniforms and work clothing...

All-girl team sporting their work aprons

Team Shirt

... and are responsible to keep their machines running.

Quick maintenance between matches

     This year, each team made a shirt for the EmCee to sport during introductions.  This one is my favorite.  Can you find the shark?  Poor guy, he had over 50 shirts to wear over 2 days.

EmCee and the Shark Shirt

It was a fun day.  Lots of wonderful memories.

     On the way home, we detoured by Mom's out in the "Middle of Nowhere."  I love it there, so does M and his wife L.   A quick night's sleep, breakfast, and we were on the road again toward home (after raiding Mom's garden - shhhhh!).  But first, we stopped at the Tomato Stand, a little self serve place just off the FM road.  You don't see these places much anymore in these parts, so I frequent them as often as I can.

Tomatoes

And more

     20 miles further up the road is the Egg Farm, another self serve spot off the road.   It's an understanding with the customers; no sign needed - and Mrs. B only sells eggs.
     Finally, there was a quick stop for lunch.  This sign made me laugh as is evident by the poor quality of the photo.  I couldn't take a better picture.

Take a Number Please

    It was good to get back home.  I missed Magic Man and the Golden Girls and Granddaughter..., oh and her parents.

The Golden Girls

Our visitors arrived yesterday.  Six young ladies with all their belongings have moved in and found themselves very much at home.  The light freeze last night prompted me to keep these young girls in the living room for warmth and to see how well they adjust to their new environment.

Oh, did I mention the Golden Girls (GG) are our new chicks?  Little Gold Sex Links.  Annabelle, Blanche, Constance, Daphne, Edie, and Fiona.

GG6 - Just Arrived

Annabelle

Granddaughter, now 13 months, is excited about her new playmates.  She hovers near their brooding house imitating their cheeps and peeps, bobbing her head in unison with them, dragging her parents to come see her friends.

The GG seem contented, adjusted to the location of food and water, accepting the heat emitted from the heat lamp without question.  18 more weeks until the first egg, according to the books.  My patience will be tested.

On the less happy note, Mr. Whiskers, the famous magic rabbit is none to happy with the attention competition.  He bounces in his cage demanding to be noticed.  It won't be long, normalcy will fill the household again.  I'm sure of that fact.

Creative Cousin's Coolest Kitchen Container

I have the most creative cousin who happens to be my FAVORITE cousin, but not solely for the creative reason.  She is also witty, funny, a great cook (she clings to Cajun traditional cooking), artistic, and has an eye for decor.  She hunts, fishes, gardens, and trains animals.  I have not found anything she cannot do.  Her mind is constantly churning whether it's something brewing on the stovetop or finding a way to repurpose, recycle, or reuse an item headed to the trash - or sometimes not.  That item may have been left unattended for a minute and is now hers.

Cousin D aka CCC or Crazy Cajun Cousin, is the most amazing person I know and I'm blessed with the good fortune to be related, and to be loved like her little sister.

CCC decorating for our wedding reception

So one of her recent repurposed projects that I love is her very handy "Wrap Rack."  It a common problem to find enough space for plastic zip bags, rolls of foil or plastic wrap, etc.  Cousin D, however, found the perfect solution.  She pulled an unused hanging shoe rack from the closet.  One quick glance, followed by a "Hmmmmm??" and she darted off to the kitchen and yanked Ziplock and Glad boxes from her pantry.  She slid them into the shoe slots and "voila" her storage problem was solved.  Almost.  She cut a slit in one of the shoe slots in order to retrieve the zip bags and decided that the plastic shroud was subject to ripping over time.  She dug out her trusty duct tape and reinforced the opening.  Now her plastic and foil items are handy, freeing oodles of pantry space.  The "mate" side of the shoe bag is perfect for holding the refill box.

It took me almost a year to find one of these shoe bag treasures and I grabbed it quickly when I did.  Sadly, it was the only one in stock.  But I have mine.  Not exactly matching my kitchen decor, but there are times, even with Cousin D's solutions, function ranks over beauty.

Cousin D's Wrap Rack hangs outside the pantry

I need to visit Cousin D soon and find her other creations to outfit my home and garden.

Love you my dearest Cousin.

Experiment: Dehydrating Eggs

I'm always looking for the unique ideas and skills on the pathway to self sufficiency.  Recently, I stumbled on this article about dehydrating eggs (all the details are here).  What the heck - I'll try it.  This lady dehydrates 9 dozen eggs at a time, so I decided to gamble with 1/2 dozen while we were drying pineapple.

Branching - pineapple is probably the easiest and most rewarding fruit to dry.  No special prep, other than slicing the same thickness of the fruit, and wow, does the home smell wonderful during the process.  An entire pineapple sliced in rings, fits comfortably in a quart freezer bag.

Ok, ok.. back on track.  So, 6 eggs took a quick whirl in the blender, a few seconds was perfect.  My non-stick pan is heating on the stove, with no oils, sprays, etc.  This is purely eggs to non-stick coating process.  Commence the scrambling process.  Using a spatula, break up the chunks into small pieces as you stir the eggs.  Once the eggs are cooked, spread them evenly onto the drying rack and place them in the oven.  Set the dehydrator to 145 degrees.  After 8 hours the eggs were close to done.  I tested by breaking some of the larger pieces.  By 10 hours, they were are ready to pull from the dehydrator.  The large hunks were the same color and texture inside and out.

Into the Blender

Grinding into Egg Powder

Volume results for 6 eggs: 1 1/2 cups raw, 3/4 cup dried.  Next weekend, we will try the egg powder in a blind taste test.

6 Eggs on the Left, 6 Eggs on the Right

Drying eggs and pineapple together?  The flavors did not cross.

Extending the Life of a Vacuum Sealer

In our household we freeze, can, dehydrate, cure meats and strive to keep fresh food on hand and made with ingredients we can pronounce.  We frequently shop bargain tables and sales for edible treasures.

Several years ago, Magic Man purchased a vacuum sealer for me.  I love my vacuum sealer.  It allows us to freeze items longer or store dehydrated foods in compact packaging.

Magic Man loves that he can buy gifts for his bride that has a plug or pull cord or a handle or makes barnyard noises.  As a City Boy, he benefits from these gifts and is learning to appreciate suburbanized mock-farm life.  One step at a time... he is still the traditional man, and the lovely roses below are my Valentine's Day gift this year.

Loving both

Back to the sealer.  This particular unit is several years old, but functions as well as the day he purchased it.  With the final selection in hand, the sales clerk offered this sage advice before heading to checkout.  When storing your unit, remove the sealing tray along with the gasket because 1) the pressure of the lid won't compress the gasket, and 2) the tray will help retain the gasket's factory shape.  Store the tray in a loosely closed plastic bag, he continued to keep dust and grime off the gasket and allows moisture to escape the bag.

His advice is proven to be sound.  In the past, my sealers have lasted no more than three years.  The gasket was always the first to go.   Thanks to a caring salesman, we plan to use this machine for many years to come.