Back to Church!

Summer has been very very busy with work and summertime activities.   I am ashamed to say we haven't been to Church since June.  Today, all the cards fell into place...we were home, animals were fed and watered last night in preparation, no chores were so urgent as to keep us from going to Church this morning.

It was nice to be back in Church.  I missed it.  I always enjoy listening to our Minister, he has a way of holding your attention.  He is a great story teller.  He breaks down the lessons and explains the importance of what has happened.  He also uses current day events to bring the lesson into perspective.  Though he is a great story teller he cannot always hold the attention of my 3 year old.  Of course I am the embarrassed mother while everyone else comments on how good he is.

Communion is held every Sunday.  I mentioned in the past a reluctance to take communion only out of shyness.  Well, my Mother, Son and I all take communion now.  I still get a bit panicked, since I also have to make sure my Son moves through the line up efficiently.  Today was an "out of the mouths of babes" moment. As one side of the Church lined up we waited for our turn.  My Son got a bit panicked, he said "we have to line up now".  I explained we had to wait until the others were finished.  He looked at his grandmother and said "Nan, we have to line up now...before the bread is all gone"....  I guess I should start packing a snack for Church.....

Our Minister is fantastic with Children.  After Church he sat with us and discussed farming, a topic which my Son loves.  My Son told our Minister about our pigs, turkeys, baby chicks and chickens.  He reminds me so much of myself as a child, I loved talking about all my animals and pets.  We also had a small farm when I was growing up.

Though my Son is still too young to understand a lot about what is discussed in Church I believe it's a good experience for him.  And he probably understands more than I am giving him credit for.  I enjoy our time at Church together, even when he's speaking when he shouldn't be.....it all makes great memories.

'til next time

A Garden of His Very Own.....

I decided to turn my herb garden box into a garden for my son.  He was watering the grass in our driveway calling it his garden.  Since I am not a fan of the grass in our driveway and don't want it to flourish, I gave up my herb garden area so he can have a real garden to tend to.  He planted peas, turnip, carrots, broccoli and yellow beans.

Before he planted his garden we stirred in some mature compost......

Ready for planting.....

He planted his selection of seeds.....

Now the waiting begins....I hope he has a great harvest from his little garden.

'til next time!

Throw another piece of chicken on the BBQ please!

As I mentioned in a previous post our home grown chicken is very lean.  Learning to cook it on the BBQ took some creative thinking.  I use the BBQ all year, all weather.  I needed to figure out how to cook our home grown chicken on the BBQ without it drying out.  The first time I cooked it I thought I could throw it on the grill like I would "store bought" chicken and it would turn out juicy and tender ...wrong...it got chewy and tough.  After speaking to our butcher she said to cook it longer.  I tried cooking it on low heat over a longer period of time than I would have cooked "store bought" chicken.  Cooking it longer actually dried it out.  I had to figure out a way to keep the chicken from drying out.  I tried placing a pan of water under the chicken.  Eureka!  Placing a pan of water under the chicken keeps it hydrated and keeps it from drying out.  No more dry, chewy, tough home grown BBQed chicken. I placed the pan of water on the heating grid below the grilling rack.  The pan of water creates steam to keep the chicken from drying out.  Voila! Tender, juicy delicious chicken........  YAY!

By the way, the photo above is of chicken thighs.  Our birds ranged about 10 lbs when butchered, we got some nice sized portions.

I thought I would share my little tip in hopes it may help someone else cook delicious home grown chicken on the BBQ!

'til next time!

Gotta Love Those Chicken Nipples......

yup, that's right, chicken nipples.  ha ha, I laugh every time I say it.... "chicken nipples".....  I know what you're thinking, "chickens don't have nipples...do they??" Well, you're right, chickens don't have nipples.  What I am speaking of are ingenious little creations that ingenious farmers use to water their chickens.  My husband spoke of them years ago when we first started raising our own laying hens.  I must admit, I didn't pay much attention, sounded like a lot of work and cost to set up this "chicken nipple watering system".  I didn't jump on the bandwagon so it didn't get put into action.  I had actually forgotten about them until my neighbour showed me her system.  So, when I came home and mentioned it to hubby he got on ebay and found us some chicken nipples.  Oddly enough you can't purchase them at local feed stores.

It is going to be a bit of cost and work to set them up initially but once they are set up they are there for the long haul.  No more lugging gallons of water from the house tap to the barn, just run a hose and fill a barrel.  yay!  And they are so much cleaner for the birds to drink from than the nasty waterers.  

Here is his system before he installed it in the barn.....

For now we are just using a water jug we had kicking around, the barrel set up is yet to come.  The barrel is planned to water all 3 coops.  One barrel to fill, 3 coops watered......

  

We partitioned off the larger area of the barn to keep the chicks closer to the heat lamp, to limit their area to wander when they were very small.  The time has come to open the space up.  They are feathered out more, can handle being away from the heat lamp and could use the extra space to stretch their legs.  I feel they aren't big enough to go into the run yet, that will be in another week or two.  So, that being said, hubby did install the new watering system in their existing area of the barn.  In reality he has probably made more work for himself since we will be removing the partition walls he has used to attach the watering system.  I guess we'll cross that bridge tomorrow.  Today he was anxious to see if they would take to the nipples.  It wasn't long and they were investigating this new addition to their surroundings.  Some were too distracted by the mosquito catching to care, others couldn't take their eyes off those shiny silver watering nipples......

You can see the waterer in the background, it is very dirty after a days worth of scratching and fluttering around.......

Please excuse the mess.....tomorrow they will have more space to roam and fresh bedding.  Of course we freshened their waterer as well, we can't risk them not getting enough water.  

It is hard to believe they will soon be 3 weeks old.  They are not growing off the charts, they are very active and love running around their little space.  When we purchased our meat chicks the first time we asked how long it took for them to grow.  We were told people can grow an 8lb bird in 8 weeks. We cannot seem to do this.  For us it takes 12 weeks.  They have constant access to feed so it's not that, I think it's the fact that they have lots of space to run and get fed garden veggies.  They spend time dust bathing and pecking grass in their large run so they aren't constantly eating the grower.  This year I am going to feed them "finisher" to give them a bit more fat.  Last year our birds were very lean, which in one way is great but it's nice to have some fat for flavour and probably would make them more tender. 

 

'til next time!