Canned Goods & Eggs

The photo shows some of my canning work this summer! Everything was grown right here with our own hands, except the strawberry jam. We drove about 50 minutes to another farm to pick the red lucious berries to make our homemade strawberry preserves! It goes fast, but we have a few more jars left that I'm hoarding for winter. Nothing better than the taste of fresh Georgia strawberries in the dead of winter!

We (grew) and canned potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, tomato sauce, salsa, peas, squash, two types of cucumber pickles, spicy squash pickles, corn, and squash relish! We were able to also freeze a lot of our farm produce. Our freezer is full of onions and more tomatoes, peas, green beans, and corn. I was also able to dry several jars of dill and basil so far!

There's nothing better than a meal with a table full of your own homegrown veggies, herbs, bread, and now...eggs! YAY! YES! The girls (or just one) started laying Thursday or Friday! We believe the one we call Loner Bird laid one on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Baby Bird made a deep cozy nest in one of the nest boxes and about two hours later, there was an egg in there! The one we call Pretty Bird made a nice little nest in another nest box this afternoon and I thought for sure we'd find another one, but at last check around 7:15 or so there were no more and it was getting dark.

Progress on the run section of the Chicken Cottage

Chickens lay eggs about once every 25 hours unless it's dark outside. So we expect at least three more eggs tomorrow and hopefully one of the other girls will start laying tomorrow as well! The first three we found were in a corner of the coop, two were pushed under the straw, and one was actually cracked (probably from laying on the floor and got stepped on or kicked by a bird). The broken one looked more white, but all the others have been a light, light brown nearly pink. One had white speckles like splatter paint. They were all very small in comparison to the large grade-A eggs from the store, but I suspect the eggs will grow larger as the girls get more proficient (and bigger themselves).

Anyway, it's so egg-citing (lol) to finally have a few eggs from our girls! WOW! It's exactly what I have been dreaming of...a little piece of dirt in the middle of the countryside, a garden, some chickens, and farm fresh eggs! Here's to dreams! Keep dreamin' them and keep reachin' for them!

Dreams to Goals to Reality! You can't there without a plan...dream it all day long, but until you set solid, actionable goals it'll always stay just a daydream! 

Have a beautiful day,
Ramsey

Success

Dreams to Goals to Reality! 

Success does not happen accidentally. You don't just accidentally trip over the finish line at the Olympics and win a gold medal. 

Real success - living full, content, happy lives - comes through strategic planning, hard work, dogged persistence, indelible determination, and an unwavering faith in ourselves and God's plans for our lives. 

What do you dream of? Is your life aiming towards a personal dream or are you just wandering aimlessly through life hoping to just get by? Are you settling for less than?  Success will not happen by accident. Get off your ass and do something!

Cheers, Ramsey

If You Build It, They Will Come

...Chickens, that is! 

Farmer Chris has built an incredible chicken cottage! The first image in this series shows the entire 16x8 foot fully enclosed run.

Construction officially started on May 18 and the girls moved into the run on June 19. We moved the small chicken coop into the run for the first month. 

The run is built with lumber, hardware cloth, and the roof is chicken wire and lattice. It has an 8x8 concrete pad for easy cleaning and an 8x8 sand box for foraging, growing a chicken garden, dirt baths, and just because.

The chicken's feed and water stay in the run so that inside their cozy sleeping quarters (the actual coop part of this beauty) remains clean. Well as clean as you can get with birds pooping all over the place all of the time. They are very much like little poop pez dispensers. LOL!

This deluxe chicken cottage boasts a mini barn door for the chickens of the house to access their private coop from their run (a.k.a. play yard). 

The girls love running around in crazy chicken circles in the run, chasing each other, digging around for food (they do especially love the fallen muscadines), singing chicken songs, and exploring their coop. 


There is also a screened window high off the ground that allows air and light into the coop. The chickens can just barely look out of the window into their run when resting on the roost in their coop.

Farmer Chris completed the sleeping quarters fully-enclosed and highly-secure coop and the ladies moved into the addition on July 26. (Photos in upcoming posts.)

Being inside the run is like being in a screened-in open-air porch. People being able to confortably walk into the run and the coop was a critical factor in our construction plan. The food and water system is so much easier in this big run than inside the tiny

first coop. The food hangs on a chain over the sandbox section of the run while the water perches on a stand Chris built that stays on the concrete. Stay tuned for more pics & the final project in the coming days!

See more pics & chicken fun...

Chicken Cottage Construction

Chicks Growing Up & The Chicken Coop

Chickens! Facebook Photo Album

The Chicken Cottage Facebook Photo Album

Thanks for visiting our blog! Come back & see us!
~Ramsey & Chris

Aloe: Nature's Healing / Soothing Ointment

This past spring, the aloe garden (okay the collection of pots filled with aloe) had some surgical procedures and pot rearrangements. Aloe and cacti surgeries are always on the first day of spring or just thereafter, then the succulents are moved outside to a nice shady spot to live out spring, summer and fall in the tropical heat.

The plants winter inside as they do not like temps under 40 degrees.
During the transplants and surgeries, in which bad leaves (the thick arms) are removed so the plant can focus on new growth rather than trying to heal the old, I was able to harvest nearly a gallon of aloe gel.

It's a little tedious job. The spiky sides of the leaves removed, the leaf is filleted and the gel scraped out. I run all the gel through the blender to make it smooth and liquidy, so it is usable in bodywash, handsoap, lotions, or just using as is. I then poured my pureed aloe gel into ice cube trays and froze them. Once solid, I dumped my aloe cubes into a freezer bag and bam! instant sunburn / burn cooling cubes. These are the perfect size for unthawing to use in recipes or just grab a cube and apply to the burned, irritated or bug-bitten skin.

If you're at my house and get a boo-boo, don't ask for store bought creams, ointments, lotions or potions...but I do have plenty of aloe!

Other posts like this one: Cacti & Aloe and Aloe Surgeries.

Today, I am going to smile more and worry less. Cheers, Ramsey

Ode to the Muscadine

Muscadine

Muscadine, sweet nectar on the vine.

Muscadine…Southern gold, wine, and moonshine.

Sweet muscadine, you are so fine. 

Wild muscadine.  

The taste of pure sunshine.

Sweet muscadine, it’s almost picking time!

~RBP August 14, 2016

Lemon Balm

Lemon balm is a great plant to have around. It grows well in containers, pots, inside, outside, herb gardens and any spot outside you have some dirt! :)


The plant can grow two to three feet high and makes a nice green clump of leaves among other herbs or flowers in the garden. And unlike other mint, it does not send out underground runners and become invasive. It is so easy to grow! Just give it a little water every now and then and when it gets too big, trim it up. But be sure not to waste those awesome leaves!


It's fantastic planted on or around your patio, porch, or deck because the delightful lemon aroma attracts beneficial insects such as ladybugs and pollinating honey bees and actually repels mosquitos and annoying gnats! Smells nice AND keeps the bitters away?! YES, PLEASE!

Ancient Herbal Folklore

It was used in ancient Greece and Rome as a topical ointment to treat bug bites and insect stings.Lemon balm was traditionally utilized to uplift spirits and to enhance memory. It was utilized in spells to heal broken hearts and attract love. It was also believed that a bag of fresh or dry lemon balm leaves under one's pillow promoted sleep. In ancient Middle East, a bath in lemon balm leaves was said to promote heart and skin health. Lemon balm is a particularly soothing herb that will help bring relaxation to most people. 

Culinary Uses of Lemon Balm

Lemon balm is a member of the mint family yet smells like sweet lemons! I love fresh lemon balm leaves in my ice tea, cocktails, steeped in hot tea or just floating in a mug of steaming honey-sweetened hot tea. In the summer, I love to take a pitcher, add lemon balm (and or mint leaves), a few lemon slices, add cold water and keep in the fridge. More flavor than plain water and so refreshing on sweltering hot summer days! Alternatively, freeze fresh-washed leaves into ice cubes for use in any beverage. The leaves are delicious chopped in fruit or green salads, is the perfect herb to season fish, and is a great accompaniment to roasted or grilled chicken. Lemon balm enhances any culinary dish! Here is a link to an easy chicken recipe with lemon balm.


Like many fresh herbs, lemon balm will lose flavor in cooking so it is best to add near the end of cooking a dish. Use up as much of the fresh leaves as you can during spring and summer (growing season). When dry, the lemon balm leaves lose much of their flavor but are still very fragrant and so make a wonderful addition to potpourri.

Herbal Remedy & DIY Uses for Lemon Balm

Chris’s Happy Birthday Chocolate Cream Pie

This is my husband’s favorite pie! I wanted to make it for him without using a box of pudding and a tub of hydrogenated vegetable oil (aka cool whip). This old-fashioned chocolate pudding pie is unbelievably rich, delicious, & creamy! You will not be disappointed. We used a homemade piecrust and our own recipe for chocolate sauce, but you can use any type of pre-baked piecrust, a crumb crust, and unsweetened melted chocolate.

Yield: 8 Servings   *   Prep Time: 35 minutes   *   Cool - Chill Time: About 2 ½ hours

Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• ¼ cup plus 2 tsp corn starch
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 3 egg yolks, beaten
• 3 cups milk
• 3 oz. unsweetened melted chocolate
• 1 ½ Tbsp. butter
• 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 1 baked 9-inch pastry shell
• 1 cup whipping cream
• 1/3 cup sifted powdered sugar

Directions

1. Combine sugar, cornstarch and salt in a heavy saucepan; stir well. Combine egg yolks and milk; gradually stir into sugar mixture. Add chocolate. Cook oved medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Boil 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Stir in butter and vanilla.
2. Immediately pour filling into pastry shell. Cover filling with plastic wrap*. Cool 30 minutes; then refrigerate until firm.
3. Beat whipping cream at medium speed with an electric mixer until foamy. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating until soft peaks form. Spread whipped cream over filling. Sprinkle with chocolate shavings, sprinkles, coconut, chocolate chips, etc. if desired. Chill thoroughly for one to two hours.

Notes

*Apply plastic wrap directly to the surface of the filling to avoid a skin from forming. Remove wrap before adding whipped cream topping. Also, if you can’t find actual whipping cream in your grocer’s dairy case, you can use heavy cream as a substitute.

Printable Version: 

Check out all the recipes on this blog here!

More on The Chicken Cottage Construction

It takes me way longer to share the photos than it actually took Farmer Chris to build the Chicken Cottage! Construction started May 18 and the girls moved in on June 19. 

Chris is a bit of a perfectionist so he's still trimming it out and touching it up and making adjustments here and there, but it's done! 

Looking up through the roof of the run

They are in and have full use of their 16x8-foot run and an 8x4-foot coop that boasts a six-foot long roost and four cozy nest boxes. The nest boxes hang off the back of the coop with an easy-to-access egg gathering door on the outside. 

The gals turned 18 weeks old yesterday and we are still waiting on eggs! It could be anytime now but it could be as many as six more weeks. I'll keep you posted!

I've got a bunch of chicken posts for you now so if you've missed any or just want the full scoop...Check out these links below for pictures, posts, and even a video.

Take time this week to let the sun shine on your face and to gaze at the night time sky. Mars and Jupiter are very clearly visible in the early evening still! Cheers, Ramsey

Chicks Growing Up Video

Our Facebook Chicken Photo Album

The Chicken Coop

Chicken Cottage Photo Album

The Chicken Cottage Posts on Facebook

Chicks Growing Up

We are in love with our chickens! Not only do they look pretty, but they are hilariously funny and entertaining! Not to mention sooner or later they will provide us with fresh yummy eggs! 

Big Bird ~ April 30, 2016 ~ Freckles Photography

This is our only yellow-ish hen, Big Bird. She's a Red Ranger dual purpose bird, which means the breed is a good producer / layer of eggs but also make excellent meat birds. Sorry Big Bird, we probably won't eat you or any of this first batch of chickens but you cannot look at this bird without imagining fried chicken or a whole roasted chicken or teriaki chicken legs...she IS meaty!

Just for fun (and because I'm a little...okay, a lot nerdy like that) I made a quick video showing Big Bird's growth from a new baby hatchling of just six or so days old to her big feathered-out turkey-size self of last week. So without further ado, I give you...Big Bird! Enjoy the fast little video and do feel free to dance along with the music!

Check out the construction of our chicken cottage, too!
And you can see more pics of chicks on our facebook page.

We see or hear a plethora of wildlife around the farm. Armadillos, beaver, coyotes, dogs, elephants...ha! just kidding on that last one, but I was enjoying the alphabetical game...all sorts of birds, lizards,frogs, snakes, turkey and lots of deer. 

I caught a stealthy picture of this guy through my fogged up window. At first I thought this was a woodpecker of sorts, but after doing my own internet sleuthing I believe this is a Belted Kingfisher. They live near rivers, streams, creeks, marshes and swamps to eat fish and other animals living in or near the water. They make a cool rattle sound when they call and we hear this noise all the time, just never knew what it was! 

So nice for the locals to come up on the porch and introduce themselves. I watched this one for a good ten minutes before he (or she) flew back to the riverside woods. Now the coyotes, feral hogs, wild dogs, and bobcats, they need not come over for a visit. Though there is something eerily beautiful about the song of coyotes late at night by the light of the moon.

To sit and listen to the night sounds of tree frogs, cicadas, crickets, coyotes, bull frogs, owls and other night birds while a planetarium of stars and planets sparkle and dazzle overhead is one of my favorite summer treasures. 

Wildlife abounds in, at, and near bodies of water. Read my recent, highly popular post on Childhood Creeks.