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