New Chicks!

Welcome home to our newest babies! These Golden Stars hatched on March 22. We got them at three-weeks old (nice, they didn't need much heat lamp this time of year)! Meet Sophia, Dorothy, Blanch, and Rose! 💖 

We did have to remove Sophia from the group as she was more than a little mean & aggressively pecking and feather pulling on the other girls. We doctored up the scabs, boo-boos, and even a bloody tail with blue antibacterial / antibiotic ointment on the three sweet girls. 

The babies have moved into the small Starter Coop in the backyard and this weekend we will move the little coop next to the big coop so all the birds can begin getting to know another. (Sophia may be free-ranging if she doesn't get her act together!)

They are 23 days old in the pictures shown here and as of today, are five-weeks old! 

Ramsey Farms Ranch Dressing

Since Sonja asked for it, here is my Ramsey Farms Ranch Dressing recipe! Like all my recipes, it's really very easy to make! (I don't have time for fancy, hard-to-get ingredients or time consuming processes!) It'll taste even better if you grow your own dill and herbs! ❤💗 Farmer Chris won't touch bottled ranch dressing from the store anymore and there have been threats of eating it from the jar with a spoon! It's great on salads, for fresh veggies, even pizza crust or whatever you can put it on to eat it! It's that good! 😋

Ramsey Farms Ranch Dressing

Makes about one pint - mix it all up in a pint size mason jar. We save the plastic mayo lids to wash and use to close up the jars. Will keep in the fridge until the expiration date of your sour cream. This is a great base recipe, you can add your own ingredients, spices, herbs to get the flavor you like best. Be cautious about how much garlic you use, otherwise you'll be up all night with heartburn! You can find my original post of this recipe here. Thanks to The Pioneer Woman for the foundation for this recipe! 

Ingredients

• 1 cup (real) mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup sour cream* (see below for how to make your own quick sour cream!)
• 1 to 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp+ sugar
• salt to taste
• dill (fresh or dry), to taste (I use about 1 tsp fresh or 2 tsp dry)
• a splash of buttermilk* (or lemon juice or vinegar) (I use about 2 tsp of the sour cream liquid mentioned in the sour cream recipe below)
• other herbs I use interchangeably: parsley, thyme, oregano, rosemary, cilantro, chives
• Optional: paprika and or hot pepper flakes and or cayenne pepper and or hot sauce

Directions

1. Mince your garlic and chop the herbs very finely. 
2. Mix the garlic, sugar, salt, herbs into the mayonnaise. Stir well.
3. Taste frequently and adjust seasonings as desired.
4. Add the sour cream; mix very well.
5. Chill for at least 30 minutes or up to a few hours for best results. 
6. Thin with buttermilk (or vinegar) or milk if needed.
7. Eat and enjoy!!

Make Your Own Sour Cream

This makes a thinner cream than the weird gelatinous stuff in a plastic carton from the store, but it gives a much more authentic flavor to your dressing! We very rarely buy the sour cream in the store anymore since this is just so easy to whip up in a minute and feels healthier to me without the additives. 

1. In a glass mason jar, add one cup milk. (Note the milk's expiration date, this is when your ranch dressing expires too.)
2. Add 1/4 cup white vinegar.
3. Place in coolest part of the fridge for 20+ minutes.
4. This makes approximately 1/2 to 3/4 cup of sour cream.
5. Scoop the cream of the top to add to your dressing!
6. The liquid that is left in the jar can be used as buttermilk!

You can check out all the recipes on my blog here! 

"One's destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things." ~Henry Miller

The Best Blog Posts of 2016

The Highest Rated Articles for 2016

I can't believe it's nearly March! Again! Time sure does seem to fly these days. Now is as good a time as any to look back at 2016 to reflect on what was in order to see just where it is we're going. Last year was our 2nd full year here in our little farm in South Georgia and the year of the chicken! Farmer Chris built that incredible chicken coop for our flock of six girls - Big Bird, Laverne, Shirley, Loner, Pretty, and Baby Bird. All the ladies started laying in late August / early September! We even experienced a mini molt with a few of them. I haven't bought eggs since August and that is awesome!

It gets more and more challenging to come up with content for the blog and have functional internet to post it! As a family without an iPhone by choice, we don't walk around with a camera in our hands to document every detail of our lives as it appears many people do (just scroll through your Facebook feed). We bake breads, cook meals from scratch, feed chickens, collect eggs, craft handmade items, manufacture soaps and shampoos, plow fields or plant nearly every day of the year. I'd love to hear from my readers - each post has a comment box at the bottom of the page - please feel free to leave comments, ask questions, let me know what you'd like to see or learn about!

Our little blog has had more than 5,000 since it's launch in late 2013!! Nearly 2,000 visitors stopped by to visit this website in 2016 alone! Wow! Thanks for the visits! Most of our readers are in the US, but also people in Russia, France, Portugal, and Germany have read our posts. I'd love to hear from more of you about what information you'd like to see more of on The Simple Life. If you see a blog post you just love, feel free to share it with your friends - don't keep it a secret! ☺

Here are the Top 5 blog posts from The Simple Life in 2016!

Ranked by Google based on the # of visitors. Be sure to check out each article & share your faves!

#5...Mmmmm! In Georgia, pecans are king so if ya got 'em, eat 'em! This post with photos and the recipe for my Georgia Butter Pecan Cookies got a lot of attention. Make these and you will too!

#4...The first peak of the 2016 garden was Garlic stems popping up! We learned a lot of growing garlic last year and in fact, planted the 2017 crop in late October of 2016 for a May - July 2017 harvest. The current garlic has been up and green stemmed for many months by now! 

#3...Canning! The first day of summer included a quick update about the chicken coop, harvesting potatoes and other delicious produce from the garden, and my canning work and plans. This year we sure hope to do even more canning! And we still have beautiful preserved veggies in jars to eat - the pantry is full but the cache is dwindling. 

#2...Our second most viewed article from 2016 is one of my personal favorites! Childhood Creeks captured images of our son (photo cred to my sweet friend & pro photographer, Dallas of Freckles Photography). A great memoir of those carefree summer days of childhood playing outside - a good read if I do say so myself!

And the top #1, most read post out of all the articles posted in 2016...

A Slow Paced Life outlines the beauty of a slower life spent outside, in the garden, in the woods, with less connection to technology and less hustle and bustle and fewer trips all over God's creation in the car. From my perspective, we live in a culture that glorifies busyness (and of course telling everyone all about on all the social media outlets). There is benefit and refreshment in slowing down, listening to the quiet of your own heartbeat, holding hands with the one you love, building something with your own two hands, watching the clouds, and just reflecting and thinking introspectively. Just slow it down, enjoy the moments, it'll all go by too quickly and it isn't a race to the finish line. ❤

The Top Three Blog Articles of All Time!

Because The Simple Life blog has been live on the internet for more than three years now, I like to take a look and see the top articles of all time! Here ya go:

#3...Cold Frame, published over time during the first months of 2014, this article won top post awards in 2014 and 2015. It's a pictorial review of Farmer Chris's building, installing, planting, and growing in a cold frame at the NC house. It is such a great project to help extend your growing season if you live somewhere with colder temperatures! Check it out and if you have a cold frame or similar project, I'd love to see it! Share in the comments at the bottom of this article.

#2...Childhood Creeks was one of our 2016 top five posts. Includes some beautiful photos from Dallas at Freckles Photography and a reminder of how our kids need to put down the digital devices and go outside to play. You only get this one chance to be a kid!

And the #1 all time most read blog post from The Simple Life is...

A Slow Paced Life, published here in 2016, beat out previous year's top posts. It's one of my all time favorites as well. A heartfelt, personal article lauding the slower paced country life. No matter where you live you can find a way to slow it down, stop rushing, and find a more satisfying way of life.

Please be sure to check out all this year's winners by clicking the link provided in the article (above). If you enjoy our blog, be sure to follow us so you don't miss anything and also use the comment boxes following every blog post to let us know what you like, what you want to see more of, and if you have questions, suggestions, comments, whatever - we'd just love to hear from you. 

Thanks for stopping by! ~Ramsey

Hang On...Spring's on the Way!

It's been warming up for a few weeks. I can hear birds singing before the sun rises. Farmers have tilled their land. Many seeds have been planted. A great deal of seedlings have emerged from the soil. Trees are budding! The Spring Equinox begins about 6:48 am on March 20 this year in the Northern Hemisphere. Just 24 more days until the official first day of Spring! REJOICE!

Farmer Chris has planted a good deal of the early crops. So far we can see the potatoes, snow peas, lettuce, carrots, spinach, radishes, green onions, and the stems of our "We Ain't In Vidalia" Ramsey Farms sweet yellow onions have all made their way from the soil to push through and face the sun!

Potato Seedlings 2/13/17

Check out our Facebook page for a cute video showing the newly emerged seedlings and plants and more!

Remember to put a smile on your face and love everyone you meet today! Your's may be the only kindness they receive or see all day. 💗💗

We All Need a Good Listener!

I am working on a new post as well as our Top 2016 blog wrap up! It has been so hectic around here with work, weather, kids' sports and school, and Farmer Chris is up in the far fields right this very minute planting potatoes!!! 

But in the meanwhile, thought my loyal readers, friends, and blog subscribers would enjoy this laugh! I do talk to my chickens and dogs, don't you chat with your pets?! Every living being just wants to connect with another. 😁

Lemons

Wow! Already 2017 is here! Where has the time gone?!? We have been so busy around here with Christmas and the kids being out of school and the new year and this incredible crazy weather. It was winter for about three days - got down in the 20s actually! Then it went back to summer and has been in the mid-80s most days for the past couple weeks.

I've got my Best of 2016 blog stats prepped and ready to go, just haven't been able to make time to write it up! My company has been booming with business of late - which is great, but doesn't give me much time for all the other things I enjoy. So as soon as I get time for a breath, I'll be back writing up a storm here on the blog and showing you all the awesome things we've got going on here. It is tator planting time, you know!

Until then I just wanted to share this photo of one of our meyer lemons. We have harvested five that were on the little sapling and there is one more still ripening. I protected the tree and the one lemon from any frost by covering the cage around the tree with a sheet on those three nights of temps in the low 30's / upper 20's. Although a mature meyer lemon tree can withstand temperatures of 22 degrees Fahrenheit.

Isn't it a beauty?! Oh my goodness and they smell and TASTE so delicious!

Enjoy your new year and check back soon for new posts! ~Ramsey

You Cannot Reap, If You Do Not Sow

You cannot reap if you do not sow. Autumn in Georgia. Harvest time. Thanksgiving. So thankful for the life we have, the earth, the river, the warm sun, the pine trees, and blue skies as far as the eye can see. Peace, love, laughter and contentment. There is nothing better that we can reap while we're here on this planet.

Big Chickens Lay Big Eggs

We are so blessed with eggs here at the farm! Not only do we have plenty for ourselves, we get to give or sell some to our neighbors too. 

The picture with three eggs shows (from left to right) a white store-bought egg, a Big Bird egg, and another of one of our girls' eggs - very typical of the normal medium-sized brown egg we get daily. Except from Big Bird.


This big girl weighs in at more than 13 pounds of chicken meat. Her feet are huge! She towers over most of the black birds and seems to eat non-stop. 

And she's our only hen to have laid the mythical double-yoker! In fact, she's given us a few of them. Our seven-year-old son thinks it's incredible and declared that he only wants to eat Big Bird eggs from now on. Yeah. Okay. Sure. 


Every hen has a fairly distinct egg shell pattern and egg shape. They are quirky in that they like to lay their egg in the same place day after day. Loner Bird still lays her eggs in a little nest she remakes each day on the floor inside the coop. The other girls all have their favorite nest box. 

Each egg is facinating and unique - a tiny organic work of art. They are beautiful. And delicious! It's so exciting to grow your own food and raise animals that provide more food for our family!

Get on out there & find what excites you, ignites your spirit, awakens your passion! Live life as though it may end soon - because it might! Live your own life, don't worry with what other people say or think you should do. Live your best life. Be your best YOU! 

Love, 
Ramsey

Pears!

 My sweet friend and neighbor, Teresa and I ventured over to the next county to pick pears at her mother-in-law's house in late August. We picked about 55 or 60 pounds of pears, which doesn't sound like much, but wound up giving me a fulltime project for the next week or two.

Gorgeous homegrown pears

Makes me think of marble or granite. Edible artwork!

Pears peeled and ready for slicing & coring

Pear peels used for pear vinegar and feeding to the chickens as treats

Canned Pears in light syrup!

We made about sixteen 8-ounce jelly jars of pear butter

Put up about 18 pints & 7 quarts of canned pears

The pear butter has been a huge hit. My son will even eat it directly from the jar if you don't watch out! The canned pears look absolutely perfect. I cannot wait to have "fresh" pears this fall and winter and into next year for making pear-cheddar cobbler, poached or braised pears, pears flambèed in rum, pear salad, pear cinnamon oatmeal, pear pan cake, pear butter spice cake, or just plain ol' pears warmed and buttered or just cold, straight from the jar!

Do you have a favorite pear recipe?! Please share in the comments below.

“Don’t shake the tree when the pears fall off themselves.” ~ Slovakian proverb

Eggs! Glorious Eggs!

So you know I was super duper nerdy excited when my hens finally started laying eggs! And of course I took a ton of pictures of the first dozen! :) We found the first eggs on August 27. Loner Bird must have started laying on August 25, on the floor in the coop, so we didn't find them until that third day. Happened to be sitting by the coop, drinking coffee, watching the chickens do...well do chickeny things. We heard a bunch of weird noises in the corner of the coop including a scratching or tapping noise. Loner was the only bird in the coop. Upon opening the coop this is what we found...

And every day since then...

The girls produce an egg a day! 

A hen will take a day off every now & then, but we usually get 5 or 6 a day.

 Including huge double-yokers like this one from Big Bird! 

 Our eggs are way healthier than store-bought eggs. Our chickens eat a healthy diet - no chemicals, no hormones, no junk food! 

 White egg (from the grocery store) shown for size comparison.

 As you can well imagine, we've been eating lots of eggs lately! Quiche, frittata, breakfast casserole, cakes, breads, and my son's favorite, eggs in a basket! Where you cut out a hole from a thick slice of homemade bread, toast your bread a little on both sides in a buttered pan, then crack an egg into the cutout. Fry until set, flip, cook for a minute until your preferred taste. Voila! 

Pretty Bird and Baby Bird take a little stroll. These two girls are solid layers - rarely taking a day off since they started laying at the end of August.

We love our chickens and it's just so awesome that these beautiful sweet creatures also give us food daily! Best animals in the world! Everybody should consider owning chickens!

Check out all the photos of our chickens here and see the fantastic, super deluxe chicken cottage that my Farmer Chris designed and built right here!

Enjoy your day and remember that if you're in a storm right now, there are always blue skies & sunshine just beyond the clouds!! ~Ramsey

The Finished Deluxe Chicken Cottage

Finally I have gotten to the photos of the coop! 

Construction / groundbreaking began on May 18. 


The girls moved into the run around June 18 and got moved into the coop side of the Deluxe Chicken Cottage about a month after that. 


We put all the finishing touches on the coop and it was officially complete on August 14! 

So here are the first released photos of the completed Ramsey Farms Deluxe Chicken Cottage! 

Remember you can see all the coop pics right here and also pics of our chicks and other fun stuff at the Facebook page.

 Thanks for dropping by the blog!

The Ramsey Farms Deluxe Chicken Cottage!

Bruce or Caitlyn?

Big Bird July 13 @ 14.5 Weeks Old

You all remember the pretty yellow chick? The only one we weren't sure on its gender? Originally that chicken's name was simply "yellow bird" that morphed into Big Bird. But for awhile, Farmer Chris contemplated calling her Bruce / Caitlyn since we were not sure of the gender (reference: Bruce Jenner). My friend, Caroline (the woman, not the dog) refers to this bird as Gertrude.

The Red Ranger breed of chicken was selected by my son. Because he wanted a yellow chicken, not the black ones Mom was picking out! The Black Stars are genetically modified (is that the right word?) so that at hatch, the female chicks are solid and the male birds have a black dot / star on their head. Saves those chicken sexers some extra work and saves those that do not want roosters from getting cockerels.

5 days old, she didn't have a name yet!

So for nearly 23 weeks, we watched. We wondered. We waited. Was Big Bird a boy or a girl? (What about on Sesame Street, I'm not sure that Big Bird was gender specific either, was he / she / it? Hm. Anyway!) So now whatever name you want to call this big, beautiful, size of turkey, can-imagine-it-fried, docile friendly bird...you can call her "ma'am" as I literally saw an egg coming out of her body!

Big Bird at 16 weeks, July 15

And let me tell y'all, about every third egg she lays is HUGE. The egg from yesterday barely fit in the egg carton with the lid closed. My seven-year-old must hold this super egg in two hands! She's given us one double-yoker already and I have a feeling that jumbo egg from yesterday has more than one yolk in it too. I'll find out this afternoon. My son (the junior farmhand / chief ditch digger around here) declared that he wants to eat that egg for snack after school. It's his chicken, he said, he is gonna be the one to eat her eggs. How's that for a pretty awesome pet?!

Big Bird starred in her own little show that depicted this chick's faster growth from week old baby to a teenage pullet. You can check out that fun little minute-long clip here. I know, I'm personally a little obsessed with these awesome little cute feathery food producers but if you wanna see all the chickens in all their glory, be sure to visit our Facebook page for all the fun photo albums. I even have an album just for the chicken cottage construction photos too. :) Enjoy!

My personal note for today:

You can either curse the rain or search for rainbows! ~Ramsey Penegar

Make the most of what you have & love with all your heart!

Cheers,
Ramsey