Confessions of a Chicken Keeper

I have learned a lot about chickens. There is no doubt about that. However, I have much to learn, as I’m sure many beginner chicken keepers do. So here are some confessions (and yes, it’s another list because this is on my mind but I really don’t have the time or energy at the moment to flesh it out more).

• Our chicken coop is not sufficient for Illinois winters.
• Or, at least it isn’t sufficient for roosters.
• My roosters have frostbitten combs and wattles.
• We had a bunch of eggs freeze because only the kids could get to the nesting box (Tim fixed that so that we can now get eggs, too)
• I had a sick hen and I don’t know what was wrong with her.
• She got over it, whatever it was, despite a lack of intervention on my part.
• I can’t really tell the hens apart, except for:
  1. Miss Ducky, an orpington with oranger legs than the others
  2. Lula Mae, the only New Hampshire hen we have left
  3. Chicken Joe, our New Hampshire rooster
• I have too many roosters.
• My 3 Orpington roosters are all named Chuck Norris, even though I could probably tell them apart by now if I tried harder.
• They really don’t have enough roost space.
• They are roosting on the roosts Tim made, but those roosts are hooked up to a ladder and they roost on the ladder, which means they also poop on each other.
• We actually forgot to close them in one night. Tim and I went out to close them in but they weren’t in. So it was actually a miscommunication and neither of us took care of it.
• I didn’t realize we forgot to shut them in until the next morning when the roosters were crowing right near the house quite early in the morning.
• They are all unharmed, amazingly enough.
• They are eating feed from the farm supply store instead of the more natural, healthier feed Scott the Farmer was bringing me.
• I want him to bring me that feed, but he thought I didn’t because I kept buying the feed from the store because I kept running out.
• I haven’t talked to him about this yet, despite the fact that it’s been a month or longer that I’ve been using the feed from the store.
• I am totally getting more chicks next spring so that we have eggs in the winter again.
• Yes, I realize we are totally lucky to have eggs in January.
• Lula Mae is finally moulting.
• She doesn’t look very pretty.
• She’s still my favorite, but please don’t tell the other hens.

Winter Highlights

This seems to be the time of year where everyone is thinking of spring, of the warmth, the sunshine, the new growth. I am pining away for that just as everyone else is. But I thought it might be nice to write something about the best parts of winter. Some of these are not specifically winter-time activities, but are things we are doing lately. It can be hard to find ways to pass the time, especially for Aidan, who is very much an outdoor kid! So here is a list of what I am enjoying about winter:

• Freshly fallen snow
• Ice on tree limbs
• Deer trails
• Chicken tracks in snow
• Chickens standing on one leg
• Sledding
• Snuggling under blankets
• Playing board games and card games with the kids
• Dressing up barbies
• Sitting by the fireplace, getting warm
• Kitty prints everywhere
• Hot tea
• Chili and cornbread, soups, and other cold weather foods we barely made in Phoenix
• Vacuuming to warm up
• Baking
• Making hot cocoa for the kids
• Having cats all over me, keeping me warm

What are your favorite things about winter? Or are you wishing spring would just show up already?

Like boxes of poop in your house? Get a cat!

Yesterday there were 12 cats living in our garage where they were safe and warm. Now they will be sleeping in the shed, hopefully, so they will stay somewhat warm. The garage was OK but they pooped everywhere. And I mean everywhere! They pooped on top of Tim’s tools, under the mower, in any box that was halfway open, on any cloth or container that looked interesting. Tim is finally sick of it since they are his tools, and he does live right above the garage. So he threw them out today and cleaned up a bunch of poop. Anyway, here are the cats that are currently outdoor only cats:

• Mama Cat*
• Scotchy and Little Gray* from Mama Cat’s first litter
• Stinky* from Mama Cat’s second litter
• Toby, Butch, Hannah Montana*, and Big Eyes* from Mama Cat’s third litter
• Swirly Junior from Little Gray’s first litter
• Goose, Oscar, and Gunny* from Little Gray’s second litter

The following cats are indoor/outdoor cats. They are mostly indoors at the moment because it is so cold.

• Vicious from Mama Cat’s second litter (obviously he’s turned out to be a sweetie or he would not be in the house!)
• Tubby Boat* and Captain Gray from Little Gray’s first litter


Miss Tubby Boat

The following cats are indoor only cats, including the two we brought with us from Phoenix.

• Riley
• Cleo*
• Booter from Little Gray’s second litter

The asterisks indicate the female cats. Only Cleo is fixed. It is possible that Goose and/or Oscar are female, but I can’t remember as the last time I checked they were tiny and I wasn’t really sure if they were female or not. We should get some fixed, I know. I’d like to get Mama Cat fixed as she’s already had 3 litters (that we know of) and she is not the nicest cat. She can be sweet to us, but she is a bitch to the other cats. She is a pretty good mama cat, at least until her kittens reach a certain age and then she is mean to them. Her kittens are not the friendliest either. Some of them are OK and some of them are mean like she is. Little Gray’s kittens have been really nice so far, but her second litter hasn’t been around us much so I have a feeling they will not be quite as friendly. So I think if I had to choose, I would get Mama Cat and all of her female kittens fixed. I might leave Little Gray and Tubby Boat unfixed as they are both pretty sweet cats. And then, if we need more cats someday I will just take all the cats offered on Freecycle.

Still here

I know it’s been a while since I posted. I don’t even want to know how long! Anyway we are still here. It’s cold and we have lots of snow, but that’s the nature of winter in Illinois. It’s time to start planning the garden, so I might write a post on that. It helps to figure out what to plant more of, what to not plant at all, etc. I have lots of cardboard in the garage just waiting to kill the newly sprouting grass that will be here in the spring. I have a few seed catalogs and they are fun to look at.

It feels like the middle of winter even though it isn’t. The days are getting longer, though, and that is nice. I like the sunshine (who doesn’t??). I keep thinking about how nice it will be to have the windows open, to hear the million frogs croaking and squeaking, and to see the chickens out doing their chicken things. They are all doing well. I don’t remember if I mentioned that Holly died, but she did. So that means that we’ve lost 3 chickens to predators and 1 to some unknown cause. I have no idea what happened to her. We got home one day and she was bleeding and that was that. There was no visible wound and no other chickens were hurt, so we have no idea. I suppose it could have been something internal as she often laid double yolkers.

OK well that’s all for now. I will try to post more often, but there really isn’t much going on. I do have a few posts I could finish up, like why I’m not a vegetarian anymore, posting pictures of Version 2.0 of our lego house, and a post I started about roosters. I have a lot of things in the works, but just haven’t finished them. I might find some time soon, or I might not.

Winter Cakes

When I woke up this morning I had a craving, or perhaps just a hankering, for something with molasses, butter, oats, and cinnamon. I looked for a recipe to use but didn’t really find one that was what I was looking for, so I made something up. Now, I’m not saying this was the most awesome recipe in the world or anything, but it turned out pretty good and really hit the spot. I wasn’t sure what to call this recipe – bars, cake, bread? Then it snowed the littlest, tiniest bit and the kids came in the house (after being out for less than 10 minutes!) just in time to have some warm goodness. Aidan called them Winter Cakes and I thought it was very fitting.

So I’m posting this recipe (though it’s more of an idea than a recipe) partly to share it and partly so I can find it again. I have to write it down before I forget. I did not measure everything, so some things are a guess, such as the spices. I added about the same amount of nutmeg, cloves, and ginger but put in a lot of cinnamon.

Winter Cakes

• 1 stick butter, softened
• 1.5 cups brown sugar (though it would be tasty with molasses, honey, or syrup as a sweetener, too)
• 3 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1/4 t salt (actually I used a little less because it was sea salt which seems saltier to me)
• 1 cup flour (I used white whole wheat)
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1/4 t ginger
• 1/4 t ground cloves
• 1/4 t nutmeg
• 1.5 t cinnamon
• 1 cup oats (not sure about this, added enough so that it wasn’t too dry but it had plenty of oats in it)
• chocolate chips, optional

Cream together butter, sugar, vanilla, eggs, salt. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, and spices. Add to creamed mixture. Then add oats and chocolate chips. I put mine in some mini-loaf pan (similar to this one. I baked it on 350 on the top rack (we had a leg of venison roasting at the same time), but cold probably do 300 on a middle rack. I have no idea how long it baked, but the toothpick test worked fine.

This post is part of Food Renegade’s Fight Back Friday. Take a look at what other people are cooking up and writing about real food.

Making jerky

Now, before I tell you all about our jerky making adventures and how to make jerky, I have to tell you that I didn’t really do much of the work. Unless you count mixing the seasoning together and leaving it on the counter for several days until it had to be thrown out because it was disgusting, had Asian lady beetles in it, and had a dirty towel land in it (shh, I don’t think I told anyone else that part!). Other than eating the finished product, that was my only real contribution. Tim did the rest, so I must give credit where credit is due.

This post is more about our learning how to do this rather than being able to teach anyone else how to do it. Keep that in mind, too. If you want to learn how to make jerky yourself, I suggest searching some other sites or good old-fashioned trial and error, which worked for us.

First, Scott the Farmer gave us some venison to turn into jerky. He has particular cuts of meat that he prefers for jerky. That’s all I can tell you because I am not wise in the ways of cuts of meat, especially cuts of deer meat. Second, he gave us the recipe he uses. I will post that and give him credit even though I am not sure where he got the recipe from. I suspect it is not from a cookbook or anything, though.

• Two cups soy sauce (adjust to taste)
• 4 oz. liquid smoke
• 2-3 T worstershire sauce
• red pepper flakes
• 1/2 to 3/4 cups honey

Whisk and let sit.

That’s it. Now there are some other directions Tim found on the Internet, but basically you slice the meat (keep in mind it will get thinner while drying, of course), soak it in the sauce as long as you like. Then put it in a dehydrator or an oven. We turned the oven on to the lowest setting, which turned out to be too high, really. The first batch was in the oven overnight and it was pretty dry. It was still edible, though. The second batch Tim made used more honey and we watched it more carefully so it didn’t get too dry. It was delicious!

The best thing about jerky is that it is a great snack. It keeps well in the car, even in the summer. It’s low in carbohydrates and fat, but high in protein. The problem with store bought jerky is that it is expensive and it almost always contains MSG! Making at home gives you more control over the ingredients you use. And I’m sure there are a ton of recipes for jerky seasoning and there are many stores that sell jerky seasoning packets. I have no idea what is in those, though.

I can say that making jerky was surprisingly easy and super delicious. We have more venison in our freezer that is good for jerky, so we will make some again soon.

Edited to add this link to Making Jerky in Mother Earth News.

This post is part of Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade

Impressions of Puerto Rico (Part II)

This post is only about our most recent visit. It’s more a list of impressions rather than anything chronological. Though I admit that I cannot resist the compulsion to lump things together into loose categories! (Edited to add a link to a Picasa album with more pictures from Puerto Rico). Just click on the picture below:

Puerto Rico Trip – October 2009

• coquis
• little lizards hanging around the hotel
• a big iguana near the pools at the hotel
• city birds at the airport
• sand fleas
• mosquitoes

• Moira collecting shells from the beach
• sand
• ocean waves
• the beach
• building sand castles with moats
• Aidan in the ocean, riding the waves

View from the balcony at the hotel

• coffee, good coffee
• pig on a spit
• amarillos
• tostones
• chillo asado (grilled red snapper)
• flan de queso and flan de avellanas (hazelnut flan, super YUM)

• music
• dancing
• loud (for the tired kids) music in the lobby of the hotel
• women and little girls dressed up to dance to the music
• painting nails with Moira
• Barbies

• Tom speaking Spanish (totally rockin’ the language, by the way!)
• gifts from Eugenio, Tom’s step-cousin
• dreaming often, of chickens and cats and especially Big Swirly
• airplanes taking off
• Isla Verde
• Moira’s freckles

• Aidan going down a small, but fast, water slide
• refinery fire we could see from the plane
• Asian lady beetles and possible ecological disaster?
• Internet withdrawal
• crazy driving, but everyone drives the same way so it works

• phone calls at 6AM from the lady, Nana, staying with Tom’s dad at the hospital
• hospital
• security and police at the hospital
• Tom’s dad looking like a pirate

• relaxed
• tired
• worried
• loving watching the kids in the ocean
• laughing in the pool
• speaking Spanish, ever so poorly (but I did it, dammit!)

Impressions of Puerto Rico (Part I)

I have a post started about Puerto Rico and why Tom was there and the state of health care, etc. But instead of finishing that post, it’s much more fun to make a list of my impressions of Puerto Rico. Now, I’ve been before a few times. Tom and I went once or twice by ourselves and stayed with his dad and step-mom in their condo. I can’t remember for sure if this was one trip or two trips that have gotten mixed together in my (really bad) memory. We ate coffee ice cream on their balcony, watched movies, and had a good time. I remember going to El Yunque, to Old San Juan, to Ponce to spread the ashes of Tom’s Granny in the Caribbean, and to lots of dinners. I remember Tom’s step-mom picking up breadfruit at a road-side stand and making tostones with that and platano.

The next trip I remember was also a long time ago. We went to Puerto Rico, along with Tom’s mom and uncle, because his Grandma Jane was dying of cancer. We all stayed together in a hotel in the Condado area. It was nice because we could walk all over the place: to the beach, to restaurants, bars, etc. Despite going for such a sad reason, we had a lot of fun. I remember Tom’s uncle having “heterosexual moments” as he called them. The women in Puerto Rico really get dressed up to go out on the town, let me tell you. I remember going out for Cuban food, going in the ocean in a rocky area and getting thrashed by the waves (and then Tom’s step-mom making some comment about my weight and how that was somehow to blame?).

I remember her not being all that kind to me before we had kids, but perhaps it was, at times, a miscommunication, despite the fact that her English was very good and 1000 times better than my Spanish! I’m not sure how she felt about me, but I cannot complain because she was always 100% terrific with the kids. She was fun and talked to them and played with them, until the last trip they made to Phoenix when she was not as spry. Still, she did as much as she could on that trip. Anyway, I remember being mad at her on that trip to Puerto Rico, but I also remember having a lot of fun.

The visit before last was when Aidan was about 8 or 9 months old. I remember sitting on the back patio of Tom’s dad and step-mom’s house, listening to the coquis and helping Aidan cruise around the table they had on the patio. I remember the loud window air conditioner in the guest bedroom and the rooster that one of their neighbors had. We found it annoying. How funny is it that now, more than 5 years later, we have our own roosters? I remember seeing Tom’s uncle’s long-time girlfriend (there really should be a better way to say that… significant other? partner?). We visited her house, listened to music, and she gave us a picture of Tom’s uncle. I remember having lunch with Viola, who is Tom’s grandfather’s second wife. At this point, both of Tom’s grandparents, as well as his two uncles, had passed away. I remember that it rained every day we were there, except the last day. That was when we went to Old San Juan. I remember carrying Aidan in a sling and walking all over Old San Juan. Old San Juan, by the way, is quite hilly. It was a workout, that’s for sure. And I was not in nearly as good a shape as I am now. We had lunch there and also did some quick pictures of us with Aidan standing by El Morro.

This is a picture of a street in Old San Juan. I think Moira took the picture, or maybe it was Tim.

This most recent trip was really fun, despite Tom’s dad being in the hospital. We stayed at a nice hotel resort, where we got a discount because Tom’s step-cousin (his step-mom’s nephew) works there. We saw some sites, but mostly we went to the beach and played in the ocean and with the sand. For Tim, the kids, and me it was more vacation than anything else. We went there to see Tom’s dad in the hospital, but the kids could not see him (no kids under 12 are allowed to visit). We went there to support Tom, who was very lonely and overwhelmed. We went so the kids could see their dad and see part of their own heritage and ethnicity. It’s the first time they realized that they are Puerto Rican. They knew that Ito (that’s what they call Tom’s dad) and Tita (what they called Tom’s step-mom) lived there. They knew Ito and Tita spoke Spanish. They knew their dad spoke Spanish, but hadn’t really heard him speaking it conversationally. I think the trip was an eye-opener for them, and that’s good. My only regret is that we had not visited in the last 5+ years. I vow that we will definitely go more often, and not just for the good food.

Catching up

We’ve been busy lately, where lately means the last month. Tom was in Puerto Rico for 2 weeks before we joined him there for another week. Now we are back and trying to catch up on life and housework while also fighting a cold.

I have a ton of things I would like to write about: new kittens (they are about a month old already!), another dead hen, more hens laying eggs, roosters not turning out as gentle as you had hoped, painting and redoing the floor of our half bathroom, Puerto Rico, our neighbor not wanting us to have livestock, how we are trying to prevent and combat illness naturally, etc.

But it will all have to wait because first I have to catch up on life before I can catch up on my blog. Plus, I need to catch up on reading some blogs.

Pancakes, cornbread, and brownies

This last week, I was busy in the kitchen as usual. One thing I did was to clear out the pantry a bit and organize things. We have a lot of glass containers that we bought from IKEA more than a year ago. Some were empty on the floor of the pantry, while others needed to be combined or put into smaller glass containers. For example, I ended up putting rice in glass containers instead of leaving it in the loosely closed plastic it came in. I had an empty container that I filled with chili powder I bought at the bulk dry goods store in town, called Sugar N Spice. I need a lot of chili powder and cumin to make our own taco seasoning. I could actually use a few more glass containers, but I believe the closest IKEA is in the Chicago area.

I guess I was feeling particularly energetic, so I decided that while I was at it, I would measure out the dry ingredients for several batches of pancakes and cornbread and store it in the jars. Not that it is all that difficult to make cornbread or pancakes from scratch, but I admit that sometimes Bisquick sounds so darn convenient. So this is a compromise. Having the dry ingredients premixed and stored in the pantry will save some time. In fact, I’ve used the pancake mix and so far it’s been pretty fast to make pancakes. The biggest problem with this method is figuring out how much of the dry ingredients to measure out. However, I figured I’ll just scoop some of the dry ingredients out, add an egg or two and as much milk as it takes to make them the right consistency. It’s easy and requires no measuring that way. Now the only problem is that I need a bigger container for the pancake mix because now it is so much easier to make pancakes that we have had them twice this week. It’s just about time to make more chili and cornbread, too.

Another thing that happened in the kitchen this last week is that I made brownies twice and accidentally put in 3/4 a cup of sugar instead of 1 3/4 cups of sugar. The first time I did this I thought they didn’t taste all that sweet, but I thought that maybe I had had some store-bought ones lately and that was why they didn’t taste so sweet. But no that wasn’t right because I haven’t had any store bought brownies recently. Plus, the next time I made them they were also not sweet enough, as well as not being quite right because I had run out of baker’s chocolate and had to use cocoa powder and butter to substitute. So anyway, somehow it dawned on me what I had done and I realized that the brownies would probably be just fine with way less sugar. They are not quite sweet enough with 3/4 a cup of sugar, but I think that 1 cup or so might work. I will have to try and report on the results. All three recipes are from the Joy of Cooking. The brownie recipe I use is the Book club brownies.

This post is part of Fight Back Friday. Check it out for more great recipes and thoughts on food.