Michigan

[Olive Hill]

No, 3 months is NOT enough. Though, honestly, I don't think all school year would be enough for some of the kids.

Ran out of white candy bark with 5 more cones to go.

Story of my life. Also forgot to put sprinkles on some of them so they'll have to be re-dipped, sprinkled and then finally will get their final touches. This has been an almost all day project and I really didn't have all day to spend on it. They are cute but ... OY! Baked two cakes, cooled two cakes, crumbled two cakes, made cream cheese frosting, mixed cake crumbles and frosting, rolled balls, filled cones with M&Ms, topped cones with balls, dipped cones, sprinkled cones, dried cones... and they're still not done. And the DISHES!

And then DH called earlier, I told him what a project it had become and that I'd probably have to be in the office all night catching up on work I was falling behind on all day. His response: "Yeah, and those five year olds are going to really appreciate it when they woof them down in 2.3 seconds, too."

Unfortunately, he is SO right.

 

[Opa]

Cold weather and the holidays must bring baking fever. Granny has a Xmas party to go to on Saturday and wants to take pizzelles. So tomorrow I will be helping her bake and it doesn't make sense to just make a single batch, so we will be making at least 4 or 5 batches. Pizelles are alot like those chips they used to advertise you can't eat just one.

Many, many, too many years ago when my sons were small, I learned that no matter how much time you devoted to cooking or baking something the time it took to have it devoured was miniscule. I think each of my sons should have been given the middle name of Hoover. I swear sometimes I could hear a loud sucking sound as they began eating.

 

[CricketYang]

We noticed that one of our tom turkeys was going to kick the bucket soon so we rushed it to a processor in Corunna. It came back at a little over 15.5#, I don't think that was bad at all for a 22 week BB white turk, somewhat free ranged. The bird is very meaty and I don't see a whole lot of fat on it so I'm a tad worried about flavor. We had it on corn for the last month and a half. Out of the ten we initially got in June, we have three left

. My dog killed one and five just keeled over. One is in the fridge and the three are left in the barn counting counting down their last days. DH wants to keep a breeding pair but I am just so fed up with these birds. I want to butcher them all and just start over in the spring with a different breed, especially a prettier breed. They just have too many issues.

The processing place was pretty decent. I think they mostly do deer bc when we pulled into the parking lot there were five random bucks being hung on the porch, thats some nice curb appeal. They charged us $6.75 and were very polite. The place looked clean and I would go there again.
I'm wondering how I can get the three remaining birds up there for processing without the DH knowing...

A friend of ours asked us if we were going to sell any of our birds bc he wanted to buy one for a family at his church who couldn't afford a Thanksgiving dinner this year. I was thinking of donating one to them for Christmas. It would be my companies first good deed and it would make me happy knowing I helped out someone less fortunate.

 

[Olive Hill]

Cricket -- If you're wanting to breed your own poults BBW is not a good breed choice. They are the cornish cross of the turkey world. Not only do they not breed well naturally -- if at all -- any poults you get out of them will cost you dearly before they're even born. Feed conversion declines exponentially in adult BBW. The cost of keeping them year round, considered against the number of poults you'll get out of them at best would put you even with just buying poults yearly from a hatchery -- and I repeat, at BEST. Much more likely you'll be behind on the bottom line. Maybe explain that to your DH.

 

[keyt1969]

Quote:
*sigh* at least yours is a rooster? My chickens stopped laying eggs months and months ago- one is old and I didnt get an egg from her all Summer. Now someone crows. Every day.

Opa,
I feel the same way when i carry out the water- AND I have to buy my eggs. No duck eggs, no chicken eggs.

Yesterday, I looked out back and one of my ducks were sitting in the middle of their pond- which is frozen. And I worried that she was frozen in it. And then I had no idea how I would save her because HOW would I walk out into it and get her free?????? Certainly I couldnt walk on the ice- not that frozen. And when I got to her, then what? How to get her out? All these thoughts going through my head as I put on my coat and shoes..and as soon as I walked out into the FREEZING wind, she stood up and walked to the edge. Dumb duck- she was pretending she was swimming.

On a happier note, we have a little snow- but nothing to shovel. Just to sweep. So, I cannot complain. I hear its coming, but I am hoping it goes away.

haha this cracks me up because yesterday 5 of my ducks were sitting in the middle of the totally frozen pond! They were just sitting there like they were floating! We've been so busy we never got to drain it.

The ducks have also frustrated me because no matter what we use to put water in for them to drink, they didn't go near any of it. Finally we used one of those disposable roasting pans. But after putting water in it. Sunny (the one with the disabled beak)sat in the middle of it! lol

Tomorrow is going to be a rough day. Time to clean out the barn and reorganize things. I picked up some more bails of straw and I'm going to make a couple of huts for the chickens to go into if they want. The barn (aka garage) is pretty warm and no breeze gets in there, but the smaller chickens might want to have somewhere else to go. Right now they all just huddle in the corner together. The ducks are doing great in the old chicken coop. I didn't think 19 would fit in there but there's much more room than I thought. They really like it in there! At least now they have a place to go into whenever they want without the chickens bothering them. Funny thing is, the bigger ducks spend most of the day in there, but the calls stay outside just laying wherever lol

In my free time because I'm not allowed to do much for a while I've been crocheting baby blankets to put on ebay. I'm SO glad we aren't celebrating xmas this year because with me not allowed to work and Aric and my daughter can't find jobs, finances are a bit tight like most of the country. Aric's daughter swerved to avoid deer a few weeks ago and wrecked her car. Aric fixed it up and she gave it to me, now i just need the money to put it on the road!

Speaking of which, my daughter (20) is looking for a part time job. If anyone needs child care (before/after school, etc) by someone who has plenty of training and CPR/first aid I can give you her contact info. She doesn't drive (she has nystagmus - involuntary eye movement), but we can take her wherever she needs to go!

So I hear we have some snow coming. I can't wait. The ducks are so funny in the snow!

Hope everyone is doing great!

 

[michickenwrangler]

Quote:
Sounds good

 

[SillyChicken]

BRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr........ I wanted snow, not c-c-c-co-o-o-l--l-l-ld-dd d-d-d! 5 Degs this am, and it's now 14.4 (so says my roof top sensors at work).

My poor geese didn't want to come out from under the chicken coop this morning. Can't say as I blame them, I didn't want to get out from under my covers either!

hope ya'll have a great day!

 

[Ferrret]

The only chicken I have that's bothered to use the nest box decided to sleep in there last night instead of roosting with the others. I went to let them out this morning and she's still in there. The only eggs I think are in there are wooden so maybe she's decided to hatch them.

I checked under her last night for any of her eggs but there were none, haven't checked this morning. I'll see if she comes out on her own before picking her up again.
Her sibling looks like a rooster but doesn't act like it, aside from not laying, so I don't know about that one. The other three are fine, two are laying more sporadically and I think the cold and lack of sun has gotten to them. Our EE hasn't laid any eggs, so I guess we'll wait for spring and see what happens.

 

[justcelia]

Quote:
WoW! Koudos to you! I am very impressed!

I can't imagine even trying, they sound very difficult.

Celia
Non cooker!

 

[Olive Hill]

Quote:
To heck with the chickens, I think the cold and lack of sun has gotten to me!

Quote:
Well I don't know about very difficult, but they're certainly time consuming. Probably wouldn't be so bad if not for being the first time I'd ever made them, there's a learning curve. LOL!

I didn't think about making the balls perfectly smooth, for instance, so mine are a little bumpy -- well, the candy coating shows every little bump so they don't turn out as pretty. Live and learn. I'll have to snap some pictures of them before I send them to school tomorrow morning. Someday I may want to remember what came of those wasted hours... or not.