Nevadans?

[americanvalkyrie]

I'm going to have to channel you, Missy, and start filling my freezer with produce while it's cheap. I have quite a bit of room in mine!

And, thanks for the tips on where to find the cheap stuff, Elizabeth! I'm definitely going to get some strawberries.

I've had frozen guacamole before and it seemed okay. Do you think I could make my own and freeze it, or is there something special that needs to happen for it to stay edible?

And my chicken news...

We got our first egg! One of our little Cinnamon Queens laid yesterday afternoon. We are so proud! 17 weeks and one day old! AND she even laid it in the nest box. They have been getting more and more chatty the last two weeks, and making all kinds of noise. Last week we noticed two of the Cinnamon queens were squatting, and they were really interested in the nest box.

The picture of her in the box was taken the day before we found the perfect little egg.

Congrats on the egg!

And regarding freezing: http://www.stilltasty.com/fooditems/index/18897 says homemade guacamole can stay in the freezer 4-6 months, in an airtight container. BTW, this site is fabulous! It will tell you if you can freeze something, shelf life in the fridge, and even how long you need to blanch it before freezing. I'm using freezing as most of my preserving this year, for anything not acidic enough to can. My pumpkin puree will be frozen. I'm not quite to the stage of using a pressure canner yet... I think I have PTSD from my mom saying, "Don't bump the canner, or it'll explode!!!!!!"

My husband has to work all day Saturday, so I told him that corn was 6/$1 and I got an extra client, so should I buy 2 cases and freeze it? He reminded me that I don't have my freezer yet. Oh yeah, duh! I hope the sales are just as good next week. Maybe they'll be better. Last year, I bought 2 cases at 6/$1 and we had a family freezing party... and the next week, they were 9/$1. Go figure.

 

[2seth2]

congarts on the egg

 

[Lacy Blues]

Lacy Blue, what did you do with the rest of the eggs? Glad little stitch is doing OK.

Hi there.

I brought them in and put them in my hatcher with the others that were due. They all hatched fine.

Little Stitch is being a pill today! If he doesn't stop it, he is going to end up having a very short life. He's 5 days old now and just can't seem to remember how to eat and drink, little brat! I even put little bright colored things back into the water, floated cornmeal on it so he could see there was something in the pan, added quik chik so maybe it might taste better... a couple hours ago, I pulled him out of the box and offered some yogurt. He liked that but if he eats too much of it, he'll get diarrhea, and that would be counter productive. So I soaked some chick starter in some yogurt, making up about 1/4 tsp and he ate that readily enough. But a couple hours later, looks like his crop is empty and he's chirping constantly. Pecks the side of the water pan and tries to steal water droplets from other chicks, biting pretty hard actually. He's thirsty but he has become a dunce today! I took little tiny pieces of a hard boiled egg and dropped it in there to try to get him to grab one during the frenzy that ensued... you can imagine!

I think he might have eaten one piece or maybe two. Woudn't touch the yellow (yolks) stuff!

goofy bird! So I force fed a few pieces of yolk to him. I won't put up with this for very long... I don't have time. He has LOTS of brothers and sisters so it isn't like he's the only one... and needs to be coddled!

 

[Lacy Blues]

Ok, just so nobody gets the idea that I'm heartless... because I'm not... I got more chick starter and mashed it up with raw egg yolk. I just hope he'll start eating on his own again real soon.

Here he is scarfing it down!



You can sort of see the stitches in his little head here. I used black thread because I didn't want them to attract the attention of any of the other chicks.



This one looks a little better. The stitches are easier to see. I wish I had thought to take pics of him before I stitched it up.

So, he's satisfied for now. Hopefully, he'll start eating plain food like the rest of them for his next meal.

 

[SunnyDawn]

sunny its so weird not having you here everyday! I am in panic mode without you!

I know!!! I hate having no internet service!!! Good luck with the eggs.

Nice pics Elizabeth!

Here are some of my meaties at 6 weeks.





ETA: This is a cactus outside my front door. It blooms around this time of year - the prettiest yellow flowers!

Oooooh. I love cactus flowers! Didn't know they could survive the cold up here.

yep, it's oxine. I ordered it from Revival Animal Health.

We found this little beauty on the far right today--GC Marans' first egg. It's not as dark as Sunny's but it's the darkest egg I get!


Here's the young lady that produced the egg.

This young man has started to crow. Not too loud yet but he's now on the market (i.e., free). He's a speckled sussex. He's up for grabs.

Here is the pair of SS. they look so cute together. Hate to break them up. she's a real sweety.

here's one of the silkies.

Here's another silkie.


And finally, the cochin roo. He's also up for grabs although he hasn't made any noise yet.

Nice dark egg!!! Love the pics!

So remeber that coop i wanted to buy and the guy never could follow through? Well my dad searched him and found posts on the pheox and sacroment craigslist saying he is a scammer and not to buy from him. and he draws it out long enough that you cant get your refund through paypal! my dad emailed him and called him out and he replied that we we the scammers and that he is going to cancle the check he sent this moring(same check he has sent 30 times and has never showed up)!!

please exquse my rant, but the scary part is he knows my adress

I read a warning on CL about this guy and the M.O. sounded so much like what you dealt with, I figured it must be the same guy. You should all file a suit against him!

Hey everyone! So quiet around here. Ron, love the cactus. My husband has beautiful cactus, I'm not a fan of it but man, their blossoms are amazing!

Seth, that whole deal on the coop sounded fishy from the get go. Hope you're able to get your money back. My son lost $300 by someone doing the same thing, stalling until it was too late.

I went to put the chickens away tonight and while collecting eggs in the main coop I heard peeping in there. I check the grow out pen where the broody and 10 chicks stay and there's only 8 lonely chicks. I go inside the main coop and there's the broody on the roost with one chick on one side and one of the polish chicks on the other side under her wing! I can't believe they could get up there!

I left everyone as they were but I'm sure the other 8 will move into the big coop tomorrow, they looked sad their mom abandon them.

That's so sad.

Broody is DEFINITELY contagious! My kids and I have dubbed 2012 as "The Year of the Hen!" We have TEN broodies this year... so far... I hope thats all! It's great having their help when it comes to brooding and raising the babies but TEN OF THEM? Sheesh!

One of my broodies was a faithful little mother to the eggs but she got scared when one hatched. She was on for 3-1/2 - 4 weeks too. I let her set some infertile eggs at first to be sure she was serious. She was serious! I think she just turned one year old here recently so is pretty young. Anyway... she bit the first chick pretty hard, opened it right up! I found it in the nest, as far from her as it could get. When I reached in to pick it up, I expected to be bitten... punishment I've received for candling the eggs... but she didn't care. I was going to put it under her when I noticed the wound. It was feeding time so I brought the baby in and put it in a box with some heat and antibiotics on its poor little head. After feeding, I checked her again. She had a second chick which I had not noticed when I was out there before and it was dry but not under her. I was going to take all her eggs away but as she had not hurt the second chick I decided to extend grace. I took her out of the nest, left the baby in the nest and then encouraged her to get back in. She did, without any fuss whatsoever toward the new chick. I thought she'd gotten over her fear and all would be well. When I went back out to close up for the night, I checked and the chick was not under her and was cold. So, I brought it in and put it with the other chick. I went and finished closing up and then took the rest of her eggs which hadn't hatched yet and put her naughty little self on the perch with the other girls. She was quite confused. She jumped down and started looking for her nest but I put her back and shut the door so she couldn't see to jump down.

I decided to stitch up the wounded chick because the one with it, though unaware of anything the first day, we be aware of everything the second day. So, this chick has been dubbed "Stitch" and is doing very well. His head is almost completely healed up. It was a pretty nasty wound. It was probably 3/4" long and gaped open maybe a half inch or so. I cleaned it up and put 4 or 5 stitches in it. Now all you can see is the stitch thread. Had to use cotton as I don't have any cat gut thread. So his little body will just have to absorb the thread that is under the skin.

All in a day's work! Ho hum...

Oh Man!

AARGH, my chickens must be reading this thread! I was feeding the horses and I hear two chickens having a stand off. Ones sitting on eggs that are NOT in the coop where they are supposed to lay and the other is pushing under her to join her! I check the hay room in the barn all the time for eggs because I have a few girls that prefer laying there but I must have missed these....anyway, these two continue with a very vocal dispute over this particular spot for laying eggs so I finally crawl over the bales of hay and gently push the one out of the way trying to break the stare contest and another chickens head pops up! There's THREE! I moved them all enough to see and there's about 8 eggs in there so it's only been a couple of days since they started this nest but man they're serious about it!

I don't know that I want another batch of chicks, the other 10 (soon to be 9, one has a cross beak) are only about 4 weeks and at least half are roos so I don't know that I want to deal with anymore right now unless I can get my head around processing them!

I already have 3 beautiful Polish roos that need to go. Too many roo ratio in the Polish pen and I can't just throw them out to free range since my EE roo is very territorial. Two of my hens need one of those saddles if I can't get rid of these boys soon. I hate to cull them because they're really beautiful WCB roos. One is Black with leakage so not much for a breeder but the other two are pretty nice. No bites on Craigslist. I've had better response for my EE roos then these. Too bad because if someone just wants a flock leader, these guys are a good choice and much better attitude then other breed roos.

Broodiness is taking over everywhere!!! I'm not gonna let my girls read this thread! They are finally producing and the egg eating seems to have stopped or at least slowed down.

I'm going to have to channel you, Missy, and start filling my freezer with produce while it's cheap. I have quite a bit of room in mine!

And, thanks for the tips on where to find the cheap stuff, Elizabeth! I'm definitely going to get some strawberries.

I've had frozen guacamole before and it seemed okay. Do you think I could make my own and freeze it, or is there something special that needs to happen for it to stay edible?

And my chicken news...

We got our first egg! One of our little Cinnamon Queens laid yesterday afternoon. We are so proud! 17 weeks and one day old! AND she even laid it in the nest box. They have been getting more and more chatty the last two weeks, and making all kinds of noise. Last week we noticed two of the Cinnamon queens were squatting, and they were really interested in the nest box.



The picture of her in the box was taken the day before we found the perfect little egg.

Beautiful egg!

And regarding freezing: http://www.stilltasty.com/fooditems/index/18897 says homemade guacamole can stay in the freezer 4-6 months, in an airtight container. BTW, this site is fabulous! It will tell you if you can freeze something, shelf life in the fridge, and even how long you need to blanch it before freezing. I'm using freezing as most of my preserving this year, for anything not acidic enough to can. My pumpkin puree will be frozen. I'm not quite to the stage of using a pressure canner yet... I think I have PTSD from my mom saying, "Don't bump the canner, or it'll explode!!!!!!"

Thanks for the link.
BTW today's pressure cookers are much safer than the old ones were..

Quote: Afraid I'm with you on that one. I don't spend a ton of time coddling babies that would never make it in nature either. I still think natural selection makes for stronger breeds.

 

[Peep_Show]

I've never seen avocados cheaper than 2/$1 unless they're going bad and the store is trying to salvage any profit.

Try shopping at the Hispanic markets. They may not be a pretty or as well-known as your national chains, but they make up for it in produce prices (and most of the produce is REALLY fresh and not warehoused). I just picked up avocados 4/$1 and they're not mushy... Cukes 7/$1. We have Cardenas and now the local Cuevas (which is not quite as extensive in selection, but really close as opposed to a cross-valley trek) In LV. Not sure if they're up Nor-Nev way or not. (Cardenas started in So-Cal and migrated here)

Sometimes they have sale days (one or two days a week) where the prices really get low.... Tomatoes 3 lbs/$1, etc. Find your local Hispanic market and see if they have a website or flyer.

 

[Peep_Show]

re: Pressure cookers

I had a deposition recently where the 3-gal pressure cooker in a soul food restaurant (used to cook greens) did explode. I looked at the pictures....WOW! It was kitchen carnage. It blew the salamander (unit used for heating food/keeping it warm on a shelf above the stove) to bits. The lid became like a missile and took out the back wall creating a hole into the next establishment you could crawl through, a TV fell off the wall, and the iron grill grates of the stove were turned into confetti. The pot itself was fine, but the lid was in 10+ pieces (mind you, it was probably 1" thick or so). The lawsuit was about one of the restaurant patrons (closest to the kitchen pass-through window) claiming loss of hearing. Considering the deep fryer was next to the stove, they're very lucky there wasn't a huge kitchen fire.

Anyway, it got me to thinking that maybe I don't want to inherit my mom's pressure cooker....especially since it's probably about as old as I am and -- like me -- possibly structurally unsound (it sounds to be about as in the same condition as the one in the restaurant: The polish off the chrome and really old). I may grumble when bumped, but at least I don't explode.

The pressure cooker exploded most likely NOT because someone bumped it, but because it was perhaps overstuffed and some bit o' green got stuck in the pressure outlet...the investigators are still trying to figure that one out.

I keep seeing the new electric pressure cookers being touted by celebrity chefs on Home Shopping, but at present I'm not feeling safe about 'em. Pity, because nothing makes an artichoke quicker than a go-round in a pressure cooker.

 

[americanvalkyrie]

I keep seeing the new electric pressure cookers being touted by celebrity chefs on Home Shopping, but at present I'm not feeling safe about 'em. Pity, because nothing makes an artichoke quicker than a go-round in a pressure cooker.

Yeah, that's about the way I'm feeling. The only things I'd really need to pressure can would be pumpkin, green beans, and marinara sauce. But I can make dilly beans, freeze the pumpkin, and either freeze the marinara or make it very acidic. When I asked my dad if he could send down mom's old canning stuff, I got the pressure canner along with the water bath. The bottom of the water bath was rusted out, and the pressure canner had rust around the rim. They both got thrown out, but a friend got me an old water bath from the WARC thrift store, where she volunteers.

Our hispanic market has great deals on produce. Most of it is geared around a hispanic diet, so there are certain items that I just don't find there. But the price and quality of peppers and tomatillos are amazing.
And speaking of canning and deals: peach habanero jam. BEST. IDEA. EVER.

We canned 24 jars, and I sent 5 away with the friend who came over to help me. The other 19 are going to be a super-high commodity around here, used for trades and super-bestest friends! And it makes amazing bbq sauce, mixed with ketchup and a little apple cider vinegar. We also did 17 jars of regular peach jam, which is very tasty, but not quite as epic.

If my husband is willing to buy me a few more hot peppers and another box of jars, maybe I'll make another batch with the peaches that weren't quite ripe yet.

 

[VCfeathers]

Sorry for the absence everyone but there's just so much to do around here.

I was wondering if I bought Guinea fowl if anyone was interested in having some? It looks like I may end up with extra keets.

 

[aubreynoramarie]

Sorry for the absence everyone but there's just so much to do around here.

I was wondering if I bought Guinea fowl if anyone was interested in having some? It looks like I may end up with extra keets.

I WISH! Id love a guinea! Unfortunately I hear theyre loud as heck