The Front Porch Swing

[TexasLisa]

NEEDED:

crock pot recipe for beef roast

It's in the pot already - just looking for ingredients and new ideas.

Have you ever tried Coffee Pot Roast? The best ever!

2 medium onions, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 boneless beef chuck roast (3 1/2 - 4 lbs), quartered
1 c brewed coffee
1/4 c soy sauce
1/4 c cornstarch
6 T cold water

Place half of the onions in a 5 qt. crockpot/slow cooker. Top with garlic and half of the beef. Top with remaining onion and beef. Combine coffee and soy sauce; pour over beef. Cover and cook on low for 9-10 hours or until meat is tender Combine cornstarch and water until smooth; stir into cooking juices. cover and cook on high for 30 minutes or until gravy is thickened.

Lisa

 

[TexasLisa]

Sarah,

Oh I should warn you, 'LEAVE the house'. Smelling this all day makes you really hungry!

Lisa

 

[Lacy Blues]

Texas Gardener!

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange has a great website - one of their listings is "What to Grow through Very Hot Summers" http://www.southernexposure.com/what-to-grow-through-very-hot-summers-ezp-154.html

Thank you for that. I'll definitely be checking those out!

NEEDED:

crock pot recipe for beef roast

It's in the pot already - just looking for ingredients and new ideas.

Ooooo, that sounds really good. Hopefully its nice and moist when its all finished?

Have you ever tried Coffee Pot Roast? The best ever!

2 medium onions, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 boneless beef chuck roast (3 1/2 - 4 lbs), quartered
1 c brewed coffee
1/4 c soy sauce
1/4 c cornstarch
6 T cold water

Place half of the onions in a 5 qt. crockpot/slow cooker. Top with garlic and half of the beef. Top with remaining onion and beef. Combine coffee and soy sauce; pour over beef. Cover and cook on low for 9-10 hours or until meat is tender Combine cornstarch and water until smooth; stir into cooking juices. cover and cook on high for 30 minutes or until gravy is thickened.

Lisa

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Which doesn't always work...I've found.

I've even placed birds out of the nest and onto the roost and found them back in there before morning.

Yeah ... we do that here, too, as if we have any say in the matter. The retraining is a PITA and takes persistence, and then it doesn't always work. I have two EEs that I spent MONTHS trying to train to go roost with the rest of the flock ... Cheeks (the chick in my avatar), and her partner in crime Violet. They resisted the retraining to the point that as soon as they discovered alternate digs out with Tonka, the free-ranging rooster, they moved in with him and sleep just find on his roost. I have over 100 linear feet of roosts in the main coop ... they couldn't find a spot they liked.

Tonka used to have 5 hens in with him on 3' of roost. We caved and doubled the size of his bedroom.

Other birds have done better with the retraining. Just put them up on the roost once and then they they are fine.

 

[Beekissed]

Yeah ... we do that here, too, as if we have any say in the matter. The retraining is a PITA and takes persistence, and then it doesn't always work. I have two EEs that I spent MONTHS trying to train to go roost with the rest of the flock ... Cheeks (the chick in my avatar), and her partner in crime Violet. They resisted the retraining to the point that as soon as they discovered alternate digs out with Tonka, the free-ranging rooster, they moved in with him and sleep just find on his roost. I have over 100 linear feet of roosts in the main coop ... they couldn't find a spot they liked.

Tonka used to have 5 hens in with him on 3' of roost. We caved and doubled the size of his bedroom.

Other birds have done better with the retraining. Just put them up on the roost once and then they they are fine.

I've found that it's usually the birds that are lowest on the pecking order and cannot defend their roosting spot. The last time I had an EE she was just such a bird and she even taught her offspring to sleep there too. She was culled that year.

These Dels from Kathy were the worst to break of that...ever. They are roosting fine now but I've never had that much trouble getting birds on a roost in my life. Apparently others have the same problem with their Dels. At first I thought it was because they are timid but my most aggressive hen right now is a Del and she is on top of the cull list because of it.

 

[Lacy Blues]

I understand about needing multiple pens. In that situation what I would recommend is a larger building (of course ) and have your separate pens lining the exterior walls and also have outdoor runs attached to the building so basically your hens will be kept separate from the roosters (who get the individual pens) except during breeding season. The hens get the main part of the coop and the boys get to oggle them all day.



This is what I have done with my "barn." I'm going to be putting a real roof on it this year when I can trust that the weather won't turn wet on me. It's not in the middle of a garden but if I were to relocate the garden, I suppose it could be. Probably not going to happen. Each of these individual pens has a smallish run outside the building. Another project for this year is to change the layout of the interior of this barn. I want to make 4 large pens where the roosters get to live with their own set of girls and I want to DRASTICALLY increase the size of their outdoor runs so that they can actually RUN. I have one breed so this would be my breeder set up.

This configuration and photo is from before we moved in. I and my son had come and gotten the pens all built during a week stay. Man was I tired! We worked from sun up til sun down for 8 days I think it was, and that didn't include any outdoor runs at all.

This is my husband checking out my handiwork.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Yeah ... we do that here, too, as if we have any say in the matter. The retraining is a PITA and takes persistence, and then it doesn't always work. I have two EEs that I spent MONTHS trying to train to go roost with the rest of the flock ... Cheeks (the chick in my avatar), and her partner in crime Violet. They resisted the retraining to the point that as soon as they discovered alternate digs out with Tonka, the free-ranging rooster, they moved in with him and sleep just find on his roost. I have over 100 linear feet of roosts in the main coop ... they couldn't find a spot they liked.

Tonka used to have 5 hens in with him on 3' of roost. We caved and doubled the size of his bedroom.

Other birds have done better with the retraining. Just put them up on the roost once and then they they are fine.

I've found that it's usually the birds that are lowest on the pecking order and cannot defend their roosting spot. The last time I had an EE she was just such a bird and she even taught her offspring to sleep there too. She was culled that year.

These Dels from Kathy were the worst to break of that...ever. They are roosting fine now but I've never had that much trouble getting birds on a roost in my life. Apparently others have the same problem with their Dels. At first I thought it was because they are timid but my most aggressive hen right now is a Del and she is on top of the cull list because of it.

I was going to say the same as Bee did. Low pecking order.

I think, Bee, that the Delawares are really aggressive or really submissive. There doesn't seem to be a middle ground.

 

[Beekissed]

I was going to say the same as Bee did. Low pecking order.

I think, Bee, that the Delawares are really aggressive or really submissive. There doesn't seem to be a middle ground.

That's what I'm finding out....not a trait I favor. I like an even tempered bird somewhere in the middle of that. I guess that's why I lean towards the WRs..they are just such birds, as are the BAs, and NHs I've had. Just normal birds with normal social tendencies. I cherish peace so much in my own life that it's silently crept into my flock management goals over the years and it was just in the past few years I recognized what I was going...building a peaceful flock over all these years. I never have had one hen pick feathers from another nor inflict a wound on another in all these many years and when I read about it on this forum I'm always appalled at the stories....then I remember why I've never had to deal with anything like that. I don't suffer bullies or wimps in my flocks...just regular, normal chickens.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I've found that it's usually the birds that are lowest on the pecking order and cannot defend their roosting spot. The last time I had an EE she was just such a bird and she even taught her offspring to sleep there too. She was culled that year.

These Dels from Kathy were the worst to break of that...ever. They are roosting fine now but I've never had that much trouble getting birds on a roost in my life. Apparently others have the same problem with their Dels. At first I thought it was because they are timid but my most aggressive hen right now is a Del and she is on top of the cull list because of it.

I have my Delawares separated at the moment, but am super curious to see how their babies integrate into the rest of the flock when the time comes for that. I've read about the roosting issues, but didn't know they could also be aggressive.

The EEs ... le sigh. SO CUTE as chicks. SUCH COOL eggs. BUT ... they all seem to have "special" personalities. Ugh. I want pretty eggs without all the specialness.

 

[Beekissed]

I have my Delawares separated at the moment, but am super curious to see how their babies integrate into the rest of the flock when the time comes for that. I've read about the roosting issues, but didn't know they could also be aggressive.

The EEs ... le sigh. SO CUTE as chicks. SUCH COOL eggs. BUT ... they all seem to have "special" personalities. Ugh. I want pretty eggs without all the specialness.

I never really thought about it until now but when I think about my flocks down through the years, it's always the plain feathered, common breeds that make the best layers and most social birds...the old timey breeds that haven't been overly messed with by the hatcheries or by breeders breeding for looks and shows, or breeding for profit.