The Old Folks Home

[ronott1]

Too Cute.... Bunny Bomb.... Hey what breed are those ones with the hair Doos....

deb

The are all Crested Cream Legbars. I suspect that they are from the new import or else the breeder has been working on the new standard. They were so different from the CCLs that I hatched a couple of years ago and very easy to tell the boys from the girls.

 

[Peep_Show]

@getaclue

Oh, that is so sad that your DH didn't appreciate the sentimental value the heirlooms had to you and somewhat callous. But, on the flipside, stuff accumulating can seem like the pathway to an episode of Hoarders. Is he a neat freak, by chance? That older stuff, btw, was built to last and last and last...not like the cheap and flimsy new stuff and appliances.

I have a cedar trunk that came out west from my ancestors...my sister got the quilt that was inside of it made by our great-great-grandmother to stave off the boredom of the trip (handstitched). And elegant china patterns and delicately etched glassware... Gads, you can feel the history. The elegance of a bygone era. My dining room looks like the family museum...and I like it! It gives a sense of groundedness.

And, yes, Henckels is FAB! I will keep resharpening mine down to the nubs. The most important tool in a kitchen is a sharp knife.

Again, my sympathies. I would be devastated, but that's just me.

 

[hennible]

Anyone try making no-knead bread in a cast iron pot? I've got one cooking in the oven, looks like I didn't mix the dough properly so there are some flour clumps in there, but it's looking quite beautiful.

Looks good... I've never done it, was it tasty?
I have made Chabbata bread.... It's a single rise, and yummy.

Oh and my DH throws my "junk" out too that's ok I can salvage "new" junk when he's in camp.... My junk is closer to real junk though

 

[vehve]

It was pretty tasty, although maybe a bit bland... I'm going to try a rosemary version tomorrow, together with some homemade cheese. It's the neighbor's birthday tomorrow, and we're invited for a potluck brunch so I thought I'd bring that. Add some balsamico, salt, black pepper and fresh basil, and you get a nice Finnish-Italian cross kitchen vibe going.

@Peep_Show I think the knife is the second most important tool. The chef comes first.

 

[Peep_Show]

@vehve

So true! However, I lucked out as my DH even enjoys Hamburger Helper. (Nevermind that I really CAN cook!) I think if I served him burnt Jello he'd eat it. His nickname in the Navy was Garbage Gut because he could mix the most ungodly ingredients together on a plate and eat it.


p.s.
Never call the chef a "tool" as it has a different meaning in English connotation.
"Hey, you're a tool!" Uh-oh. I see flying frying pans.

 

[vehve]

It's okay if the chef is a tool, as long as he understands food.

 

[LindaB220]

Took my 3 yo grandson, and oldest DD to the coop with me today. Grandson had a blast. He loves the chickens, and is so sweet with them. He likes to help feed, and water them too. The best part is watching his face light up when he sees the eggs in the next boxes. He tries to be sooooo careful collecting the eggs. He knows which ones are the cockerels, and he can be around them. He knows which one is the rooster, and that he has to stay right by me in that coop, until I run the rooster out. The rooster is not aggressive, but it is a rooster, and I'm not taking any chances with my little grandson.

The adults birds are molting. Looks like a pillow fight broke out in the coop, and the rooster lost his last tail feather. He looks better without it now, since he looked silly a couple days ago running around with only one tail feather left. The two red stars are not doing as bad as they did last year. Last year I renamed one Baldie. She looked like a totally plucked chicken. This year, when I began seeing a few feathers around the coop, I began treating them with Calf-Manna, but have since put them all on showbird feed, which is higher in protein. They are going through a lot more oyster shell too, but they look better, and have plenty of new feathers coming in. Of course, laying has dropped drastically, but that will resume shortly.

Almost all my life, I had a stash of things to re-purpose. I discovered early on that DH had no clue about trying to re-purpose anything, except computer parts. Used, to him was almost a dirty word. When we moved in together into our first apartment, I had previously lived in a big house, with a good sized yard, which got packed up, and put into a climate controlled storage unit. A couple years ago, he insisted I downsize, and get the storage bill lowered. To him, everything was junk. I told him the welders, full bottles of acetylene, torches, masks, etc. could be sold. His reply: "No one would want that junk". I had an antique cedar closet, and cedar chest which had been passed down to me from my grandmother, that were in perfect condition. When I mentioned selling them, again he said "No one would want that junk". I had a 1 year old commercial pool heater for a very large pool, which I wanted to sell. Again I heard, "No one would want that junk." I had a new riding mower, weed eater, etc. which I wanted to sell. Nope. My grill was thrown out too, with the promise of a new one. He trashed my dining room set, and threw it out. I put my foot down on the living room set, china, silver, crystal, and my front loader washer. He assured me he would replace it all with new, good stuff. A couple of my friends came over to help me clean out the storage unit. They even tried to tell him that most of my stuff was in very good condition, and would be expensive to replace, but was worth running an ad in the local shopper to sell, or at least do a yard sale. No way, he wouldn't budge. I gave a lot of it to them.

Fast forward, we moved into this house. Ok, let's check out grills. Wow, to replace the one of mine that he threw out is going to cost him $500.00+ He had no idea I had paid that much for mine. Next, a cedar chest, not one that's lined with cedar, but an all cedar, with the trays that raise up when you lift the lid...I thought he was going to faint. Um, did I know that to replace my weed eater it was going to cost him a few hundred dollars? Yes, I did. DUH! 3 weeks ago at a yard sale, I bought 12 (complete with all hardware) window blinds, and paid $10.00 for all of them. They are sitting in the garaged. He has fussed about them since I got them. A few days ago, we were in the garage when a neighbor came by, that is a contractor. He saw the blinds, and asked me if I knew they sold for about $45.00 each, and that I had over $450.00 worth of blinds sitting there. Yes, I knew that. The look on DH's face was priceless. He was shocked. I've not heard a word about my "junk" blinds since then. When we were discussing building my coop when we get our own place, I have been adamant that we WILL take our existing coop down, and re-purpose the materials. He has fussed a bit, BUT after pricing materials, he's learning that "used, can be perfectly fine, and used doesn't always mean junk". The point is, he's learning.

Your DH and my family are clones, clones.

 

[LindaB220]

This is how it turned out.



I think I'm going to stir it a bit better next time. Here's the recipe I used:

7 dl (~3 cups) flour (I used 5 dl organic wheat and 2 dl organic spelt)
½ tsp dry yeast
2 tsp salt
3½ dl (1½ cup) water (about 42 deg C, or whatever the yeast manufacturer recommends)

I just combined the dry ingredients, mixed them, and then slowly poured in the water while mixing. Then I covered the bowl with plastic film, and let it sit on the counter over night. In the morning I heated the oven to 225 deg C (450F is about right) with my cast iron pot in the oven to preheat it too. Then when it was hot, I oiled the pot a bit, and just poured the dough in there (I didn't mix or flour it or anything in the morning). Bake for 30min with the lid on, then 30 min without the lid.

It looks fabulous. I've been thinking about this since I read about it a few weeks ago. Good job. How does it taste?

Nevermind, I read.

 

[getaclue]

Peep_Show, yes he is a neat freak. Very much so. How did you know? He doesn't do too well with change, either.

 

[ozexpat]

Hey, Oz!   I have a question regarding incubation.   Since you're in a humid climate do you dry incubate or are you monitoring humidity?  I know you do vast numbers of eggs at a crack, but working with the humidity here (rather high lately due to our monsoon season....which is nice because the water gullies stay nice and full and I only have to fill two whereas when I was in the arid Las Vegas desert it was a constant monitoring) got me wondering what happens in a naturally very humid climate.

Hi

As Deb said I such the water out of the air.

I use a dehumidifier to get ambient humidity down to 50%.

When I don't control humidity I get a 50% hatch rate. With humidity control I get 87%.

The dehumidifiers were purchased on Craigslist from guys who grew pot in their apartments and wanted to dry it fast. They took some cleaning to get the find green dust out of then but they fit in a suitcase, weighed less than 50lbs and cost $40.