Happy Anniversary to me! One year ago today I published my first blog post! This is my 367th post. (I had a couple days where I doubled, oops.)
I really enjoy blogging, and I’m pleased that I’ve kept to my subject. (Or rather, I’m glad I picked a subject broad enough to cover enough material!) It has helped that WordPress lets me schedule posts, so on days where I have five ideas it makes up for the several days that I have none. And in case you were wondering, I post in the wee hours of the morning Central Time because scheduling is my friend and internet traffic bogging everything down during prime times is not.
Thank you to those that have been with me the whole year, and welcome to those who started reading part way through. Thank you to those who have contacted me, I appreciate your thoughts!
I found a shell-less egg under the roosts. It was quite disturbing: soft yet crackly. A little like the eggs where the shell has been dissolved in vinegar, but not rubbery. It was partially broken open in the shavings, but thank goodness it didn’t look like the hens had sampled it, just that it fell from the roost with no shell. There was an intact egg near it, so I think something was particularly stressful that day. I scooped it up with the manure rake and disposed of it. The internet and my books tell me that the occasional shell-less egg is not a concern. Ok.
Well that was a gully washer. A right spring storm (and yes, it is January). Almost three inches in about two hours. And all those fallen fall leaves ganged up with the twigs and dammed my drainage, flooding the chicken runs. My poor wet chickens were blocked out of their coop. I opened the people door and they all ran back inside. The coop stayed dry (except for beneath the window I left open, sigh).
Covered run flooded
It took about 30 minutes with a hoe and a rake to clear the ditches and let the water drain. My Fitbit says I burned 1,000 calories. Not bad for 30 minutes.
Covered run after the water drained
I cleared the drainage just in time, since the water was almost to the bottom of the feeder and rising. I found a nice sturdy rock to put outside the pop door so the chickens have a landing spot, even if it floods again, and I pushed all the detritus against the run thresholds and packed it down to help redirect water. When it dries out I’ll have to haul in some more dirt to replace what washed away.
Captures from the outside camera
The outside camera caught most of the action. I combined pictures from 5am dry, 7:48am wet, 8:05am completely flooded, and 8:39 when I had at least found land even if it was muddy. I took pity on them and strung up a feeder inside.
This is my Oops bag because I started out making a hat, but made it too big, so just kept stitching until the skein was almost gone and finished with a row of 2dc 1ch to make holes for a ribbon to turn my failed hat into a drawstring bag.
Double crochet drawstring bag
I’m still experimenting with the two yarn spiral start, and thought it would be fun to go from both ends of a color block cake.
Crocheting from the inside and outside of a yarn cake
I chose to use a double crochet (dc) stitch because the counting is easier than a half double crochet.
Open drawstring bag showing spiral base
The holes for the drawstring are a little off set, since I was working in a spiral, but it isn’t really noticeable when the bag is closed.
To summarize my process (American notation): In a magic circle, cast on 2 sc, 2 hdc, 1 dc with yarn 1. Cast on 2 sc, 2 hdc, 1 dc with yarn 2 (10 stitches total). Row 1: Yarn 1: inc in each Yarn 2 stitch, Yarn 2: inc in each Yarn 1 stitch (20 stitches total). Row 3: Yarn 1: (1 dc, inc) repeat 5 times Yarn 2: (1 dc, inc) repeat 5 times (30 stitches total). Row 4: Yarn 1: (2 dc, inc) repeat 5 times Yarn 2: (2 dc, inc) repeat 5 times (40 stitches total). Continue adding dc between increases until circle is desired diameter. Then dc round, alternating yarn 1 and yarn 2 (this is more obvious than it sounds when you get going!) until you get to the desired length. To make the eye holes for the ribbon, using yarn 1 (1 dc, 1 dc, chain one and skip dc) go 1/2 way around. Do the same with yarn 2. 1 hdc, 1 sc, then single crochet (sc) around half with yarn 1 and repeat the other half with yarn 2. Fasten off and weave in ends. Weave ribbon through the holes (two strands of ribbon starting on opposite sides makes a secure drawstring).
We’ve been lax on egg consumption, and even though the hens aren’t laying as many eggs, the numbers are still building up. Egg casserole to the rescue!
Ingredients:
1 lb Hot sausage (ground)
12 small eggs (or 10 large eggs)
1 cup milk
1 cup shredded cheese (I used a Mexican blend)
3 Stoplight bell peppers (yellow, red, orange)
1 medium onion
3 cloves of garlic
Salt and pepper
Cook sausage on medium heat, use a spatula to break the sausage into small pieces as it cooks. Whisk the eggs in a large bowl, add milk and cheese and stir to combine. Chop the garlic and onion. Wash and chop the peppers. Cook vegetables with sausage until onions are translucent. Mix sausage, vegetables, and egg mixture. Grease a 9”x13” pan and pour in combined ingredients. Bake at 375 degrees F for 45 minutes. Reheats well!
