Got your honey right here pooh bear

Look at this cool thing I got!  Hooray for etsy, and it is from Iowa. Doesn't it look like a honey pot that pooh bear himself would have?  I think it does, in fact I have been making pooh bear references in a pooh bear voice which I am sure is annoying Jesse. "Oh bother..."   You just said that in a pooh voice, I know you did. I made biscuits last night just so I could put honey on them.  The biscuits were that much more delicious due to the fact I used my awesome honey pot and dipper thing to drizzle the honey.  Now I only need to get my own bees.  I think I am allergic to bees, I don't know how bad though.  I should probably get tested as I am 75% sure that if I get stung multiple times I would go into anaphylactic shock.  All I need to get is an auto injector full of life saving epinephrine and I will be good to go. 


Huney (I spelled it wrong on purpose)



Fancy

Having colored eggs makes me feel so fancy.  Growing up I didn't know there were any other colors besides white and brown.  I even thought brown eggs were a bit weird.  I am well beyond weird now with blue and green eggs, I swear one of the brown ones even looked pink today when I collected, but for some reason in this picture it looks dark brown, maybe because of the setting sun (?)

Rainbow eggs

I gave Marzipan a nice scratch today, we were having a very amiable moment until I turned to go, and she bit me on the butt, thanks buddy.  I guess you can't change your true colors,  a goat is onrey one-hundred percent.


P.S. Did I mention how happy I am the chickens are laying?

P.P.S. Got the electric bill and it is double what it normally is.  The electric company was no help and said it must be us. We are gone an average of 12 hrs a day and sleep for eight, why do we have such a high bill?..... fml.  I am thinking about living by candlelight, showering with cold water, and cooking my food over a fire outdoors... heck, if I am doing all that I might as well get an outhouse too.  Seriously depressing.  Here are the things I have been doing to save electricity for the last couple months:

Unplug after I use (literally everything cell phone charger, coffee machine, computer etc)
Don't use the dryer anymore we line dry everything
Don't watch TV anymore
Don't use the microwave anymore
No AC ever
Use cold water when washing clothes
Use CFL bulbs everywhere in the house

What could it possibly be?  Is there somebody siphoning electricity off of us?  Menehunes?


Sorry about the rant, I feel better now.

Panic

This weekend was good, I honestly can't say what all we did... but I just know it was good.  There is a steep learning curve to everything we are doing.  It seems like my grandparents generation grew up just knowing how to do so much related to growing, harvest, slaughtering, raising, breeding, preserving, etc.... now my generation does not really know how to do most of those things, myself very much included.
We basically failed at breeding the rabbits, I don't think any but one are pregnant.  Maybe I shouldn't blame myself, maybe I should place the blame on the rabbits,  aren't they supposed to you know..... like rabbits?  Two of the rabbits got rebred (hopefully) this weekend.  I had a mini heartattack on Sunday... I know, I know I have a lot of them, but I looked over at one of the cages and instead of seeing two bunnies doing bunny things, I saw zero bunnies.  Cassie panic mode was activated.  Apparently they had pushed the feeder out of the way and escaped. Their new names are Bonnie and Clyde.  I honestly have no idea how they were strong enough to do that, because I have a hard time taking the feeders off and on.  The bunnies didn't make it too far on their freedom adventure and were just hanging out near the cages, we were able to capture them again no problem, and put them back in their home.   I can't believe the dogs didn't realize that two bunnies were within chomping range, sometimes you just get lucky.
I also just wanted to say how happy I am that the chickens are laying.

Eggs at last

Well I have some good news for ya'll.  One of the barred rocks started laying again!  I am so relieved about this, I had some deep fears that they would never start laying again and we would have to eat them.  Crisis averted.  To all of you that do not have chickens and aspire to in the future, please let me save you from headaches, anxiety and a general sense of failure with chickens.  Whatever you do: do not move the coop or disturb your hens in any way no matter what.  I really mean that, not even a slight shuffle of the coop, I don't care if you placed your coop in the most inconveniently located spot in the yard.  If for some reason I had placed my chicken coop in the middle of my driveway in a fit of insanity (I have those surprisingly often), you know what I would do?  Would I move it?  No, no I would not.  I would drive my car around that coop or find somewhere else to park.   I know that proof may be needed to convince some of you that I do indeed have a brown egg.... but that proof will not be forthcoming because I dropped it.... yup still kind of a failure at life in general.  I was pretty upset with myself and I hope that the chickens don't find out and think I am being disrespectful or wasteful, it was a complete accident. 

We ate Frank, he met his demise on Monday, we used our brand spankin new rabbit wringer which worked like a charm.  Frank become a lovely rabbit masala, it was delicious, thank you Frank. It was much harder to kill Frank than I thought it would be, probably because we named him.  I don't think I will be naming any more rabbits or chickens, it really does make it that much harder when it is time to go from live animal to food on plate. 





Getting better



We made a new raised garden using cinder blocks.  They are so cheap, and you can even get them for free somtimes. If money is what is holding you back from making raised gardens, then never fear, cinder blocks are here.  This is maybe $20 in cinder blocks and it gave us an entire day of entertainment and a large amount of new garden space. 


New Raised Box Garden



No Eggs

So anyways, I have been doing some stuff but not too much stuff.  Jesse made this herb garden for me using mason jars for me, it is great and the herbs are already sprouting I am super excited to be able to walk out on the front lanai and snip some whenever I want.  Super easy to do, just get those clamp things you use for hoses and a board and there you have it super craft and cheap herb garden.  I have been in a craft mood lately, mostly because I am wasting an inordinate amount of time on pinterest.



Thanks Pinterest

Here are the chickens.... so I have a confession to make.  I moved the chicken coop three feet approximately so I could have access to the egg door (I didn't go through the trouble of making an egg door not to use it),  and the chickens apparently got extremely upset, because they stopped laying eggs.  We moved the cooper on the 23rd of December and since then we have gotten maybe five or six eggs.  I don't know what to do.... I didn't think this little move would have stressed them out so much, but apparently it has thrown them off their game and I don't know if they will ever start laying again.  They have repeatedly been threatened, but still refuse to lay.  I feel like a failure as a chicken owner.

On a positive note, we have at least one doe that is getting her nest ready for babies.  We moved their cages from under the garage to under the house.  It has been a good move for everyone.  It is easier to feed and water them this way and also to clean up their pellets.  I am hoping we get some babies this week...... really really hoping. 

Seven Rabbits all in a Row



Cow Tongue?

Oh and we also got a cow tongue, it looks gross but will hopefully taste delicious