Monday, October 1, 2012

Chicken Things...

    Over the weekend, we got the rooster. We picked up a black Ameracauna from the Poultry Swap in Augusta. He's real pretty, and he's nice- he just needs to figure out his place among the 10 ladies. He's a little intimidated by our big Buff Orpingtons right now. He also needs a name.



They all seem to be transitioning to fall alright- they get in the coop earlier to adjust to the shortening days, and I am cleaning the coop less. I've head that the deep bedding method is a good way to keep things warmer in the coop, so I'll give it a try, although I swear as soon as I decided this they decided to poop 5 times more than they were before...




   

Also, I've got more eggs! I've found one egg a day since Saturday. That brings me to a total of 4 so far. I ate the first one of course. I'm saving the rest to make caramel custard. I need 6 eggs- so maybe by Thursday I'll have it in the oven.








 
   As far as non-chicken things go, not too much is happening. I need to order wood. The chimney needs to be cleaned and somehow, it's already October 1st?!
 
 
dust bath
 
 
 
 
 

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

First Egg!

    Someone FINALLY laid an egg! I think it was Gerda the Barred Rock. I hope she told everyone else that it's the cool thing to do...


Yes, I took 3 pictures of the egg  (ok, I took more, but only posted 3..) but it was really exciting!



This is not the only chicken excitement happening right now either- Tomorrow we should be picking up a rooster.

Monday, September 10, 2012

September....

     Well, it's September again! I love fall in Maine, and the fairs, and apples ( and pie and crisp and cake...) but along with the good things, there are some not-as-fun things. School, for example. I am going full time this semester for the first time in a LONG time. It's good I suppose, I need to finish my degree -at this point, it looks like my 4 year degree in Special Education is going to take about 11 years...








  Back to the fun stuff! We always go to the Litchfield Fair. I like it because it's small and it's close. In past years, I have walked through the exhibition hall and thought to myself that my veggies and such looked much better than some of the winners, so this year I got it together and entered my Bread and Butter pickles and some pickling cukes. I had some awesome carrots...but I ate them all, and the second planting was still too small!
   I was beyond thrilled when we went to the fair on Saturday to see that I had won blue ribbons for both of my entries!! It made my week.








Mine are in the middle- my Grandmothers recipe.





  The rest of the time at the fair was spent eating fair food ( Yum) and trying to make Joe love the goats a little more....just enough so he lets me get a few.

see, he really does want goats...
 
 
New Family Members???

mini horses!
 
 
4-H exhibits
 







Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Useless in Eustis

   I'm sad to say that this past Sunday was the very first time we were able to make the trip to Eustis this year. I'm hoping we can get up there at least once more for some fall hiking.



Camp

   Our typical Eustis trip begins with sleeping in- it's only and hour and a half away, so no big deal. We stop and pick up lunch in Kingfield, at Anni's Market. They have great sandwiches! Our next stop is less than a mile down the road at Tranten's. I'd say this is your best pick for groceries in the area. From here it is about a half hour to camp. After we pass Sugarloaf, we stop in Stratton at Diamond Corner Bed and Breakfast to pick up something sweet. The woman who owns this B&B bakes the most fabulous pies! This time we picked up a small cheesecake with blueberry topping.

View from Camp


  Once we get into camp, which is not hard to get too, as it is right on route 27 between Cathedral Pines and The Pines Market, we sit down and eat- and go from there!



 On our previous camping trip we had our last ride in the Subaru. The amount of money that was required to fix the head gasket issues, among other things, was not worth it, so although this is not the best time for us to take on a new car payment, we went out looking, and came away with a beautiful 2005 toyota tacoma with very low miles. Eustis is a great place to have a truck, so we tried it out!
trying out the new ride



  We drove all the way around the back side of Flagstaff lake- this entail going north from camp and getting on King and Bartlett road, which is currently being logged, so the road had been improved a bit. We continued along, stopping at a few places- the Dead River and Spring lake, and eventually hooked back up with the Carriage road, about 15 miles south of camp. It was a super fun ride!

Spring Lake/Flagstaff Mountain
 
 
 
 

The Dead River


A typical night in Eustis means eating dinner and then driving down into Stratton, turning on to route 16, and then pulling off at the town salt and sand pit- below the sand and salt piles is a big bog that attracts moose! This was the first time that we did NOT see one though. Oh well! We then drove up on top of Eustis Ridge, where we saw two deer cross in front of us.
 
No moose, only crows.
 
 
 
The Bigelow's from Eustis Ridge

 
 


   We headed out before lunch the next morning and stopped along the carrabassett river and walked up aways on the narrow gauge pathway, which runs along the river- we will check that out more on the next trip!

Joe and Tikaani enjoying the Carrabassett River.


Monday, August 20, 2012

My Photos On Display







     For the past year or so I have been trying to get my act together to local display some of my photography. Well, I finally got it together! My work will be on display at Lisa's Legit Burritos in Downtown Gardiner. I thought I would share some of the work I plan on showing....




 












Thursday, August 16, 2012

The Nasty Grub And One More Trip Down East

       I posted a photo of one of my damaged potatoes- which was minimal compared to others, but I did not post a photo of the culprit- well here it is! If anyone has suggestions about how to rid my plot of these buggers please let me know!









We made one more trip to Cobscook Bay earlier this week. We had nice weather while we were there and stayed in another great site. Good thing something was nice, because the old Subaru almost didn't make it- it was majorly overheating and we stopped to have someone check it out and they said we have serious head gasket problems. Armed with the jug of coolant and blasting the heat in the car though, we made it home without a tow.


Along the "outlaw" shortcut- somewhere near Cherryfield.

I told Joe I'd get him some clams. I failed!

Joe, on the other hand, was very successful!


Best way to start the day- view from the campsite.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Intruder!!!

We have plenty of wild turkeys around- and I see them cross our lawn quite often, but for some reason, they have yet to cross paths with the chickens- this morning we had a near encounter though! If it was not for me scaring the turkey off ( accidentally!) we may have had a little face off- I'm very curious to see what ensues....

Chickens are too busy stuffing their fat faces to notice the visitor at the back left corner!