Barter is Better
My chickens are laying like champs, which is really surprising. My flock consists of: three six year old hens, three four year old hens, eight three year old hens, and four ten month old hens. Most days I’ve been getting between 12-17 eggs. My flock of anconas are just starting to lay as well. I have four ten month old hens and I’m getting 2-3 eggs from them each day.
As a result of all this laying I’m overrun with eggs. Last week I sold/bartered five dozen, this week I did once again. Somehow I still have 7 dozen eggs in my pantry. We eat four-six for breakfast each day and Tara gets 2-3 daily as well. Pretty soon I’ll have to find a few more egg customers because these chickens just keep laying! The best thing is that most of my eggs are bartered. I trade them for raw milk and cedar lumber. Not a bad deal for either party!
Do you ever barter?
Share this:
Useful and Fun
This past Saturday Mr Chiots and I took a spoon carving class at the Shelter Institute. We were joined by a friend who took the photo of me. It was lots of fun, a full day of fun. Our teacher carves spoons and sells them at local craft fairs. He brought along all the tools we’d need and explained the process in depth.
Mr Chiots made a small spoon and I made a spatula, both were made using walnut.
One of the reasons we wanted to take this class is to make use of some lovely apple wood we have. Hopefully I’ll be able to find the tool we need at the local antique tool store. Then we can start making spoons and other cooking utensils. No doubt friends and family will love receiving these for gifts.
Have you learned any fun new hobby recently?
Share this:
Look Out BELOW
The ice dam on the back of the house is about to let loose. I keep thinking any day now it will startle me and send the cats scurrying to find cover (which is the funniest thing). It keeps hanging farther and farther over the roofline just waiting to come crashing down.
Thankfully they’re not as big as they could be since Mr Chiots knocked them off once already. Otherwise we’d have twice as much ice falling.
It’s a nice reminder that spring is just around the corner!
Any last vestiges of winter in your garden?
Share this:
Lotsa Lettuce
I’m a sucker for lettuce seeds. When I read through the descriptions and see the beautiful images in the seed catalogs I go a little overboard. I do like a lot of variety in my salad bowl and find that five or six types of lettuce makes for a great salad.
I have found that lettuce seeds are often best to be purchased fresh each year. I used to keep them for a few years, but germination is so much faster and so many more seeds germinate when the seeds are really fresh. Now all of my leftover seed from the year gets thrown into planters in the fall that get overwintered in the basement. Then I have a nice crop of mesclun for salads in the early winter months.
On Saturday I started a flat of lettuces & endive, there are 15 varieties in all that were started this go around. There are also three other varieties in planters in the basement…..and I have another 15 that are later season varieties that will replace these when the weather warms up a bit. Then I have another 10-15 varieties that will be grown in the fall/winter. Butterheads are my favorite types of lettuce, with romaine coming in a close second. Leaf lettuce are probably my least favorite. I like a lot of crunch and texture in my lettuce. Endive and other bitter greens are also always in my salad bowl, nothing rounds out sweet greens like a bit a bitterness!
What’s your favorite kind of lettuce to grow?
Share this:
Quote of the Day
“Strange how a teapot can represent at the same time the comforts of solitude and the pleasures of company.”
~Author Unknown
