Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. ~Albert Einstein
It’s funny to think that last year at this time we were so anxious to get into our new home. As often as possible we would visit our land to check on progress. We were making jokes about our small apartment and at times getting on each other’s nerves because the wait seemed unbearable. Time couldn’t move fast enough. We moved into our home a week before Thanksgiving last year and it’s like someone pushed the fast forward button on life! Here we are 8+ months later. A new puppy, 8 chickens, a flourishing garden and projects galore! We are certainly in the thick of it and loving every moment.
Life has given us some (not so) gentle reminders lately to slow down and enjoy the moment. As much as I believe we do, I think we could all do better. I challenge you to take a step back each and every day, take inventory of all the greatness you have in your life (look hard if you need to, it’s there) and enjoy the moment.
What’s New?
This post is not sponsored but I wanted to say how fun it was to get our first BullyMake Box. As I say in the video CLICK HERE TO WATCH I don’t know who was more excited, me or the pups! Too funny! And if you’re wondering why I took the video and posted it (no, it’s not to self critique), it’s because BullyMake asks customers to do this for a chance to win free boxes. What a brilliant marketing tactic!
What’s Cooking?
We had a a yummy chicken dinner on Sunday…simple roasted chicken with roasted veggies. Hubs took the bones and what was left on them and made stock. We do this pretty much weekly in the cooler weather but I have to admit it’s been quite some time since we’ve roasted a chicken and made stock. HASHTAG Summer!!!
Here is a delicious recipe you may like for butter roasted chicken from one of my new favorite sites, The Kitchen Magpie
And here’s a simple recipe for making stock from another great site Family Fresh Meals
What’s Growing in the Garden?
We had a bit of a massacre this week.
The photo doesn’t do it justice, but here’s the story: As I’m pruning, weeding and guiding some of the vine veggies up the trellises earlier this week, hubs says, “the dogs are eating the radish”…I say, “it’s ok, I’m waiting for them to go to seed so we can harvest the seeds” but what I didn’t realize was they were going to TOWN on the radish and we will be challenged to get many seeds from the remaining plants. Ugh. I’ve been doing some research on harvesting seeds from plants so if you are interested, check out this post from GrowVeg.com!
Nevertheless, here is something doing much better than the radish patch – our futsu! Ever hear of that? Garden Betty does a great job of explaining more about this plant HERE but basically it’s a winter squash that has a shelf life of about 6 months so, we’ll be able to harvest these in the fall and enjoy all winter. I started these from the seeds I took out of the first futsu I ate almost 2 years ago. They are by far the biggest plants we have growing in the garden!
What’s Next?
It’s all about those rocker chicks, my friends! I feel like were on egg watch even though realistically we probably have another month or two. We got our first baby chicks the first week of April, the second batch mid April and the last two in early May.
One sign that a hen is getting ready to lay is that their combs and waddles mature and get red. Isn’t Beyoncegg looking mature?
For those of you who follow on social media you know we lost one of our chickens a couple of weeks ago. It was totally unexpected as she seemed very healthy and active up until I found her one evening. I was heartbroken. Even though we are raising them for their eggs (let’s face it, if chickens didn’t lay eggs, we probably would not have them as pets) we brought them home and raised them from 2 days old as part of our little “wanna be” farm family. We love them as much as any other pet we have and I was so saddened to lose one.
Chickens can and do die suddenly, there’s something called egg bound (probably don’t need to explain that), a heart attack, injury and illness, just to name a few reasons. On a positive note, we are relieved that the others continue to thrive. Chickens can get a fast spreading disease which can wipe out your flock. Almost 3 weeks later, we feel we can rule out disease. So, operation Egg Watch continues! Here’s an ode to our beloved Rocker Chick Pink – call me weird, I’m ok with it.
One last thing…
If you are reading this blog (there are a few of you) could you do us a favor and follow us on social media? There are buttons that bring you to our pages on the home page, but to make it easy for you, here are the links:
Don’t worry, we don’t post about politics (I leave that to Hubs personal account), we aren’t super opinionated and we won’t ask you to buy anything!) My goal by the end of the year is to get 3000 followers on each! I’ll keep ya posted on progress. Thanks for stopping by!
Love, The Cohns
Another great post. Enjoy your weekend
Thanks Pat! You too!