All Worn Out

"I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandal has not worn out on your foot."  Deuteronomy 29:5

When reading about the exodus of the Children of Israel from Egypt, a miracle happened other than the parting of the Red Sea that we don't often think about. The Bible tells us that in the FORTY years that the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, their clothes and shoes never wore out!  That is a miracle indeed.  Don't you wish your stuff lasted that long?

Many things we have wear out quickly.  In our disposable society, things aren't built to last anymore. They wear out, we throw them away, and we purchase new items.  Some items are truly quality built goods, but repeated use just wears them out.  Rosie's halter is a good example.  The other day when I went to get her out in the pasture to put her in the temporary paddock in our yard to eat, I noticed that her halter had broken.

All worn out

The ring on her halter underneath her chin completely wore out.  That is quite a feat when you realize that the ring is made of metal.  There is a chain that used to run through the ring and when you would grab the chain and pull it, it would tighten up on her, letting her know that she should follow you.

Time for a new halter

The picture tells you the story.  I put the chain back in the ring to show how it works.  Each time that Rosie reaches down to eat grass, the chain rubs against the ring and the friction eats away a tiny bit of metal.  Repeat that process many, many times each day and eventually the chain wears a hole in the ring.  It takes a long time, but not 40 years.  I wish the halter would last 4 years, but it doesn't.

At this point the halter is useless and the only thing to do is to purchase a new one. Tricia went to the local Feed Store and purchased a new halter for Rosie.  Where her old one was brown, Tricia decided to get a bright red one.  She also decided to try a new style to see if this one will last longer.  We took the old one off and put the new one on.  Here's Rosie modeling her new red halter.

Rosie's new halter

Here is a side view.  The ring is a different style and is thicker.  We'll see if this halter will last the test of time.

I checked Daisy and Amy's halter for wear.  Daisy's looks fine, but Amy's is showing some serious wear and will soon fail.  That's just part of life.  Just like the tires on our automobiles and the soles on our shoes, everything has a finite amount of mileage before they wear out.  Our bodies are no exception.  It's not a pleasant thought to think about, but it is true.

The Predator Becomes the Prey

Yesterday afternoon I was slogging through my water-logged garden, putting the next strands of baling twine up on my Florida Weave trellising method that we discussed in previous posts.  The hay mulched tightly around the base of the plants is doing an absolute stellar job of thwarting any weed growth.

The huge amount of rain has many of my tomato plants to be in distress with yellowed leaves on some, stunted growth, and just sick looking plants on the lowest portion of the rows.  After this weekend, I think the rain chances will diminish and man, plant, and beast around Our Maker's Acres Family Farm will rejoice!

In addition to the enormous amount of rainfall, there are other predators at work in the tomato patch. The photo below is out of focus, but you can see that something has eaten all the stems and leaves off of the tomato plant in the foreground. Whatever it was, it sure was hungry!  I knew I just had to find the culprit before it consumed the entire plant.

Who's eating our Tomato Plants?

We don't use any pesticides in our garden, so it comes down to me hunting for the pesky perpetrator and eliminating him from the garden.  In looking at the damage, I knew it wouldn't be hard to find. He would have to be a fat caterpillar to engage in such a feast.  Sure enough, I spotted the green worm, gorging himself on our tomato plants - A perfectly healthy specimen of the Tomato Hornworm!

Why, it's a fat Tomato Hornworm!

Well, he wasn't giving up without a fight.  I tried to pry him from his place at the "supper table," and he clung to the tomato plant for dear life.  Finally, I had him loose.  The photo below shows why he's called the Hornworm.  You can see the red horn protruding from one end.  He's all bark and no bite, though and he's incapable of stinging you with it, but it's still kind of scary.  I dropped him when he reached around.

How the Hornworm got his name

Tomato Hornworms are the larval stage of the Five-Spotted Hawkmoth.  Here's what they look like:

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The biggest predator to the tomato hornworm is the wasp.  Wasps apparently feed on hornworms.  However, I'm not likely to keep wasps around to control them biologically.  I kill every wasp nest I see because I don't like getting stung.  So how will I control the hornworms?  Well, I'll pick them off and give them to some creatures I keep around that probably like eating hornworms more than wasps do - Chickens!!

I tossed that fat hornworm over the garden fence and the Rhode Island Red in the middle grabbed that fat boy and took off running with all the other hens in chase. She gobbled it down with the quickness!  I continued scouting for hornworms on the other tomato rows and did find three more of them.  They weren't quite as fat, but they still proved to be tasty morsels for my fine, feathered friends.

Never Buy Toothpaste Again

At our house when it comes to brushing our teeth, we use Tom's of Maine toothpaste or the little samples of toothpaste that they give you when you go to the dentist.  Tom's toothpaste is great.  It is a natural product that is fluoride-free and I like the peppermint flavor, but it is a little pricey!  Today both tubes of toothpaste in my bathroom looked like this:

No more toothpaste in the tube

That's a sad sight isn't it?  Obviously I could drive down to the drug store and purchase another tube, but it gave me a good opportunity to try something that I've been meaning to try - making my own toothpaste.  With a quick search on the Google, I had a few 'recipes' at my disposal.  I settled for this one I found on the Granny Miller Blog.  Granny Miller has a very interesting blog with lots of useful information.

Her blog contained simple instructions on how to make your own toothpaste (or tooth powder).  All you need is a jar, some baking soda, and some peppermint oil.

Ingredients for making toothpaste (or more appropriately, tooth powder)

I simply poured half of the box of baking soda into the jar and dropped about a dozen or so drops of peppermint oil into the jar and mixed it all up with a fork.  You can smell the cool, minty tooth powder ready to scrub your teeth super clean!

Tom's of Maine Kyle's of Louisiana

Here's what you do when you brush your teeth: Keep a bottle of Hydrogen Peroxide in the bathroom. When you're ready to brush your teeth, take a swig of hydrogen peroxide and swish around in your mouth.  Then pour a little on your toothbrush to wet it.  Dip your wet toothbrush into the jar of tooth powder.  Your homemade tooth powder will stick to the moistened toothbrush.  Then brush your teeth as you normally would.

The bubbling action of the peroxide, coupled with the scrubbing action of the baking soda and the minty freshness of the peppermint oil will help keep your teeth white and clean at a mere fraction of the cost of 'store-bought' tooth paste.  Tricia has been doing this for a couple of years and still has all her teeth!!  (Ha Ha!)  So I'm all in now.  I'll never buy toothpaste again!  

Our Own Grass Fed Beef - Cooking Steak (Part 4)

This is the fourth segment in an on-going series we're doing after we butchered one of our grass fed Angus steers.  Grass fed beef is all the rage right now and it is primarily driven because of health issues.  As you are aware, there are good fats and bad fats.  Grassfed beef is high in all of the fats that are good for you (Omega-3 fat) and low in all of the fats that have been linked to cause health problems.  According to This Link these important health considerations underscore the reason to eat grass fed:

When we switch from grainfed to grassfed meat, then, we are simply returning to the diet of our long-ago ancestors, the diet that is most in harmony with our physiology. Every cell and every system of our bodies will function better when we eat products from animals raised on grass.

Grass-fed beef is naturally leaner than grain-fed beef.

Omega 3s in beef that feed on grass is 7% of the total fat content, compared to 1% in grain-only fed beef.

Grass-fed beef has the recommended ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 fats (3:1.)

Grass-fed beef is loaded with other natural minerals and vitamins, plus it's a great source of CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) a fat that reduces the risk of cancer, obesity, diabetes, and a number of immune disorders.

Beef, in its natural grass-fed state, is a health food of the highest order. 

Before we jump into today's discussion, here are links to the previous 3 posts in the serious, in the event you missed them:

Grassfed Beef - Part 1
Grassfed Beef - Part 2
Grassfed Beef - Part 3

So we've established that we want to eat grass fed beef, so what are the differences? We have eaten the hamburger meat and notice that the meat is leaner and more flavorful.  What about other cuts, like steak?  We're going to find out right now.

Since the meat has all been frozen, we thawed out a couple of steaks for supper tonight:

We decided to try a T-bone and a sirloin steak.  Now the link below has some great tips that educated us regarding cooking it.  To be honest, it is sort of a different product than the grain fed beef you purchase in the supermarket.

Tips for Cooking Grassfed

The link above will tell you that grass fed beef is very low in fat.  Surprisingly, the steak from our steer had a nice amount of fat that provided great flavor.  We also learned that you should tenderize your steaks using a Jaccard Meat tenderizer.  Of course, we didn't have that gizmo so we used the next best thing - a Pampered Chef Hold n Slice.  I think it is really used for holding vegetables while you slice them.  It also worked well to tenderize the steaks:

Tricia simply poked the steak full of holes to tenderize both steaks.  Simple & Easy.

Tenderizing the steaks

You should marinate your steaks prior to cooking.  We used part acid, part oil, and part herbs/flavoring.  Tricia used apple cider vinegar and lemon juice for the acid and olive oil.  Then she added Worcestershire sauce, minced garlic, yellow mustard and our home made Tabasco sauce.  She shook it all up in a storage bag and allowed the steaks to marinate all day long in the fridge. 

Marinating the steaks

You should always bring your meat to room temperature prior to cooking.  Grass fed beef cooks very quickly.  In fact, it requires 30% less cooking time.  We learned that you should reduce the cooking temperature by 50 degrees.  Sear each side over high heat to seal in the juices and then turn down your fire to medium or low heat to finish, being careful not to overcook.  Since we're new at grass-fed cooking, we actually under-cooked ours and had to put it back in the skillet for a minute, but that's all part of the learning process and we'll have it down for next time.  I hate to admit to you that I don't have a photo of the finished product.  We ate it all quickly and before we knew it, the only thing left was a few bones for the dogs!

Next we cooked a shoulder steak.  We seared it on both sides and then added it to a pot with a roux that was made along with vegetables and water and some of our dehydrated tomatoes and let it cook between 2 and 3 hours.  Delicious!!

I hate to admit to you (again) that I don't have a photo of the finished product. We've got to get better at getting pictures of the finished product.  Once it is done, we're ready to eat!  We are really enjoying our grass fed beef and highly recommend it.

We'll have at least one more segment in this series as we're working on yet another product that we're able to make 

If I Were the Devil

After my post the other day about Bringing Lunch out to the Field, I was thinking about Paul Harvey's commentaries we would listen to on the radio.  As Dad and I would eat our lunch each day by the family cemetery under the shade tree of a century old oak tree, Mr. Harvey would join us for lunch saying, "Hello, Americans, this is Paul Harvey.  Stand by for news!"  It was one of those routines that you hated to miss.

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We liked listening to him.  It was like an old friend had joined you for lunch.  He told the news along with commentary and his "The Rest of the Story" segments were always so interesting and inspiring. He (along with Vienna sausage sandwiches and having lunch with my Dad) can be credited with making lunches on the farm a memorable experience.  I wonder if Paul Harvey liked Vienna sausages or if he preferred Olive Loaf?

Regardless, back on topic: If you're like me, you've probably received more than your fair share of chain emails.  Most of them are untrue or embellished and the others are designed to make you fearful.  Back 7 years or so, I received one containing an essay entitled, "If I were the Devil," supposedly written by Paul Harvey.  Actually (according to Snopes.com), the one that was making the rounds on the Internet was not written by Mr. Harvey, but was somewhat similar, with the same cadence and theme.

The original essay that Mr. Harvey penned back in 1964 and was included in his newspaper column back then.  I searched and found the one he really wrote and it is as follows:

If I Were the Devil

If I were the prince of darkness, I would want to engulf the whole world in darkness.

I'd have a third of its real estate and four-fifths of its population, but I would not be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree — thee.

So, I would set about however necessary to take over the United States.

I'd subvert the churches first, and I would begin with a campaign of whispers.

With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve: "Do as you please."

To the young, I would whisper that the Bible is a myth. I would convince the children that man created God instead of the other way around. I'd confide that what's bad is good and what's good is square.

And the old, I would teach to pray after me, "Our Father, which are in Washington ..."

Then, I'd get organized, I'd educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting so that anything else would appear dull and uninteresting.

I'd peddle narcotics to whom I could. I'd sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. I'd tranquilize the rest with pills.

If I were the devil, I'd soon have families at war with themselves, churches at war with themselves and nations at war with themselves until each, in its turn, was consumed.

And with promises of higher ratings, I'd have mesmerizing media fanning the flames.

If I were the devil, I would encourage schools to refine young intellect but neglect to discipline emotions. I'd tell teachers to let those students run wild. And before you knew it, you'd have drug-sniffing dogs and metal detectors at every schoolhouse door.

With a decade, I'd have prisons overflowing and judges promoting pornography. Soon, I would evict God from the courthouse and the schoolhouse and them from the houses of Congress.

In his own churches, I would substitute psychology for religion and deify science. I'd lure priests and pastors into misusing boys and girls and church money.

If I were the devil, I'd take from those who have and give to those who wanted until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious.

What'll you bet I couldn't get whole states to promote gambling as the way to get rich?

I'd convince the young that marriage is old-fashioned, that swinging is more fun and that what you see on television is the way to be.

And thus, I could undress you in public and lure you into bed with diseases for which there are no cures.

In other words, if I were the devil, I'd just keep right on doing what he's doing.

51 years later, here we are.  Mr. Harvey hit the bulls eye.  How could he have been so prescient?  I only wish he wouldn't have written it as I think the Devil used it to develop his strategy to hasten America's fall.  In reading that and seeing how far we are down the path of darkness, it might be easy to become discouraged, but there is always hope.  Rather than shake our heads and give up, we can do a few things: First - Pray.  Ask for guidance and direction and deliverance.  Then, begin to make a difference by being a Light in your own sphere of influence - with your spouse, your kids, and your extended family.  Don't give up in doing good.  Finally, as the Good Book says, "Submit yourselves to God. Resist the Devil and he will flee."

Cucumbers and Critters

Our cucumbers are planted on the very highest part of the garden.  With all the rain we have gotten that is a very fortunate place to be planted.  The cukes are thriving due to the well-drained soil. Unfortunately the tomatoes and potatoes and corn that were planted on lower land are really struggling.  Their "feet" stay wet, and their foliage is yellow.  There's more rain on the way all this week.

Let's focus on the positive, though.  Look at how healthy the cucumbers are.  The leaves are broad and green and they are climbing up a cattle panel that I've positioned for them to grow vertically.

Cucumbers

The leaves have almost completely shaded out the panel, allowing only slivers of light through and making the front part of the garden resemble a tropical rain forest.

Made in the Shade

There are lots of blooms and that lets you know that lots of cucumbers are on the way.  Here is one below that is about four inches long right now.  It is a Japanese Long Cucumber, so it will grow much longer.  They are long, skinny and don't have many seeds.  They are crisp and tasty and very refreshing to eat on a hot day.

Japanese Long Cucumber

The vines of the cucumber send out tendrils.  They look like springs and they reach out and grab onto the trellis and hold tight.  The spring-like tendrils give the vines some flexibility when strong winds blow.

Spring Action

Here is a very small cucumber of the Boston Pickling variety.  These are small and crispy and as the name states, they are great for pickling.  Last year we didn't pickle any.  We didn't have a great crop of cucumbers for some reason and we ended up eating them all fresh with vinegar, salt and pepper.

Boston pickling cucumber

In the morning there are tons of yellow flowers.  Now it is important that we have bees and other pollinators doing their work at this time and we have some news to report on that.  The honeybees that have inhabited the column near the side door to our house have recently packed their bags and moved out.  The side entrance is now much more hospitable to our guests without a swarm of bees buzzing around, but we miss the bees.  I enjoyed having them do their job pollinating in the garden and around the yard.  Although I don't have the time nor desire to take up beekeeping, I'm going to ask a friend if he'd put a box of bees on our property to pollinate our crops.  I need some worker bees to take the place of our bees that left.

Cucumber flower

As I was observing the multitude of flowers, something else caught my eye - a bunch of bugs crawling all over the vines, tendrils, and flowers.  Can you see them? They are orange, with long legs and long antenna.

Orange-colored bugs

They were all bunched up on the top of one leaf.  Usually there is safety in numbers, but in this case, it doomed them.  They were in perfect position for me to reach my hands out underneath and on top of the leaf and with one swift clap, I smashed the bugs to smithereens.  And it is a good thing I did. You know what kind of bugs these are?

A bunch of bugs

These bugs are juvenile leaf-footed bugs.  When they mature they look like this:

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If you look at their hind legs, you can see how they got their name.  These bugs wreak havoc on tomatoes, stinging them and sucking out moisture, leaving the tomatoes scarred and ugly.  They cause damage to citrus crops, too, stinging the fruit and causing it to drop.  I've got to do my part in reducing their number, so we avoid the damage they cause.  I'll patrol the garden and kill the juveniles before they grow up.

Bringing Lunch out to the Field

I write this at my desk as I'm sitting in my 12 foot by 10 foot office enjoying some leftovers from last night's supper consisting of smothered chicken and rice and gravy with fresh picked squash and onions sauteed in butter.  Leftovers are delicious.  I try to eat lunch in the office everyday as I don't want to do the fast food route.  It requires some consideration, though, as some of my colleagues probably don't appreciate the smell of fish, curry dishes, or liver heating up in the office microwave.

Lunches at work were once much different when my "office" was the cab of a John Deere or New Holland tractor. There is a Kenny Chesney song that contains the following lyrics that brings those days back to mind:

Plowin' these fields in the hot summer sun

Over by the gate lordy here she comes

With a basket full of chicken and a big cold jug of sweet tea

I fondly remember those days.  I would be plowing the field in the 'back 40' and around lunchtime I could look on the horizon and see dust rising up on the dirt road leading to the field.  Those dust clouds signaled the arrival of lunch.  My Dad would come and deliver me a hamburger, fries, and a Dr. Pepper.  I'd gobble it down and start plowing again, singing loudly to every country song that came on the radio.  Dad would also bring a Dr. Pepper and honey bun out at break time.

When I was much younger than that, my Mom would drive out to the farm at lunch time and bring us hamburgers and fries from a restaurant in Oberlin called the Frostee Drive Inn right there on Highway 165. It doesn't exist anymore, but they had some good burgers.  I think it has something to do with years of grease cooked on the griddle that imparted a rich flavor to the meat!  They had great root beer floats, too.  We'd eat out in the pecan orchard or sometimes just eat right out on the tailgate.

Sometimes we'd have lunch in the 'camp,' warming up TV dinners in the microwave with the little window unit struggling to keep us cool.  Many times we'd drive in to the Texaco station in Oberlin and get a 3 piece chicken tender basket. "Gas station chicken" is always so good!  We'd drive back out to the farm and park underneath the shade tree by the cemetery and enjoy our lunch while listening to the news on the radio followed by Paul Harvey's Commentary (Good Day!).

Lunches weren't always purchased, though.  Most times we would make them up the night before at home, packing them into Igloo coolers for our culinary enjoyment the next day.  I can remember eating lots of bologna sandwiches, chips from a box that contained all the varieties to choose from, and pickles.  Sometimes the 'cooler' wouldn't live up to its namesake and the heat would have caused the lunch meat to turn grey instead of pink and the mayonnaise would have turned translucent, violating Board of Health rules, I'm sure.  But heck, we'd eat it anyway and we're still alive and kicking.

We also ate many cans of this:

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Ah, Vienna sausage.  When you lifted the ring on the top of the can with your fingernail and pulled the top off, you were greeted by seven little sausages looking at you, yearning to be freed from their tight confines.  They also needed to be liberated from the "jelly" that surrounded them.  What was that jelly, anyway?  I haven't eaten Vienna sausage in years.  I seem to recall that there was a BBQ flavored Vienna Sausage as well.  You know, every once in a while, we'd slice the sausages long-ways and lay them between some Evangeline Maid or Bunny Bread to make a Vienna Sausage Sandwich.  Vienna Sausage is a very versatile product!

Another thing I haven't eaten in years was this:

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An Olive Loaf Sandwich!  Made on white bread with yellow mustard.  Olive Loaf was the king of lunch meat at our house.  I feel negligent in that I never introduced my kids to the most supreme of luncheon meats!  Those olives and pimentos were sprinkled evenly through the meat similar to chocolate chips in a cookie.  There had to be some sort of a trick to keeping the olives in suspension like that.  It had to take a brilliant mind to conceive such a product.

Once you dined like a king on this wide array of lunch offerings, you just had to wash it all down with something sweet. We would either have some Little Debbie Cakes that we would break out or we drive to Buddy's and get either a honey bun or one of these to go along with our Dr. Pepper:

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We called them Stage Planks.  They were wonderful and tasted like gingerbread, but had a pink icing on top.  Supposedly they originated in New Orleans and were named for the gang planks that they would let down from the paddle wheel steamboats on the river to let people and cargo off of at the docks.

Well, it is one o'clock and thus concludes my culinary trip down memory lane.  See you tomorrow.

Blue Bell Ice Cream - A Parable

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The words to the song on a recent Blue Bell ice cream commercial went as follows:

"I remember our old country home. Clean fresh air and flowers growing in the fields, along the path, behind our swimming hole. Momma hollering through the screen. "Would you kids like some homemade ice cream?" That was such a simpler time and place. Blue Bell tastes just like.... The good ole days." 

Not true.  I think Momma would holler: "If you want some homemade ice cream, you better come turn the crank. It's your turn!"  I can remember making ice cream well back when we were kids.  We would take turns cranking, adding ice and rock salt.  We'd be tired from cranking, but so excited to eat some delicious homemade ice cream.

We normally make homemade ice cream with the fresh cream from our Jersey Cows, but when we do purchase ice cream, we purchase Blue Bell.  We could pry the rim off a half gallon and armed with spoons, destroy a container of Moo-lenium Crunch, or Cookies 'n Cream, or Mint Chocolate Chip.

When I was in the grocery business, I sold many a container of their ice cream. They operated to exacting standards.  If our store's ice cream freezers had trouble and would barely begin to defrost, they would make us throw all the ice cream away, issuing us "hot box" credits.  They didn't want any ice cream to be sold that was sub-par.  We've toured their factory at "the little creamery in Brenham" and would agree that compared to many brands, Blue Bell is indeed "better by a country mile."

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And then absolute disaster struck.  A listeria outbreak that sickened many and killed 3 in Kansas led to a total recall of all products.  The CEO has made an agonizing decision to stop production, lay off many of their employees, and begin a long and tedious process of breaking down their production facilities piece by piece and thoroughly cleaning and repairing them.

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According to This LINK:

Inspectors found that the company's process for sanitizing equipment was inadequate. The plant failed to monitor the temperature of water used to clean equipment. Additionally, the building itself wasn't constructed in a way to prevent drips and condensation from contaminating ice cream and packaging materials, the report stated.

Experts say that listeria is tough to get rid of and can live on surfaces like drains and pipes for years.
"To get rid of it they'd have to take the equipment apart and clean it. It's a big job to control listeria in a plant," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, a director of food safety for Center of Science in the Public Interest.

Listeria is a particularly virulent and insidious bacteria.  Refrigeration does not kill it.  It will continue to replicate even in cold temperatures.  Since we milk our own cows and drink raw milk, we've educated ourselves on the potential dangers and have put in steps in our milking regimen to proactively eliminate the chances of contamination.

In researching about listeria, we've learned that bleach will kill it, but the more important thing is to find the source of contamination.  As the CEO ordered the cleaning/disinfecting of their factories, I began to think of the parallels.  A parable is "an earthly story with a heavenly meaning."  Believe it or not, I think there is a parable in the Blue Bell disaster that came to my little pea-brain when thinking about it.  I'm no preacher - not even close, but just as I would be negligent in saying nothing as you ate a big bowl of listeria-laden ice cream, I would be equally negligent for not sounding the alarm that our factory has been contaminated and for not letting you know what you can do to protect yourself and your loved ones. Stick with me for a minute...

You know we're all contaminated, right?  When Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit in the Garden, we became recipients of original sin and that curse brings with it sure death.  Horrible, I know.  Things could have been so good, but instead we carry this curse.  Creation carries this curse of sin, death, toil, heartbreak, and destruction.  Everything is contaminated.  Sin is in every nook and cranny and it replicates itself, living on forever and infecting everyone and every thing.  Things that were created to bring such joy and satisfaction are now infected and there's absolutely nothing we can do about it.

Or is there?  If we take a close look at our factory (our bodies) in light of Scripture, we can ascertain from looking at the forensic evidence that the source of the contamination is Sin.  God hates sin and as a result we carry the penalty for it - a Death Sentence!  But wait... Fortunately, we can receive a pardon.

You see, if we let him, our CEO (God) can come into our factory and completely clean it up, disinfecting it with an agent much stronger than bleach - His Precious Son's Blood.  His blood will cover the infected surface areas of our factory, making us sparkling - like brand new!  When our "production line" is re-opened, it'll be like a completely new factory.

The Gospel is simply Good News.  It's nothing difficult.  It's actually very simple. God provided His Son to be sacrificed on a cruel cross for our sins.  We all sin. There's nothing we can do to remedy it - except Believe.  We Admit that we are sinners.  We Believe that Jesus Christ is who He says He is. We Confess our sins and understand that we have responsibilities as followers of Christ.  We read His Word, learning, growing in Truth and we fellowship with other believers in a local church committed to teaching the Bible.

That's it! You know, hopefully Blue Bell will recover from all this.  Blue Bell once had an ad campaign where they boasted that the cows thought that Brenham, Texas was Heaven.  If you listen to the Good News of the Gospel and accept it, there is a 100% certainty that you will recover and will live in Heaven for eternity.  That's Good News, indeed!

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Clipping Wings

Pullets are young hens that are less than a year old.  Every year we hatch out and/or order some pullets to replace those in our existing flock that perished during the year.  We do lose a few hens each year from predation and a few simply to old age every year and in order to keep the level of egg production steady, we keep rotating existing hens into the flock.

Our process isn't a perfect one and others might have a better way, but the method we have found that works best with us is as follows.  Once the chicks reach about four weeks old, we move them from the brooder into the chicken tractor out on the pasture.  We keep giving them chick starter and fresh water and push them to fresh grass each day.  The chicken tractor they are in has no bottom, so the birds are able to forage for grass, bugs, seeds, etc.  They poop, fertilizing the grass and each day as we push the tractor, we are effectively broadcasting fertilizer that will cause the grass to grow green and lush for the cows.

The chicken tractor has nesting boxes in it and once the birds get around 24 weeks old and we can see their bottoms getting 'fluffy,' we know that they will lay their first eggs.  Once we find eggs in the nesting boxes, we set them completely free to free range over their 3 acre pasture.

The pullet chicken tractor

Last week we found one egg.  The next day we found two and the next day six.  Yes, it is time to give these young ladies freedom!

Ready for Freedom

But as they say, freedom isn't free.  It is going to cost them something.  In this case, the feathers on one wing.  You see, although chickens can't really fly too much, they can fly over the four foot high perimeter fence and we can't have that.  There is the garden to think about.  They'd pick it clean. There's also danger outside of the fence like dogs or other varmints that would like nothing better than a chicken dinner.  

So in order to discourage flight, I clip their wings real short on one wing.  I use tin-snips to clip the wings.  They work good on metal and equally well on feathers. Also, originally I was clipping both wings, but someone (wise) told me that this was a waste of time and effort.  By clipping one wing, it makes the chicken off balance and they can't fly.  See, I would have never thought of that.  I would have continued clipping both wings, but this saves me a lot of time and effort.  I like learning things - even simple things that allow you to work smarter and not harder.

Getting her wings clipped

I simply clip back the wing feathers almost to the wing itself.  The birds will go absolutely crazy, causing a big ruckus with lots of noise and drama, but it doesn't hurt them at all.  I climb into the tractor with the clippers and as I get one clipped, Benjamin opens the door, counts the number of birds one by one, and I gently toss the hen out for her first taste of freedom.

A pile of feathers

Amazingly, the birds will end up eating all their feathers.  The feathers are high in protein and probably good for them, but it is sort of weird, though.  I held up one of the birds so you can see the clipped wing.  Now they will eventually grow back, but it takes a good while and we'll just do the whole process all over again.

Clipped wings

We leave the door to their chicken tractor open for two reasons.  First, they are creatures of habit and they'll return to the roost in the tractor each night.  This means they'll be safe from owls and other nocturnal predators.  Secondly, they'll return to lay eggs in the chicken tractor and this keeps us from having to hunt for their eggs around the pasture each day.

Ahhhh... Freedom.  Ain't it great?!

Birds of a Feather Flock Together

We have a couple of palm trees in our backyard that have grown like crazy. Apparently, they like the location that we planted them in.  I only wish that they were the type of tree that produced something to eat.  What they do produce is a bunch of fronds that turn brown and die.  The fronds have large thorns on them that you have to be real careful when you carry them or they will stick you. (Experience speaking)

While nice to look at, they really don't provide anything of benefit.  Or so I thought...

Flocking Together

They provide an excellent place for birds to build a nest.  The other day I got out an extended wooden pole saw similar to the one in the photo below and began to cut off the dead fronds.  It won't be long before I'll have to get a ladder to perform this task as the trees keep growing and growing.

While I was cutting, I noticed a bird flying around.  As I looked closer, I identified the bird to be what we call a Mexican Dove, but I think the correct name is the Common Ground Dove.  They are much smaller than the Mourning Dove or the Ring-Necked Dove that are also prevalent around here. A closer examination showed that the dove had two little ones in a nest she had built in a cozy place where I had previously cut a dead palm frond off.  It created a perfect protected indentation to build a nest.  If you look closely at the picture above just a hair above the center, you can see two birds sitting in their nest watching me.  Their mom was not to happy!

Image Credit

I watched the birds for about a week.  They grew very quickly.  Before I knew it they were testing their wings out and flying in short hops out on the palm fronds.  In fact you can see one sitting on the frond after a test flight.  He's right in the center of the photo below.

One Dove out of the nest and on the frond

And then the next day, as we watched them, they both flew off into a neighboring pecan tree and we haven't seen them back.  Benjamin likes to shoot doves with his pellet gun.  We have a few doves in the freezer right now.  After watching these grow up, he said he'd be a little hesitant about shooting any more around the house, but I assured him that there are tons of doves.

It is that time of year when all the birds are hatching.  If you walk around the yard, you see pieces of egg shell in the grass, signalling that another bird has hatched.  If you look closely, sometimes you'll see little birds that try to fly before they are ready and end up on the ground.  This young bird below is one of those.  He's a baby Mockingbird, I think, and I saw him in some Indian Hawthorn as I was mowing. When I got Benjamin to show him the bird, the little fellow was gone.  I don't know if his mom somehow rescued him or if he fell prey to the cats that patrol the area.

Mockingbirds are appropriately named.  The other morning as I walked to work, I saw one mockingbird sitting on the top of a light pole and this bird went through 7 or 8 different songs of different birds, mimicking their song like an Elvis impersonator.  It was almost as if he was showing off.  He wasn't finished with his song list either, but I had to go inside.

I haven't talked about Penelope, our India Blue pea hen lately.  She has a great personality and a regal head dress that she wears with pride as she struts around. The old girl is still around and like clockwork everyday, she flies into the yard and then later on flies up into the very top of a tree to roost for the night.  The poor girl needs a mate.  She had her feathers all fanned out and ended up laying 5 eggs on top of the barn that she sat on, but they are not fertile since we don't have a peacock and they didn't hatch.  

Penelope, the (lonely) Peahen

I really need to remedy that.  A mate for Penelope would be cool to have around:

Image Credit

Oh, but the price is sort of prohibitive!  On Murray McMurray Hatchery, they sell an assortment of 8 peafowl for $392.40!  That's almost $50 per bird.  I'm going to check around locally and see if anyone has a peacock for sale at a better price.

Saving Red Romaine Lettuce Seeds

One of the many benefits of purchasing seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds from THIS WEBSITE is that along with every order they send you a packet of free seeds.  In Louisiana, we call this "lagniappe," and it means 'a little something extra. It's always a treat to get something for free, right?  Getting an extra packet of seeds gives you a unique opportunity to try seeds that you might not otherwise try.  It is also a nice gesture of goodwill that makes you want to continue doing business with them.

With my most recent order, the free packet of seeds was a package of Lemon Queen Sunflower Seeds.  I'll plant those as soon as the torrential rains stop.  My order last year contained a packet of Red Romaine Lettuce Seeds.  We love fresh garden salads with a mixture of several varieties of lettuce and this seemed like a neat thing to try to add some red color to our garden (and salad bowl), so I planted a row of them. Here is a photo of some mature red romaine lettuce I took back toward the end of February:

Red Romaine Lettuce

Since this variety is an heirloom variety that is open-pollinated (non hybrid), you can save the seeds from year to year.  We like to save seeds from items we like and keep them stored for later use.  We'll show you how we saved the seeds from the red romaine.  We keep picking off leaves and enjoying salads until you notice the plant bolting (going into the seed production stage).  When the plant starts to put on seeds, I find the lettuce to get kind of bitter tasting.  Pretty soon you'll see the plant send up a shoot with flowers on it.

Red Romaine getting ready to flower

We allow the plant to completely flower and begin to dry up.  You will see white, dandelion-type, feathery things sticking out of the dried flower buds.  Just like a dandelion, the "wings" have an individual seed attached to the base and as it catches the wind, it will break off from the flower bud and fly across the landscape on its 'wings' or parachute until it lands, depositing its seed where it will grow next year.

The flowers of the red romaine

Except with our red romaine lettuce, we won't let it do that.  We want to interrupt that process and capture the seeds before they take flight.  I take each flower in my hand and using my fingernails, I pinch the wings and pull up.

Dried flower ready to yield seeds

When you pull, the flowers have a single, tiny seed attached to each wing.  I suppose you could break off the seed from the wing, but that is far too tedious of a job for me for right now.

Seeds of promise

I stored the seeds in an airtight container like an old ibuprofen bottle, ensuring that the seeds stay dry, cool, and out of sunlight.  I'll make sure to label the bottle.  This fall I'll pull out the bottle and after I work up a row, I'll pinch some of the seeds between my thumb and index finger and sprinkle into the furrow.  The red romaine will spring up from the ground and yield more healthy salads for the family.

Seed Saving

When I finished up with just the seeds that I had gathered, I had roughly the same amount of seeds saved that I started with when I got the free packet of seeds from Baker Creek.  That's what I call the gift that keeps on giving!!