The 2015 Meat Birds - Three Weeks Old

Good evening.  It's time to get on the scale - the chickens, that is.  Each week we gather one Cornish Cross and one Red Ranger and put them up on the scale to gauge their growth over their livespans.  I scooped up our two birds and the Red Ranger promptly left his calling card on my work bench. Yuck!  The Cornish Cross on the left below has a huge, bulging crop that is filled with food.  It is unreal how much they can eat.

Cornish Cross (left) and Red Ranger (right)

I normally put them in buckets, but decided to put an old rag over the scale and zero it out and just set the birds up there.  First up, the Red Ranger.

The Red Ranger weighed 9 ounces.  Last week he weighed 5 ounces, so he almost doubled his weight.

Next I placed the Cornish Cross on the scale.   Now you can tell just from picking him up that he is thicker, plumper, and heavier that the Red Rangers.  He's so fat and lazy, he just sits down on the scale.

The Cornish Cross weighed 14 ounces, up a half of a pound from last week.

Cornish Cross at 14 ounces

The weather this past week has been trying.  It has been unseasonably cold for us in March, with temperatures dipping down into the 20's and we had sleet one day. That is not optimal weather for chicken ranching.  Despite the fact that I insulated the sides of the brooders and lowered the heat lamps, they still piled on top of each other directly under the lamp.  This suffocates and kills the smallest, weakest birds who find themselves covered by other birds.

Last week we had 103 birds.  Currently we have 98.  5 birds died this week due to suffocation.  We decided to move the birds out of the garage today in order to give them more space out on pasture in one of our chicken tractors.  I'm thinking that this may slow down or hopefully end the mortality that we're seeing.  We'll show you where we moved them in upcoming posts.

Making Homemade Peanut Butter from Homegrown Peanuts

Last year we told you about planting a new crop in the garden in This Post. Schronce's Deep Black Peanuts.  It was the first time that we've planted peanuts and Benjamin and I were excited about it. Since we were unfamiliar with growing peanuts, I researched and got some bad information on when to harvest and I explained it in This Post and showed our sad little yield of peanuts.  Jimmy Carter, I am not!

Anyway, after drying them, I brought them inside and have stored them.  The other night while shelling pecans in front of the fireplace, I remembered the peanuts and figured that tonight was the night that we would roast them.  Roasting peanuts is simple.  Simply heat an oven to 350 degrees and put the peanuts on a tray for 20 - 25 minutes, stirring every so often.  Our house was filled with the most appetizing aroma ever!

Peanuts roasting in the oven

Remove from the oven and cool completely.  We decided that we wanted to make our own Roasted Peanut Butter!  To do so, you need to crack open the shells and remove the peanuts.  You can see why this variety is called Shronce's Deep Black Peanuts - they are black versus red like normal peanuts.

To make peanut butter, you want to remove the skins of the peanuts.  This is easy. Just rub between your fingers and the black skins come off leaving a golden brown, roasted peanut.

We have some skin in the game

Benjamin helped me and when we were done, we had a small bowl of skinless, boneless, roasted peanuts ready to be processed.

Future Peanut Butter

We were left with a tray of peanut shells and skins and we'll compost this.  We compost most everything, putting all organic material back into the soil, ensuring that we're returning as much nutrients that we're removing each crop year so we're never at a deficit.

To the compost pile

My mom taught me the following song when I was a little boy that I'm sure she learned from her mom:

A peanut sat on a railroad track,

His heart was all a-flutter.

The five-fifteen came rushing by--

Toot toot!   Peanut butter!

Instead of using a train, we're going to use another device to make peanut butter. We don't have fancy equipment - just a simple Black & Decker food processor and we'll make use of that to make our peanut butter.

Pour the peanuts in

We turn it on an pulse continuously for a minute.  The peanuts look sort of like coarse ground grits at this point.

Then we pulse for another minute.  Now the peanuts are starting to 'clump' together. Almost, but not quite peanut butter.

We pulse for another minute and then we scrape down the sides and add a teaspoon of honey and a sprinkling of kosher salt.

Honey & Salt added

We pulse that for another minute and then use a rubber spatula to scrape the processor clean and into a bowl for consuming.  Due to our small harvest, we could have probably sat around in front of the fireplace with spoons and finished it off, but it was so good, we wanted to ration it.

Homemade Peanut Butter - the finished product!

We snacked in front of the roaring fireplace on the richly flavored, smooth, roasted peanut butter and when we each had several spoonfuls, I sat it on the counter next to the 48 ounce container of pecans I had just shelled.

Hmmmm.....

And had an idea.  If peanut butter is this delicious, what if we roasted pecans and processed them to make Roasted Pecan Butter???  Hmmmmm...  Standby for a future post about that project.  It's on the list of things to do!

Running the Race Set Before Us

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of faith, who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2 (NASB)

Benjamin, our fourteen year old, belongs to a track club called the Gulf Coast Hurricanes.  They practice every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday.  They run for miles and miles and also do weight training once they've finished running on Thursday.  I get tired just thinking about it.  After months and months of practice, it was finally time for track meets and an opportunity to put all that training to work!

On Saturday morning, we woke up early and got all our chores done and then loaded up and drove to Baton Rouge where the first meet was to be held at Carl Maddox Field House, the indoor track stadium at LSU.  It was a stellar day - one of those days that you hate to be indoors on.  Russ and Laura Lee are students at LSU and they came and met us to watch Benjamin run like a gazelle.

Tricia, Benjamin,and Russ

Benjamin participated in two events - the 800 meter and 1600 meter runs.  He excels at the longer runs as he has lots of endurance.  We were very proud of him.  It was exciting to witness his races, yelling at the top of our lungs as he ran by, encouraging him to finish strong.  Finish strong, he did. He placed 6th in the 800 meter run with a time of 2:44 and 2nd in the 1600 meter run with a time of 5:52.

Benjamin (second from right) closing in on the finish line

In thinking about the race, it is a perfect analogy to our lives and Christian walk, and it that is why, no doubt, the Apostle Paul used the analogy of running a race in the opening verses of Hebrews chapter 12 that I posted at the top of this entry.  

Even if we never put on the running shoes or spikes, we're all in a race.  Each day as we go out, we're running and there are witnesses watching.  We train day in and day out.  Many times we fall.  More often, we tire and stumble.  And unless we are completely disciplined, we can be lured by that little voice telling us to quit, that it's too hard, that there is no way we'll cross the finish line.  Our bodies (and our minds) gets fatigued during the race of life and want to give up.  It is a daily battle.

A true competitor ignores the pain and the mental weakness that wants to lead us off course.  A victor perseveres to the end and crosses the finish line.  Victory is not for timid souls who fall prey to distraction and give up.  Is it easy?  No way! In fact the race is hard.  One can only succeed in this life by fixing your eyes on Jesus.  He provided our example and leads us to the finish line.  He is our 'coach.' He showed us how to overcome and in knowing Him, we have victory.

The prize - a medal!

There is a prize that we can look forward to.  Sometimes the prize is awarded quickly.  Sometimes you have to wait.  Benjamin went to the scorer's table at least three times before he was awarded his medal.  At last he was given his award.  We congratulated him and told him 'Good Job!"

That's what I want to hear one day when I stand before the ultimate "Scorer's table": "Well done, my good and faithful servant."  Many days the finish line seems unreachable and out of sight. Many days, I'm sure I disappoint my "coach" and the witnesses watching.  But I've got to endure to the end and consequently, until that day, I'll keep training, and keep fixing my eyes on Jesus.  He holds the meet record and he holds my future.

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.    

1 Corinthians 9:24

Fresh Lettuce despite the freeze!

This past Fall I planted a row of lettuce in our garden.  I tried a variety this year that is the best I've ever tried.  I ordered a Salad Blend from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds called Rocky Top Lettuce Mix.  It has a great mix of "sweet red leaves, beautiful leafy greens, spicy arugula and Chervil."  It is quite something to see growing in the garden throughout the Winter contrasted against the grey skies and dull brown landscape with red leaves, green leaves and a green leaf with red freckles.

One of the reviews on Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds gave me a tip that I've used that has enabled our family to continue to enjoying lettuce all throughout the winter - freezes and all.  I can't believe I haven't thought of this before.  I've always just let my tender garden offerings die off in the freezes, but no more!  A review on the website linked above talked about covering the lettuce with plastic during freezes. Lettuce lends itself well to doing this because it is hugs the ground.

So each freeze this year, I've lugged a trusty blue tarp or two out to the garden and covered the lettuce, weighing down the edges with a few t-posts so the tarp doesn't blow off in the stiff North winds.  Sometimes I've left the tarp over the lettuce for four days and it has not harmed the lettuce one bit.  As a result, we've been able to have fresh salads with our meals with accompanying shredded fresh carrots and grated radishes.  You can't beat an instant, portable greenhouse provided by a blue tarp!

Ain't that pretty?

The above and below photos are just two of the varieties that are included in the Rocky Top Lettuce mix.  I've only really planted lettuce for a few years, so I'm still learning, but I did also learn that when you harvest, if you just pinch off the tops of the lettuce and leave the roots and very bottom leaves intact, the lettuce will grow back - giving you a 'second crop.'  You can do this until the weather warms up. When it warms up the lettuce will bolt - sending up flowers and putting the lettuce into the reproductive stage.  At this point, the leaves that were once sweet and delicious become bitter.

Nice leafy greens

In the photo below you can just see the edge of the blue tarp.  I have it positioned in place to cover the lettuce back up in preparation of the weather moving through. According to weather reports, tomorrow morning around 5am (we'll be in the barn milking around that time... BRRRR!), a front will blow through pushing temps back around the freezing mark with wind chills much colder.  I'll cover the lettuce back up so that we can continue our salad-eating without stoppage.

Red Romaine

The lettuce above is Red Romaine lettuce.  It is not part of the Rocky Top Mix, but is some free seed that Baker Creek included in my last order.  They do that from time to time and I think it is a nice gesture and enables you to try some varieties that you might not otherwise try.  This stunning red lettuce in addition to being nice to look at, is delicious to eat.

Pull the tarp up and pass the salad dressing, please.  

2014 By The Numbers

On the door to the freezer in our utility room, we have several charts that we fill in each day to track daily egg production, milk production, and rainfall.  We like to keep good records and watch for trends over the course of time.  Like a scoreboard in a sporting event or a budget, looking at production records lets you know how things are going and helps you to look at and correct management problems. Rainfall totals are a little different.  Obviously, you can't manage rainfall, but it is interesting to track.

One of Benjamin's chores is to gather eggs.  Each afternoon he grabs his egg basket and goes out to the various places in the barn, hen house, chicken tractor and other odd places where our hens like to lay their eggs.  He brings them to the patio, spot cleans them if they need it and packs them in egg cartons.  Then he marks down the egg production for that given day on the egg chart.

A nice looking nest of eggs

Let's take a look at Egg Production in 2013 by month versus 2014:

	2013	2014
JAN	393	197
FEB	407	504
MAR	692	1714
APR	935	1796
MAY	843	1738
JUN	577	1127
JUL	462	1330
AUG	214	1094
SEP	333	988
OCT	377	1200
NOV	126	624
DEC	29	425
TOTAL	5,388	12,737
Dozen	449	1,061

I'm sorry about the formatting, when I copy/paste from Excel, it doesn't come out right.  Regardless, the numbers tell an interesting story.  With approximately the same number of hens on the pasture in both years, we more than doubled the amount of eggs laid in 2014 over 2013.  Why?

Well, there are several answers that we know of and probably other contributing factors that I'm not smart enough to pick up on.  We learn as we go and make mistakes every day.  The first thing we found was nutrition.  In 2013 we didn't do a good job of providing our chickens calcium.  They desperately need calcium since their bodies are using up a great deal of their calcium stores to produce eggs.  When the body has a nutrient imbalance, the first thing that shuts down is the reproductive system - Egg Laying.  So in early 2014, I began to keep a dish of crushed up oyster shells for them to partake of at will and that did the trick!

You can also see a trend of daylight hours and temperature in relation to egg production.  The number of daylight hours is very important for egg production. As the days get shorter, so does the egg count.  There is also a correlation in temperature.  Chickens are like people.  As the days get hotter, they get stressed and eat less, preferring to sit in the shade.  More Heat = Less nutrition = fewer eggs.

We could put lights on our chickens and their egg laying would increase; however, their productive lifespan would be shorter.  We're going to go ahead and let them have natural light and seasons the way God intended.  There are plenty of shade trees for them to cool off under.

How about rain?

Refreshing rainfall

Let's take a look at Rainfall in 2013 by month versus 2014:

	2013	2014
JAN	14.35	2.1
FEB	6.2	7.4
MAR	2.9	2
APR	8.8	3.2
MAY	5.2	8.3
JUN	3.4	9.2
JUL	2	6.5
AUG	2.5	9.2
SEP	6.6	1.2
OCT	3.7	4.2
NOV	2.7	2.55
DEC	4	2.3
TOTAL	62	58
Feet	5.20	4.85

Now, let me make a confession here that although we try our best to mark down each time it rains, sometimes we may forget.  With egg production, because the hens lay every day. we know when we've missed a day.  Not so with rainfall.  We may have missed a day, but the bottom line is the 2014 versus 2013 rainfall difference was statistically immaterial.  The only real trend that I can see is that February looks to be a wet month and November a dry one.  Other than that, the important thing to see is that here in South Louisiana, we average 5 feet of rain a year.  The US average rainfall is 37 inches, so we're pretty wet.

That's a good thing, BUT it also provides plenty of breeding grounds for mosquitoes!

A Few More Fires in the Fireplace Before Spring

Sunday the rains started... again.  There is a high probability of rain every day this week with temperatures in the upper 70's.  On Wednesday night, though, the weather will once again change as another front will blow through bringing freezing temperatures with it.  The weatherman said wind chills could be in the high 20's. So before the rain started, I filled up a wagon load of firewood and stacked it under the patio where it will be dry once the rain starts.

This is all the firewood that is left over from the big water oak tree that we took down in the front yard and split up.  It has lasted us for a long time, keeping us warm and cozy through three winters. A small group of hens roosts on the wood pile every night.  They'll soon be looking for a new spot to roost once the pile disappears. The wood pile has also provided a place for Annie, the goat, to climb up on and thus given good exercise for me as I have to re-stack the woodpile after she knocks the wood down - an almost daily occurrence.

The dwindling wood pile

When the chickens see me heading to the wood pile with the wagon, they come running.  They know that the buffet line is about to open.  The wood pile is also home to numerous roaches and big, white grub worms and that is prime eating for the chickens.  Although safe underneath the stack of wood, once I start removing the wood, insects and worms are unearthed and exposed to the hungry chickens who scratch and promptly devour them.  By the time they are finished, the ground is scratched clean.

Cleaning things up

The woodpile is near the end.  Not to worry, though.  We have another stack from the three smaller water oak trees that we took down this summer.  The boys and I will split it and stack it to burn next winter.

Fuel for next year

As I type this entry tonight, I'm sitting in front of a fire that was roaring 45 minutes ago, warming all in the room.  I was shelling pecans while talking to the family, relaxing and winding down for the night.  Now all that is left of the fire is some glowing embers, still putting out heat, but fading fast.

A cozy fire

Just like me!  Goodnight all...

"Eat Yer Vegetables First!"

I have to admit that I have a sweet tooth.  I've never met a dessert that I didn't like. Tricia has always had a rule in our family that you have to eat your vegetables before you can have dessert.  Benjamin and I aren't particularly fond of that rule. Today we're going to put it to the test.

We dug the last bit of our carrots from the final row of them that we had growing in the garden.  We need that area in the garden to quickly replant with potatoes.  I went out and pulled them out of the moist ground, put them in a bucket and scrubbed them clean.

Fresh dug carrots

What are we going to do with them?  We have blanched and frozen a bunch, eaten a bunch of them raw, cooked some of them and made a couple of quarts of lacto-fermented ginger carrots.  Well, it just so happens that the latest Southern Living magazine has a nice recipe for carrots - Carrot Cake, that is - with cream cheese icing!  What a great idea!

Southern Living Carrot Cake Recipe

Tricia made up a a nice looking carrot cake using our carrots and a bunch of our pecans that we have been shelling.

The icing on the cake

We couldn't wait to cut into that thing.  It was so moist and sweet and heavy!

Take a closer look:

Look closely in the photo above and you can see the shredded carrots in the cake along with the pecans.  We sliced big slabs of the delicious... um... Vegetables, and laid it on our plates.  We tried the best we could to convince Tricia that we were eating our vegetables first, but she wasn't buying it. Carrot Cake = Good stuff!