Cool Chicks

Sunny cooling off in the sled

This past week we have been experiencing temperatures much higher than average. Our chickens have been panting and sticking their wings out; telltale signs of a hot chicken. We came up with a few things we can do to make sure they don't fry, such as filling plastic sleds with water and making frozen vegetable/fruit blocks.

Carlos the rooster showing off

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

This week the New Pioneer Co-op is having an eat local week. You can submit photos of dishes made from local ingredients, and for each post, they will donate $1 to Field to Family. It just so happens that this week was mom's birthday, so we made a DELICIOUS chocolate zucchini cake, and decided to enter it.  If you want some more information, visit their website: http://www.newpi.coop/

2 c all-purpose flour 

2 c white sugar
3/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder
2 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt 
1 t ground cinnamon
4 eggs
1 c vegetable oil
3 c grated zucchini
1 c chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.   Grease and flour a 9x13 inch baking pan or bundt pan.

2.In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Add the eggs and oil, mix well. Fold in the chocolate chips and zucchini. Pour into the prepared pan.

3. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes out cleanly. Cool cake completely before adding powdered sugar or frosting.

                        

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End of summer update

Carlos the rooster and Betty the pullet

Over the summer, there has been LOTS of excitement around the farm. Perhaps the most exciting event is the addition of Carlos to our flock. Carlos is a Bantam Buff Cochin, and the cutest rooster ever. We got him from a family at the fair who had extras, to replace Waffles. He is the fastest, fluffiest and has the cutest crow of any rooster you will ever meet.

 Last time you saw our little pullets, they were just fluffy chicks. But now they are healthy laying pullets. They are just a few days from being 6 months old! We've been getting 15-20 eggs a day!!







We have also been working with Backyard Abundance to create plans to transform our yard into a garden. It will be filled with fruit trees, a sensory garden, a berry patch, a cutting garden, and much more. If you want  some more information about this organization, click here. Along with our yard, we also have plans for our barn in the works. We are hoping to turn our barn into a country inn. We'll post more about that later.

New Life Around The Farm

With summer around the corner, things are blooming on the farm! We recently bought Wilbur, a weeping willow tree, for our pond. The strong winds have been hitting him hard, so dad made him a brace. His trunk will grow up to six feet in diameter, and he can grow five to six feet a year!

Our pond is also home to multiple frogs and HUNDREDS of eggs and tadpoles! What we want to know is how did the frogs even get here?!




Our asparagus is popping up all over the place! We mowed down the unruly grass and now the asparagus gets lots of sunshine. We have harvested enough for a few dinners. Yum!








Our friend Ken brought one of his bee hives out to our farm. They are happily buzzing around by the garden. Our farm provides a dry, protected area with plenty of pollen and a direct path to water. We are hoping to sample some of their honey later this year.

Prize Winning Video

Recently Caroline entered a Murray McMurray Hatchery video   contest. She went out and filmed a little tour of our coop, edited it, and sent it in. About a week after that, we were looking at the website, and there was Caroline's coop tour! For being a weekly winner, she got a gift from Murray Mc Murray; a super snazzy MUG!

Time for fish?

Welcome to our 50th blog post! Since Tuesday night, we have received five inches of rain. Our pond is filling very quickly. It rose more than four feet in two days! We have made lots of progress on the dock.  It has all of the railings on and deck boards screwed down. We are predicting that by the end of the week the pond will be full. Only eight more inches!

Our marsh is pouring into the pond like crazy!

Happy April!

Two cool chicks :)

Happy birthday, chicks! Today the chicks are one month old and they are already living in the coop. This past weekend, we worked to partition off part of the chicken coop. They were getting too crowded in the brooder.
Their new area is almost double the size!

Natalie and Izzy snuggle up

The decking is almost done!