Thanksgiving - Part 1

Our thanksgiving was filled with fun, friends, food and lots to be thankful for! Rather than type lots and lots of words, I'll let the pictures (okay, and the captions) do most of the talking.

We started with our friends, the Wilsons, in Maple Valley.

We took a walk down to the Cedar River with Aiden, Cael, Anne, Katie, Roger, Sante (the black lab) & Melvin.

The rain held off all morning and we had a great walk down a very steep hill...that we had to walk back up...to a pretty view of the river.

Wet dogs are happy dogs

Lots of little fishing houses along the river, this statue was at one of them. I'm not sure which saint it is. This was pretty high up on a large tree and you can see water stains on the wood.

Cool things to look at

crooked trees...cool

swing made out of a tire that looks like a horse...cool

very sweet little bird house...cool

Aiden was not impressed with my picture taking. If I remember correctly his words were, "Dop taten piturs!" Then I showed him this one, he laughed and we didn't discuss it again.

Okay, the "safety doggles" were my favorite. :)

Aiden found a treasure!

No, wait, two treasures!

Cutie-patootie Cael...on the swing made from a tire that looks like a horse...still cool and now super-cute.

Ever see a picture of yourself from behind? My reaction was a quick scream followed by "really?!" Yeah, so where's the turkey, gravy, potatoes...and don't forget the pie.

And truly the strangest sight...a giant Keebler elf peeking out of a tree stump. I'll end with this, because what could possibly follow it?

triple silken pumpkin pie

Last year, for Christmas, my sister-in-law gave me a beautiful dessert cookbook called Desserts by the Yard, by Sherry Yard, pastry chef at Spago. It is a gorgeous book that is actually entertaining to read, as it presents recipes from different times in Sherry's career. There are little opening paragraphs detailing how Sherry came to be at this or that restaurant as well as short descriptions before each recipe. This is the first recipe I've attempted and I think it was a success! The pie consists of a tender, flakey crust with pumpkin custard topped by maple whipped creme fraische topped by pumpkin caramel mousse. Not for the fat/calorie conscious. By the time I remembered that I intended to take pictures of the process, I was about half-way through, but here they are none-the-less.

You can see the custard under the whipped creme fraishe

Here is the sugar cooking down into caramel

Once the caramel was finished, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger and pumpkin were whisked in. Then whipped egg whites were folded in along with whipped cream.

Here is the finished product, still in the springform pan.

Mmm, it was yummy

hanging with hamsters

Since Wednesday was the day before a long-awaited 4-day weekend the big boss at work sent us all home at 3:00! Great news! But...E was bound to stay until 5:00. So, after walking to EE Robbins to have my rings cleaned and inspected, my coworker, NM, and I walked up to her apartment to hang out until E was ready to leave. NM has two hamsters, Sigmund, a dwarf, and Daisy, a Syrian.

Is there anything cuter than a dwarf hamster in a ladle?

I think Molly agrees, this is exactly where Sigmund belongs...if only this pesky glass weren't in the way

Cute, but deadly.

This is Daisy, likes: cheerios, veggies, filling her cheeks with food, and chasing the cats in her ball.

You can get a lot done in 4 hours

Since it's been so long between posts, I figured I owed my loyal readers (and by that I mean my mom...hi mom) an update and a goodly amount of pictures.

In the time since receiving our first few eggs, we have continued to get about 1 egg per day. Not exactly the egg-production that I was hoping for, but I don't think all of our chickens are pulling their weight yet. With this meager production schedule there has developed a little difference of opinion in our house. E believes that as soon as we have enough eggs to make a meal, we should enjoy said meal. I am more of the mind that we would be better served to store-up the eggs for a few days in order to develop a little inventory. Once we have a dozen, go ahead and eat a few, it means there'll be some for baking as well. We haven't been seeing eye-to-eye on this one.

In addition to the egg-eating/saving debate there was also disagreement (or discussion...tomato, tomahto) about running a light out to the coop. You see, chicken's systems are very in tune with their environment. When there is less light, it signals winter, thus the chickens go a bit dormant and egg-laying can drop significantly or even stop until the sun returns. You can, however, trick their bodies if you provide artificial light. I think it sounded like more work that E really wanted, so he was opposed to the idea.

It occured to me that our two disagreements were quite connected. You see, if E would compromise and run the light out to the coop, thus ensuring more eggs, I would compromise in my current hoarding of said eggs. So a deal was struck! For $14.00 we purchased an outlet timer with 2 on/off settings and a lightbulb socket with a plug. Now an energy-saving bulb is providing light to the chickens from 4:00 AM until 8:00 AM and again from 4:00 PM until 8:00 PM. We will, of course, adjust the timing once we start adding daylight back into the schedule...whenever that happens again.

We had beautiful weather this weekend and definitely took advantage by getting a lot done outside. We accomplished all of this between 1:00 PM and 5:00 PMIn addition to the coop-lighting we also primed the outside of the coop (and plan to paint it next week), did the monthly coop cleaning (this is more in depth than the weekly cleaning), put trim around the coop window, replaced the little barrier that keeps the shavings in the hen box, organized the shed and put all of the feed, shavings and scratch in bins, and raked up all of the leaves in the back yard. Oh, and E replaced a light fixture above our kitchen sink...but there are no photos of that. Below are some photos to document the work. Enjoy! :)

Phoebe systematically destroying my leaf piles

This really is what they do 95% of the time...scratch, peck, swallow, repeat until bedtime

I'm pretty sure these two are up to something

Nice pose from Chick (I think, could be Phoebe)

Lady Catherine's tail makes a nice contrasting backdrop for this picture of Chick

All of the ladies getting in on the leaf-scattering action

Mrs. Dashwood

Here's something you may not know, chickens LOVE to take dust baths. I understand some hamsters and chinchillas do as well. Anyway, I like to call this next series "Foul Spa."

Here are Phoebe and Lady Catherine, they roll around and flip the dirt up on their backs, very bizzare

Lady Catherine getting down and dirty

Both Phoebe and Lady Catherine spent considerable time "bathing"

The fact that Phoebe's head can be at that angle (look for the red crop under her body) is crazy, Lady Catherine and Mrs. Dashwood seem to agree as they look on

Here is a view with the egg door open, the lower opening is where we collect the eggs

Closeup of the nest box

Here's the view from the opposite side with the cleaning door open

Here is E putting some trim around the window. Such a good husband!

We primed the outside in preparation to paint it next weekend. This should help with the swelling that occurs during the wet weather

the end result of cleaning out the coop...future composted fertilizer :)

I can't help but think it looks like a nightclub...can't you hear the techno beat?

an inside view into the private nightclub

Egg, it's what's for dinner

This should have been posted on 11/02/08, just to set the record straight. :)

Since we were so excited to receive our very 2nd egg, we decided to cook it up right away. I fried it in a little EVOO and served it on a nice piece of crusty bread. Mmmm, it was worth the wait!

In the pan

Ready to eat

Eureka!

Why so long in between posts? Well, a large measure of busy, a few tablespoons of lazy and a sprinkling of depressingly little news. But...you won't believe this...I barely believe this...a chicken, one lovely chicken amongst 3 lazy others has laid her first egg! There was a black feather in the egg box, so I'm guessing that it was Mrs. Dashwood but we may never know for sure. Finally! Congratulations Mrs. Dashwood!

As you can see, it's an itty-bitty egg...but it's a start.

Unfortunately, I didn't heed the advice of many of the blogs that I read and therefore didn't staple something soft underneath the hay in the egg box. So, this first egg ended up as damaged goods and will not be consumed. :( Better luck next time.

So pretty.