Pretty Eggs

In between baking cookie sheets of our favorite cookie tonight, I was washing eggs. We had almost three dozen in the fridge and I was prepping them for Zachary to give to one of his co-workers tomorrow. He takes about 2 dozen off our hands each week. Thank goodness he loves fresh eggs! It helps us keep ahead of the eggs. As a nice return, he and his wife give us homemade pita bread. It makes a delicious food circle. :-)
I thought the eggs looked neat all laid out, drying on the towel. It really shows the variety in the shades of brown, speckling, and size.

The cookies turned out nicely. I made half with chips in them, and the other half chip-less, with a touch of kosher salt sprinkled on top. (Thanks for the salt tip Julie!) I don't know if Zachary and I are weirdos in the chocolate chip cookie eaters realm, but we don't like very many chips in cookies. That is why we do half with them in sparsely, and the other half without. Anyone else out there like us??

Holiday Games

We had a nice thanksgiving with the Sorenson side of the family on Thursday. All of us gathered at my parents house for food and fun. Besides our food contribution to the meal, we brought up 2 sets of Cornhole game boards we recently constructed. My parents wanted 2 sets of game boards for the winter in Florida to play with their friends on the beach. Cornhole is a bean bag toss game.
We made an USA vs. Canada set and a Wisconsin Badgers vs. Michigan Wolverines. The family played with the boards during Thanksgiving, and a competitive tournament developed. Our nephew Jordan was the champion for the afternoon, with Zachary as runner-up. I bet there will be a rematches to come. Zachary and I were discussing making a set for ourselves, perhaps Alliance vs. Horde, Axis vs. Allies, or something else nerdy I would imagine...
As I write this, the game boards are on their way to Florida for the winter with my parents. Lucky boards!

Dino Egg?

Earlier this week, we found a jumbo surprise in the egg box one morning. With our chickens relatively young layers still, their laying size isn't always consistent, but they usually are on the small size when they are odd. The egg next to jumbo is an average egg for us, about the large size in the grocery stores. Which ever hen laid it, deserves a medal for bravery and courage. Poor chicken...
It doesn't fit in the egg carton very well. After we are done marveling at it, we will crack it open and see if it is a double yolk or something else, like a dinosaur... :-)

i had it coming i guess

Me: "Queequeg, wake up and look at me, I want to take your picture."


(poke)

Me: "Queequeg, look at the camera."

(poke)
(poke)

Me: "Good Quee." Takes picture.

(approaches to pet her)

Me: "Ouch! You bit me!"

Fall Critters

Our four youngest hens, the 2 Barred Plymouth Rocks and the 2 Silver Laced Wyandottes, have started to lay eggs. Right now you can really tell the difference from the other 5 veterans, as the new eggs are quite a bit smaller and a pale tan. They grow up so quickly...
With the new laying activity, we added a second roost in the coop, to give more space and privacy to the hens. Before a few of them would roost in the nesting boxes at night and dirty them.
Chickens can be quite nosey, at least our flock is. As I was removing the old bedding in their coop and adding fresh straw, they promptly surrounded me and proceeded to scatter their new bedding all around their yard before I could get the new stuff in their coop. It was a neat pile until they showed up. Before they came to "help" me, they were helping Zachary in his wood shop, crawling all over his wood and playing in the sawdust. Some days, chicken tenders sound so good.

Zach from The Green Gardner recently asked us how we winter our chickens. Well we haven't yet. This winter will be our first winter with chickens. We haven't finalized any plans yet, but we are figuring on keeping them where they are. Their coop is currently not insulated, but we will be adding some insulation. From the reading we have done, the main thing is to make sure they have free flowing water at all times, and have their shelter at least warm enough so their feet and combs don't freeze. If it works out well, we plan to keep them free range through the winter months. We don't give them much feed at all, as they feed themselves free range, but as the snow comes, their diet will be mostly from chicken feed supplied by us. We may add a wind break around the coop and yard to cut down on drafts. We do have a plan B in case things aren't working out. We would create an area for them in the dairy barn, where calves are currently housed.
It been a while since the sheep made it to the blog, and with will all this talk about fiber lately, they need make an appearance.
The gang. Tippy the goat, Ricky, Sammy, and Fred. Tippy is a honorary sheep. :-) All very woolly already, just in time for winter.
Fred, ready for the snow.
Sammy. He is a Merino/Corriedale/Southdown cross. Sooo soft. He will be a year old this winter.

Spin In

I recently attended the Wisconsin Spin In in West Bend. I went with my Mom, Dad, and my good friend Kate. Sadly, Zachary had to work that day. As a newbie to all things fiber, I wanted to see all the neat things you can do with fiber. Get a little inspiration. Besides eyeing all the beautiful yarns, rovings, spinning, felting, etc, we took in the shearing demo. I don't know if we will ever try to shear our own sheep, but this guy made it look easy. But then again, he has like over 20 years of experience and can get a sheep sheared under 2 minutes. He was shearing Icelandics. That raw fleece was gorgeous. Our sheep, Fred, is half Icelandic and Shetland.
The attendants asked a lot of questions and I took a lot of notes. Besides the actual shearing, I learned how to care for your sheep to obtain the optimal fleece before it is shearing time. I noted a few tips that should make our next shearing higher quality. I do wish I didn't have Ricky and Fred's wool carded and blended together this summer, as their wool are really different from each other, besides being the same color. Ricky is a Border Leicester. Oh well, it will still be good to learn the art with.
Isn't this wall of sock yarn delightful?? This hand painted yarn is from Happy Hands Yarn. She has a talent for making wonderful colorways. Kate picked up some sock yarn, as she has quickly graduated from scarfs and hats and onto socks. I was very tempted to get a bunch of sock yarn and start sock knitting, but I decided against it and actually make a few simpler projects first before I jump into that realm. It might be better to start with a scarf or two, and then a hat and then maybe those delightful socks...

Bare

Yeah, we are still around, unlike most of the leaves around here. Hopefully November will be more fruitful for blogging. I love seeing my favorite blogs have new updates, so I better return the favor, right? We'll catch up soon. :-) I do have a blog post coming up about this past weekend at the Wisconsin Spin In, as soon as those pictures get downloaded. Stay tuned.