Merge of the Blogs

In order to simplify my blog world (at least the ones I write, not necessarily the ones I read. . .) I decided to merge two of my blogs.

So, if you normally just read this one, surprise! There is now even more info on here mostly related to decorating, sewing, and general homemaking stuff.

If you normally read the other one and are now finding yourself lost in unfamiliar territory, no worries. There are now tabs found at the top of the blog that contain the blog posts that fall under each category. You can also use the search engine at the top right hand side of the blog.  All the posts from the old blog are still here, and there are new ones to explore, mainly ones related to gardening and homesteading.

One blog for all your home-creating needs!

Enjoy!  :)

A Phenomenon Called "Chicken Math"

Before I got my "Asiatic Ground Fowl", I had often heard of the term "chicken math". In case you are unaware of this phenomenon, I will present an example:

Susie goes to the store to buy 10 chickens. She comes home with 15. The next week she sees a breed she has been wanting to acquire for forever - she comes home with 5. Flock is now too big for her, so she sells 4 of them. But then she sees an ad on craigslist and can not resist and comes home with 8. Total = 24

Do you follow?

I thought this concept was utterly ridiculous until it happened to me. Let me explain. . .

So when we originally wanted to get chicks, I was going to drive up to Ideal Poultry (which is a major national hatchery that happens to be only a couple of hours away from where we live) and get 4 Silkies and 2 Easter Eggers (these are a type of mutt chicken that can lay blue, green, or even sometimes pink eggs and on top of this, they often times have a beard which puts it on the must have list for me.)

(Photo courtesy of backyardchickens.com)

(Example of their possible egg colors)

Anyways, I ended up deciding to get just Silkies from a local breeder instead of driving all the way over there. I planned to come home with no more than 6. I came home with 7. Then, last Friday I saw that a local feed store would be getting in a shipment of chicks that included my easter eggers (often incorrectly called Ameraucana), so I decided to reduce my Silkie flock and get 2 easter eggers. I sold 'Angry Bird' and two of the other Silkies and went to the feed store and got their last two easter eggers. So, to recap the chicken math: 7 - 3 + 2 = 6 which was the original number I wanted anyways - I just went a roundabout way of getting there. . .

So here are the new babies:

Baby #1: is a little darker in color than the other - it will be interesting to see what their feather color and pattern will be as they get older - with easter eggers, it's a surprise!

Baby #2: close up of the fuzzy beard

The two of them together and their slight difference in color:

Don't want to leave the silkies out! Here are pics from today of the ones I kept - two really seem unchanged, but the two biggest ones are entering the awkward teenage phase. . . you'll see what I mean. . .

The oldest ones are I think somewhere around 4 weeks old and their feathers are definitely coming in, while the other two may be closer to 3 weeks or runts. Only time will tell. All I know is no more chicken math. . .for now. . .

Guess What??

Chicken butt.

No, someone has not hijacked my blog - we actually got chickens. Really. They are upstairs in our spare bedroom.

We are going to try this. From this point forward, these are not chickens, but they are my exotic Asian ground fowl. That are my pets. That are normal household pets. . .

Township covenant states: "Only customary household pets are allowed on properties . . ." Whether chicken or Asian ground fowl, I think small pet birds are pretty customary, right? I mean, it's not like I have an emu out there or something. The only difference between these and a parrot is that these guys (I mean girls. . . please be girls. . .) make me breakfast. Although because they are Silkies, it is more of a when they feel like it sort of thing rather than an every day like clockwork sort of thing. Which makes them even more like a parrot. I rest my case.

So anyways, we adopted 7 Silkie chicks a week and a half ago. They were older chicks when I adopted them - somewhere between 2-3 weeks old. I've been going back and forth about whether or not we should keep them. I think I have finally decided to keep them and give it a try. I know that if I gave them away now, I would always wonder if it would have worked.

The major stress factor at the moment - we kind of haven't built the coop or run yet. But I think we're going to try to build it this weekend. But I guess that's what we said last weekend. . .

So here are the chicks, so far unnamed (with the exception of the tiny reddish brown one that I keep calling Rosita for some reason, and the yellowish one I have nicknamed 'Angry Bird') when I got them a week ago and now:

Chick #1: I love it's white eyebrows and chin. It's feathers are coming in all scraggly - I wonder if it has the frizzle gene.

 Chick #2: Has cute black markings on it's back and wings

 Chick #3: Will end up being partridge colored I am guessing??

Chick #4: I must admit this one is my favorite, though I am worried about it being a boy (all boys will be given away since we can't have crowing or other such nonsense in my suburban backyard). I love this one's coif - maybe part polish? (Did I mention these silkies are kind of mutts? :)

Chick #5: aka Rosita. I don't know why I started calling it Rosita - it is just so small and cute and gentle.

 Chick #6: In just one week this one has almost doubled in size and is sporting some very fancy foot feathers.

Chick #7: aka 'Angry Bird'. I mean, seriously - just look at it's face in the second picture. It is the most ornery bird and it absolutely hates me with a passion. When I am in the room with them, it is constantly eyeing me suspiciously as the others sleep. I kind of hope you are a rooster. :) This one has also doubled in size over the past week and is certainly at the top of the pecking order. I must say it is very protective of the other chicks (another reason I'm thinking roo?) We'll see. . .

That's all for now, but more will be coming soon as we build the coop and run (it's gonna have to happen soon at this point!)

Store Bought Corn vs. Home Grown Corn

I was interested to see if growing your own corn is actually worth it. They had corn for I think 8 for a dollar so I bought some. I was also able to harvest some of my own about the same time from my community garden plot.

Here's the two ears I harvested next to one store-bought:

Mine has a much prettier purple color to it :)  Now I imagine the store bought corn was grown in a massive corn field and sprayed with countless amounts of some sort of biological warfare. Mine was not. Soooo, I opened up the ears to reveal this:

Gross. And all the pre-munched mush/catepillar poop came crumbling out. But as you can see, they only got the very tip, so did I eat these? Yep. I just cut the tops off. (The rest of my corn from the second harvest was not so lucky - almost every ear of corn was a total loss.)

So here's the naked ears of corn next to each other:

Aside from the cut off tops, mine are a little smaller, but the kernels are a little bigger and a richer shade of yellow.

Now for the taste:

I had read that farmers will literally have a pot of water boiling and then will go out to the field and pick the corn and plop it in the pot. The reason is because as soon as an ear of corn is picked, the sugars start being converted into starches (for non-sciency people out there, this = not as sweet). Which now makes sense to me why these huge massive commercial growers are growing supersweet versions of corn - who know how long it takes for corn to get from the commercial enterprise to my grocery store, and then how long it sits there before ending up in my refrigerator, and then how long after that it sits in there until I feel like making corn. I bet if you ate this corn right from the field you would get a sugar high.

Anyways, I think my home-grown corn sat in the fridge for 2 or 3 days, but I figured that was still better than the possibly weeks (?) the store-bought corn had been sitting there, so I felt it was still a fair trial.

I tasted my corn first - it had a good, robust corn flavor. Then I took a bit of the store-bought corn. Eating that right after my home-grown corn made it taste like nothing! It was like drinking sugar water - I could tell it was sweet but it basically had no taste. Interestingly, as I continued to eat the store-bought corn, my tastebuds adapted and it just tasted like normal corn. But then I went back and took a bite of the home-grown one - it tasted like I had slathered it in butter or something - super flavorful!!! 

So the verdict: if you have the space, yes, grow your own corn because it tastes AMAZING compared to the crap sold in stores. Just watch out for the corn earworm guys!

Updated Harvest Totals and More Produce Pics!

So I said I would update this every week - I'm at about a week and a half so I'd say that's pretty good :)  My family is literally drowning in tomatoes. We are giving them to our family, our friends, our neighbors, and we still open the refrigerator and sigh! I don't know what I was expecting, but let's just say that raised beds and compost are awesome!

Before we get to the totals, there are a few pictures I would like to share:

Monster Cucumbers - I went to my community garden plot a few days ago, and hidden beneath the spiny vines were 7 ginormous cucumbers (I meant to go back and harvest them when they were smaller, but I forgot - whoops!). I have never seen cucumbers that big before in my life! We ate the first two mentioned in a previous post and they were quite tasty, but we haven't tried the big ones yet. I put a quarter in the picture for reference, but you can really tell how big they are in relation to my hand. And I have big hands.

And here's a few pictures of the produce I have been collecting over the past week and a half:

Here are the first Cherokee Purple heirloom tomatoes I collected. Not only are they very pretty, but they perform well in the taste category too!

Here's a picture of the stuff I just collected today (I have had multiple days of harvests like this - totally crazy!). This one is cool though because I was able to harvest at least one tomato from every variety I am growing.

 I also got my pumpkins (I harvested the smaller of the two yesterday and forgot to weigh it or take pictures of it before I cut it and scooped the seeds out.) You can see the claw marks from the suspected raccoon that tried to steal it when it was but a wee pumpkin. I won.

 I think. I picked up the pumpkin and a nasty grub had bored a whole through it. But the grub was still visible, so I don't think it got too far. So I fished it out and cut it in half with my scissors (which was gratifying, but it would have been more so if I got to feed it to chickens. . .one day. .  .) So anyways, I'll make like an old timey farmer, and cut out the bug part and eat the rest (I did that with my corn too - I guess beware eating at my house if that grosses you out :)

Ok, so let's get the produce totals so far!

Tomatoes:  total = 18.69 pounds!!!!!!!!!

Large Tomatoes:

- Beefmaster: 1.24 lbs (3 fruits)

- Better Boy: 2.75 lbs (6 fruits) 

- Celebrity: 2.47 lbs (5 fruits)

- Cherokee Purple: 3.35 lbs (7 fruits)

- Homestead 24: 1.61 lbs (4 fruits)

- Old German Heirloom: 2.49 lbs (13 fruits)

- Patio (in pot): 1.45 lbs (9 fruits)

- Sunny Boy: 2.54 lbs (6 fruits)

Small Tomatoes:

- Sweet 100 (in pot): 0.09 lbs (7 fruits)

- Yellow Pear: 0.70 lbs (40 fruits)

Peppers:

- Better Bell: 0.31 lbs

- Chocolate Bell: 0

- Golden California Wonder Bell: 0.25 lbs

- Jalapeno: 0.23 lbs

- Red Bell: 0.43 lbs

- Tabasco Hot: 0

Pumpkins:

- Pie: 2 (largest one at 3.24 lbs)

Tomatillos:

- Salsa Verde: 2.00 lbs (41 fruits)

Eggplants:

- Long Purple: 0

Cucumbers:

- Salad Slicer: 0

Summer Squash:

- Pic-n-Pic (in pots): 0