Chicken Snow Angels

Well, we have had maybe 2 or 3 warm days (35 ish degrees outside) the last couple of weeks and I decided to let the chickens out of their coop for a little bit to get some fresh air while I was getting them some food and water one day.  I think they were so excited to be able to run free again that they didn't realize what the white stuff was.  So they flew out into the field and this is as far as they got.  They got out there and stayed put.  But I guess they wanted to make their own snow angels, too, so I let them sit there for a little bit.  Eventually, I had to go and pick them up and put them back into the coop.  Silly chickens!!

 hehe...

 silly..

 Here are the snow angels they left behind, along with a present or two.

They are so fun!  I wish it wasn't so darn cold outside, then they wouldn't have to be stayed cooped up all the time, it makes me feel bad! But I really don't want them to freeze!!!  Maybe I'm too protective of my babies.... (probably)

I have been trying some new recipes lately...these are some Sunflower Parmesan crackers!  My first attempt at making crackers, ever!

The recipe called for 1 cup of sunflower seeds, 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese and 1/4 cup of water. Grind the seeds and parmesan together til its like flower then add in the water until it makes a sort of dough.  Its pretty greasy (natural oils from the sunflowers I suppose).  Then flatten it between two sheets of parchment on a baking sheet, score them into squares or whatever but leave them where they are.  Bake for half an hour and then take out of the oven and break apart to cool.  They were okay.  If they would have been thinner they would have had more crunch to them, but they were alright.  They look a little bit like Golden Grahams, don't they?  Yum!  I wish they were Golden Grahams!! :)  I have a recipe for almond butter crackers that uses almond meal, I might have to try that one, they look really good!  Thank you, Pinterest!

I also tried this other recipe from Pinterest that I found, its for crepes.

Initially, I was pretty nervous to make crepes, but after the first couple I had the hang of it pretty well!  I still don't know what I'm going to use them for, but we have some now!  I tried some the other night with some blueberry cream cheese and strawberry jam.  I think it would have been better if it was plain cream cheese rather than blueberry, the flavors just seemed kinda weird.

Annd...last but not least, this is what was happening outside our house.  This is where the exhaust comes out from our furnace.

That's a pretty sweet icicle... (icicle? That looks like its spelled weird!)

Anyway, I better get ready to go, I'm meeting a guy to get an office chair off of craigslist.  I need a good office chair, don't I?  School starts on Tuesday!!!  I'm so excited!!!!  (kinda nervous too...) Anywho...

xoxo   c

Happy Hatch Day: 7-ish months!

First, the chickens just turned 7 months old!  I have some not very pretty pictures for you to see! Mostly because its been pretty cold for a little while now and -20° the last few days.  Holy Cow!!! I am not suited for this kind of cold!  But we are surviving, not to worry.  Today, however, it warmed up to 3° today! It kind of felt nice, which is funny because that's still really cold.  I was just happy that the air wasn't trying to eat my face.  And the fun part is, we had a pretty good ice storm a couple of weeks ago then it snowed quite a bit, so there was all sorts of snow hanging out on top of the ice, so when the snow melts (or blows back in the driveway because of the wind) you can see the awful layer of ice underneath it.  We also had a nice warm day one day when it got into the late 30s and everything started melting so there were puddles in the driveway.  Then, of course, it got really cold again so the puddles froze.  Now our driveway has a really nice giant layer of ice. I hope all that makes sense.  The good news though, this weekend its supposed to get up to 35° to 39°!  It'll be a heat wave, so nice!  And the following week so far should be in the late 20s.  Not too shabby.  

Well, 9 out of 9 eggs that I picked up yesterday from the chickens were frozen and cracked in half. Because I didn't want to eat them, I boiled them along with a bunch of yolks from last weekend. They got quite the pile of stuff today!  The two muffin things were an experiment that didn't work out.  But they eat them, so I'll feed it to them rather than throw it away.  :)

Here is the thermometer showing that it is 0° outside.  Holy Cow!  Just terrible, but it rose to 0, it was about -20 this morning...

When I went to see the chickens and give them the delicious pile of eggs I looked out into the field and saw some turkeys!  There were 6, you can't see them very clearly, but its pretty cool that they are in our backyard.

 ANNDD....Here are the chickens!  The first fresh air and daylight that they have seen in weeks.  Poor babies.

Here is after I gave them the eggs!  They were in love!

Here is Basil's and his comb...after the frostbite and the fights, here is what we have.  There aren't the traditional ripples since they disappeared, but it still looks pretty good.

Here is Parker and his comb.  Man, he's a good lookin' chicken...look at the blue in his feathers on his chest.  Gosh.  His comb is also smoothing out, but still has some remnants and seems dirty too.

Also, one of my red sex link hens is getting a black comb...Hopefully it heals or something...

My poor baby chickens...They will be super excited when it starts warming up!  I'm super excited to let them out again and not worry about their little faces freezing off!  

xoxo

c