Mud kitchen

Spring melt means mud.  The kids can play in mud all day.  It means a lot of laundry.  But they're happy and getting along so I won't complain.  I saw an idea on Pinterest a few weeks ago and it inspired me to create a way to expand their play.  A brilliant, amazing idea with infinite play value!  And it costs us nothing thanks to the Reuse Centre.  Every trip to the Reuse Centre the children scour the shelves and boxes for kitchen things.  Pots, pans, spoons, plastic dishes, silverware, platters, cups, and strainers.  All free.  Along with a few pallets rescued from the trash at Canadian Tire, a sink and tap from the Reuse we created the Mud Kitchen.

It just needs a counter.  We're waiting until we find one at the Reuse Centre

Playing in the mud on the ground is fine

There's plenty of mud to go around

In between bike rides

Enter the brilliant, amazing idea!

Pudding

 

Baking cookies

Cooperation

Eating their creations in the Mud Dining Room

Cocktail for one

Best play idea ever!

New additions and a note about farm life

Recently, we realized that our flock will need to be replenished regularly without the need to purchase new hens.  Easiest way to do this is to hatch our own eggs.  Cheapest way to do this is to produce our own fertile eggs.  That means we need a rooster......or two.

Meet Fred and Dodger

Fluffy Friendly Fred is a Buff Orpington.  He's HUGE!  Dodger is an Americana

Fred is more than twice the size of our largest hen.  Most of it is fluff though

Dodger will produce Easter Egger Chicks that will lay blue, green, or pink eggs

Fred has feathers all the way down his legs making him an ideal cold weather chicken

Fred is a gentle giant.  He has easily integrated into the flock

Dodger is more authoritarian.  He has been trying to keep the girls in line, telling them what to do and where to go.  The ladies don't like his approach as much.  I'm hoping that he'll mellow out soon

Our hens are quite friendly.  So far the roos have been too

I did want to make note of an important event that came and went without much fanfare.  I butchered my first chicken.  Something I never expected to be able to do myself.  I guess I'm outgrowing the city girl in me.  Chris being a vegeterian meant that the task would fall to me.  Our hen Gandalf has not been laying eggs for quite some time now.  And being a producing flock, we can't justify feeding a non-productive bird.  Gandalf was acting off, not eating, becoming listless.  I figured out she was crop-bound (her food was stuck in her crop and she couldn't digest it).  It was the perfect opportunity to see if I could handle butchering myself.  Put Gandalf out of her misery and cull a non-laying bird.  Butchering is a skill we will need on the farm.  To euthanize sick or injured animals.  When we hatch eggs its likely half of them will be roos and we can't keep more than two with a small flock.  Some will need to be culled.  We can't keep running off to the neighbours every time we need to butcher a chicken.  I researched methods and settled on one I believed to be least traumatic.  And studied videos of plucking and gutting the bird.  I won't show pictures of the process.  Its not something that was emotionally easy for me, nor should it be.  Taking a life should always be handled with respect.  We give our flock a good life, and I hope to give them all a good death when the time comes.  As to what to do with the bird afterwards, right now Gandalf is in our freezer.  We still can't imagine eating her.  But I believe that eating the bird is a way for the chickens to give back to our family once more.  In a few months, when the emotion has had time to settle we will see how we feel.

Our Maple syrup adventure

The coming of spring brings us outside again after using the cold, snowy months planning out all the projects we could dream of.  Our first harvest of the season was maple sap.  A simple but time consuming process that yields a sweet reward.  Being our first maple season we didn't want to overwhelm ourselves by taking on a huge project.  We borrowed 4 buckets and spigots from a friend and tapped 4 maples near the house.  When we began, we agreed to be quite happy if this adventure gave us enough syrup for one special meal.  We had no idea what to expect.

We had marked our maple trees with yellow tape in the fall

We drilled holes

Hammered in the spigots.  They began dripping immediately

Those that couldn't help stood around looking cute

Hung the buckets

Drip, drip, drip

By the time we were done hanging all 4 buckets, the first bucket looked like this

One day later, we had enough sap to start boiling. We started by straining it through a coffee filter

Then put the pot on the fire to boil for several hours

You'd think the chickens would see the big boiling pot as a threat!

Once the sap has started to change colour, we brought it inside for a final boil over the stove

When it reached 104 degrees it was ready to strain again

It takes 40 litres of sap to make one litre of syrup.  We ended up with almost 4 litres of syrup by the time the week was over.  The lighter syrup was from the first batch we made.  The later season syrup is darker.  It is delicious!

Another old friend leaves us

I brought Sebastian (Bubba) home as a very young kitten when I was 18.  I was still living at home with my parents.  He was very ill.  He had a huge hernia that required 3 surgeries to repair it.  He had a heart murmur that made anesthetic difficult.  But he was a fighter, and his personality broke through and he quickly became my best friend.  He was the best cat.  He was friendly, tolerant and affectionate.  He befriended my parents' dog Willie, and then Chris's dog Tai.  After we moved in with Chris he would cuddle with Tai for hours, grooming him.  In between his toes, inside his ears, under his lips. 

When we had children we found out how truly amazing our Bubba was.  He became protective of the babies, and more tolerant than I could hope for.  He would let any baby do anything to him without fear of repercussion.  Babies could tug his ears and tail, poke his eyes, sit on him, all while he purred and rubbed against them for more attention.  As the children grew older he started setting limits with a nip or swat of his paw, never using claws or drawing blood.  And yet when a new baby was born, he became tolerant of their rough play once again. 

Zander and Phoenix playing dress-up with Bubba

I guess Bubba was cold and needed some blankets and diapers to keep warm

Fat Bubba keeping baby Finnlee company

What a tolerant boy!

The kids were always dressing him up in doll clothes

Here Bubba, have an apple

Baby Solstice giving bubba a hug

At 17 years old I guess Sebastian just couldn't hold on without his long time friend Zeppelin.  After she died he spent several weeks roaming the house calling out for her. He started showing signs of his age.  He was walking more slowly, sleeping more, eating less.  We witnessed him having a few small seizures, and signs that he had had more.  I also believe he had a stroke.  Several days ago, he stopped eating all together.  His left front leg was dragging behind him, useless.  I knew he would leave us soon.  We made him as comfortable as we could.  He slept on my bed with the electric blanket turned on to warm him.  We brought him water and gave him lots of cuddles and love.  He hung on for days, weak but responsive.  He would lift his head and rub against my hand long after he lost the strength to raise his body to walk.  His rumbling purr the response whenever we touched him.   On Easter Sunday we left him on the warm bed to go for a walk.  When we came home, he was gone.  I wasn't holding him, I wasn't whispering my love to him, but I believe he knew how very much he was loved.  His presence will be missed here for a long, long time.

Young Zander with his best buddy

Zander reading to Sebastian in a laundry basket

Bubba keeping a sick Zander company

Best friends

He loved sitting in boxes

Baskets

And bags

It there was a box, he would find it

We will bury Sebastian next to Zeppelin in our expanding pet cemetery.  He will be remembered most for his very loud demanding meow, his rumbling purr, his soft smooth fur, and his sweet nature.  Goodbye my dear friend.