Overworked and underskated

Lately it feels like all I do is work. We’ve had a bit of a break from rollerderby (not by choice!) due to scheduling conflicts with our spaces etc….and it’s killing me! I feel like I am in withdrawal from skating since it’s been a week now. I must wait until Thursday….a lifetime away.

Yesterday (while I was at work of course) John checked out a local farm trader bazaar type thingy. Basically a bunch of local farmers brought their new livestock and sold them to other farmer people. John brought me home a present…..

well four presents…..

 So now we have four babies and 12 hens. Our egg production is surprisingly decent considering our hens were free castaways. We average about 5 eggs per day – which is plenty for us and we can sell a dozen or so to friends every week.

The new baby chicks are a bit of a test run to see how demanding chicks are since we have 30 coming at the end of May. So far (and it’s only been 24 hours) they remain adorable and cheepy.

 Yay for baby chicks and lots of eggs!

The ladies are settling in

The hens are settling nicely – in two days we have gotten about 8 eggs (two broke – bummer!). We were pleasantly surprised they layed eggs since we expected a transition period due to the “traumatic move” we put them through and adjusting to their new home. We were wrong – they seem fine and this morning John and I enjoyed two eggs each with toast!

Success 🙂

Chicken Day

So my lazy, windy day went out the window soon after I hit “publish” on my earlier post. I was skyping with my sister and perusing Craigslist when I stumbled across an ad for a dozen or so free hens. I looked at the posting and it went up about 15 minutes before I read it, so I sent off a quick email.

Within an hour I was on my way to a nearby farm to load up 14 hens into the back of my pathfinder. A hilarious sight to see indeed. But the short story is, is that WE HAVE CHICKENS! And they were free! So far they seem quite content and curious with their new home and have successfully scratched at and plucked out the weeds in their coop.
So I’ve got 14 ISA Browns that I am hoping will lay some eggs once they settle in to their new digs.

Exciting stuff!

-SM

Chicken Business #2

As promised, the in progress pics:

It doesn’t look like much, but notice that lack of significant holes aka “ankle breakers” in the ground. All tilled up!

This is the inside where the roosts are. This will likely be the last time it’ll be this clean for a while…..

This is the “people” side of the coop – where lighting is dealt with, food, equipment and rat poison for now.

I’m kind of fixated on chickens right now, my apologies if I am boring you to death. But I can’t wait!

-SM

Chicken Business

I had two whole days off from work and roller derby this week. The sun was out (albeit very chilly out) so we began working out in the chicken coop. I will provide some “before shots” this post and some “after shots” in the near future.

This is the outside of the coop/chicken house: this week we worked on monitoring the presence of rats – gross. We need to get ventilator masks for when we actually have chickens in there due to the strong odours. I’m tossing around the idea of making a neat sign with a name for the house…..

One side of the run – very rugged and lots of pot holes, bones, and random eggs!

I’ve contacted a few local breeders for some chickens – the goal is by April to have them up and running. Can’t wait!

We also tackled some other outdoor chores this week including: cleaning out and around the pond that we have ( I am tossing around the idea of keeping some ducks and making a duck house – fun), and assessed our garden for what we will plant since we kinda need to get rolling on that.

I will throw some updated pics up soon!

-SM

There is light…..I can see it

It’s been a drabby and long, wet, winter. Today the sun has graced us with its presence here in small town. I celebrated by sleeping in (gross – but I worked a 19 hour shift the day before) and took the pups to the dog park. I walked by my chicken coop that I am itching to fill with life (as in chickens) and took mental note of the work I will do on it this Monday.

Chickens are on order for April – can’t wait! But in the meantime I will be occupying myself with getting the garden going and learning more about that. In addition to keeping up with my goals.

The light I am referring to is not only the sunshine: I am talking about breaking through the long and arduous wall that has been keeping me from getting financially stable since this move in November. Moving is hard and a huge financial burden, let alone moving to an island and establishing a job and working all that out. I am days away from being able to let out a huge sigh of relief and hopefully sleep restfully (after celebrating). The thing about money and the stress that accompanies it, is that it is hard to get it out of your mind, especially if you are falling behind. It can be terrifying: how will I make it until ____ date? how will I pay off ____ bill? what about gas for my car? There is always something that comes up it seems.

When we moved, I was in school full-time (correspondence) and had a loan, a small savings and the attitude that I can get a job anywhere. Which is true (to an extent) but what I did not take into account is the possibility that it could take a while to get going. I am grateful and realize how lucky I am, but MAN it’s been a hard few months. So my strategy to get through this all was to keep the best attitude about it as I could. Inevitably it got to me and there were times where I would stress and stress until I made myself sick. What a mess.

But I did keep telling myself that “it has to get better, and it will.”

It did. And I am quite certain it will continue to get better. So the sunshine today has really assisted in not only boosting my vitamin D intake, but also my proverbial spirits. The sun is shining and the weather is sweet my friends. Take some time to appreciate what you have, what you’ve worked for and share it with someone special.

Much love,

-SM

Dinner update

We started with some steamed artichokes with homemade lemon and garlic aioli. An experiment of sorts, having never cooked artichokes in my life. They were good, but labour-intensive to eat. Aioli was delish and will keep vampires at bay for at least a week.

 

 

 

The roasted chicken turned out pretty damn good. My mom gave me a nifty chicken roasting pan for Christmas last year that works like a charm. It has a cylindrical tube that you place the chicken on top of so that the bird steams from the inside – kind of like a beer can chicken only safer. Keeps your birdie moist and juicy inside and nice and crisp on the outside…yum.

Used a whack of the peppers from today and used up some potatoes from our last market expedition. All in all, we are satisfied customers currently undergoing the meat and hearty food coma. mmmmmm…..meatsweats!

It was pretty damn good!