Three weeks on one post… sheesh! Things have been crazy for me the last three weeks. Rick has, of course, been hunting which has left me with my hands full with the boys and not a lot of time for sane blog writing. I’ve also been working on my childbirth educator’s certification, and am very close… this weekend is my workshop, and then I should hopefully be able to take my test and be certified. Trying not to stress about this, but I am getting down to the wire a bit.
Then, this morning I woke up to one dead chicken and one chicken missing. I thought Lavender, our grey chicken, had flown the coop… I saw what I thought was her jump over the back fence. When I went out to investigate, she was nowhere to be seen and still (as of 7:00pm) has not come home. Unfortunately, we don’t expect her back, as one of her Rhode Island Red comrades was lying dead (and partially dismembered) in the yard.
Josie was trying to help herself to chicken for breakfast, but we don’t think it was her that did the killing. There are fox tracks all over the place and I had only just let Josie (who has never tried to attack the chickens before) outside. I didn’t hear a ruckus of any kind, and she didn’t have any blood on her. But you’ll not catch her saying no to a free chicken either. 😦
We’re a bit bummed on that front, as it means we’re back down to only five. And oddly (or maybe not so oddly) I’m not too sad about the dead red-head, but I have a bit of heartache about Lavender… this is why you don’t name food. She was one of the originals, and though she was meanest and leanest, she laid a white egg everyday and was fun to watch.
So anyway, here’s the dirt on Independence Days. All in all, not the most successful three weeks since we’ve started this.
Plant Something – um, none.
Harvest Something– Rick successfully harvested a doe! Eggs from just the young chickens, as the older hens are molting and looking quite pitiful. A very large bunch of kale (and gave the Spicy Kale and Potato Soup a second – and much more successful- go ’round).
Preserve Something – venison and elk in the fridge, potatoes to the basement, carrots to the freezer.
Waste Not – I really think we had a big FAIL in this category. The upright freezer door got left open a crack and we lost a bunch of food in the door. The stuff in the body of the freezer stayed frozen, since it was full, but we had a mad rush to eat some pork chops and beef remnants. The rest had to be tossed. 😦
Want Not/Prep & Storage – nothing new
Build Community Food Systems – we were able to share a few veggies this past week, but I didn’t get to the last of the farmers markets to get those apples I wanted.
Eat the Food – mmm I.O.U. some recipes. Not in the mood to type recipes right now, but I will say that we’ve been eating venison, practically finished the pork completely, enjoyed some tomatoes and chiles for a pot of home made green chile, eating potatoes, and peaches. We did share a few of our preserves as well… mostly as gifts to my awesome bro-in-law, Dan. 🙂
The Lazy Homesteader 
Good job playing catch-up! I’m jealous of the doe – hubby won’t go hunting until the first of December. And I think I may have to try kale in my garden, everyone says it’s easy and pretty tasty!
Cute pictures!
thanks for the props! i’m SO sad about the chickens – bummer. you do have 5 still and that’s a good thing. HUGE thanks for the veggies rick dropped off. we made soup with the potatoes and leeks – homemade chicken soup. we ascertained that the soup only cost $2.50 to make and that’s with discounted chicken in it. we ate soup for at least 2-3 days – it was awesome so thank you guys!