Chicken Treats

Today's photo of the day is brought to you by... delicious chicken treats from the garden.

That was quite the worm!!

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

Yeah Right!!! 

Using my fingers like a curry comb and going in circular motions both makes pony very happy and helps to remove the hair. Thankfully I've got hubs no-wash pumice soap to get the grime back off afterwards. 

Geeze Meg! I could make another horse off what you shed!

 And that's not even a quarter of the hair either. 

Mad's a woolly bear too, not nearly as bad though! 

KSCC Little Butter Keeper

I don't know why I do it. After cooking bacon I just have that compulsion to pour all that deliciously disgusting fat into a little tin or jar and store it away in my fridge. Usually until it gets full then I clean it out and start it all over again. I never actually use the fat! Gross!!

It does make good bird-feeder suet with some seeds in it over the winter. I have also heard it makes amazing pork chops, but me, & my heart, are far too worried to try. So I keep squirreling the stuff away.

The point of my story here, is that I had a mason jar of the stuff sitting on my stove, when I noticed it had cracked evenly all around the middle. Divided completely in half! So my little squirrel instincts kicked in again, and I thought to myself, I'm not throwing this out! What can I do with it?

I removed the offending bacon fat, and washed the jar. Then sanded down the sides.
And now... I have a perfectly lovely keeper of a fat I really love!

You can slice a mason jar using wine-bottle cutting techniques (I believe this just involves a strong wire and some time) if you want to make one. I think it's quite cute!

Meat in the Compost

Wood chips are a good balancer for the compost

This is a question that is frequently asked by new gardeners, What can and Can't I put in the Composter?

The standard answer is that any fruit and veg matter, nothings cooked, no meats, no dairy. Now, there are reasons for this, and it has nothing to do with the fact that meats and dairy will break down and add just as much nutrients to your soil. It has everything to do with rats.

If you live in the city, or even a semi-urban area attracting rodents to your compost is going to cause serious issues with your neighbours. It's not just rats, but skunks, raccoons, even foxes depending on where you live.

I have continued this thinking into my country compost and this morning after reflecting on another one of the red-stars I buried yesterday (dropped dead over night), well that's meat, all I do is bury it in the compost.

And the same thing is true of a city compost. Dairy and meats breaking down do make the compost a bit smelly, but if you can get it far enough away from anyone, or balance it properly so you're not adding tons of that in there, there is no reason you can't put it in your home compost. If possible the best option is to be burying it in the middle of your compost while you add it.

I have the benefit of having lots of stinky half decomposed hay and shavings and lots of manure to cover up my little fox treasures, but I have found I only need to get down about a foot or two into the compost to keep any scavengers away.

Of course, my favourite solution, to what to do with table scraps, is just to get some adorable pot belly pigs!

Finally a real barn

Because no barn is a barn without a barn cat!

This is Rufus. We got him from our new friends at the dairy barn down the block, they think he was dumped around their farm about a month ago and just recently decided to come in from the cold. They knew we were looking for a barn cat and since they've already got lots, hubs got the call yesterday.

We think he's under a year old as he's still quite small, he's awfully friendly and sweet though. I think we're going to get along just fine! Especially if he rids my tack room of mice!

He's in the dog crate until he settles in a little bit, then we'll keep him locked up in the tack room for 2 weeks so that he knows where his home is. If we let him out right now he'd probably run straight back to the dairy farm!

We also want to keep him away from the chickens until he learns to be scared of them. That's the other reason he's in the dog crate, I've locked the goats up and left the feedroom door open, then left out some feed for the turkeys so they can be the first birds Rufus meets here.

We're really happy to finally have a barn cat but not if he goes and eats all my chickens!

And that's pretty much it for farm animals too. Until some are born, we're pretty full up and not really looking for anything else to add. Except maybe a peacock & hen, oh and I still want a llama, and we were talking about a mini donkey... 

Dust, Dust, Everywhere

Yesterday's rain delayed post is brought to you by my house being ripped asunder...

Our plumber quit? / stopped returning phones call from his friend and left all his tools here.
Then our contract quit too. Nice guys!

So my poor husband has to do all the reno between working, but thankfully he's got one good real friend to give him a hand!

Can't wait to get this reno over-with! It's been 4 months since we found the mold and stopped using the bathroom; we're hoping to have this finished within another month.

If you're interested in the renovations here are my pinterest boards: http://pinterest.com/bbb_nes/