Lemony Seedling Salad

We planted some lettuce seeds last month and they are starting to grow! In order for them to grow their best, the seedlings need to be thinned out so there is about 4-6" in between each plant. We worked on the garden last night and figured it was a good time to thin them out.

They need to be pulled out by the root, not just cut off at the base because you are basically killing the plant so the others have more room to grow better and get bigger.

Took a lot of cutting and washing (they had a lot of dirt on them) but I finally got the seedlings ready for my salad (Jasper was determined to get a bite!).

Lemony Seedling Salad

Salad:
Cut seedlings
1/2 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
2-3 large mushrooms, sliced
Small handful walnuts, chopped
1 small scallion (white and green part)
1-2 tablespoons chia seeds*
*I like to add chia seeds to salads for an extra nutritional boost. Yes, it is the same chia seeds that you'll find growing on chia pets! 

Lemon vinaigrette:
Juice of 1/2 lemon freshly squeezed (or 1 whole lemon depending on juiciness)
Large pinch of salt & pepper
Olive oil whisked together with lemon juice and S&P to taste (I like my dressing pretty lemony, so I usually end up with about half lemon juice and half olive oil)

Place seedlings in large bowl and top with remaining ingredients. Pour dressing over salad and toss to coat.

The salad was yummy and it is always fulfilling to eat something that you grew from a seed! That is truly the only way to know exactly what is in your food. No pesticides here, baby!

~Tammy

David's Birthday Extravaganza

On Monday David turned 29! We both took off work so we could go to St. Louis for the day and spend some time together. You only turn 29 once, after all.

First up was his "surprise." I wanted to plan something that would be a surprise to him to create some birthday excitement, but he totally called it.

Yeah, we totally geeked out. David has been a life-long Star Trek fan so I knew this would be fun for him. I'm not as much of a fan as he is, but having been forced to sit through many episodes, I have developed an appreciation. :)

Of course no cameras are allowed inside the exhibit, so we had to pay out the wazoo for these shots taken while walking through. They are good souvenirs, though, so it was worth it.

Before entering the exhibit, we were offered a ride in the space shuttle simulation. David said sure, and the next thing I know I'm being strapped in and told that it goes upside down and there's a giant red button on the inside that I can push if it's too much. Oh boy. It was David's birthday, so if he wanted to go upside down we were going upside down. It didn't end up being quite as bad as I thought, but I still got a little queasy! Birthday spontaneity at its finest.

We also explored the rest of the Science Center and saw some really cool stuff in the gift shop. This section was calling my name.

This next one was the best by far. 

"Overflowing with information about pee, poo, and farts!" Amazingness.

After the science center we went to Chesterfield mall for some retail therapy. David had saved up his fun money for a while and wanted to buy some new clothes. He bought me some stuff too so I was happy. :) Then he dropped me off at the salon I used to go to in Chesterfield when we lived up here after college. It had been over a year and a half since my last hair cut and I was in dire need. My stylist up here was the only one who could ever cut my hair the way I liked it, so I wanted to go back to her. It turned out great!

If you know David, you know we had to hit up the casino on the way home. His new favorite is River City Casino. I lost $5 on the penny slots on a machine called "Milkin' It" with cows, chickens, and barns. It was perfect! David had a roller coaster of a ride with the Roulette wheel, but in the end came out $60 ahead!

Nicest bathroom ever.

Our good friends, Jamie and Holly, invited us to go to the Cards game with them on Wednesday night, so we said that was an extension of the birthday extravaganza. :)

We had great seats!

I am a huge fan of birthdays. My philosophy is that your birthday is your one day of the year that you can do whatever you want and everyone has to go along with it. It's the one day that can be shamelessly all about you. What could be better? :)

~Tammy

Feathered Friend Friday

I thought it would be fun to start a new series called "Feathered Friend Friday." The plan is that every Friday I will write a post with interesting facts, photos, or funny stories about chickens. I'm a bit obsessed with my girls, so this is a good way to share my love of all things chicken! If you need to catch up, you'll find all the Feathered Friend Friday posts here.

 The weather in Missouri is notorious for changing wildly from one day to the next. There's a saying that if you don't like the weather in Missouri, just stick around; it will change in 15 minutes. We had the warmest March on record this year, much of April was actually cooler than normal, and now May is hitting us hard already with heat. Today my car said it was 93 degrees outside!

One of the chickens' favorite ways to stay cool in the heat is to play in water puddles. I pull the hose out to their run and just let it go for ten minutes or so.

When they cool their feet in the water it helps bring their body temperature down slightly. Most of the time they stand in a big puddle and drink a lot of the cool water. They love to drink any water that isn't in their waterer! Crazy chickens.

Fortunately the chicken run is under a lot of trees and is very shady so that helps to keep it cool.

We don't have a pool, but if we did apparently that would be a good way for them to cool off!

via Our Country Chronicles

We also have some new feathered friends. I'm sure they won't be around for much longer, but we've enjoyed seeing the mother build the nest and sit on it til her eggs hatched.

~Tammy

Feathered Friend Friday

I thought it would be fun to start a new series called "Feathered Friend Friday." The plan is that every Friday I will write a post with interesting facts, photos, or funny stories about chickens. I'm a bit obsessed with my girls, so this is a good way to share my love of all things chicken!

My good friend Heather introduced me to PicMonkey since our beloved online photo editor, Picnik, closed down earlier this month. PicMonkey is very user-friendly and there are so many cool features! Much easier to use than Picnik, in my opinion. I decided to play around with my facebook profile picture.

This is my Delaware hen named Jobin ("joe-bin" not "job-in"). Never heard that name before? Then I'm guessing you've never seen the movie I Love You, Man. We watched it while we were in the middle of trying to name our first flock of eight baby chicks. In the movie, the main character is newly engaged and realizes he has no close guy friends to be in his wedding. His solution is to go on "man dates" to find a best man. Hilarity ensues. He's trying to act cool by throwing out random nicknames for one of his suitors, and one of the names he blurts out is Jobin. For some reason, that cracked David and me up, so we thought it would make a good name for one of our chicks! And it ended up being one of my all-time favorite movies, so the name stuck!

Of course, as with all my animals, I hardly ever call her by her actual name. Most of the time it's Jobs for short, or Jobina when I want to make it sound more feminine :)

Jobin lays the prettiest pinkish eggs. She will be three in August, and she still lays really well, usually about 5-6 eggs per week. I've read in the past that a hen's egg production declines sharply after she reaches 18 months of age (hens raised commercially for their eggs are typically slaughtered around that age and sold for their meat because farmers don't think they are worth keeping around for egg production). However, I have not found this to be the case as all my hens are still laying well, usually 4-5 eggs per week. It could be the fact that I allow them to take a break from laying while molting in the winter, whereas commercial farms use artificial light and other methods to keep their hens laying year round (check out this article about the "last battery hen" in the UK being sent to an animal rescue organization. So great!).

Jobin has such a fun, laid-back personality (yes, chickens do have individual personalities!) and is a great member of our flock. Our rooster, Cam, has taken quite a liking to her, and they often sleep cuddled up next to each other on their roost. It's one of the sweetest things I've ever seen!

~Tammy