Feathered Friend Friday

Welcome to our series "Feathered Friend Friday." Every Friday I write a post with interesting facts, photos, or funny stories about my chickens and guineas. If you need to catch up, you'll find all the Feathered Friend Friday posts here. 

Remember this post when I introduced the new chicks? Well, it appears that our Fiona is actually more of a Frank!

This is him with our Buff Orpingtons, Lucy and Ethel. They are roughly the same age, give or take a week or so, but his comb and wattles are more than twice the size of Lucy and Ethel's.

We started to get suspicious about a month ago when he was growing way faster than the other chicks and just sort of looking like a rooster in general. When he started crowing and getting on top of the other chicks, we knew for sure.

We didn't want another rooster since we already have Cam. But chick sexing is not always 100% accurate, so occasionally you can end up with a cockerel when you thought you were getting a pullet. We're trying to make it work, because I don't want to give him away to someone else (and eating him is NOT an option for me). He and Cam are getting along ok so far, but when he becomes more sexually mature he may get aggressive and cause problems. We're just sort of playing it by ear and hoping it all works out.

Since I'm about as creative as a five year old when thinking of animal names, I have dubbed him "Roosty Roo." I don't think David cares for it too much, though. We may change it eventually, but I think I'll always call him Roosty.

~Tammy

Cleo

The ritual of burying a beloved pet is becoming all too familiar.

The discovery, seeing her lying still and somewhat peaceful. The immediate concern whether it was quick or not; whether she felt pain. Kicking yourself for not being there in her final moments and hoping she wasn't scared at the end. Finally realizing what just happened and totally breaking down. Deciding where to bury her and pulling out the shovel and post-hole digger. Watching as your husband methodically digs a hole deep enough to contain her so the predators won't dig her up and eat her. That would be the ultimate punch in the gut. Saying final goodbyes, carefully placing her inside the hole and gently piling dirt on top. Searching the creek for the most perfect, beautiful rocks to place on top of her burial site. Coming back inside and figuring out where the heck to go from here.

My Cleo was an Easter Egger who laid the most beautiful mint green eggs. Everyone was in love with her eggs. She was what David likes to call my "lap chicken" because anytime I would sit down next to her she would always hop up in my lap. I'd often pat my legs and say, "Cleo!" and she would jump right up and cuddle. Always staying for as long as she could and only getting down if I was ready to get up. If I pet her just the right way, she would relax and lay down on my lap.

She was totally fine on Tuesday. I noticed something was wrong yesterday morning and brought her inside because she was so hot. I checked on her throughout the day and she was always sitting in the same spot. Towards the end of the day I was petting her and talking to her and she cocked her head to the side to look me straight in the eye as I told her I loved her. Some of my other chickens always look me right in the eye, but she never really did. Only in what would be her final moments did she look right at me and I got that feeling that made me fall in love with chickens in the first place. We were connected at that moment and I felt like she was looking right into my soul. That memory will haunt and comfort me for the rest of my life.

I am so happy to have known her, but I have such a heavy heart this morning. From experience I know it will get lighter with time, but then I'll also start to lose bits and pieces of her from my memory. Maybe that's how it is supposed to be so I don't feel so raw with pain forever. For now I'm just trying to take comfort in the fact that she had the best life a chicken could ever want and I feel that she really knew she was loved. What more could I ask for?

~Tammy

Butternut Squash Pasta With Fried Sage

We planted sage for the first time this year, and it is really starting to take off.

Don't mind the weeds; we are seriously growing more grass than anything else this year. Trial and error, right?

According to Wikipedia, Sage has been used since ancient times for warding off evil, treating snakebites, and increasing women's fertility. That may come in handy in the future, but right now I'm mainly interested in its culinary purposes!

I found this recipe for pasta pan-fried with butternut squash, fried sage, and pine nuts and decided to give it a try - slightly adapted for ingredients I had on hand so I didn't have to stop by the grocery store.

We're also growing orange mint and lemon balm in our herb garden, so I made an herbal sweet tea to serve with the pasta. I simply added a handful of each herb while the tea bags were steeping on the stove. Adding the herbs gives the tea a really nice citrus flavor.

And since David has an insatiable sweet tooth, I also made these for dessert. I had a big glass of my homemade iced coffee this morning so I've been quite productive today! :)

~Tammy

Frugal Fashion

Though this is decidedly not a fashion blog, I thought I'd share a recent frugal find that I'm thrilled about.

I went to a local school's rummage sale with my grandma and by the time we got there, they were just wanting to get rid of everything so they didn't have to deal with it. They gave us plastic grocery bags and said, "Anything you can fit in this bag is $1." Now I love a great deal, but my sweet grandma was in hog heaven! No one loves a great deal more than she does. For the next week or so every time I called her she'd say, "I still can't believe the deals we got at that rummage sale!"

This dress was one thing that I fit in my bag, along with about 8 or 9 other items. So I guess this dress really only cost me about one dime! I didn't try it on and when I got home noticed that it was a little bit big, but I just belted it at the waist and I'm really happy with how it looks.

My photographer was making me laugh ;)

Of course I had to grab my favorite accessory...

~Tammy