Feathered Friend Friday

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

Remember this post where we introduced the newly hatched baby guineas? They are now seven weeks old and getting bigger every day!

We left them enclosed in this brooder for the first six weeks, then let them out to explore the bigger enclosed area. We will keep them in here until they are fully grown then let them have access to an enclosed outdoor run. Then, when they reach six months of age, we will set them free (like we did with our first batch of guineas).

Keeping them confined for the first six months helps them to realize this is their home base so they will return each night. Our other guineas did really well with this method so hopefully their babies will follow suit.

They are starting to find their voices and get loud! Of course it will only get worse as time goes on, but we're hoping they won't be as loud as the others were in the beginning. Only time will tell!

~Tammy

Anything Goes Pasta

Sometimes I plan out recipes for every day of the week and have all my ingredients ready to go before I cook each meal. Lately, however, I have not been in the mood to plan meals or even cook. I usually get in a weird funk at the end of each season, ready for the next to start. I am eagerly anticipating cooler temperatures while summer is hanging on for dear life.

The other night I needed a quick meal and only had some odds and ends on hand in the way of ingredients. I just sort of threw everything together and it actually turned out pretty well - light and bright with the fresh tastes of summer. It's a very adaptable dish and thought I'd share what worked for me.

Anything Goes Pasta
Serves 4-6

Ingredients:
1/2 box or more pasta of your choice (I had some mini bowties in the pantry so that's what I used)
2 cups tomatoes (I roasted mine at 425 for 15 minutes and topped with basil before adding to pasta)
1/4 cup peas
Big handful of spinach leaves, torn into small pieces
1 T chia seeds (optional, but I love to add them to everything to get my omega 3's)
Sauce:
2-3 T butter or margarine
1T olive oil
1 lemon, zested
1/2 lemon, juiced

Directions:
1) Cook pasta according to package instructions. Roast your tomatoes at this time if you choose to do so.
2) While pasta is cooking, make the sauce by first melting the butter in a saucepan over low heat. Add the olive oil, lemon zest (you can just zest the lemon right into the pan), and lemon juice and keep sauce warm while pasta finishes up.
3) Drain pasta and add the spinach immediately so the warm pasta will start to wilt the spinach. Add the tomatoes, peas, and chia seeds. Pour the sauce over the pasta and stir to coat and combine all ingredients. Add salt and pepper to taste.

This is just a quick version I came up with, but really anything goes. If you don't like peas, leave them out or add in another bean (next time I'll try cannellini beans - I think they'd go really well with the bright lemony flavors). If you want some crunch, toasted walnuts would be a great addition. If you don't have pasta on hand, I think rice would be a good alternative.

Experiment and have fun!

~Tammy

Tomato Hornworms

Over the long holiday weekend after the rain died down, David and I found time to work on our much neglected garden. We let the weeds run rampant and they had completely taken over. We ended up getting rid of the plants that weren't producing (green bell peppers) and transplanting herbs (sage, lemon balm) to different locations. Basically we only left the tomato plants that were still viable and producing and mowed over everything else. Like we've said before, we knew this first year would be a lot of trial and error and we are already planning next year's garden layout implementing changes as a result of what we've learned this year in our mistakes.

David started working while I was finishing up some things inside, and he came back inside after a few minutes saying, "Grab the camera. There are HUGE green caterpillars on the tomato plants." I said, "Will I be creeped out?" and he replied, "Yeah, most likely."

Ok, sufficiently creeped out! Am I the only one who sees all the "eyes" staring at me? Honestly I didn't even know if I could write this post because my skin crawls every time I look at these photos.

It's so funny, because my friend Sonja over at Lally Broch Farm wrote about these mysterious critters in this post just a few days ago! (PS - Sonja is giving away a few more samples of her handmade eucalyptus-scented goats milk soap. Go here to have a sample delivered to you. I can't wait to get mine!)

I did some research on these caterpillars and found that they are known as tomato hornworms due to the red horn on their tail end.

These worms eat the tomatoes and the plant itself, leaving the plant looking like the branches were cut off with scissors (maybe what I previously thought was deer damage was actually hornworms?). Apparently the best way to prevent them from snacking on your plants is to keep the weeds from growing around your tomatoes. Oops. The weeds act as a breeding ground for these little buggers. Also keeping a close eye on your plants so you notice any worms early on will keep them from decimating your harvest.

The caterpillars eventually morph into the five-spotted hawk moth (photo here) but David didn't let ours get that far. Let's just say the chickens had some special treats over the weekend.

~Tammy

After The Rain

Over the weekend we received the aftermath of Isaac in the form of heavy downpours. We really needed the rain around here so I'm not complaining, but it forced us to be inside a good part of the weekend when we desperately needed to get some work done in the garden.

After the rain died down a bit on Saturday just before nightfall, I noticed the creeks were full of rushing water so I did what any normal person would do - pulled on my rainboots and splashed around.

Of course I had my sidekick with me.

There's something so fun about splashing down the creek. Just forgetting everything else and letting my inner kid come out and explore. No agenda, no time constraints (except for the decreasing daylight), just allowing myself stay a little while and enjoy nature.

 
Our creek only fills up when there is heavy rain, so it is always a nice reward after being stuck inside all day to go out and play in the water. I am thankful for the rain and the boost it will give our garden. I love not watering for a couple days and still reaping a nice harvest!

~Tammy

Shared with Watery Wednesday