I bought a new camera two weeks ago. I have lusted over the Canon 5D Mark III for quite some time and finally decided to buy one. I am still getting used to it, but having a lot of fun. This week Michael even laid on the grass to get down to ...
What lunar eclipse?
Did you hear anything about a lunar eclipse? I did, and in preparation I set up my time-lapse camera to capture the entire thing while I slept. Michael and I watched the first phase, he took some still shots, then we headed off for bed at about this ...
Farm Focus Friday 4-11-2014
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Moving Day
The chicks are five days old, so it was time to move them from the little brooder in the basement to the big brooder in the Little Yellow House. The former occupants have long been gone and the brooder cleaned and ready to go. The little ones, five ...
Farm Focus Friday
This week's purchase of a new camera, a Canon 5D Mark III, has reignited my love of photography. My plan was to use it for food shots exclusively, but a trip out into the pasture changed all that. I am still getting used to it and probably don't have ...
April Fool’s Hatch
Spring has sprung. Dandelions are in bloom. Poppies are blooming. Lilacs are in bloom. There are buds on the roses. The rosemary bushes are humming with honey bees. The weeds are growing like weeds. And, ...
National Poultry Day!
Today, March 19th, is National Poultry Day. I have found very little information on how it came to be, but most people celebrate by eating a chicken dinner. We do it a little differently here at the Egg Farm. We celebrated by serving our chickens ...
Big Chicken Shake-Up amidst Septic Mayhem
How's that for a title? :-) In a decision that took months, we finally decided to abandon two of our breeding projects. We have re-homed our Isbar and Cream Legbar roosters and most of the pullets to a friend. We kept a few girls for our layer ...
Pantry Reorganization
Lately I have seen a lot of bloggers posting about re-organizing their pantries. I don't have a pantry per se, but I did convert a couple of large cabinets on the service porch into pantries. They have gotten so disheveled I couldn't find anything in ...
Salted Caramel Brownies – Ina Fridays
It's Ina Friday where a group of Ina Garten enthusiasts each select, prepare, and photograph a recipe. The theme this month is desserts so there was a lot to choose from. For me it came down to what I had on hand because I trip to the store wasn't ...
THE vest
Late yesterday afternoon Michael and I were tending to the animal chores. Tucker got busy sniffing out and digging for gophers. At one point, he was head first, up to his elbows in a big hole that he had dug. I was horrified to look, fearing he might ...
What to do, what to do?
In the last week, our emu Loca has laid two more eggs, bringing our total to four. Here they are with a chicken eggs for size comparison. She has chosen the area between the goat dogloos as her nest and that puts the eggs in ...
Mafioso Tacchino
The Egg Farm and neighboring properties have been taken over by a gang of thugs. They have no respect, rampaging through the neighborhood at all hours of the day and night, using our grass as their personal Men's Room. These guys are brash, flashy, ...
My Super Bowl Challenge
Tomorrow is Super Bowl Sunday. As always we are hosting a party for three; me, Michael and our dog Tucker. This is a real crowd compared to the parties we had before adopting Tucker. Apparently we have no friends. It must be Michael's fault. I ...
First Poultry Show
Yesterday my friend Kelly and I went to the 67th annual Pacific Poultry Breeders Show in Stockton, California. I had never been to a poultry show before and I was not prepared. The noise, oh the noise. Immediately upon entering the Main building, we ...
Rainy Day Blues
If you haven't heard, California is in a drought and we have not had rain in 50 days, making this the driest year in recorded history. I realize this is not of much concern to those of you struggling with blizzards, flooding and the polar vortex ...
Shredded Beef Tacos and Tomatillo Salsa
Michael likes shredded beef tacos while I prefer ground beef tacos. Michael prefers mild while I prefer spicy. Yesterday we met in the middle with spicy shredded beef tacos with homemade tomatillo salsa. I used a small cross rib roast, slow cooked in ...
Monkey Vest Mayhem
Tucker has a neurotic attachment to his dog halter. It is orange and green with little monkey faces on it. He became attached to the halter in the pet store when I brought him in to try it on. He was so attached that, when I tried to take it off, he ...
The name change has already paid off!
We have been on a three-year plan to hatch emus. During the first year, we raised our two boy emus before finally getting two females. The girls turned two on New Year's Eve. Emus mature for mating between 18 months and three years of age. We hoped ...
The stuff of nightmares. . .
This afternoon I went out to the yard to collect eggs from the chicken coops. There were two new mounds of dirt made by gophers. One was drying already but the second was moist. As Tucker and I walked by, this stuck its head ...