Chicken Update wine and chores dont always mix.

Friends stopped by yesterday and we started talking about the chickens and I was explaining how once I introduced the new chicks to the big hen she would probably torment them a little bit to establish the pecking order etc but since she was outnumber six to one I thought not any one chicken would suffer too much. One friend said oh is that where that phrase comes from and i said yep just like hen pecked and he started to laugh and commented that he knew all about that. Ha marriage is funny.  Interesting where phrases come from though just think "fed up" "under my thumb" and "wrapped around your little finger" all come from falconry.  Fed up is when a bird as fed and is mellow under my thumb is when you secure the jesses around your thumb and wrapped around your little finger is when you take the jesses and well you get it....cool stuff right? Well maybe not maybe you fell back asleep.

Anyway the chickens spent the day in an old dog cage next to the hens run. And later in the day the hen seemed to forget about them so when we got home right around nightfall from watching the triple crown with my parents and going out to dinner I decided hey the big hen is probably almost asleep this could be the perfect time to put the juvies in the coop. Okay now you should not attempt farm chores of this kind after a couple of glasses of wine.

First with Tommys help with tried to put the dog crate on top of the run but then we were smooshing their feet so take two i just opened the door and grabbed (gently) each bird and tossed her (again gently) into the coop. I told Tommy to go inside as I figured I had it all in hand (another hawking reference maybe hmmmm) it wasn't until then that I noticed that one chicken had gotten through the cracks when we picked up the dog crate off the run and was now sitting on top of the run slightly confused. And of course as I tried to grab her and get her into the coop i dropped her and she ran into the very very dense weeds near the garage. By this time the sun had set and as I tried to look for her I knew I was never going to catch her in the dark and she wasn't obliging me my peeping so i could freaking locate her. So I settled everyone else in for the night figuring Ella would be fine luckily we do not have alot of nighttime predators here the biggest predator they face is Lulu the pitbull mix.

So at six a.m. this morning (I am not an early riser on the weekend) I woke up with a start remembering the chicken and at the same time for some reason trying to remember the judd lady who is an actress...just came to me ashley.  So i ran outside in my nightgown with no shoes on forgetting how chilly it was going to get last night and low and behold the 5 chickens where in the run and Emma the escapee was next to them just separated by the fencing. So deep breath still have six new chickens I didn't kill anything yet.

Now the next task is trying to capture the little devil...At this point my feet where blue so i dashed back in for shoes and finally after looking like an idiot running in circles around the coop trying to catch a chicken she got distracted by the evil attentions of Mrs. Fluffybottom and I managed to grab her. So now all six juvenile birds are in the run cowering from the older hen. But like i had hope she is outnumbered and doesn't manage to actually peck any of them they just run and as time goes by today she seems to be losing interest.

Update: just went outside and checked on everyone good news the hen is chilling out taking a dust bath and the juvies are eating and drinking and seem happy OMG did something i tried actually work?

Enough adventure for the day time to start painting this house....Cheers.

Getting the juvie chickens out of the house FINALLY!!

Mrs Fluffybottom

Finally it is nice enough out to start getting the new chickens acclimated to the one older hen I have left Mrs. Fluffybottom. I meant to do it earlier this week but the weather was kind of cold and I figured a few more days of hanging out in the laundry room wouldnt kill them. Athough I am certainly ready to NOT have chickens in my house. My house is odiferous enough thank you with two dogs and four cats, six chickens added a certain je ne sais quoi to the mix which i really do not need. So today is breezy but gorgeous and Tommy helped me carry out the dog crate full of chickens outside we placed it next to the run so they could see eachother and hopefully get used to eachother before I put them into the coop. The seem pretty happy so far and I think the peeking with be lessened since the older hen is certainly out numbered. I stopped naming my chickens awhile back but when I told the girl at the feed store she seemed so disapointed in me I figured I would though caution to the wind and name them all. And in the spirit of George Foreman I decided to use names that all begin with "E".  So the two buffs are eliza jane and eliose...the two araucanas are esther (after my grandmother) and Euphemia (where did that one come from funny first name that popped into my head) the two plymouth rocks are emma and ella.  See how much restraint I showed not one of them is named after myself Elizabeth.  Proud of me right?

This one is Esther named for my rockstar 97 year young grandmother

What to do with almost a pound of ground beef and not much else? Jamaican Beef Patties!

Okay I had a day off from work today and stopped by the local market to get something for lunch and on a hunch a picked up some nice looking ground beef for dinner figured worst case scenario I would make tacos or burgers. But then the wheels starting turning and I have been really trying to cook creatively lately digging a little deeper than what first pops in my head. And for some reason today while I was updating my resume making Jamaican Beef Patties for dinner popped in my head. Now I dont know if my husband Tommy will be on board or not but that doesnt really bother me too much (good thing I dont have kids) in my house get on the bus for dinner or make yourself a freaking hot dog. I found my go to recipe for this (Jeff Smith - The Frugal Gourment On Our Immigrant Ancestors 1990) (shit am I really that old?) now i happen to be without the scallion and onion called for in the recipe but they should be still good I will amp up the garlic a bit! If you use the recipe below and happen to have a onion and some scallions go with one medium onion small dice and 2 scallions finely diced and again if you have it toss in a half a jalepeno diced fine into the ground beef mixture). Its rainy cold and coldy here today so this dinner should get the blood heated!
Enjoy!

Jamaican Beef Patties (12 small appetizer sized or six large me sized for dinner)

For Filling:
1 lb-ish ground beef your choice (turkey would probably work too hell with curry who cares)
3 cloves garlic minced fine
1 tsp ground thyme
1-1/2 tablespoon curry powder
1 tsp paprika
1/3 c bread crumbs
1/2 c water
salt and pepper
note: I added a healthy dash of cayenne pepper in place of the jalepeno.

For Dough
3 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp tumeric
1 tsp salt
2  cups crisco
1 egg
1 tbl white vinegar
3-4 tbl ice water

Filling:
In a large saute pan add oil garlic (onions scallions and jalepeno if you have them) and cook for a few minutes only they soften add ground beef and cook over medium heat until crumbly. Add in spices and bread crumbs stir till combined and spices are fragrant. Add water and still until absorbed. Add salt and pepper. Turn off heat and allow to cool.

Dough:
In a large bowl mix flour curry powder and salt together. Add shortening and cut in with a pastry blender or two forks. Mix till crumbly and it resembles coarse cornmeal. Add vinegar to egg and mix then add to flour mixture. If its still too crumbly and wont come together add ice water until it does. Stir till it comes together (like a pie crust) then flour liberally your work service (liberally this dough is super short) Once it comes together divide into either 12 or 6 pieces. Form each piece into a ball and roll out using lots of flour into a circle about 3 inches for small and 6 for big. I divide the meat into the same amount of servings to make it easy and to make sure they are even. The grab one portion of beef (if its cool just use your hands easiest way) and place on the dough not quite on center but on one side so when you fold the dough over it forms a half moon like a calzone. Crimp edges with a fork or with your fingers. The dough was so mallable even when I missed it up it was easy just to rebuild it a it like a bionic beef pattie.  Cook in a 400 degree oven for 25-30 minutes.

Im not in Kansas anymore.....notes from the country

Not sure if I haven't written about this or not but there were many things that confused me and some that still do when I moved to upstate NY a little over 10 years ago. Here are a few of my favorite observations or confusions.....

People having fake plastic animals or the cutouts of animals in their yard. Sometimes there are a little vignette of plastic deer or the black cutouts of moose or bears. The first time I saw the black bear cutout I almost drove off the road because it was quite far away and yes I thought it was real. I panicked because there were horses nearby and I thought it was stalking them. Still not sure the reason people have them are they trying to attract animals repel animals or just make me drive off the road? Maybe they have hidden cameras setup and the laugh every time someone drives by and does a double take. Kin to this is well coverings that look like little doghouses for very very short dogs. This one I pondered for a long long time I just couldn't figure out why you would put such a short dog or doll house in your yard. Finally I mumbled something while driving with my husband and he said um idiot they are decorative pieces to cover well heads. Well he probably didn't say it like that.

Another one is outside wood burning furnaces. This one took me awhile to figure out at first I just thought people in upstate NY were crazy about smoking meat. Maybe after luring deer to their yard by using the fake plastic animals above they smoked the meat? Finally after getting a subscription to Mother Earth news I figured out via the ads in the back that these were actually a furnaces and not smokers. Too bad someone doesn't invent a hybrid that does both now that would be neat.

A great perk to country living? Hell you don't want something you put it out in your front yard near the road with a "free" sign on it and no matter how obscure the object is someone sooner or later will take it. Now this could be the blender jar to a blender you no longer have the cookie sheet to a toaster oven that broke it doesn't matter have patience someone will take it. I have seen the strangest things for offer and a day or two later they will be gone. I am going to test this soon too as we are getting closer to getting the house on the market. Stuff I don't want I am just putting it out there and seeing what happens.

A frivolous post but these are some of my thoughts driving on country lanes on my way to work. Got to think and ponder about something right?

Thoughts on growing up and old.

My dish was messed up this weekend so I had to go to my ipad to watch a little boob tube. I choose to catch up on the HBO show "Girls" for fun. I kind of thought because the show is about twenty somethings I wouldn't really be able to relate to it in a present I am 45 sense although I knew it would bring back plenty of memories of my twenties. But I was very surprised how the themes and variations of the show resonate with me still today. Well except the part where everyone has sex with everyone and anyone all the time. That still doesn't happen to me.

So many themes.....creativity and being an artist who really is an artist and should the rest of us pick up the tab?  Just because you want to be an artist does it mean you shouldn't have to support yourself until you can make it doing whatever art it is you want to do? If your dream is not sustainable and you end up allowing others to enable you by helping you is that right? How important is being authentic to yourself and others in achieving your goals?

What do you want to be when you grow up? Man I am still wrestling with this one but the thing I am figuring out is you never really grow up so don't freak out you don't know what you want to do just do want you want now and figure the rest out later. Now this is really freeing for me I love that it just opens up endless possibilities of re-inventing yourself and your dreams. I think we all get stuck in this shoe box starting when you are young when we get questioned at a young age so little jimmy what do you want to be when you grow up. I always wanted to answer how the bleep should I know I am six and besides the only options I could come up was principal dancer with the American Ballet Theater or a jockey. Both extremely improbable but hey I was just a kid.

To be honest I have never known what I wanted to do and maybe I never will. I took a finding meaning in your life quiz the other day and I came up with two passions in my life one is growing food and the other is cooking. So then a light bulb went off in my head and said well maybe one day I will combine the two to create business along the lines of "from my garden to your table" and start a catering company. I brought this up casually last night at dinner with my parents and my mother immediately said what a great idea and apparently my dad made a face which my mother called him out on. So I said don't worry mom that's just the face Dad makes when I mention leaving corporate America. She said oh I thought it was his beer.

What have I taken away from the show so far? Always use a condom, people are complicated some more than others, artist are usually major narcissists, I should have had more sex in my twenties I let problems with my body image hold me back, no matter your age its okay to reinvent yourself and find new dreams. Never growing up in the popular sense of the phrase is a good thing.

Coming to grips on your inner asshole and patience is not my virtue.

Okay its been one of those days were I am certainly not shining as a human. Today my husband has to have a MRI to see whats going on with his health. I think he might have had another small stroke and maybe this time its not so small but we shall wait and see. He is there now while I am at work pretending to care about envelopes (yes that's what I do for a living envelopes don't ask). At times like this, times of stress anxiety and of muttering to yourself is this really my life you like to think that you will be this great compassionate caring nurturing nurse type person.

So far today it hasn't worked out like that and I am kind of ashamed of myself.  We woke up early so I could drop him off at my parents house so my kind Dad could drive him to the MRI and before we left I suggested his take his bottle of Xanax with him in case he had a panic attack. So little did I know that he instead of just taking the bottle with him he ended up taking 2. Yup 2 and these aren't little ones either these are big daddys.

So needless to say about 20 minutes into our journey he starts to sway in his chair and I say (insert expletive) how many did you take? So I pull into my parents driveway and he starts to puke and I yell what the hell are you doing. I guess im a little cranky at 7am on a Monday morning. So I stop yelling and jump out of the car grab something to clean him up with and for a minute stop being a major bitch I even had to have a short time out with myself like lady stop freaking yelling at him and take care of him what the hell is wrong with you.

Needless say I finish pulling into the driveway and he starts to walk into the house but he is pretty unsteady on his feet (part Xanax part too much weed and part whatever is wrong) so he knocks over a planter and once again I jump out of the car run to help get him into my parents house and with my Dad's help get him safely to the sofa. And with that I leave to go to work.

My mom just called and said that he is home safe but that he left his phone with my Dad so now I have no way to talk to him to one apologize and two to see how things went. I don't think we will have the results right away. Where do you find patience when the well is  dry? When you feel so on edge you are defiantly not the best version of yourself?

Symphony in Brown

 

Took the dogs out for the first real walk of the season yesterday. Booker managed to get into every puddle we came across but I was right behind him I love stomping in puddles always have and hopefully I always will. I remember when I was little coming into the house drenched from splashing around in puddles. I don't go that far any more but Booker sure does. But being a dachshund mix he is low to the ground so hes pretty apt to get pretty dirty quick. The farmer who bought the farm land around me turned many of the large hay fields into corn fields so right now until the corn is planted and sprouts we are looking at a 196 acres of brown. Very brown. Beautiful in its own right and I named it a symphony in brown yesterday while walking the dogs.

This is a picture post walk of Booker taking a well earned nap.