Caring for the Animals in -18 Weather/How to Sprout Mung Beans

You know its going to be cold the next day when all of the local school districts are cancelling school at 5:00 Sunday night!  So, no school for Big Mr J today.  And the hubby's truck wouldn't start this morning without him having to charge the battery. Cooold!

Since it is incredibly cold {yes, its supposed to be -18 air temp here tonight}, I've decided the chickens are staying in today.  At this very moment (11 a.m.) it is -14.8 degrees, but with the windchill it feels like -41 degrees!

What am I doing to take care of all of our animals?

Well... my chickens are fairly spoiled since I have been taking them warm breakfast ever since there has been snow on the ground.  

What I do is boil some water in the tea kettle, make a mix of some grains and others, pour the hot water over the mix and let it sit and absorb the hot water and cool enough so it will  be safe for them to eat.

What do I mix for them?

I always use:

-layered feed

-cracked corn

-old fashioned oatmeal

-black oil sunflower seeds

-dried wakame seaweed

Other things I sometimes add:

-chopped fresh spinach

-sprouted mung beans

-ground apples or apple peels/cores

-ground unsalted peanuts

-ground fresh cranberries

-unsweetened pureed pumpkin

-shredded cabbage

-raisins

-molasses

-peanut butter

-bacon or other meat grease

-flax seeds

-quinoa

-anything else I may have in the fridge that isn't salty or sugary and is safe for them to eat

Other things I like to prep and give to them are sprouted Mung beans; I ordered this 5 lb. can of Organic sprouting beans from Amazon.

I little goes a long way!  

Just two tablespoons of dried beans will sprout and expand to fill a 1 quart jar!

What you need:
-Mung beans
-water
-quart jar with matching screw on ring
-4 or 5 inch square of mesh fabric or screening

How to Sprout Mung Beans:

1. Measure 2 tbsp of Mung beans into a glass quart jar {you could probably use plastic too, but I've never tried it}.

2. Cover beans with enough cool water to cover.  Top jar with mesh and screw on ring and allow them to sit overnight at room temperature.

3. Drain and rinse beans.  Drain completely.  Place on counter, out of sunlight.
4. For best results, you will need to rinse and drain beans 3 times per day.  This is why the mesh and screw on lid it so helpful; you just run cool water in through the mesh, swish it around and drain right through the mesh.

Tip:  I like to place the jar on its side during the sprouting process; it allows the beans to sprout more evenly.

5. You will know the sprouts are ready for your pets or yourself to enjoy when the sprouts begin to grow little leaves.

I like to treat my chickens with the sprouted Mung beans by putting them into a suet feeder and hanging it in the coop.  

A quart jar of sprouts will tightly fill both sides of a double sided average sized suet feeder.

Another thing... I think I have FINALLY solved the problem of my pullets sitting/pooping in the nesting boxes on these so cold days!  

I made a curtain that wraps around the nesting box shelf yesterday.  So far, so good.  

Toothless went in right away after I installed the curtain late yesterday afternoon, I also closed up the coop for the night, she laid her beautiful egg.  But since I didn't go back out there, I had a frozen egg this morning {with wood shavings stuck to it}!  Oh well, my fault; I knew she was going to lay and thought about going out to get the egg, but then also listened to the wind outside and decided not to collect it.

The cats are hunkered down in the cat house and the barn most of the time. 

The challenge for me is keeping their heated water bowl from freezing over.  I have placed the bowl in a tote on its side to help shelter the bowl from the wind.  So far its helping just a bit, I still have to go out and break the ice on the surface every once and a while.

The cows are doing very well.  They got extra corn and grains this morning and their hay has been placed on the side of the barn where the barn is acting as a wind block.

Oh and I got a scare this morning, the power went out and didn't come back on {every once in a while it will go out for a couple seconds and pop right back on}.  

I checked the fuses, breakers and even the meter outside and that had even lost power.  So, I waited 10 minutes and made a call to the electric company.  

They said the service workers were out in the area, she thought they were working in a different area that had power out even earlier.  So I was hoping we wouldn't be wearing our coats, snow pants and hats in the house!  To my relief the power came back on 20 minutes later, not to bad!

Hope everyone and every animal is staying warm and safe!

Happy Holidays All!

I hope everyone had a fantastic and safe Christmas!

We definitely did; lots of travel, super slippery roads; but we were all together and made it home safely!

Happy holidays from our family to yours!

...and I was so happy to get home to my chickens and my hubby was happy to get home to his cows! 

* I'd also like to share a picture of my aunt and uncle with a painting my cousin and his wife asked me to do as a gift; its their family dogs, past and present.  

So happy they liked it! 

Sunshine Award!

Last month, I was so honored to be nominated for the Sunshine Award.  The blogger who selected me was http://urbanoveralls.net.  

I would like to say a HUGE THANK YOU TO URBAN OVERALLS!  I feel so fortunate to be recognized as a "blogger", since I still feel very new to the title and I am still learning so much.

First the Sunshine Award:

The rules of this award are the following:

1. Use the logo above in the post.

2. Link to whoever nominated you.

3. Write ten pieces of information about yourself.

4. Nominate ten fellow bloggers "who positively and creatively inspire others in the blogosphere".

5. Leave a comment on the nominees' blogs to tell them of the award.

Ten pieces of information about myself:  

{Things you probably didn't know about me!}

1. I love art, have always loved art and find so much joy in creating and viewing art!  I am a certified Art Teacher.

2. I am new to raising chickens (started about a year and a half ago), although I have ALWAYS wanted free-range chickens to enjoy in my yard.  I find so much pleasure in being a chicken "farmer"; I love spending time with them, holding them and knowing that they know I'm always going to be there for them.

3. I truly enjoy cooking new recipes {if you follow my blog you'll quickly notice the frequency of recipe posts} and trying new grocery items, like an odd fruit or a strange squash from the farmer's market.

4. I find pleasure in making grocery and home products that most people buy in a store; like homemade seasonings, yogurt, baking mixes, ketchup, soap, etc.

5. I come from a family that was started as dairy farmers, although I have spent most of my life living away from the farming life.  Now, I'm getting back to it in my own little way.

6. I really like reading books, the real thing, with paper pages!

7. I really enjoy essential oils and fresh herbs, there is nothing like either one of them!

8. I love my garden although I don't always enjoy doing the tough work; but the rewards I get for the work make every drip of blood, sweat and maybe tears worth it!

9. I once ran over a toad in the road with my  car, turned around to check to see if I did and cried about it.  But now I have developed the strength to "take care of" skunks, raccoons and possums in order to protect my chickens.

10. I love making useful items. I think this is the main reason I enjoy being a vendor at the local farmer's market so much; I can make and sell handmade functional items! 

I now nominate 10 awesome fellow bloggers:

1. 1840 Farm:  Jennifer creates beautiful sewn baskets (I love mine!) and other awesome kits and things, has a great garden and some fantastic farm animals!

2. The Iowa Housewife: Myrna and Sue are fellow Iowans, they share some really great recipes and some beautiful images from places in Iowa!

3. Canning Homemade!:  As a gardener I have found many valuable canning recipes and canning tips from Canning Homemade; allowing me to preserve the treasures from our garden and enjoy them year round.

4. chicken scratch poultry: I find chicken scratch poultry to be a fantastic source for chicken raising information along with tons of "I want to try it" recipes!

5. From Which Things Grow: Cares and Mimi are a mother, daughter duo; who share fantastic seasonal recipes, along with some great photos!

6. I Am Momma Hear Me Roar: Cheri does some great refashioning and art/craft/decor projects!  She shares awesome images and tutorials!

7. Punk Projects: Katie shares some super cool projects; paper, jewelry, sewing, recycling/repurposing, great tutorials. Very inspirational!

8. The (mis) Adventures of a "Born Again" Farm Girl: Mandie is a fellow chicken farmer, who shares great recipes, chicken raising stories, gardening and crafting ideas.  She also farms mealworms and makes real maple syrup!

9. vixenMade: Victoria shares tons of awesome tutorials and printables that are great for handmade gifts for anyone and everyone you love!

10. Paisley & Polka Dot Threads: Catherine is a fantastic furniture refurnisher; she shares her great furniture before and afters.  I find her creations to be very inspirational!

* I really hope all I nominated can accept this, if not, please accept the complement expressed in the nomination.  If you can't accept, I understand totally but please pass on to someone you admire.

Happy Monday!

We'll so far today I have canned 3 quarts and 7 pints of dill pickle spears.  

Its a bummer I wasn't able to find even one cucumber plant in any store this spring, so I had to buy them at the Farmer's Market this past weekend.  Oh well, at least I'm supporting other local farmers, right!

Then, I went out to collect grass clippings which I use to mulch my garden.

Also, collected some old tires from our woods which I am going to make into planters.  {We don't put tires in our woods, they were left there by the previous owners.}

Now, I'm off to harvest some chamomile flowers to dry for tea with the kids!  Only 16 days till my son goes back to school already!  Its gone way too fast!

Hope you are all enjoying your summer and having a marvelous Monday!

Maple Apple Crisp & A Visit to See My New Nieces!

So, its been 1 month since these little beauties were born!  I should have shared the pictures sooner!   

But here they are my new twin nieces... Nora and Macy!  Adorable!

I am also sharing with you this Maple Apple Crisp recipe, because this is one of the dishes I brought for their family {the other was Mom's Three Bean Hotdish}.  

In the pictures below I have doubled this recipe; I thought since I was making it any way I would make some for us to have at home too!

I found the original recipe from AllRecipes.  This is a VERY tasty recipe; a great combination of apples, maple and crunchy topping!  Enjoy!

Ingredients:  {for a single batch}

-5 apples, peeled, cored and sliced  {I used a combination of Granny Smith and Gala}

-3/4 cup maple syrup

-1/2 cup flour {you could use wheat flour, I also like spelt flour}

-1/2 cup rolled oats {I use old fashioned, not instant or quick cooking...they are more processed}

-1/2 cup brown sugar

-pinch of salt

-1/2 cup butter, softened or melted

Process:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Toss apples with syrup.

3. Lightly spray an 8 x 8 or 9 x 9 inch baking dish with cooking spray.

4. Pour apple and syrup mixture into the prepared dish.

5. In a medium bowl combine flour, oats, sugar, salt and butter.

6. Mix to create a crumbly mixture.

7. Top apples evenly with crumb topping.

8. Bake for 35-45 minutes, until the topping is golden brown.  {I forgot to take pictures of the finished crisp.}

9. Enjoy warm or at room temperature!  It would be great warm with vanilla ice cream or yogurt!

Now for more pictures of our new family.  Here's my Big Mr. J with one of his new cousins.

Aren't they cute!?!

Here are my two sweet hearts with their new cousins; their first girl cousins!

Little Miss J with Nora!

The kids and I with the twins!

The new parents with their new family!  Congratulations to them; we can't wait to see all of the adventures these new girls take the family on!

The Coop is FINISHED!

Well, mostly finished!  We just need to put a coat of paint on the overhang and touch up the spots where paint dripped.

But before we were able to finish the coop; last Friday was so snowy that my son had a snow day on May 3rd!  

This is what the snow looked like over all of our wonderful green grass and budding plants!

The chicks were ready to move to their new home!

 Ready, waiting and growing!

There's Marshmallow in the front!

Now, the coop!

Time to move the coop!  We have loops under the coop so we were able to pull it into place.

We've gotten a lot of rain so the grass was very wet and muddy!

Little Miss J excitedly riding along for the coop move...

So was Big Mr J...

 And it just wouldn't be fun without some crazy faces!

Here's Amazon ready to move to her new home.

The camera lens didn't open all the way.

 Pretty much ready to go...

 Just need to spread the wood chip bedding.

Here the hubby is adding a pulley on the overhang so I can hang a plant from there.

And their in!

Little Miss J was happy to show them off!

The chickens are very happy in their new home and we are so happy to have them!