Changing times!

Hey and welcome back to the farm. We haven't had a whole lot going on around here lately since Frank has been pulling opening shifts at work for the past week and a half. I did manage to score 4 young chickens for our flock at an animal swap last weekend. We fixed up the coop and got them all situated in there and then got our four remaining chickens back into the coop. I thought finally I would have them off my back stoop and then I go out later in the day and the coop door is wide open! Come to find out Carl and Judith (two of our little dwarf goats) saw me throwing food in there and took it upon themselves to push the door open and go in for a snack. I never thought I would need a latch for the chicken door, the chickens weren't going to open it. Well apparently I do now. So I got that all fixed up for now and it took me FOREVER to get those chickens back in. Esp. since I was on my own with Frank being at work. I asked the girls to help but they were almost more of a hinderance, it was so cute seeing them trying though. They like to look at the chickens but not get close to them unless someone is holding them still.

On another note the next couple weeks are going to be so busy with getting the girls ready to start Preschool on Sept 4th. Madelyn got accepted into Head Start for Hanover County so i'll be dropping her off at her bus pick up by 6:55 am everyday (talk about a life style change there) going back home and getting Baylor ready for her ride to her school. She's only going to be going for two half days right now and hopefully we can expand that a little more into the school year to three half days or three full days, we'll just have to wait and see. And finally, I got the job! So a lot of changes going on here in the next couple weeks. I'm so sad to be leaving my Trackside family but it's time to be a grown up. I'll be working days now and getting benefits so i'm super stoked! Still some rotating weekends but that just gives me days off during the week to get appointments taken care of! Between me and Frank we'll have to figure out a new schedule for feeding the animals but it will all work out. So wish me luck and i'll keep you posted on how things go! 

Holy Hot Sauce!

Hey and welcome back to the farm! So this week we haven't had to much going on. We moved a bunch of animals around on different leads to try and ease the amount of animals eating all the grass in the main fence. Since the baby piglets are getting in and out of the pig pen on their own we decided to move the mama out into the main fence and put Miss Piggy and George back into the pig pen. They were just tearing up the nice pasture making pig mud holes and it really was frustrating me. They were always getting into the baby pool we use for water for all the animals and making it so muddy also. Super annoying! Other than that just a normal work week. The girls had a sleepover at my moms Friday night and came back spoiled with clothes, new shoes, and Minnie mouse lunch boxes for school that are super cute! What are grandma's for right? But seriously my mom is the best, Thank you mom!

The other thing that we got into this week is that Frank decided to make his own hot sauce from our jalapeno and habanero peppers we're growing. I don't know how this will turn out but we'll see! We started by washing and cutting all the tops off the peppers. Then into the blender they went and the smell alone was hot! I had to send the girls to their room to play it was so intense. We added the salt and now it's sitting, fermenting, in our laundry room for now. We got the recipe from Mother Earth News magazine, it's a great resource with all kinds of great articles. If you want to check it out here is the link: Make Your Own Hot Sauce

I'll keep you posted about how this goes along, we'll see! Thanks for stopping by and see ya'll next time!

Chicken Thighs

Hey ya'll! I recently googled a new recipe and after we tried it we found it was super easy and really good. I normally buy chicken breast and we make tacos or bake it but this time we tried chicken thighs. They turned out really tender and juicy and the kids actually liked them and ate all of their dinner. So needless to say they are a favorite around here now. I've found that the skin on, bone in ones work better but boneless worked as well. Just have to adjust the cooking time. Your supposed to mix all the spices together but I just shake them onto the chicken one at time and it turns out just fine. One less container to wash right? Happy Cooking!

Baked Chicken Thighs

8 Bone In Chicken Thighs
1/4 Tsp Garlic Salt
1/4 Tsp Onion Salt
1/4 Tsp Oregano
1/4 Tsp Black Pepper
1/4 Tsp Paprika
1/4 Tsp Thyme

Preheat oven to 350, mix all the dried ingredients in an bowl together. Brush the chicken thighs with olive oil and sprinkle the spice mix over the chicken. Bake in the over for about 1 hour. The juices should run clear and if use a thermometer it should read 165 degrees.

Breakfast Casserol

Good afternoon ya'll! So with the girls starting preschool in September I've been trying to come up with quick breakfast ideas. We also have all these potatoes that need to be used since I still haven't solved the pressure cooker problem yet. So I decided to try to throw together a breakfast casserole that can be made ahead of time and you can just microwave what you want to eat in the morning. It actually turned out pretty well. Tomorrow we'll see if the kids will actually eat it though, that will be the real test. We used 1 lb of sausage from the freezer, half an onion, half a green pepper, 12 eggs, and probably 1 lb of diced up potatoes. Oh and cheese, have to have cheese! Salt and pepper as well for taste. We cooked the sausage and potatoes first then combined all the ingredients in a dish and cooked it in the over at 350 for about 25 minutes.  I'll let you know how the kids like it. Please pass along any tips or recipes ya'll use for quick breakfast options! 

Looks super good!