RIP Snow Flake and Clover Flower GF Pancakes

 Life can be hard sometimes. Being in a subdivision, in a fenced garden, and in a cage, we thought our sweet pets Snowflake and his girl Crow were safe from harm. The girls went out a couple of weeks ago to find something had reached in and taken their heads off. :-( Heart breaking!
It has been weeks, and writing this still makes me want to cry. 

Full grown and still tiny. They may have been tiny but they were large on personality!

 We borrowed a live capture trap and caught a Opossum. What a nasty rodent! Not sure if he was the killer or not but we were glad to get him out of here anyway.
We are pretty sure there is a Raccoon because something kept getting the food out of the trap without getting caught.

On a brighter note, I am getting our garden in and the kids have been helping out this year! Wanting to help! This has caused thing to go much faster than when I am doing it by myself. It also makes me very happy. 

Free food that grows so effortlessly!

 I saw a video on you tube where they were deep frying battered Clover flowers and that gave me the idea of making "pancakes" with them.

The kids went out and picked a bunch of them for me.
Then I made a batter of Brown Rice flour, Millet flour, eggs, honey and a couple fist fulls of clover flowers. Four out of five kids liked them with syrup. The 5th asked me, "Is it a salad or is it a pancake? Don't mix the two!" That made me laugh. Hubby said they needed onion. So this morning I made them again without the honey but put 1/2 an onion and some cheddar cheese and they were pretty darn good!

 Now to find stuff to do with Dandelions and Violets other than picking them with my salads and throwing them in my green smoothies.

Are you into edible weeds? What ones do you eat? How do you fix them?
I like the idea of working with what wants to grow instead of fighting with my Spinach that does not want to grow well for me.

Clover pancakes.

Chicken (and cat) Photo Shoot

Asia the rodent killer, enjoying the sunshine.

I call this one fluffy, well, because she is fluffy! Haha she has a fluffy back side and is really a hoot personality wise. I thought she was going to peck the camera she came so close! 

Mr Rooster making sure that black thing making the clicking noises was okay. He watched me like a hawk! He is a friendly guy though and a quiet crower (is that even a word?). I am very pleased with him! Not to mention he is beautiful!

This is my favorite! I need to play with it and make a button for the web sight with it.

Buffy watches me from afar. She is antisocial. ;-)

Fluffy getting a drink.

Sweet ol Reese soaking up some sunshine, while staying close to me.

Dust bath time!

Scratch and peck.

This is Fluffy's brother. He is getting beautiful, long, shiny neck feathers. Plus an attitude. 

He will be finding another home.

Scratch and peck. It's what we do!

 It was so nice out Saturday that I went out and had a photo shoot with the chickens. It was funny! They were so curious about what I was doing. So anyway, here is some of our flock for your viewing enjoyment. The Silver Marans have started laying, but I have not downloaded the picture of the eggs yet. I will soon!

Spring Is Around the Corner!

Frizzle/Silky chick. I named her Gwendolen

Snowflake the Frizzle chick. Maybe a rooster?

I have not done a blog update since June. Life knows how to throw you for a loop sometimes!
I won't go into all the morbid details of my life. but will give you an update on the homestead.

First off, Jo Jo the bunny lived only a few happy months with us and then passed away. I was worried that it may have been something we had done, or not done, but I talked with his previous owner, and he was just an old boy and it was his time. That was a very hard loss for Bug-a-boo, but a few weeks later I took her to our local flee-market/animal sale and she picked out a dwarf Rex and named her Starlight. She is a little, furry, spitfire! Bug-a-boo trained her to a leash and has worked with her and she has been a good pet/manure maker.

I couldn't help myself. My honey was out of town and I found a couple of Frizzle chicks for sale in the local want ad and I think they will ad a fun mix to our little flock!  

My 20.00 green house from Tractor Supply

Started seeds. Too early?

We had a day in the 70s and it triggered something in me that caused me to start some seeds indoors, and buy a green house. It is only 40s-50s right now, seeing as it is only February!
I have never been successful at starting seeds indoors, but I am not giving up! I have them on a heating pad and we will see what happens.

I want to give an update about the red rocks training chickens to not eat tomatoes...It does NOT work! Not only did the chickens eat 2/3rd of my tomato crop, they ate every one of our water melons, and everything else that looked tasty to them!
The chickens that are in the pen he build in my garden are on probation and if they get out and peck one tomato, we are getting rid of them and only keeping what is in the wonderful Port-a-coop! Or we could build another port-a-coop. ;-)

The have chickens in your garden that some people seem to be able to manage has not worked for me. I say off season let them roam, scratch, peck, and poop in your garden. (You will have to fix all your paths though)
While there is fruit, seedlings, or any other green herb you want for YOUR consumption, keep them far away from you garden.

Starlight the Rex bunny.

Yes, this goes for bunnies too!
Have you ordered seeds? Started any indoors yet? Are you tired of cloudy, cold, rainy or snowy days?
Stand strong my friends, Spring is just around the corner!