A busy season (and I’m still here!)

I’ve had an incredibly busy season around here the past few weeks. Actually, I quite literally bitten off more than I could chew!

I’ve been teaching a bible study, attending another, substituting for Daniel’s class, planting my fall garden, learning to cook without gluten (more on that later), and trying to maintain my sanity while keeping up with all of my usual chores… WHEW! I’m still here. Tired, but here.

I must tell you that I feel incredibly blessed. I have wonderful friends and family (thank you to those who asked about me!), a little homestead in the making, and access to good nourishing food – truly a blessing.

Last week, one of our girls laid a gigantic egg (look at the top middle photo above) that had a double yolk. It was destined to become an egg and cheese sandwich. So, so delicious. And, I’ve been absolutely delighted to find out that giving up gluten didn’t mean I had to give up bread.

I was frightened at even the thought! We LOVE brownies, muffins, and bread. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE.

I’m now soaking ALL my grains (even though they’re gluten-free) and it’s made a tremendous difference. Before, I would soak if I remembered to, but not always. (Shame.) I just didn’t understand how truly important and necessary the process was. And I’ve been sick not realizing that it could be SO EASILY remedied. Now, I’m meticulous in the kitchen. It’s made a difference in my health. You can read about preparing nourishing foods here. (Do yourself a favor and check out the link.)

I’m making bread (I’ll be trying sourdough with gluten free grains this week) and crackers and yes, BROWNIES! All with gluten-free grains. It wasn’t as hard as I imagined it would be, and I’ll be sharing my new favorite recipes with you soon. I’ve long loved lacto-fermented veggies such as sauerkraut, but now I’m learning to enjoy kefir (thanks Diane!) and kombucha as healthy additions to my diet. I feel better than I have in a very long time.

Here on the homestead, life is good. God has blessed us with a few fall tomatoes (with more vegetables forthcoming), fun times spent together in the great outdoors (now that it’s finally cooled off a little!), and hope for the future. Did I mention we’ll be getting goats soon? Oh, my goodness!

Mel’s Banana Nut Bread (revisited)

Seeing these on my counter always means one thing: banana nut bread must be made.

Remember these? They did not disappoint! Just look at those sunshiny yolks… Girls, you make mama proud. 

Around here, I mill my own flour. I can’t recommend it to you more highly.

This is my recipe for banana nut bread. I did change it up some this time - I can’t seem to help myself. I almost always change a recipe in some way, usually because I have different ingredients on hand. This time I had an extra banana, so I threw in 4 bananas. And I had an extra egg, so in went 3 eggs. I also love changing up the flours. This time I used 1 cup of whole wheat flour and 1 cup of spelt flour. I must say, it turned out soooo good! Even better than the original version. Spelt is one of my favorite flours. It seems to make baked goods more tender, light, and moist. Who would argue with those results?

Mmmm…. it smells good.

And it tastes good, too!

Nesting

As I expected, the girls were a little leery of the nest boxes at first.

But, without other options, what’s a girl to do?

 

Sara Lynn and I have been on egg patrol for the past few days.

Our hen house is separated into two spaces. One space is for the girls and the other space is for their supplies.

We have this handy-dandy door for making our egg checks. It’s not fancy, but it works. And our shoes stay clean.

And Mama stays happy.

There’s also a full-sized door for those times when we need to get in there and clean things out.

Both spaces in the hen house have a skylight... I think I could live here. Really, I do.

 

A nice popcorn tree provides shade during the heat of the day. In a few weeks, that tree will be gorgeous all aflame with the brilliant colors of autumn. Our entire property is studded with these trees… I can hardly wait! This is my absolute favorite time of year.

Did I mention that the girls figured things out?

I think I’ll do some baking today.

There’s good news and bad news

The good news is that our hens are laying…

The bad news?

I found 26 eggs under the hen house this weekend.

It’s my fault, really. I should have anticipated this could happen.

After all, they love to hide beneath anything they can crawl under.

So, back into confinement they go until they figure out that their nest boxes are for nesting…

And we’ll need to enclose the space beneath the hen house so they can’t get to their preferred laying environment.

Goodness, that’s a small space they’ve been squeezing into!

I hope they figure things out pretty quickly. I miss our afternoon visits already.

And in case you’re wondering, Emilie is doing great these days. That’s really good news around here!

Just look at those oh-so-kissable cheeks… they don’t get much rest around me.

Our girls (the ones who lay eggs)

Our girls are almost 6 months old now… which means we’ll have fresh organic eggs very soon.

While they do have a run, we’ve chosen to let them free-range during the day, although we do supplement with organic grains and kitchen scraps.

It’s been a crazy dry and hot summer.

We’ve found that they do not wander very far from the hen house. This is a view from inside our front door. I love it when they come to visit.

They typically go no further than 100 yards away from their ‘home’. And, thankfully, we haven’t had any losses.

We started out with 18 hens, and then we bartered or sold 9 of them. We simply didn’t have it in us to put them in the freezer as we had originally intended. They had become beloved pets before we even realized that it had happened. I know. This could be a problem if it becomes a habit around here. We’re working on it. It’s still our first year on the homestead after all. We’ll do better next time. I’m thinking meat and dairy goats will be the next addition to the homestead. Hopefully, it will happen this fall.

This is by far girls’ favorite spot. It has a comfortable fence for roosting and my (now scraggly) herb garden for scratching and dusting.

It’s such a joy to be able to watch these girls scratch around the homestead. They’re amazing creatures. Really, they are.

And have I mentioned the eggs? We’re really looking forward to those eggs!

Here’s a wonderful source if you’re interested in having a few girls in your very own backyard:

http://www.backyardchickens.com/

Hens, hens, hens!

Our girls are growing fast these days.

 

This shot (and the one before it) was taken 2 weeks ago.

They’re now exactly 2 months old. All eighteen of them. And look! These little ladies are almost full-grown.

Sara Lynn loves to pet them.

Just not at feeding time. Poor baby!

  

It’ll be a few months before they start laying. But for now, we’re content to play with them.

I’m looking forward to all those fresh, organic eggs in our future! Yum.