A home of their own

The smelly meat birds are finally out of my garage! I couldn't take it anymore. I'm positive my hens never smelled that bad when they were in the garage! And, they didn't move out until they were eight weeks old, these little guys are just three weeks old!

Getting the place ready. Thankfully, the in-laws had an extra kennel we could use.

We moved the brooder, lamp, all the comforts of home to the new location.

They look cuter here than they actually are!

Can we do it? Yes we CAN!

Going on a berry hunt, gonna find some juicy ones! - Dora the Explorer

Big D and I took the kids berry picking the other day for the first time. We decided we would start with six quarts. Good thing we didn't ask for more boxes since Little D just wanted to eat them right off the vine and SG gets bored so easily. Then, we passed red raspberry bushes on the way out of the berry patch, so we stopped and picked a quart of those too.

Surveying the berry patch

Little D got more berries in his mouth than he did in his box

SG did a good job, but had enough after two quarts

Our six quarts

 So, what to do with all these berries - make jam of course! Fits right in with my "master plan." Remember, the self-sustaining master plan? Since I've never made jam or canned anything in my life, this should prove interesting. I have managed to collect a lot of canning supplies, and I have a stack of canning books and magazines. With all of these things on hand, and my berries, I decide I better get some advice from people I actually know.

The goods

My mom canned everything when I was a kid, and I fondly remember pouring hot was over jars of jam and later using a butter knife to cut the wax off the top of the jam when it was time to eat it. But, all of my books and magazines said I needed to "process" the jam in a canner. Hmm...I started by double-checking my memory with my mom.  I remembered correctly. Cover with wax, no processing.  I also checked with some friends and got a variety of replies, none included using wax. One friend turns her jars upside down to seal them, no wax and no processing.
Being slightly OCD and also having a spoiled food phobia, I decided to go to my most trusted source - the World Wide Web. According to all recent Internet info, wax is definitely out and highly discouraged by the USDA. Apparently the only way to be sure you don't kill off all your loved ones via strawberry jam is to process it for 10 minutes in boiling water. Even though my mom was slightly offended by the USDA's assertion that she had jeopardized her children's lives, I decided to process my jam. It would be good practice for my garden goodies.
I followed the recipe that came with the fruit pectin I bought at the bulk food store. It seemed simple enough, only three ingredients - strawberries, pectin, sugar. What gave me a slight pause was the amount of sugar - 7 cups! Seven cups of sugar to five cups of crushed berries! Not that I ever really thought of jam as a health food, but seriously!

That's a lot of sugar! 7 cups to be exact!

Making jam really isn't hard, but it does take some time to clean the berries.  I would have to say that's the most time-consuming part. By the way, it took three quarts of berries to get five cups of crushed berries.

The tedious part. The cool thing is, the bowl I crushed the berries in was my Grandma's - gives some extra specialness to my jam.

I have to admit I was losing interest in jam making while I was cleaning berries, but when I had my pints of jam lined up on the counter at the end of it all, it was very satisfying. And the pb&j sandwich made with the leftovers in the bottom of the pan was delish!

Mmmmm

Since one batch only made five pint jars of jam, the problem now is deciding who is "jam worthy!"

Chicken Updates

The "meat" birds are still here and growing like crazy! And, they're heavy. And ugly. I guess both reasons are why they are meat birds and not layers like my beautiful hens! It makes me feel better anyway. So, we decided not to ship them off in a week to my sister-in-law. Big D is working on something to get them out of the garage - they stink!! Another thing my ladies do not do!

Ok, in this picture, the Meats don't look that ugly. Just trust me. Plus, they are molting right now and that makes them even less cute!

But my ladies...my ladies are beautiful as usual. And, spoiled as usual. I love how they run to the door of their yard when they hear my voice outside. But, they will not go in at night for me, only Big D. They still love getting fresh-picked grass every day and love their yogurt. They also love Crispex and Wheat Chex cereal. They do not like green peppers or kiwi, but they do like berries of all kinds.

The Wyandottes are always the center of attention

They are feasting on clover I picked them at the berry farm.  Yes, while my family was picking berries, I was picking clover for the ladies!