Getting Ready

It's going to be a quiet Thanksgiving here tomorrow... just Keith and me.  We're having chicken, and mashed potatos (which we rarely have) and some vegetable sides.  I'm hoping to stretch the roast chicken into either chicken and noodles or chicken pot pie for Friday's meal, yum! 

We are slowly but surely moving away from eating so much processed food, and trying to cook a little healthier.  Keith is losing weight steadily, and really making an effort to begin excercising again and being active.  We don't want to atrophy in our bodies, and that's one reason we like doing chores and yardwork, etc.... so that that won't happen.  I hope to get a pasta maker at some point in the near future, and start making our own pasta WHEN we eat it, which is not regularly any more. I'd also like to get the dehydrator that was on our list for this year, but never purchased.  I keep saying I'm going to bake bread, but the fact is, we do not eat lots of it.  I can get it at the breadstore across from my office cheaper than I can make it, for what we use.  In fact, at 59 cents a loaf, I give the birds a bread treat almost daily.  They also eat all of our leftovers. 

Several people at work, when finding that we were eating alone, were concerned and offered invitations, and we appreciated them, but the fact is, as humble as this house is, we love to be here and are happy to be eating here.  Yes, we could afford to go out and eat, and there are many restaurants not even ten miles from here that are serving Thanksgiving dinner, but it will be fun to cook our chicken and then sit down and watch a little football (nap) and read (nap). 

Here is what our flower gardens look like right now.  I need to get in there and clean, clean, clean.

You can still see a little bit of purple of a late-flowering mum.

Now that I look at the photo, you would have to click on it to see the purple in the middle!

I need to cut back all of the now-bloomed mums, and clear out dead stalks and baby trees, etc. and put this flower bed to bed for the winter.  I'll try to do it Saturday, if it is not raining too hard.

Farm dogs Abby and Gertie helped me this afternoon as I carried things out to the Dierksen buildings to store for the winter.

Here's a homey group hanging out in the big henyard.  As you see, the two buff brahma cochins are outside with the others.  There are actually four little white hens in this picture, but Teeny is, indeed, gone.  Her remaining two chicks are still with us, and have turned into pretty little pullets.  I think a hawk must have gotten Teeny and Little Red sometime in the last week or so.  George the partridge cochin and Speedy the brassy back OEG are still with us, in the lower right hand.  Three, one of the old Japanese roosters, is up on top of the cage like apparatus in the middle.  (They all use it as a roost).  This cage, extremely heavy, was built by Keith to push up against the duck house door to protect some ducklings at night.  Trouble was, the snakes could get through.  It's so heavy we never cut it up, and the birds use it to roost on.  Some saplings grew through it, and have now become small trees, providing shade for the henyard.  At some point we'll probably take the chainsaw to it, but for now, it's a makeshift roost, and yes, the birds use it daily.

It was a beautiful day today.

And as you can see, my scolding yesterday worked... we had a good egg day.  The two Ameracauna pullets have not started to lay yet... I'll know when they do, because I'll have green eggs again. 

I have a batch of chevre in the oven (where it's warm and consistent) making... and can't wait to drain it and salt and put some herbs in it tomorrow.  I was also going to make mozarella, but it does not keep for long, so I don't know how practical it would be.

Happy cooking, everyone!