Size comparison

So we think yet another one of our chickens is laying! Most of the eggs we've been getting (the top one) has been about the size of a conventional grocery store egg (the white one). However, yesterday we discovered one that was layed in a different area, that was about half the size of a regular grocery store egg. It's cool to see how our eggs compare. So far, two hens are laying, and the others are just about ready to (most are around 20 weeks old). I can't wait to find some brown eggs.

Taylor's Enthusiasm

I absolutely love when Taylor gets excited about something. Our recent influx of eggs has got him quite stirred up. Beyond checking the coop fifty times a day, he frequently fiddles with his new creation--- an egg-tracking chart.

He's keeping track of the color, number, and size of eggs we get each day, our ROI (Return on Investment), and average egg prices in the local supermarkets. So far we've regained about forty cents. At this rate, we only need 5,000 more eggs before we've paid off the price of the coop, chickens, and feed.

Breakfast

After waiting another day, we got another egg. We decided to cook them up into egg-in-a-holes, which were absolutely divine.

Dinner in the pit

We've been blessed with so many wonderful nights lately. The weather is cool and clear, without being outright chilly. We decided to dinner in the fire by the fire.

On them menu? Tomatoes and bacon with some green beans from our garden, squash and zucchini with onions, and a delicious seafood dish created by Mr. Phils.

We double-wrapped everything in aluminum foil and tossed it in the fire for a while to cook. It was all super delicious.

With the seafood, some of the fish kind of burned on to the bottom and turned into this crispy morsel of deliciousness. We followed everything up with some baked apples and cinnamon.

The fire pit is my favorite addition to the garden.

Taking a day off

It seems like I never really get time to relax. Between classes, working two jobs, and taking care of the garden, life can be a real whirl-wind sometimes. So what do we do when we finally get a chance to wind down?

Today we went to Emerson Point, a lovely little park out on a peninsula near the Manatee River. The park is filled with middens, which are basically giant mounds of trash from the Native Americans that once lived in the area.

Taylor couldn't help but jump in the water for a swim.

The lookout tower was really cool. It wasn't quite as tall as the one at Myakka State Park, but it had a great view in all directions.

Finally!

We got the first of our chickens in late September, just in time for Seleighna's birthday. We weren't sure of most of their ages, so we didn't know when to expect eggs. This morning, something amazing happened.

It's a lovely blue green, so we know it came out of the Americaunas. Spyker is the smaller of the two, so we're relatively sure Prius was responsible for this. We're hoping the others will start laying soon as well.

Overhaul

As part of our transition to non-heirlooms, we've ripped out a bunch of our sickly squashes, radishes, and other crops. We've now got a bunch of empty spaces for the seedlings we've recently started.

Before we do add the new seedlings, we're going to mix in some ashes, rabbit and chicken manure, and compost. After remulching and mixing in some hay to prevent soil compaction, we'll go ahead and put in our fall plants.