Mystery bird – what is this little guy?

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Sandy

We’ve had some pretty birds visiting our feeder this spring. Take a look at this one. My best guess for this, based on the Birds of Seattle book, is Purple Finch. But it doesn’t look quite right. Notice the overlapping beak and the yellow splashes. What do you think?

Update: I’ve been looking at bird sites and think it might be a Red Crossbill. Agree?

Mystery bird

Mystery bird

Mystery bird

Mystery bird

Mystery bird

Mystery bird

Update 5/6: Confirmed! My mother-in-law Muriel confirmed that this is a Red Crossbill. Here’s one more picture from their visit to our feeder again today.

Red Crossbill

Red Crossbill

Sandy

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Posted in Wildlife | 3 Comments

Moving day, turkey housing stage 2

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Sandy
Poultry box

Poultry box

When we first bring home baby poultry, we keep them in a plastic storage tub in the house. This arrangement works out well for about a week and then the poultry needs to move to a larger home. The last time we had baby chicks, Derek built a wooden box for them. The nice thing about this box is that he can easily flatten it for storage by simply unscrewing the sides. This year, Derek added another element to the box, a nice hinged and screened in top cover. The top, too, will easily come off for storage.

Turkeys in the poultry box

Turkeys in the poultry box

With the box fully set up and ready to go, the turkeys moved into their new home. They look really small in the box now, but within a month we will need to move them to their next home, a chicken tractor out in the pasture.

Sandy

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That had to hurt

Posted on April 28, 2012 by Sandy
Giant egg

Giant egg

While there is a normal variation in egg size depending on the type of chicken, most of our eggs fall into the medium category. Every once in awhile, though, one of the ladies lays a doozie. As you can see, this egg is much larger than normal. Ouch!

Double yolker

Double yolker

And as we suspected it was a double yolker, two eggs in one.

Sandy

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Evening Grossbeaks

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Sandy
Evening Grossbeaks

Evening Grossbeaks

Evening Grossbeaks

Evening Grossbeaks

Evening Grossbeaks

Evening Grossbeaks

A flock of Evening Grossbeaks stopped by for a snack today and Derek took some shots. True to their reputation, the cleaned out our feeder. Pretty birds.

Sandy

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Happy Earth Day!

Posted on April 22, 2012 by Sandy

Happy Earth Day everyone! I hope you take a moment today to appreciate this lovely place we all call home and think about even one small thing you can do this year to help the old gal out as we collectively put more and more stress on all her systems.

Check out the Earth Day Network for Earth Day ideas. You can select and commit to an Act of Green as a super easy way to get started.

Sandy

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I just impulse purchased turkeys – oh boy!

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Sandy
Baby heritage turkeys

Baby heritage turkeys

Going to the feed store in early spring the same day the latest batch of new poultry arrived led to an “impulse purchase” that had me thinking “What did I just do?!?” on the drive home. Yes, I impulse purchased two turkeys. I blame it on my subscriptions to Hobby Farms magazine and Mother Earth News. Both have had articles in the last year about all the interesting heritage breeds of turkeys. I’m a sucker for a good poultry article and obviously also susceptible to impulse poultry purchases.

The lady at the feed store wasn’t entirely sure what breeds these are. All the heritage turkeys were mixed up in a batch together. She thinks the blond turkey is a Midget White and the black is a Black Spanish Turkey. We’ll have to wait until they mature to know for sure. The heritage breeds all have distinctive looks so it shouldn’t be hard to tell later on.

So now the big question. Are these Thanksgiving turkeys? That’s actually what I was thinking when I bought them, but the kids began protesting immediately. Apparently, they don’t like the idea of eating their pets. Andrew, at least, has agreed that if the turkeys turn into nasty beasts like our rooster Roo, then they can be eaten. Apparently, the turkeys hold their own fate in their wings.

Sandy

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Posted in Homesteading, Livestock | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Asparagus “stump” soup

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Sandy
Asparagus soup

Asparagus soup

This is a repost from last year. I’m reposting this to kick off asparagus season and to cheer my friend Kelly on as she makes her first batch.

After reading the latest post on A Posse Ad Esse, I hung my head in shame for never using the ends of asparagus plants. I always compost or worm bin the ends, thinking they are not worth using. How wrong I’ve been. A Posse Ad Esse suggested using them in soup. I whipped up a batch, using a “wing it” recipe similar to this one, and the soup was great. When going through the stumps, if you have any that are extra thick and woody, you should either skip those or use a vegetable peeler to take the hard skin off. Super woody stalks will have a hard time breaking down in the soup. Even so,  never again will I throw out usable asparagus stumps.

Happy cooking!

Sandy

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Posted in Cooking & food preservation | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Reject “stump” garden

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Sandy
Celery, onion, and garlic in my "stump" garden

Celery, onion, and garlic in my "stump" garden

On Pinterest, I’ve seen a number of postings lately in which people suggest growing new plants from the root stumps of the veggies they purchase at the grocery store. I’ve never thought about doing this, but it seems like such an obvious, and great, idea. As such, I decided to take one of my self-watering containers in the greenhouse to start a stump garden with unused veggie ends (the root zone area). I’ll share updated pics in a few weeks. Hopefully, I’ll have some good growth on my reject stumps.

Speaking of Pinterest, it’s a great site for gardening, DIY, and homesteading enthusiasts. I often find interesting new ideas on the site and have even posted ideas there myself. You can easily follow me on Pinterest to keep up with my pins.

Sandy

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Posted in Gardening | Tagged | 1 Comment

DIY shopping bag using dish towels

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Sandy
Finished tea towel shopping bag

Finished tea towel shopping bag

I’m home with the kids for spring vacation this week, so we decided to head to the craft store. While there, I saw an idea for easy-to-make grocery shopping bags using tea towels. Since it’s pretty dreary outside, it seemed like a fun indoor project. The project shown at the store is a bit simpler than what I did (I added sides and a bottom to the bag), but the overall idea is easy enough for a beginner.

Shopping bag supplies

Shopping bag supplies

The first part is always the most fun – picking out fabrics! Instead of just making a plain bag, I decided to adorn the turquoise tea towel fabric with a flower-patterned stripe and some pink rick rack. To do this project, you’ll need two (or three tea towels) depending on the size you want, a fat quarter pattern for the stripe, rick rack, and bag strapping. I used my quilting supplies for easy measuring and cutting.

Cut desired bag height and depth

Cut desired bag height and depth

First, I cut the tea towels to size. I chose to cut the two main tea towels into clothes 15″ X 20″ because I wanted to make a fairly large bag.

Rotary cutting stripes

Rotary cutting stripes

Next up, cutting stripes. I chose to cut 6″ stripes. Make sure the fabric is wide enough to completely cover your bag width. If you are using patterned fabric such as I did, do think about how you want the pattern centered.

Pinned stripe and rick rack

Pinned stripe and rick rack

Next, pin the stripe and the rick rack to the front face of the bag. Sew the pieces into place. I did this for the front and the back side of the bag, but you could just do one stripe.

Bag side pieces

Bag side pieces

Cut the side and bottom pieces. For my bag, this meant two 6″ X 20″ pieces for the sides and one 6″ X 15″ for the bottom.

Sew sides and bottom onto main panels

Sew sides and bottom onto main panels

Begin the process of sewing the sides and bottom together. Remember you are sewing everything together inside-out.

Puckered edge straps

Puckered edge straps

Once all the sides and bottom are sewn together, it’s time for the straps. I chose to do a “puckered” strap. I don’t like it when the top of my bag gapes open, and the way I chose to put the straps on makes the top look neater in my opinion. It’s a lot of fabric bunched together, though, so I had to hand-sew the straps on.

Finished bag

Finished bag

Voila! All done. A custom grocery shopping bag for about $10 in materials.

Thanks to Lily for taking the “action” sewing shots.

Happy sewing.

Sandy

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Harvest: Swiss chard and baby garlic

Posted on April 15, 2012 by Sandy
Swiss chard and baby garlic

Swiss chard and baby garlic

This weekend I harvest a good batch of Swiss chard (Bright Lights) and baby garlic greens (Inchelium red). The Swiss chard in the greenhouse has been going gangbusters! It’s one of those plants where a few plants can quickly start producing volumes, but I’m not always sure what to do with it. I decided this time on a stand-by: vegetarian lasagna with Swiss chard. Of course, this dish is perfect for a nice dash of garlic, so I headed to the intentionally over-planted garlic bed and pulled some baby garlic greens to chop up and add to the lasagna. It was tasty!

Sandy

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Posted in Cooking & food preservation, Gardening | Tagged , | 6 Comments