Father's Day

Father's Day was sunny and warm.  The kids were all here, all except for Noah...who was with his Daddy.
I went out to the garden early to see what  I could harvest and add to BBQ.

Every day now, I am bringing in a variety of vegetables.  On this day, it was corn, cabbage, tomatoes, zucchini, cilantro, cucumbers, sugar snap peas and of course, eggs.

Everything gets a good wash.  I began to prep for the BBQ that evening.  We were having grilled burgers, grilled hot dogs, all the fresh trimmings, and a large fresh fruit salad.  Gennifer was making some fresh Berry Crumble, and I made the homemade ice cream to go on top.
First the strawberry ice cream.

Next up, Vanilla Bean.

These went into the freezer to firm up for several hours.
Erika was here, and I didn't get any photos.  Sorry Eri!  Gennifer and her family arrived, and hit the pool first thing.

Our water loving Lab somehow nudged his way in through the fence, and took over the pool with his rambunctious play.

After raking his nails across our poor little Hannah's forehead, he had to be drug by the collar out of the pool, and into timeout on the patio.  The pool is at a delightful 86 degrees!  Those solar covers make all the difference in the world!
Geeps is the Grill Master.  He can't escape that duty, even on Father's Day.

We had a simple meal out on the outer patio.

After dinner, the girls and I spent some time on the swing and visiting the chickens.

The hens got a treat of watermelon rind and cantaloupe seeds.

After we let our dinner settle a bit, we had a special treat.  Fresh berry crumble that Gennifer made, and topped with homemade ice cream.

Crowned with a fresh sprig of mint from Gennifer's garden.

Mmmmmmmm!!!!!

It was a really nice day.

Tired little girls, with ketchup smeared faces, were gathered up to go home after an afternoon of swimming and fun.  A good day was had by all.
XO  Kris

Chicken Chatter

Hello, and happy Friday!  Yesterday morning, I met up with my friend Elaine, in our usual spot for the purpose of our visit.  Elaine has a great blog, and most of you who visit me, probably already know her.  But for those who do not, I will give you a little snippet.  Elaine wanted chickens in the worst way.  After finally talking her husband into it, and after her husband built her a coop that worked for their space, and she got her wish.  Elaine loved being a Chicken Mama, just like I do.  Not only for the fun of the new pets that would grace her yard, and mingle with her family.  But for the benefits that having chickens affords us too.  Fabulous, fresh tasting eggs.  Organic manure to add to the compost heap to enrich our garden soil.  And best of all, having them as pets, just as we enjoy our dogs and cats.  Elaine has since that time, gotten her setup up just perfect.  She has two coops.  One for her older two hens, and one for her younger two hens, but just to house them at night.  And then a well fenced run for them to exercise in together during the day, allowing them free range, for bugs and greens.  She has a grumpy neighbor who, even though he lived several houses away, felt that the "noise" was just too much for him.  He complained.  Often. Calling the police.  They tried to nicely appease him.  Her  husband even went to show him that the city permits hens in their neighborhood.  That seemed to help, and she thought she would get to keep them.  But, not two weeks later, he was back at it, calling the police.  If you are familiar with chickens, you know that they  make a clucking "announcement" after laying their eggs.  This is not very loud, and it doesn't last long at all.  A minute maybe.  Other than that, they are pretty quiet.  So, sadly, she felt she had to give them away in order to keep peace in the neighborhood.  I felt so badly for her.  And her little one, LOVED having these chickens!!!  My heart really hurt for them.  I know how much I love having chickens.  I knew what she was giving up.  Fortunately for me, Elaine knows how much I love keeping chickens.  And that I take very good care of them as well.  She asked me if they could come to live here.  And of course, I said yes.  So that is why we met, on a dirt road, between her city and mine, to make the exchange.  I really, really felt so bad.  But at the same time, I am thrilled to have a flock the size that I had always wanted to have now.
Meet the new girls.

Two beautiful adult Barred Rocks.  That are very good, and reliable daily egg layers.

And the two new girls she recently got this Spring.  They are about 3 months old.  A Polish, with those crazy feathers on her head, and a Delaware.

I brought them straight home, and took them out to the coop run where my girls were.  I sat out there with them, for the rest of the day.  Making sure there was no pecking, or problems.  There was the obvious curiosity.  Checking out the new digs.

Seems to meet with their approval.  There was some showing off. 

And a stare down or two.

My girls were not mean, but sitting in the corner with their tail feathers to the new girls in town, was certainly not very hospitable.

I'm not gonna look, I'm not gonna look!!!!  Then the huddle of my older 5 hens, took place.

Still behaving in a less than welcoming way.

The younger two, in all of their juvenile energy, were happy to flit from one end of the run to the other, taking it all in.  

My younger five, were all too happy to have more playmates.  But the girls that are full grown, are a bit more reluctant to make immediate friends.

The run is plenty big enough for all of them to have their own personal space, until they do become more comfortable with each other.   

Erika and Noah came over for a bit.  Noah was eager to meet the new girls, so we went into the run, and he wanted to hold them.

I love this picture!  Then, I wanted him to pick out his pumpkin and scratch his name on it.  So off to the pumpkin patch we went.  He had a hard time deciding, but wound up picking this one.

 Using one of my vintage knitting needles, I helped him to scratch his name just on the surface of the pumpkin so that he can continue to watch both the pumpkin, and his name grow, until October.

I will have Hannah and Claire pick theirs out this Sunday on Father's Day.  What fun! 

So, I now have a flock of 14 girls.  7 mature and laying, and 7 who will be laying soon.  I already have lots of customers for my farm fresh eggs.  Once you eat these, you can't buy them in the market.  Ewww!

Before I go, I have to show you this great gift that Elaine gave me.  She is so thoughtful, and knows me well!!!  The book is full of wonderful pictures and great ideas for all kinds of coops.  I have plans in my mind already for adding on!  And a darling Paula Deen Chicken Tea Towel.  The card is so perfect too!!!  The inside is a recipe card with the picture of the chicken on it too!  So cute!!  Thanks Elaine!!!  I love it!!!

 Happy Weekend!  Greggers just got home, and we are ordering pizza!!!

XO  Kris

A New Summer "Do" & A Bursting Garden

Good morning.  I was going to do this post last night, but I think I would have fallen asleep half way through.  Yesterday, I had an appointment with my daughter to get my hair done.  I decided I had had enough of the long hair.  It was hot, and unruly, and I wound up wearing it twisted up in a clip most of the time.  So when I got there I told her to cut it off!

Pretty much how I wore my hair before.  Short, choppy, and EASY!
After I got my hair cut, I ran over to the Goodwill Bookstore.  If you live in Corona or Norco, and you are a reader, I highly recommend you visit this fabulous place!  They have a very good children's selection, from toddler to youth.  And a good variety of everything else.  They run a buy one, get one deal too.  Paper backs are 1.99 and hard backs are 2.99.  But you get two for that price.  I got these two books for my next read.

I can't wait to dive in!  I recently finished a great read that my friend Meredith suggested, called The Last Summer.  By Judith Kinghorn.  If you are a fan of Downton Abbey, you will love this book!  Thanks Mer!!
I have been on a huge blueberry kick lately.  They are so good this summer!  I put them in my yogurt, on cereal, eat them plain like candy, and can't get enough.  Sprouts had them on sale in their Wednesday ad for 99 cents a pack.  So Greg and I had to run out to stock up last night.  I made another one of those delectable Buttermilk Blueberry cakes that my Canadian friend Linda  featured on her blog a while back.  I think this was the 4th or 5th time I have made this cake.  DIvine!!

My son and I have already put a big dent in it!  This is a moist cake, not too terribly sweet, and just loaded with blueberry goodness!  If you type it into my search browser, you can find the previously posted recipe for it.
Yesterday evening, on my garden tour, I brought my camera, so that I can document how my garden has progressed, week to week.  I walked out there, just as the sun was heading down, and the light was so pretty at that time.

Oh how I love this time alone in my garden.  I water, dead head, harvest, and weed.  It is my favorite time of the day.  The sweet peas are going like gangbusters, reaching the top of the chain link fence behind the planter.

The corn is standing tall, and will deliver a special gift for us come Fourth of July.

I staggered the planting in three stages, so that I would have fresh corn at various time throughout the summer.  I planted 14 stalks.  Each stalk will yield 3 ears of corn.  That should do just fine for us!

Some of the ears are nearly ready  now.

When I planted my garden, I put in a packet of broccoli for the first time.  I have broccoli all over the place!

A also put a packet of Arugula in.  But that turned out to be broccoli as well!!

So we shall be eating a lot of broccoli this summer!
My cabbage  heads are absolutely enormous!  I have always wanted to plant this, just because I think it is so pretty.

Last night, I picked my first tomatoes.  They are much smaller than last year, but I think I will be having plenty to keep us in maters throughout the summer.  I have 5 plants in. Some are heirloom, and I am not thrilled with those.  Too small!!

Upon getting down on my  hands and knees, to search through the dense leaves, I found that there were several clusters of tomatoes ripening, that were hidden amidst the foliage of the plant.

I'm glad I looked, because I don't want to miss a single tomato sandwich opportunity!
My very first watermelon, not quite ready for slicing!

Off to a late start, but hopefully they will be worth the wait!
Loads of fuzzy cantaloup are forming now.

And I am picking cucumbers like crazy!   They are so crisp and delicious!  I love to dip them in hummus!

I am already planning my garden for next season in my head.  I will be doubling my space, and planting way more variety!
I am thrilled with the way my pumpkins are thriving!  I have planted them before, and never had any luck!  Not this time!!!!

There are dozens of basketball sized, still green pumpkins hiding amidst the giant elephant ears of the vines.  Short and fat ones.

Tall and skinny.

And even a set of conjoined twins!

This weekend, I want to have all of the grandkids choose their very own, and scratch their names on the surface of the pumpkin, and then they can watch it grow until Halloween.
The pumpkin patch in the evening glow.

I had these two large clay pots that my brother gave me a long time ago.  They are so huge and  heavy, that they can't be moved.  I intended to plant trees.  I still plan to do this, but in the mean time, I planted more pumpkins, and cantaloupe.  They have just begun to come up.

As the vines begin to grow, I will guide them toward the rest of the pumpkin patch, and hopefully fill in that empty spot between the big clay pots, and the existing pumpkin patch.  After picking my evening haul, I bid the garden goodnight.

The nasturtiums that my chickens love to dine on every evening, are fighting their way back, despite the constant nibbling.

The washed goods of the day.

Actually, I had picked a bunch of squash earlier that morning.  This is just the evening haul.
A little off subject  here....I wanted to show you my star cubes.  I had used the zest of off a couple of large lemons for my blueberry cake, and didn't want to waste the juice of the lemon.  So I froze the juice in my star ice cube tray.

I popped the lemon cubes out and into a ziplock baggie, and they can be added to water, or tea, or used when lemon juice is needed in something.
Well, that's it from the farm.
Go plant something, water it, and watch it grow!
XO  Kris