pictures of pasture for Jonathon

Beans, beans, and more beans...

Those of you who know me best, know that not all of my decisions are 100% reasoned out.  But when I'm being generous to myself, I refer to myself as "Impulsive". I was perusing the aisles of Sam's Club the other day, and saw a 40 pound bag of beans.  "Hey," I says to myself, "I could can those, and they would last forever!"  What I should have said to myself would have sounded a lot more like: "Keep walking, Jack, you've got enough projects!", but alas, in the cart the beans went.

Anyway, this is what 40 pounds of beans canned looks like: (Who knew? They SWELL!)

At final count, there were about 120 pints, and I think 21 quarts of beans.  I had been planning building fence all weekend, and still did get a lot done, but I just squeezed it in between trips to the shed to check the canner.  I also had some good and cheerful helpers, though!  Couldn't have got it all done without my kiddos...

in which I chronicle the advent of a bunch of chicks!

This winter, I actually did a lot of research to figure out which incubator (I hate doing research, I'm much more impulsive than that) and came up with the GQF 1588 Genesis Hova-Bator Incubator. If you like, you can see it on Amazon here. We are really impressed by it; we put in 15 chicken eggs and 5 duck eggs, and all 15 chicken eggs hatched! From what we have read, a 100% hatching is pretty rare.

We even had cousins here for the advent; my girls were babysitting them so that my Brother in Law could help me build fence. My nephew, the boy in the red and blue, who just turned 4, said excitedly "They are really turning into Fluffy-Fluffs!!"

The duck eggs still won't hatch until next Saturday; they take 28 days, instead of 21. After that, we will put in our turkey eggs we have been collecting from our turkey hen. We currently have 14, but are hoping for more.  Below are some more pictures of hatching; we had to actually help the very first one that "pipped" through his shell.  All his little buddies had hatched and he still wasn't able to break through because the membrane had hardened around and on him.  I managed to pull it off of him and he seems to be doing well.  They looks so dead-like when they are first born; they wobble about 4 steps and just crash and fall flat and sleep for about 2 minutes, and then repeat that over and over.

This is the guy that got stuck...

Alive! But just barely, it seems.  They fluff up quickly under the lamp, though.