January 11th, 2012 by jen
It’s been awhile. I’m pretty overbooked, but I wanted to catch up on a few things that’ve happened since I last wrote.
This morning I walked outside to one of my rabbits’ first litter. She seems to be a much better mother than the last. I’m hoping for success.
The babies are under the fur in the nesting box.
I think there are 7-8 babies in this litter.
After I bred the doe I marked the 28th day on my calendar so I’d know when to put in the nesting box. I gave her hay to build her next with. On the 31st morning I noticed she was clearing a circle in bottom of the hay and was spending more time in the box than she had been. Then today, the 32nd day into her pregnancy, there were babies! These look much larger and healthier than my other doe’s first litter. She covered her kindle with fur and they were really warm despite the cold. The kits will start leaving the nest around the 10th day. I’ll need to finish their large mom & baby cage before then. :)
In other baby news I’ve bought four baby ducks on Christmas Eve. Check out the one’s amazing fuzzy yamaka .
That’s my quick update. Next time I’ll talk about turkey raising!
Tags: animals, duck, rabbits
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June 8th, 2011 by jen
Carrots. On the grill. I know!
These were so good that my company and myself devoured them too quickly for a photo.
I left the top of the carrot on, but removed all but a nub of the green. I also peeled, skinned, and parboiled the carrots first. I think I’ll forgo the peeling next time and see if it makes much of a difference.
While the charcoal chimney was doing its magic, melt butter, throw in a splash of red wine vinegar, and add dried thyme and dill weed. Brush the butter mixture on the carrots before putting them on the grill until they reached your desired charmark level. When you take them off, brush them once again with the melted butter mixture. So. Good.
Tags: cooking, food
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June 2nd, 2011 by admin
This week I went into the Bastrop Producer’s Market, which I’m super lucky to have less than 5 miles from my house. While checking out, a flyer for Green Gate Farm’s Hootenany caught my eye – it definitely looked like my idea of a Fun Time.
I hadn’t heard of Green Gate and they’re super close to me. I can’t wait to check them out; they offer CSA veggie shares, flower shares, and have a farm stand three days a week. The Hootenany is in celebration of their 5th anniversary and they are raising funds for their educational nonprofit, New Farm Institute.
I’m going to hit up the Hootenany and if you’re in the Austin neighborhood, I hope you can make it too! Check out the flyer below and click on it to see the awesomeness that’s happening on Saturday.
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May 31st, 2011 by admin
I finally had a couple of excuses in the bank for getting a circular saw: worm bin and an adolescent chicken holding area. I went online to Lowe’s and Home Depot to look at what they had to offer and then started Googling to see what I should be looking for in a saw.
I came upon this Mother Earth News article, “Help Me Find the Right Hand-Held Circular Saw for Me.”
There I learned that I wanted something with a 7 1/4-inch diameter blade and a 15 amp motor. I’m hard on anything I use (have you seen my iPhone case??) and wanted something that would last, but that wasn’t overkill or too heavy. After checking reviews, etc I decided on the Porter Cable 7-1/4″ 15-Amp Laser-Guided Circular Saw at Lowe’s. I asked the store clerk what he thought about the need for a carbide blade vs. the standard blade that came with the saw. He said I probably only needed it if I was cutting things I shouldn’t be. So, of course I got that as well.
Next up? Saw horses.
Again, I wanted something sturdy, that would last, and that I could store easily as I have no garage or shed. I didn’t want to just use 2×4s with the metal clamps – there seemed to be a lot of negative feedback regarding those. Next up, I checked out the collapsible saw horses. Yes. This is what I wanted. I found some hard, plastic ones, but their reviews weren’t so hot. These metal folding ones seemed like my best option. I do really like them and they fold up small, but since they DO fold up, they’re hollow on the inside and this makes it a little more difficult to clamp to them. Right now I’m managing since I’m not doing anything too big, but I can see this needs a Chancey solution. I’ll rig something up and let ya know how it goes.
Finally, clamps! I am in love with these Irwin Quick-Grip clamps. They are so easy to use and they help me get by when I don’t have another pair of hands to help out. You just squeeze a trigger to release the clamp and can slide it apart and then when you want to start closing it you just keep squeezing on the hand grip and it tightens itself. Taaa daaa!. I’m clamping things all over the place!
All in all, I’m happy with my choices. I’ll rig up those saw horses and have a good set up to start working on my saw skills.
Tags: home, learning, tools
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May 19th, 2011 by jen
Lately, when I need to bring something to a party, dinner, etc. I go to my fridge, pantry, and garden and see what I can bring. This week, that’s been a beet & carrot quinoa salad, roasted squash and greens, and egg salad finger sandwiches. Ha – so much “salad”, so little lettuce!
For the quinoa salad, I roasted the beets, but left the carrots raw. They’re just so good fresh out of the garden! I used to hate hate hate carrots before I started growing them and found out they’re really sweet. I also put some carrot greens in there to give it a bit more color. It was great with a lime, rosemary vinaigrette.
I’ve just gotten back into making bread and the past two times I’ve used this recipe from Rose Levy Beranbaum. I never manage to have enough time to let it rise enough on the final rise, but people just LOVE it! For the egg salad sandwiches I take about 8 boiled eggs and hack at them with a fork – I wanted a slightly chunky sandwich filling, add 1/3 cup of no fat mayo, squirt in a teaspoon or so of mustard, and then spoon in yes fat mayo until I like the consistency. Next, I salt and peppered to taste, put in a pinch or 2 of cayenne pepper, added some mustard seed powder, and dill weed. Finally, I chopped up some pickled peppers, from Lisa, that I swapped for at ATXswappers. Delicious!
Today, I picked some squash, tomatoes, and a few greens and roasted the squash with onions and garlic, salt, pepper, and a pinch of cayenne and Tony Chacheres. I had it with a couple of fresh tomatoes on top and breadcrumbs from leftover sandwich bread. I also made a small batch of greens. These days I add a dash of balsamic vinegar to my greens. It really rounds out the flavor.
I actually usually stay away from squash – I never really cared for it much. Guess I’ll be trying out some new recipes this summer!
Tags: cooking, food, recipe
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May 13th, 2011 by jen
Whhhhhew! It’s been a while, eh?
Hazzy chillling in her new pool.
I’ve been busy trying to maintain a balance around here. Sometimes when things rock the boat it takes a while to feel steady again. So, here I am, poking my head out and saying hi!
The stray that came up ended up getting hit by a car. I took her to the emergency vet and they took her and were going to put her in the animal shelter queue. She’s a great gal and I’m sure she’ll find a loving home. That same day I noticed that Fuggles, my buck, had an eye infection, and one of my drakes had gone missing due to predators. I took a deep breath and muscled through it.
I got a new batch of baby chicks and two baby Muscovy ducks. Ten more chicken ladies will hopefully be joining the Chance Ranch. I got 5 Gold Sex Links, which I’ve never gotten, and 5 Americaunas, they’re pretty and people just love getting green/blue eggs.
I also took this opportunity to create two spreadsheets. One to track production costs and how much I’m getting for eggs and how much they are producing, so that I can be sure to offset my expenses due to the high cost of organic feed. The second one is to track the cost of raising the babies on organic feed. I’m looking to get into meat birds and would like to have an idea of what that cost looks like. Yay! Maths!
Stopped for a garden snack. :)
This week I marked duck 8 eggs with sharpie and am letting the mallards sit on them. I figured why not?
The party at the ranch was a great fun and many smores were had. :)
One more big event happened. One of my does gave birth, but unfortunately she didn’t do so well with her first litter. And I learned my lesson to always put the nesting box in their cage 28 days after you’ve tried to breed them even if you don’t think she is pregnant. I marked it on my calendar when I bred her, but she didn’t pull fur or anything. I’m going to try once more and then have to give them a break during the intense, summer heat.
Hopefully it won’t be this long before we catch up again. I’ll try and work on that and work on my balancing act!
Tags: animals, chickens, daily, predators, rabbits
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April 7th, 2011 by jen
Well, look what showed up at the Chance Ranch.
Poor puppy has her ribs sticking out. She stuck around overnight. I guess if she hangs around I’ll take her photo and see if anybody is missing her, but whoever it is certainly isn’t taking good care of her. :(
We’ll see. She only gets the temporary grace of the Chance Ranch if she is good with the birds.
Tags: animals, country, dogs
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April 5th, 2011 by jen
I have a subscription to Mother Earth News and in the latest issue there was a spotlight on the difference between free-range and confined, conventional hens’ eggs.
Some of Chance Ranch's finest.
Pastured, free-range eggs have:
• 1/3 less cholesterol
• 1/4 less saturated fat
• 2/3 more vitamin A
• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
• 3 times more vitamin E
• 7 times more beta carotene
When I first read that it made me so angry, wanting to wave my fist in the air and yell about false advertising. I’m not doing anything to add to the eggs – they are doing things to take away from your eggs! They are modifying your food once again and selling you something other than a traditional egg.
Here’s the info and more from Mother Earth News.
How does that make you feel? I think I’m still angry.
Tags: chickens, eggs, food
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April 4th, 2011 by jen
When life gives you too many roosters, make roosterade! Hmmm, maybe not. Let’s make Coq au Vin instead. :)
I used Alton Brown’s recipe.
I had another extra rooster getting in the way and processed him on Saturday. I googled around to see if I could find some traditional rooster recipes. I had never heard of coq au vin (rooster in wine) before this. I had a lot of the ingredients and just had to run to the store for wine, celery, chicken stock, mushrooms, and onions. I used cipollina onions. I was going to marinade this over night, but ended up hanging out in town looking at hot rods since the Lonestar Roundup was in town.
Two good friends came over to help eat the experiment. It was good and the dish was delish, but next time I’m going to brine the rooster and see if that helps with moistness/tenderness. I was a little disappointed, but that’s how learning goes and at least I had a fantastic evening and fun cooking.
Thanks, rooster.
Tags: chickens, cooking, food
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April 1st, 2011 by jen
I had a foot injury that put me on crutches for 3 weeks. Whew. That’s just horrible! All I do is run around and tinker with things and play outside. I’m limping about without a gimp shoe or crutches and can’t wait until I’m in full force again. I’m the only Chance on this ranch now and while I love it – there is a lot to do. My wife left unexpectedly last August and I’ve had a roommate for a few months, but am about to see if I can wing it alone for a while.
As I’ve been limping along, I’ve still had many a great adventure and took a few pictures. Thought I’d do a bit of a photo dump of the last few weeks.
Baby pygmy goat!
Roosters!
I went to a bbq with some neighbors and when the park closed early we went to one of the folk’s house down the road. They had hundreds of chickens – game hens and cocks and sell the cocks for show birds. Oh, and they had goats. Including ADORABLE BABY PYGMY GOATS! Goats will definitely be my next move. I’m sure I have a few years before I’m ready for that. I want pygmy goats now!
Flowers are coming up all around.
Goats!
I’ve been hobbling around trimming the yard and getting ready to have people out to a Chance Ranch party soon. Flowers are starting to come up and I wanted to get rid of any tall weeds that would prevent them from growing in. I loooove flower time – especially when they make themselves!
Of course it isn’t all work around here. What’s better after a morning of yard work than an afternoon at the river? :)
Colorado river
Road to the river.
The water level is low, but at our little hangout area it gets deep on the other side. Plus there is a nice little rapid shoot we can take the kiddie tubes down. Things are nice and days like that just let you know me know I’m in the right place.
Tags: daily, misc
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