Lesson 760 – Man, what a state!

I often write about what it is like to live here in New Hampshire (spoiler alert – cold in the winter.) But this weekend, as I attended a conference up north (about 2.5 hours where I live) these are some of the images that remind me *exactly* why it is I continue to live in this great state.

So forgive me this morning, as I go on (and on) about that which is New Hampshire, but I think you might end up agreeing we me that it’s a beautiful place to live.

This is the historic Mount Washington Hotel now called the Omni Mount Washington Resort. Many years ago, those families with money to spare used to send sick family members here for the invigorating mountain air. I’m not sure it cured many infections but I am quite certain it calmed many souls.

Lesson 732 – Not picking up chicks

Last week I talked about how I was planning on picking up a few new chicks. From last fall, we’ve lost 4 of our older birds (out of a flock of 34) and so we have a little wiggle room to get some more flock members this season.

I was planning on getting 2 chicks now and then adding 2 more birds over the summer.

Last summer, in order to get any chicks in New Hampshire, you had to buy at least 12. As the chick buying laws have changed – you can now buy chicks in any quantity –  I went into our local Tractor Supply store ready to bring home 2 chicks.

Lesson 726 – Picking up chicks

Tomorrow a shipment of chicks is scheduled to arrive at our local Tractor Supply Store (it also happens to be my husband’s birthday – “Happy Birthday Marc, have yourself a chick!”)

I plan on being at the store bright and early to pick up 2 chicks for our flock. We already have an established flock and I only need a few replacements. I’ll start off with two and will add some later in the season. As I’ve mentioned laws have changed in New Hampshire and I’m no longer obligated to buy chicks in quantities of at least 12. I can buy 1, or 2, or basically as many, or as few as I want.

Lesson 725 – Getting ready for the chicks

Tonight is the rescheduled first part of my chicken workshops (yes, I know that I already held the second part, you can blame the snow in NH this winter for that.) We’ll cover getting chicks and caring for them until they are old enough to go outside. We’ll also talk about proper (and critter-proof) housing for your chicks and what you should be aware of with regard to predators in NH (can you say fisher cat?)

I found this clip of a fisher cat yelling. If you’ve ever heard one in real life, you know how absolutely chilling their call is.

I’ll also bring my clay pot chick heater with me, as the forecast calls for more snow and I’m afraid we’re not out of the woods with regard to power losses yet.  Best to be prepared.

Lesson 723 – Fatti Madi, the President of the United States and Me

This picture was sent to me quite a few months ago and I’m just getting it up. This was taken by a friend’s daughter; Sally who has a great blog here. Sally and her mom Jane had attended this campaign rally in Concord, NH.

You’ll have to click on the photo to get the full effect.

In the center of the picture is President Obama. Just over to the left, you’ll see a windswept person in the press bleachers focusing behind what looks like a bit of Albert Einstein’s hair. Now do you see it? That’s me with Fatti Madi. I brought that bird with me all over New Hampshire in order to get photos.

Here’s another photo with me peeking under Obama’s arm.

And here’s another view from that same event, from my point of view.

Lesson 720 – Giardia in chickens

Giardia (Lamblia), like Salmonella, is passed by feces to mouth (yuk.) Unlike Salmonella though, Giardia is not a bacteria, it is a parasite. And can I just say it’s one of the cutest ones out there?

I had the great misfortune of contracting a Giardia parasitic infection a few years after I moved up to New Hampshire. At the time I was a big hiker and the running theory is that I either contracted it by swimming in a lake (ewww) or by eating low bush blueberries (double ewww.)

For months, I had intestinal cramping, diarrhea, and couldn’t eat much of anything. The docs couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me and did test after test. Nothing showed up. (you can only catch Giardia in stool samples when it is in its shedding phase.)

One doc even told me that based on my weight loss and “refusal” to eat, that I was probably anorexic.

Lesson 718 – Saving chicks when the power goes out

Although we didn’t get massive amounts of snow, we did get a combination of rain + snow which made for very icy roads this morning. Hey, what’s a neighbor’s mailbox or two, right?

A reader who lives in the path of the storm asked me if I had any suggestions for keeping chicks warm if the electricity went out. She didn’t have a generator but she did have a nursery of very young birds.

The obvious solution was to keep the chicks in a box, insulated on the outside by blankets near a fireplace, except that I can see lots of problems with that -

The first is that she told me she’d have to move her dogs to another room in order to protect the chicks. That’s not a lot of fun for anyone, especially when you like the company of your dogs.

Second, chicks don’t need great amounts of heat, they need moderate heat and more importantly a heated area to go to if they get cold. By keeping a box of chicks near a fireplace, you are running the risk of overheating the babes with no place for them to cool down.

I started thinking of different non-electrical solutions. I continued thinking about this all day yesterday (modifying my approach) and this is the design I’ve come up with for:

Lesson 717 – Winters in New England

We’re all just sort of waiting to see which way this new winter blizzard coming from the mid-West is going to go. Right now it’s in D.C. and the latest reports are that it will go up as far as New York City bringing with it 4 to 6 inches of snow in our area.

Ah, but we live in New England and we hearty souls know better than to trust a weatherman. While the nicely dressed man on the screen assures us that although there is a “Winter Storm Watch” for our area, chances are, he tells us, we will not get hit hard this time.

I have my doubts.

The rain is spurting and sputtering, not being able to make up its mind to release or not.

The skies are leaden grey, heavy enough to make my joints groan.

The chickens are subdued, not even squawking hello when I went out to see them.

And Pippin, in his infinite wisdom,  has not left his heated nest all day.

You can make all the predictions you want about the low to little impact of this upcoming winter storm, but as for me, I’m going to go check on our feed, battery and candle supplies.

See you tomorrow.

Happy New Years and I’m ready to roll

Bright and shiny

And who isn’t ready for a bright and shiny New Year?

Happiest of New Years to you all. I hadn’t anticipated taking off so long from my blog but with all the chicks home in the nest, along with a few medical ups and downs, I found myself spending some much needed time with the family.

But time moves on, the older chicks are heading back to college soon, the younger ones are already back at school, and I am ready to begin a new year filled with stories, lessons learned, Fatti Maddi, and more tales from our flock.

I’ve made a list of topics I’ll be covering which will include more on winter care (it’s darn cold up here in NH these days) and frozen eggs – both topics of conversation on my Facebook page. I’ll also give you updates on our Guinea hens (including a very strange green egg that I attribute to them) and will provide status’ on the rest of our flock (including the human members.)

If there is anything in particular that you’d like covered, just leave the topic in the comments.

Our flock is currently stable, we haven’t had any losses this winter (although one of our chickens mysteriously disappeared in the fall) but I do think that especially with the laws changing in New Hampshire  now allowing you to buy as little as one chick, that we will have a new addition or two this coming Spring. I’ll certainly be keeping you updated.

Cheers to you, health and happiness in the coming year, and I’ll see you all next week.

Lesson 668 – Easy Baked Ziti for Rebecca and Jenny

One of the best comments I got last week during my food challenge was from a college student who said I inspired her.

“I’m a college student  living in a one bedroom apartment with my best friend Jenny. I support myself and have very little money to budget with. Jenny and I make our food selections a priority without government assistance. You are an inspiration in showing that people need to prioritize food, get creative with their budgets, and stop making excuses for not doing so.”

Being the owner of two college students myself, you can’t possibly imagine how much this comment meant to me.

And so as a gift to Rebecca and Jenny, I give you my recipe for:

“Easy Baked Ziti – along with variations” (yeah, I know I need to work on the name a bit.)

My kids LOVE this dish and ask for it all the time – it definitely falls into the comfort food category. It’s easy enough for them to make it (which they do) and it makes enough for leftovers (and we all know that pasta tastes better the next day.) When I add a salad this recipe makes enough for all 8 of us (that comes down to about $1 and change  – a serving.) We had it last night and not only did all 6 (2 are away) of us have a full dinner but there was enough left over for late night snacks and someone gets a pasta lunch today.

Make it for yourself or make it for a group dinner (impressing the heck out of your friends), either way, you won’t leave the table hungry and you’ll be able to eat well for not a lot of money.

Easy Baked Ziti – along with variations

Easy Baked Ziti – wasn’t fast enough to get a photo before the kids attacked it.

• 1 lb ground beef (apx $2.49) (brown in a fry pan on med-high, stir until meat is no longer pink)
• 1 box ziti ($1.00)
• 1 jar red sauce ($1.89)
• 1 3-cup package of shredded mozzarella cheese ($2.49)
• Ricotta ($1.89)

Total cost apx $9.76

Directions:

Brown 1 pound of ground beef (unless there is a ton of grease don’t bother draining the meat as the pasta will soak it up.)

Boil up one box of ziti pasta

In a large bowl, mix the pasta, ground beef, one jar of red sauce and 2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese.

In a large rectangular (9x 13) baking dish, place half of the pasta, meat, and cheese mixture.

Drop scant teaspoons of Ricotta cheese throughout (you’ll probably use about 1/3 of the container)

Layer the rest of the pasta mixture on top and sprinkle with remaining cup of shredded cheese.

Bake in a 350 oven until the cheese melts and dish is hot.

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But wait a minute, what about the variations? Here you go:

• Instead of ground beef try – ground sausage, cut up sausage links, cut up hotdogs, left over chicken, or even cut up burgers
• Sauté some onions, mushrooms, or even carrots and add them in.
• Try adding – chopped broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, olives or basically any leftover vegetables
• Try a shredded cheddar cheese or a Mexican cheese, try putting a little Feta on top
• Sauces – there are some unbelievably good flavored sauces (olive ones come to mind) that completely change the flavor of this dish, you could even use an Alfredo sauce
• Try serving this *on top* of a salad or have it cold the next day as a pasta salad lunch, you can also freeze servings for later in the week.

This is what I’m talking about, get the basic easy recipe under your belt and then try variations with what you have on hand. You could make a different version of this meal for every week of the year and never repeat what you eat.

Eat this in good health Rebecca and Jenny and let me know how it works out.

Oh and Rebecca, when my son graduated from High School the one thing he really wanted from me was a cookbook with all of our favorite easy and thrifty family meal recipes. I put one together and called it “Zombies, Chicken, and Toast.” If I ever get it cleaned up and formatted (this gives me incentive doesn’t it? ) I’ll send you a copy.

Cheers.