The Omnivore's Dilemma

Has anyone read this book? I have just started and so far it is amazing, here is a book review! If it is what I think it is I would love to pass it on with some type of drawing in hopes to get it back in the end. Not sure how to do it but this is what I'm thinking..... Make a post to see who is interested (not this one) in reading and have it passed along from person to person in order of comments received until the final person returns it back to me. Each person has one month in hopes that is enough time. What do you think? Suggestions Welcome!

The Turkeys have Arrived

We received our shipment of 60 bronze & white broad breasted turkeys this morning. I will take some pictures over the weekend. I am excited they are a heritage breed which I did not know when John first ordered them. We received our typical phone call at 2:46 am from the post office saying they had the birds, we were both so exhausted we slept through the call. John usually jumps right out of bed and heads over right away, especially when the weather was cooler and the excitement of getting chicks was so new to us.
We are looking forward to having a fresh bird for Thanksgiving! (* ok I am wrong they are not heritage...oops, farm mom set me straight - I did a gGoogle search last night and misunderstood, sorry!)

At the library I picked up an arm load of books including Storey's Guide to Raising Poultry which has a lot of good info. Did you know chickens eggs come out the same place as their poop and some of the hens body parts "privates" are called the same as ours....I had no idea!
The other book I borrowed that I am really enjoying is "Just One More Thing Doc" - Further Farmyard Adventures of a Maine Veterinarian by Bradford Brown. I am only on chapter 2 and I find myself reading it with a smirk on my face. I will post more on this later.
Have a good night all!

Everyday I learn something new

Since I started blogging the times that I post are always off by hours and I finally figured out that I could change the setting over to Eastern time... hello.

On Wednesday we finally received our chicks, all 2oo of them as you can see in the videos. We have only lost 2, 1 was DOA (dead on arrival...sorry can't help but use my ER terminology) and one passed today. That is not too bad considering they were in the mail for 2 days. Usually they are only in the mail one day but someone messed up and they were shipped to a post-office up north. With the birds we received a handout and it said "do not feed fruit to layers, since it can cause them to stop laying and it may take six weeks for them to start again." That was news to me! In the summer we often throw out scraps of fruits and veggies to the birds. I guess I will be a little more selective because I want these chicks to lay at their potential this summer.

I had to put the picture in of our first cucumber, it is about 3 inches long, yeah we can grow veggies inside! John had a GREAT idea, he said instead of putting up a greenhouse we should just add on a sun room to the side of the house. We will get more use of it rather than a detached building and it will be easier to heat. I am afraid for financial reasons it will have to wait but it is a good plan for the future. We need to do a lot of work on the sheds & barn and we need a tractor and I must have a pool this summer, priorities.

2 days until April and we are still freezing. :(

Ok I am off to finish reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. Great book, must read for anyone who is interested in becoming self-sufficient and/or eating locally. Lots of great recipes I look forward to using! The author talks about drying vegetables, something I never thought of before and we all have dehydrators. Her husband talks a lot about making homemade breads with his bread maker which is another dusted over item most of us have stashed somewheres. My goal for tomorrow is to dig it out of the barn (still packed from our move 1+yrs ago) and see what kind of mess I can make. Check out their web site http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/