Predators Beware

Last week, Lawman took a shot at a scraggly looking fox that the guinea birds had hemmed up behind the house. The weapon of choice was a shotgun, and the fox rolled over and ran away. Lawman followed a blood trail to the ponds below the house and figured it would crawl off and die someplace. Apparently, he only winged it. It came back for round two this week, but he didn't leave under his own power.
We were enjoying a rare quiet moment in the great room with the wonder twins when we heard the guinea birds go off. Cupcake went to one door, Lawman to the other and we saw the fox behind the coop stalking a chicken. Problem solved, problem staying solved.

Any time we kill a predator, we bring it up to the yard so all the birds can see it's dead. They get all hinked up when they know a predator is stalking the area, so the dead critter puts everyone at ease.

And speaking of quiet times with the wonder twins, we thought maybe we would share our failure to puppy proof various things around the house. When we first got them, we thought we had everything squared away and ready for them. We were wrong. Anything they can see, they will chew.

They are a hand full. But they are not at all gun shy. Each time Lawman shoots at something they are right there with him. Now when Lawman grabs a gun, the twins are ready to roll.
We tried a new recipe for Sunday morning biscuits this week. This recipe calls for yeast. We gave it a try and we liked it. We will probably keep these in the rotation for a while.

We made a pizza pie for dinner one night, it's been a while since we did pizza.

Paprika chicken another night

And of course we had a fresh baked cobbler for dessert this week. Pears from our trees was the flavor this week.

We end the update with the great blizzard of 2020. This may be the biggest snow of this winter

We ended the week with prep work for a new week with the twins.
K&K

Sweet as Honey

We opened up our last jar of honey this week. Lawman checked on the bees recently and both hives are still going, so the plan is to harvest any leftover honey in a month or so after the bloom starts.

To celebrate opening our holdout jar, Cupcake made honey roasted pecans to add to our chicken salad one night.

Other food related items this week included a blast from the past. Paprika chicken

Home made nachos with sliced brisket

Chip beef gravy on homemade toast

The Girl even got in on the action and made a shepherds pie from a recipe she found on the interwebs. She made the entire dish herself.

This week marks one month of having the wonder twins at The Acre. We took them for their 12 week shots/check-up. They were ten pounds when we picked them up, they both came in around 25 pounds each at the vet. We celebrated with bath nite and new harnesses. They have gone through three sets of harnesses so far.

The Acre grooming includes the latest fur drying technology from Dyson

Then it was nap time

Once dry, the new harness and back to going wide open

We ended the week wishing we had time for a nap
K&K

Farm Dogs

We have started the wonder twins on a routine that they have adapted to very well so far. They understand commands to go outside, eat, go to bed. But their favorite is going to the chicken coop. They are too excited to eat in the morning because they know Lawman is going to let them tag along to release the birds. They go along to gather eggs mid day, and to lock them up at night. It's the one time we leave them off leash outside. They love flushing the birds out in the mornings, and tag along close going and coming back.

"Don't make us come in there after you"

Our newest ducks to the flock started laying eggs on the regular this week. We get a dozen or so eggs a day from them every morning. One huge egg came along Friday morning.

Hard to tell just how big it is here

Super duck egg

Regular duck egg

Double yolker

Our peach trees have started to wilt. We're not sure why. We keep the water on a regular basis, as much sun as we can get to them. Anyone with ideas are welcome to share with us.

Saturday mornings after pancakes, we clean the great room because that's Wonder Twin central. While we were moving the couches and mopping the floors, Lawman decided to make a batch of chicken noodle soup for our dinner Saturday night.

Cupcake broke out one of her cookbooks and found a recipe for brown bread that she wanted to try. It called for oatmeal and molasses so it was something new and we had to try it.

Soaking the oats

Yeast bread always rocks

The bread was so good, we sliced up the second loaf and toasted it Sunday morning to put our chipped beef gravy on. It would have made any Army cook proud.
And what's a fine meal without an apple cobbler?

We ended the week with more training of the twins.
K&K

Saturday is Bath Day

We have two country farm dogs. And like all good farm families, Saturday night is bath night. The wonder twins got to smelling like wet dogs after the four inches of rain this week. After the heavy rain we decided to take the wonder twins down to check on the ponds and they came back covered head to toe in mud. Now they smell like baby powder.

After we got them washed down, the kids toweled them off and used the new Dyson hair dryer to dry them off. The ordeal was exhausting for them and they got a nap.

And who wouldn't enjoy a chew on the stool after a nice nap?

On non dog related business this week, we learned our neighbor lady had the flu, so we whipped up a batch of homemade chicken noodle soup.

And we had to eat this week, so we did. Cupcake made an awesome chicken/strawberry salad for dinner one night.

And since we were using our home grown blueberries, we made a blueberry cobbler one night.

Watching one of the food programs on TV, we saw an older woman from North Carolina who has a little chicken shack. She was willing to share her recipe for fried chicken, and it was so simple we managed to remember how to do it without having to take notes. We bought a small pack of chicken legs to make a trial run, and it turned out perfect.

It was crispy, tender and moist on the inside. Lawman has been cleared to add this recipe to the rotation on week night dinners.
Since Wade's Grocery closed last month, we've had to look elsewhere for our fresh meats. Willis Food Mart is a bit of a schlep but it's a family run joint who cuts their own meat and makes their own sausage. We picked up a couple pounds of sausage and the small pack of chicken legs. Both were excellent and we will be doing our fresh meat trading there from now on.

On another local run note, we have been buying our milk from a local dairy. They sell their milk in glass bottles with a deposit, so the bottles need to be returned. We figure this is a win/win since the bottles are being reused, no plastic goes to the landfill, and it's a local outfit, so big business isn't filling us full of hormones when we make gravy.

The gravy is complements of The Boy and his local sourced deer tenderloin.

While it was raining this week, Lawman took a few hours to smoke a batch of bacon we had curing in the fridge. He gave it around two hours of low heat smoke just to add a little flavor, then froze the bacon to keep until we are ready to slice it.

We ended this week with more potty training.
K&K