Holiday Chow

We ended the week on a holiday. We had the family over and made our usual big meal, the chirruns wore themselves out with all things chickens then Lawman and Cupcake grabbed a nap.

Henry seemed to really like the mac-n-cheese (and it's not the 'crazy granny' man-n-cheese either) he was working the spoon like a shovel, right out of the dish.
We started the big meal off with our first ever Smithfield Ham.

We opened it up and gave it a good scrub/soak. We might want to give it another couple of days soak next time? We learn as we go.

We fired up the smoker at 0500 Sunday morning and let it slow smoke until around noon.

To the untrained eye, you think it's burnt. But brother, it ain't burnt....

Having a few chickens around as we do, we had to make fresh deviled eggs, or as Henry calls them "half eggs".

Then Cupcake made banana pudding. We use nutter butters instead of wafers.

Early in the week, Cupcake wanted to try a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake. Lawman is on a cheesecake roll of late, so he whipped her one up.

We had the usual trimmings. Corn pudding, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes and Henry's new favorite, mac-n-cheese.
Prior to the holiday, we had a couple of projects we got out of the way. For starters, cleaning the coop de ville out.
Anybody remember the make shift MOPP gear mask the Army used medical cravates to make? Lawman remembers

 We took two truckloads of straw and poop to the garden and dumped it out. We will work it in the soil as we plant this year

We did plant our beets, hot peppers, peas, cabbage and a row of early green beans this week too.
Next, we changed the oil in our trucks. Thanks again to "The Outlaw" who was always too sorry to change Cupcake's oil for her. Lawman takes care of it for her these days.

We have three birds that went broody in our first coop. We left them alone because the three have been staying in the woods for almost a year. We were glad to have them in a coop. This week the eggs they had been laying on began to hatch.

Which came in handy because the chirruns like to play with chicks, and it keeps them occupied.

Teaching chicks to dance ballet

After the dust settled, we grabbed a nap.
K&K