When I said that katahdins shed kinda like a horse would in the springtime, I meant that some of them shed in the springtime, same as a horse. After that the similarities stop. Horses shed their fine hair rather evenly. Katahdins on the other hand might shed coarse hair with a certain amount of fine wooly undercoat in funny looking clumps or even sheets. Each sheep sheds a little differently, depending on its coat type. Phoebe here has rubbed up against the fence and effectively taken the shedding hair off her sides already, leaving the top part of her coat a little rough looking.
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Duck eggs have a higher albumin content and a slightly lower water content than a chicken egg. They have a higher level of omega-3 fatty acids too. Also, duck eggs have a larger yolk in comparison to the overall size of their egg. Since duck eggs are bigger you do have to be careful substituting them for chicken eggs in exact baking recipes, although it can be done. Other than this little consideration, you can confidently use duck eggs almost exactly the same as chicken eggs. They taste delicious and make very wonderful egg dishes.
Not much can compare to new baby chicks. It feels like Christmas and Easter all rolled into one. The post office called me yesterday and told me that my babies had arrived! Although they will deliver them right to my door, sometimes it's faster to go pick them up myself as soon as the truck arrives. (It's also fun to hear them peeping and chirping in the box and enjoy the curious stares and surprised smiles from anyone else in the post office that didn't know you could order baby chicks in the mail.) Little chicks can last up to 72 hours without food or water right after they are hatched, but really the sooner you can get them eating and drinking after their trip (which usually lasts about two days) the better. So I went and got them right away. I took them out of the box one by one and made sure each chick had gotten a drink of water mixed with some "quick chick" electrolytes and a little sugar before placing them into a cozy bed of hay in a horse trough in the tack room under a heat lamp with chick food and water where they would be warm and safe from the nosy cats.
Apparently my nieces know me pretty well. For Christmas this year they got me coffee (You can't go wrong there), a pretty new green coffee mug (can you say comfort), and a book. James Herriot is one of my favorite authors, so this little find by Dr. John McCormack I couldn't wait to start reading. Dr. McCormack moved, along with his wife and two small children, to rural Alabama in 1963 to start up a veterinary practice. He was in fact the first licensed vet to set up in the area, so truly a special part of American history is chronicled in these pages, as well as some completely endearing and rather hilarious stories. I certainly had no idea what "the hollertail" was. I also would have paid money to have seen a video of the intoxicated sick cow that got into the illegal whiskey still throw up all over the young vet, who had just gotten through telling the cow owner that cattle don't throw up. (Ok, so she didn't technically throw up. She may have gotten a little help from the stomach tube he had just passed down her throat. But still.) Anyway, I've read some of the stories out loud to the hubs, who has both enjoyed the special and emotional stories and laughed uproariously with me over the funny ones. Thanks girls, for finding and giving me a few of my favorite things.
"I see you have goats!" If I had a dollar for every time someone said this to me... For all you city folk out there, let me explain: Goats have small pointy tails that stick straight up in the air, kinda like a deer, while sheep have long tails that hang down, kinda like that of a cow. There, that was easy, wasn't it? But, you say, I thought sheep had short stubby tails and thick puffy wooly coats! Well, katahdins are a type of hair sheep, so they aren't very wooly to speak of. They shed their winter coats sort of like a horse would in the springtime. It isn't necessary to shear, or clip their coats, because they shed naturally. Of course, if you are into wool and want the fiber, then hair sheep are not for you. However, if you are looking for a meat breed that tolerates the heat well, then meet katahdins. When I was growing up, my family had a tradition. On Sunday nights we would gather around the table and a big wooden bowl of golden, fluffy and fragrant, freshly-popped popcorn. We sat around and stuffed our faces and laughed and recounted stories together and basically had a grand old time. Sometimes a few of our friends would join with us and that made it all the more fun. We would find something we deemed hilarious to talk about and then laugh until our sides hurt. Dad would cut up apples and pass the pieces around and we would slather the crunchy slices in delicious peanut butter. “Apples with peanut butter?!” I remember a couple of times that some poor friend had never seen such a thing before, and it would garner odd or quizzical stares. Invariably however, if we could just get said skeptical person to try it, the usual response was, “Hey this is pretty good!” Yep. When we had all eaten just about as much as we could, and dad’s offer of more apple pieces was met with, “No really I’m just too full,” instead of, “Well maybe just one more,” we would clear the table and play Apples to Apples and laugh some more until our sides hurt again.
Phoebe is only a yearling. She just had her first birthday this past December. Yesterday as we were taking a walk around looking at things, Lance noticed that Phoebe was in labor. I had wanted to witness a lamb birth for quite some time. Up until this point though it had always somehow happened when we were either sleeping or gone from the house altogether, as though the stork had just delivered them out of thin air and they appeared like beautiful little presents in the field, received lovingly by the expectant mothers. This time though we were fortunate and privileged to witness a miracle.
You can learn a lot from your neighbors. Sometimes even the smallest bit of wisdom learned from a neighbor can completely revolutionize your life. My neighbors have literally saved the lives of a few of my animals in the past. But those are stories for another day. If any of my neighbors are reading this, and you know who you are, then please know that I am deeply grateful for you. In any case, back to the story at hand:
My friend and neighbor, Sonny, can literally grow anything. Her freezer is full of blackberries and figs and peaches. She and her husband grow, harvest and sell the most wonderful pecans, and she never hesitates to share. On more than one occasion she has lined the back table at church with a beautiful offering of fat green cabbages and plump juicy red tomatoes. The advantages of being in a small church community in the South are, “Ya’ll take some I’ve got too many! Here’s you some plastic Wal-Mart bags to put stuff in!” |
AuthorI'm Debbie. I love listening to chickens cackle and sing. I love Lindt chocolate truffles, a good cup of coffee, and a good book. Archives
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