Tuesday - coop cleaning, garlic planting, quick crochet and what am I reading

Yesterday we took a day off to get away and road to the mountains.  It was a gorgeous warm day... 70's on the plains and upper 40's F in the mountains.  Snow is due this weekend but for now, it is beautiful. 

We drove up to Breckenridge, Colorado. 

 It was a wonderful day together. 

We will be taking the Georgetown Loop Train sometime in the near future and stopped to get inspired. 

Today I went to the grocery store... well, a big box warehouse to get big stuff like laundry soap, softener, cheese, salt(which I found out they didn't have), coffee, and water. Dude went to return the plywood we just bought... wrong size. 

Later I got garlic ready for Dude to plant (he wants straight rows, I roll my eyes). Dude planted 66 cloves of garlic today.

We giggle because when I got home Norman only uses his dog door to see who is here. 

Next up I need to clean the three bird houses.  We have 30 hens right now.  While I opened up the coop to clean the boxes and living area they girls decided it was a good time to go exploring. 

The cats thought it was a purrrrfect day to sun themselves.

I kept cleaning.  They will begin laying any day now. 

All  the manure goes to the compost pile. We had two wheelbarrows full. 

Ahhh sooo clean. 

Next the bird house... nice and fresh. 

They love to come in to inspect and toss the chips around where they would like them to go. 

Ready for egg laying. 

The hens see their coop is all clean and off they go to arrange the chips and inspect my work. 

Made some fall dish cloths.

What I am reading. 

Time to frost and decorate CAKE! 

peace 

Rainy day... chicken soup, what's growing and other stuff

It is a cold a rainy day but we love these kinds of days.  In such a dry place as we live, rain brings life. 

I began the day putting chicken noodle soup in the crockpot. 

It started with 6 cups of chicken stock, two cups of leftover roasted chicken, two sliced carrots, two sliced celery, a chopped onion, 2 bay leaves, teaspoon of thyme, minced garlic, crushed red pepper,  salt and pepper. 

Add it all to the crockpot. We will come back to it later to add noodles and lemon juice. 

We took a walk in the drizzling rain. The cactus are in bloom! 

The little lambs don't mind the rain. 

Second try at the greenhouse with new seeds and all is growing again... thank goodness. 

The mint is going crazy so I cut a bunch of it this morning. 

And hung it to dry. We use this for teas, the chicken coop, and much more. There will be many more cuttings. 

After a bit of tidying up I popped in a movie and began to crochet.  I needed new dish clothes. 

People give me stuff they find at their moms and grandmas that are no longer used. I love how old this one is. 

 It will be transformed to new dish clothes for me. 

In the end I did get three made.  I love these. All cotton and durable. 

Chocolate... check. 

Hard boil eggs to pickle tomorrow.

Headed back to the crock pot.  Added lemon juice, lemon pepper, homemade noodles and our parsley, heat for 5 minutes more. Dinner is ready.  

Served with toast, Dude loved it.  A slow day needs slow food. 

The rest of the night will be in front of the fireplace with a book. 

peace