Our ladies are laying three eggs a day now. This leaves us with 21 eggs a week, which means I can justify being on team Swanson/Knope up there regarding having breakfast for every meal.

The timing of our chickens producing more eggs and deciding to reduce our meat intake (sorry, Ron Swanson) could not have been better. Eggs have provided a nice, backyard-sourced meat alternative. Yes, sure, chickens produce environmental waste. But given that we free range them, feed them organic food when they can’t range and use their waste materials (pine shavings and poop) to supplement our compost, it’s pretty much the circle of life around here.

If you’re looking to eat less meat but still have some animal protein, or if you just like DELICIOUS FOOD, here are three super-easy-yet-kind-of-gourmet egg meals for you!

… for at least a little while, anyway, because it’s forecast to be 50 degrees on Thursday.  But, in the meantime, let’s enjoy these photos of our iced-in property I took on Monday, risking pinkies and toes in the 2 degree weather (-10 degrees in the whistling wind).

Source

After Foxpocolypse 2018, when a fox with mange killed five of our chickens, we decided we’d need to add some new chickens to the flock come spring …

So, yeah, it’s been a strange winter here in New England. No snow where we are, but for a few flurries. It was 60 degrees last week! Maybe this is the new normal, but it seems very bizarre to me. One nice thing is that all the rain we’ve been getting has created a beautiful muted green landscape around our property …

Sad news – our rooster died on Friday, killed by a fox. The plus side is that he likely saved some hens, because judging by the feathers everywhere he put up a pretty good fight.

We recently had our first freeze, which destroyed our poor tomato plants, and left us with an absurd amount of green tomatoes.

Oh, composting. I’ve been composting for two years now. We have a septic system, so can’t put food down the drain. We also have a great need for compost due to our extensive gardening, and it’s really been amazing to use in the garden. So, what have I learned about composting?

There are three basic ways to preserve (most) herbs. Dry them, put them in vinegar or freeze them. My favorite, by far, is freezing.

Last April, we purchased twelve egg layer chicks from our local feed store. One of our Welsummers turned out to be a rooster. This was a stroke of luck for us, because we’d wanted to try out having a rooster, due to a lot of problems with predators. Now that we’ve had the rooster for about six months, I have a good idea of the pros and cons to rooster ownership to help you decide if you, too, want to get a rooster!

I never had much appreciation for hydrangeas, as I’m not that big a fan of their classic purple color (clearly I’m in the minority here in New England, where purple hydrangea proliferate). Since we’ve been at our house, though, I’ve grown a real appreciation for our hydrangea bushes, which shift from light green, to almost white, to a beautiful ombré magenta in fall.

Fall is by far my favorite season for our hydrangea. Look at these colors!