Hens – Page 3 – Karla's Cottage

Yummy Bread Machine bread – too, too good

Dew Drop, fairies, family, Food and Drink, Hens, paintings

By Karla Nathan / June 29, 2012

This week has been a hodge podge. I repainted a fairy, finished another, signed up a TON of people for the swap (yay! This will be a fun one!), babysat my own little fairies, and baked a TON of bread. I might just weigh a TON more now that I've experimented with my new bread machine a bit…

As the smell of fresh baked bread fills the house, my Sister-In-Law, Sandy, and I do all we can to stop ourselves from standing over it, each clutching a stick of butter in our greedy little paws.

You know you've baked too much, when you realize the 5 lb bag of flour is empty.

I'm not a measuring type, but I've tried to approximate measures, so that the machine will be filled with the right amounts, and not overflow. And I've learned that as much as I love the pure whole wheat flour, it can be a bit heavy for most people. I've switched to mostly whole wheat, and about a 1/3 bread flour. Its lighter and breadier.

Pure whole wheat does make a good, solid, filling peasant type bread though.

Here is my favorite made up recipe (sort of- my own measurements are eyeballed)

Yummy Bread (as Sugarwings calls it)

1-1/2 cup leftover coffee, still warm, not hot (I drink Starbucks Vanilla)

1/2 cup organic clover honey

3/4 cup dried mixed berries

1/2 cup roasted pumpkin seeds

1/2 cup roasted sunflower seeds

2 cups whole wheat flour (organic)

1 cup unbleached organic bread flour

2-1/4 tsp bread machine yeast

Dump into machine in that order. From what I hear, you want the liquid on the bottom and the yeast on the top. I don't know why.

Bake on the whole wheat setting.

Stand by with your stick of butter so you are ready when the bread is done! (notice that I didn't add oil or butter to the mix? I forgot to, and liked it better this way, it was moist and soft, and I put enough butter on top while its hot, that I do not need any inside the loaf too)

Bread machines are too, too easy to use. It takes me less than five minutes to make a loaf of deliciousness. If I keep this up, I will become housebound, too big to fit through the front door.

On Thursday, it got up to 107 degrees. In June. Yes, 107. Dang!

I had both little girls here, and we really did try to play outside. We turned on the hose, made mud pies and stayed in the shade till almost noon. I was proud of myself for staying out that long. As soon as lunch time came, I had the perfect excuse to give up on the great outdoors and get into the air conditioning.

Then, we did the same thing we do on blizzardy days. We built a fort of blankets over the dining room table, filled the floor with pillows and climbed in to watch movies and read books. We also brought markers, and drew all over the under belly of the table. Sugawings traced her foot and I dated it.

It was too hot for the chickens today too, when I turned on the hose to water the flower beds, a couple of them dove in to cool off in the water.

There hasn't been a lot of time for making things other than bread this week. I did finish a few book covers for the swap, I need to keep on top of that and make a few here and there, so I'm not swamped with too many at the last moment. We are at about 60 or so right now.

I hope you'll join us if you haven't yet.

Believe it or not, I actually made time to list some millinery packs in the Boutique!

Including some Halloween/Autumn tones.

And one magnificent double white rose with white velvet ribbons!

Winged friends

fairies, Hens, paintings, swaps

By Karla Nathan / June 23, 2012

Things are going well with the Ladies. They are feeling enough at home that we can leave their doors open all day, and they return to the coop to lay their eggs.

We have 8 boxes for them, but there are only two or three that they like. And they deposit the eggs together in the same nest all day. The next day they might use a different box, but all will use the chosen box of the day.

The Rhode Island Reds are about as lovable as a chicken can be. All run up to me when I step outside. I'd like to think its genuine fondness, but I think they are just greedy pigs and wondering if I might have a treat.

What surprises me about hens, is how soft they are. And that some of them actually seem to like to be petted.

Our other four ladies, the Americaunas and Red Stars, are not nearly as friendly, but I hope that changes. They are much larger, louder, messier, and squawk at me like I have no right in the coop. I am kind of wishing I'd stuck with just the Rhode Island Reds, since they are so sweet, adorable and act like they are thrilled to see me.

I guess its time to tell the big, noisy, messy birds that they are too juicy and fat to not at least pretend to like me. Because I love fried chicken more than I love hens who act like I am an annoyance in their lives… No, thier eggs are too pretty to give up on them. Sugarwings and I enjoy the blue eggs they produce.

Don't forget, we are having a Faerie Book Swap! Scroll down a couple posts for details. I painted this fairy as a possible part of the collage for the cover, but I'm not sure I want to use it. I think I'd rather have a more vintagey looking fairy.

What do you think?

Welcoming the hens to their shabby chic chicken coop

Hens, kitties, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / May 19, 2012

The ladies seem to be adjusting to their new home and are happy to be here. They came from a larger group of chickens, and I think they will like their extra space and room to roam. Ariel appreciates the mirror.

They've been up on their perches too, and even like the chandeliers. I'll have to get a picture of them on one.

Sugarwings tends to think of the coop as her playhouse, but it hasn't been covered in poo yet.

Soon, it will be much less appealing to hang out in.

Ariel, Small World, Unicorn, and Mator don't use their nesting boxes yet, though. The eggs (yep, we already have egg production starting the first day!) are nested under the table holding the boxes instead of in them.

We started with 4 Rhode Island Reds, and have room for lots more, so will pick up a variety of different kinds of birds later on. We found these on Craigs List for six bucks a piece, and the farmer met us halfway from his place in the country to drop them off.

I'd really like to get some that lay those pretty blue/green eggs.

And I look forward to the time when I can let them have the whole yard to play in and find bugs. For now, they are penned in till they adjust.

The other animals will need some adjustment time too. Twinkle and the cats have been pacing along the fence trying to find thier way in to properly greet the new arrivals. I have a feeling that Twinks will need to be locked up whenever the ladies are having a promenade around the yard.

Or the birds won't be surviving very long. I'm not sure about the cats. Can a cat take out a hen? I know they want to.

We were told that our coop could hold 50 chickens comfortably, but we aren't interested in doing that. Maybe 10-12 at the most. I don't want so many that I can't get to know them!

Happy Mother’s Day!

Hens, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / May 13, 2012

When I got back from California, there was a delightful surprise waiting for me as a Mother's Day gift! Our Gypsy and Dewdrop completely cleaned up my studio and garage from the chaotic mess left behind from Birdsong!

She even took photos of them at work for me. And it looks like they turned the day into a party, drinking ginger ale from the plastic wine flutes I'd bought for the event.

Before I left on my trip, I was drained and exhausted from the prep and work, and excitement of Birdsong and I just wasn't up to cleaning up before my flight. Then, I was even more tired from a week of fun on the trip and dreaded facing the rooms as I'd left them.

It was the best gift ever to get home and see how thoughtful my girls are!! They cleaned, swept, and put all the furniture back in place. I don't know how the two of them managed to bring the big dining room table from the garage to the studio on their own.

Not only that, but she saved up some floor sweepings while she worked. Its funny because when Beth and I cleaned the room to get ready for Birdsong, Beth told me that there was enough detritus on the floor to make a whole project. And after the party, there was apparently even more.

Because that is just what our Beloved Gypsy did! She used the feathers, glitter, moss, ephemera, ribbons, lace and beads to create a wire wrapped fairy for me.

Now, that is a true souvenir of the weekend! And one of the sweetest Mother's Day Gifts ever.

But that isn't all, today is shaping up to be quite the Mom's Day. My family made an early morning run to a farm to buy us some hens! Yep, the ladies are finally here.

I'll have some photos of Ariel, Small World, Unicorn, and Mator soon. (guess who just got back from Disney and was full of great names for the new pets?) But for now, I'm off to enjoy my special day and hang out with my loved ones.

I hope that your day is a special one too.

A home for the hens

cottage, dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Hens

By Karla Nathan / April 10, 2012

Everyone around here is excited about the rehab of the chicken coop!

This old building has been through many transformations, and as good as I can guess, this will be its third time to serve as a home to a flock of birds. Its also been a woodworking shop, an antique store, a dog run, a hang out for my Jr High school age boys, and lately, a storage shed..

Now, back to being a chicken coop!

When I used this for an antique store, we ran electricity out to it, put on a new roof and painted it all a barely there, blush pink. I think the ladies will enjoy nesting in that flattering color. They will feel so pretty in the ambient lighting and soft pink walls.

(we still need to hang the feeder, right now, its just sitting under the bench. If we tried to feed them there, they would argue over access to the goodies. And it needs to be hung up so it doesn't get pooped in as much. They will be pooping in it no matter what, but higher is better)

We've provided a couple of mirrors so they can check themselves out. I hear that chickens enjoy looking at themselves.

There are also lots of roosting materials, an old lawn chair, and branches screwed to the walls all around like a jungle gym.

The old painting on the wall is simply for their enjoyment.

A couple of chandeliers that no longer work were hung up for more roosting, and for lighting, I hung a ceramic lamp with a cracked base that was laying out in the shed.

The bench we built to set the nesting boxes on is just the right height to store bales of straw. They slide right under it, and don't leave space for the hens to roost (and poop) on the straw.

No ETA on when the girls will be moving in. But we are set and ready to welcome them to their new home.

The building has two sides, the long, narrow one that the ladies will be calling home, and a big square room next to it that the cats like to hang out in.

This side is where we keep lawn furniture in the winter, supposedly. But other things tend to accumlate too.

I've valiently tried to not let things pile up in here, but I'm glad I let a few things slip, because this is the place I raided to find the pretties for the coop. Nothing nice, just some old beat up stuff too nice to toss and I'm glad it had piled up there for me to dig through!

I'll let you know what the girls think of it all when they move in.