Friday was a sad day. My two most consistent layers were killed by a fox. I found them both, or what was left of them in the yard. The evidence was written all over the snow. Despite Trip's sweet offer to do so, I buried them on my own, far from the house. These were my girls. I raised them, I loved them. They have all lived in my house at some point and I have to face such hard truths myself, as they are my responsibility. Farm life will go on, I suppose.
May your final resting place be full of organic, vine ripened, heirloom tomatoes, Whitey and Black Bird!
In brighter news, I found a website; Restaurant.com. There you can buy gift certificates for participating restaurants in your area for a really discounted price. For example, I bought a 25 dollar gift certificate to a sushi joint in town for 2 dollars (a special they were running, they send them to members all the time). You have to spend a minimum of 40, but it's still a sweet deal. Basically you spend 17 bucks on a 40 dollar meal. Way to go, me. Actually, my friend told me about it, but... I'm still gonna claim it, don't judge.
Anyway, we played a little dress up for our date night, and I thought I'd catch Trip while he was wearing his new Christmas clothes and playing Yahtzee. He's so handsome. :)
The next night was a little less formal, with a lot more action. Thankfully none from the fire department. Some pyromaniac friends brought some Christmas trees over to burn in our yard. I had had no idea that Christmas trees burn with such intensity, but they really do. Take my word for it. I got nervous a couple times. In the photo you can see the fire reaching up and grabbing our pine tree, which is about 15 feet away and 10 feet up from the burn pit. Creepy!
Sunday I set out to build another chicken tractor. The poor remaining five girls are all huddling inside the coop Trip made in the spring. It's a wonderful coop, but not meant to house that many birds. Luckily it is winter, and they are still in shock from seeing the death of their sisters. They won't even peep their heads out of the house unless I go out there and coax them out with sweet talking and spoiled food from the kitchen. :(
When I finish the tractor, I'll make a pictorial guide, but it's quite easy and transportable. I am loosely basing mine off of this design, but hopefully much sturdier, as this one looks like it'll collapse if anything tests the wire from the outside (i.e, dog or fox). And Dad, you will be proud, I used the table saw AND the circular saw in one day without a single casualty.
To prepare ourselves for working on the porch in the cold, I decided to finally attempt some real hot cocoa. The other day I broke down and bought some cocoa from the store, and I simply followed the recipe on the side. It's rather easy, and although it takes a little more effort than pre-packaged stuff, it's worth it, especially if you are trying to convince your boyfriend that you really *do* need a table saw tutorial for the seventh time... I remember my Grandma Nancy used to make it all the time, sometimes with minty cocoa. It was always delicious, but seemed a mysterious ingestible that only women over 40 can produce (you know these types of things, like fried chicken and meatloaf). I took the plunge and went for it, despite my sixteen year handicap. Tutorial follows:
Ingredients, pretty simple (if you want really rich stuff, maybe try adding some cream into your milk... mm!).
Put all dry ingredients (with some warm water) into a pan and boil for a couple minutes, stirring occasionally. Isn't that a sweet whisk?! The thick chocolatey delicious mixture gets thrown into some milk that was warming in the meantime, throw in 3/4 tbsp of vanilla extract and...
Bada bing bada boom! Instantly your boyfriend will give you a tutorial for use and upkeep of every tool he owns, at least four times! Ahh, it's not easy being a genius.
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