A Close Call

Our male dog, Max, is a playful dog. He enjoys "herding the ducks", which you can read about here. Every night it's his job to ensure the ducks go in. The chickens usually go in on their own. No problem,  Right! There always seems to be an exception in every rule. Tonight was the exception.

Twin One

Max went out with my husband, Ted, as usual. One Bard Rock Chicken was still out. We call her Twin One because she looks like her sister. In the past we couldn't tell them apart. We now can because of their behavior, Twin One is gutsy and argumentative, Twin Two (Rockett) doesn't even like to come out of the house. She is a real loner.

With Twin One being feisty, she has had previous run-ins with Max. Being a fun loving boy, he always thinks she is playing. Until she repeatedly pecks him and Ted has to call him away before he gets hurt. (He has never attempted to hurt her.)

Max wanting to have fun.

 The ducks being in, didn't need to be herded. Seeing Twin One out was not normal, and Max, must of felt he needed to correct the matter. He picked her whole body up in his mouth and started carrying her into the chicken house. My poor husband started yelling at him "drop it!" Max stood there a few minutes with a confused look before he dropped her, uninjured thankfully. He is very tender-hearted dog and doesn't like to be yelled at. I am sure in his mind, he was just doing his job.

Ducks already in. No herding tonight.

I'm sure Twin One was emotionally ruffled, which is nothing new for her. I also believe she learned her lesson about not being in bed on time. Max is an obedient, quick learner and I'm sure he won't pick up another chicken.

Max Says Goodnight

Every night my husband locks our chickens and ducks in their house. Each night Max goes with him to help. Max is always eager to go "herd the ducks".  When he hears the question "Max, you ready to go herd the ducks?" he begins prancing around, wagging his tail and goes to the front door.

If the ducks are still in the main yard and haven't returned to their yard, Max will circle around them and push under their backside to urge them on. The ducks have become so familiar with this ritual that as soon as they see him they start running. Or should I say waddling as fast as they can.

Once Max has them in their house, he says goodnight to the chickens too. Of course nuzzling their fluffy backsides.

No chicken or duck was hurt during the nightly ritual of "backside nuzzling".

Chicken Cannibals

My chickens love scraps from our kitchen. Whenever we have a few scraps, we take them outside and call "Here Buck Buck" and the chickens come running. (My Father-in-Law started calling them Buck Buck. That's another story) The fowl were not disappointed today. On Saturday I baked a chicken with seasonings: thyme, basil, salt and pepper. I had placed carrots in the pan with the chicken. I made mashed potatoes and chocolate pie. Our drink was Southern Sweet Tea. A grand meal for our family.

Even with all we ate, there were few pieces of meat left on the carcass, with congealed juices. My husband did the honors today and provided the chickens and ducks with the carcass and a little Bar-B-Que sauce. When he went out there, they came running. They fiercely and quickly pecked at the carcass. They were so quick some of our pictures are blurred. They were trying to eat before the ducks came and shoved their way in.

Five of my six girls, enjoying a bite to eat. 

Spot waddled over to see the commotion.

Maxine, the dirty duck on the right, followed Spot. 

The dirty duck took off with the carcass. Little Red "What happened?"

Feeding Time

We had a few scraps of food in the refrigerator that I decided to give to my backyard fiends. They were anxious when they saw me coming to them. Little Red was the first one at my feet, looking up at me for a treat. The ducks of course were hissing in defense, trying to run me back out the gate.

Little Red, first to always greet me.

Guard duck, Spot.

The ducks have never been out of the yard, all they know is the gate is an entrance for us to get in their territory. Unlike Little Red who has gotten out and ran down the street when we first moved into our house. Our 85 + year old neighbor called us one day to let us know our Little Red Hen had gotten out and was running rampant down the street.

I first put the bowls of peaches down. They began to eat. The ducks squeezed in because they weren't going to be left out. All of my fowl like peaches. Especially the fresh ones that come off the tree in the summer. I actually get to hand feed my ferocious ducks. I'm happy to say, I have never been bitten, hand feeding them peaches.

Yummy peaches!

"Move aside, I'm coming in!"

When I saw the ducks crowding the chickens and pulling their feathers, I put down some sloppy joe meat. The chickens flocked to it and began quickly eating, forgetting the peaches. The ducks quickly saw there was something else to munch. They started bulling the chickens to get to the meat. The chickens would run out of the ducks way and run back when they thought the ducks weren't watching, snatching another bite.

They like a little bit of tangy meat.  

Maxine left the peaches for the meat too. 

After the meat was gone, the birds didn't finish the peaches. They wanted more meat and weren't going to settle for less. I will be baking a chicken this weekend. (From the grocery store) I want to see how they respond to a chicken carcass. Stay tuned for Chicken Cannibals next week.

During the Night

Our chickens snuggle down every night either on top of the nest boxes or in them. Other animals besides our fowl are not usually in there. Max our male dog is normally the only visitor at night. He does his normal backside nuzzling and leaves with my husband.

"Good night chicken"

One night this week was different though. We are not fully complete with out new chicken house. Some areas of the walls the insulation is exposed. One such area during the night was shredded. Something had either nested in it or tried to get out. The "something" my husband found out was a small quail. It may have been small but it did damage to the one section.

Quail damage

Can you find the Bunny?

Sunny, warm days will usually bring my bunny Knuckles out from hiding. She likes to lie in the sun and soak in the warmth. Normally, She is burrowed down in her hutch and only comes out to eat and drink. Whenever she is not burrowing, she is still hard to see because of all the grass hay. I caught a glimpse of her the other day and snapped a photo. Can you find the dwarf bunny?

Pretty easy to see for once. 

Grandma's Favorite Childhood Cake

My mother-in-law called me the other night, telling me it was her mother's 86 birthday on Friday. She wanted me to bake her mother's birthday cake. (I thought I can do that. I know how to bake a cake.) She invited me to lunch with them, just us girls. After lunch we would come back to my house and eat cake with the guys. (My son and husband).

This past Tuesday prior to the birthday, Mom dropped off ingredients for the cake she wanted me to use. It was an old fashioned recipe that was her mother's favorite childhood cake. (tomato soup cake.) I was like "sure, Okay, whatever you want me to do." She left a box of spice cake mix, one can of tomato soup and a container of homestyle cream cheese frosting. "I will call later with the list of other ingredients you will need to use. You do have eggs right?" (I have 6 chickens and 98 eggs so far this month) I said "Alrighty," and I started thinking what other ingredients I might need in case this recipe didn't work out, as a back-up plan.

Ingredients

We knew the frosting would be good at least. 

Mom called and left a message, "the other ingredients are 1/2 cup of water and 2 eggs. Bake per cake package directions."

Full Recipe for Tomato Soup Cake: (Unsure of source for the recipe. I will gladly give credit if anyone can find where the original recipe came from.)

1 box spice cake mix
1 can tomato soup
1/2 cup water
2 eggs
1 canister of cream cheese frosting

Mix all ingredients together (except frosting). Bake in greased 9x13 pan at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Thursday came and I thought 'I need to bake this cake.' My suspicions were high over the taste of this cake. I gathered the ingredients, put them all in the bowl and mixed. Didn't look to bad. The smell wasn't too bad, but very different. The batter was a little thicker then most cake mixes. I put it in the greased pan and into a preheated oven. I usually don't worry about preheating and just put the pan in, but in this case I didn't want any mishaps.

Yes I really did put tomato soup in the mix.  

Thicker batter

Low and behold, as the cake was baking and almost done, a power outage occurred.  I have a gas stove but the oven doesn't work during an electrical or gas power outage. I figured the oven was hot and the cake should finish just fine. Allowing food to cook in the oven after  it is turned off is one of my frugal tips you can read here.

The cake baked just fine. After it cooled I put the frosting on.

Looks normal. 

Friday we had lunch, just 'us girls'. I left the restaurant first, using the excuse it takes me longer to get in and out of the car with  my crutches. I put the cake on the table and a few candles. When Mom and Grandma arrived we sang Happy Birthday and gave my husband's design intern the first piece to see if she liked it. She said it was good. Still a little cautiously, we took our pieces and ate. What do ya know, it was good. And the smell was great.

I didn't have 86 candles, We settled for seven.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Happy Birthday Grandma! May you enjoy your day and your 86th year!