Busy May Update

Because Charlie has such big feet, my husband has started calling him the “Hobbit Hound”.

So, the Saturday downtown farmers market started April 30th, and I’ve started attending the Pendleton market on the 2nd and 4th Friday evenings of the month, starting May 13th. Both have been very successful so far. May is always a good month for markets! Come down and see me.

Meanwhile, the young ducks have joined the regular flock. I had them sequestered in a horse stall until they were about 5 weeks old. I let them out, expecting that first day that they would go back into the horse stall at night and I’d have to physically move them into the regular coop with the rest of the birds. But nope, they figured it out all on their own, and were with the rest of the flock when I went to check on them. How cool is that?

And the 25 (now 24 – lost one) young 6 week old chickens have also joined the flock. They spent the first week just staying in the coop, even though the door was open, but have just recently started to venture out into the big world, and are doing well.

We also butchered 10 older birds (I really need to butcher about 15 more, but will wait until the fall). A friend has a processing plucker, so we loaded them up and took them to her house for processing. Man how I covet that Featherman Chicken Plucker, but given the price, it will be a while before I buy one, unless I can find one used. It’s an awesome machine that makes short work of the birds. We did 6 hens and 4 roosters – all were over one year old, and most were over 2 years. I’ve learned that the only way to eat these birds is to cook them in a pressure cooker. But man, if you do, the meat and flavor is amazing. I did a fabulous Philippine Chicken Adobo with one. YUM. I’m also pressure canning chicken stock from the extra backs, necks and wing tips. Nothing goes to waste.
We got the dogs fixed a few weeks ago. Had to laugh at the vet, who said keep them inside and calm for 10 days, and only let them out to go potty, and then only on a leash. And no stairs (all entrances to our house have stairs). Um, yeah, right. The cones of shame lasted about 2 days before they were destroyed. We did our best to keep them from running and wrestling for the first three days or so. All is well and they are just fine.

Meanwhile, May is warm and time marches forward with a seemingly never ending sequence of blossoms.

I’ve never been a huge fan of red roses, and this place came with a LOT of red roses. But this one smells fabulous!

My favorite rose (smells great and also has big hips) – Morden Sunrise. It’s just lovely this year, as you can tell, because I took a lot of pictures of it!