Treehouse and Mountain Fun

Along with other tales about the chickens and garden.

We spent some time in the mountains around New Years, and it was so cold. In fact, there was a very light snow while we were there. We aren't used to snow in Georgia, so of course, the kids found it super fun. We went to Blue Ridge to shop a little and made a stop at Vertigo Pinball so the boys could play some games in the indoors and out of the cold. It's such a fun little spot where you can pay to play as much pinball games as you want. They also sell a decent amount of food and some adult beverages as well. It's a good time for everybody! We ended the day at Charlie's Italian Restaurant in Ellijay for some amazing pizza (highly recommend) before calling it a day.

Once we made it home, we had our traditional New Year's Day food: black eyed peas, greens, corn bread, stewed tomatoes, etc. Then, my husband went to work on the treehouse. He finished the railing, added shutters and added a door to the balcony. Now the only thing it needs is paint, which he has already started. It is the cutest little play house for the boys. I know this spring, summer and fall are going to be full of play time out there!

As for the chickens, they are all officially laying at the same time! My two young girls have finally started to lay their eggs, and they are so tiny right now in comparison to the older hens' eggs. I almost hate to crack them. All of the hens have been getting along really well and adventuring together in the woods in search of anything they can eat. They get plenty of our leftovers and some mealworms every day. I can't wait to add to our flock this spring! My hopes are to open up a self-serve egg stand at the end of our driveway. By adding a couple more chicks, I should be able to achieve this by the end of summer. I could sell some 6 packs of eggs during spring and summer, but that means my husband has to get to working on my stand soon.

Along with spring chickens, I'm seriously ready for starting the spring/summer garden. I just started some lettuce seeds indoors for the rest of this winter, but I will be starting some tomatoes and many others from seed this February. Whatever I can't start from seed, I plan to get some organic starter plants from a local plant sale just down the road from us at Oxford College. I had such great luck with them last year, I plan to go back every spring. I just harvested all of my lettuce from the garden and pulled up the greenhouse tunnel because the sprinkler froze, and it is way too cold for me to go out and hand water everything every day (I'm a wimp; come on, spring!) Beside my self-serve egg stand, I want to add a self-serve produce stand. As long as I can grow enough, I plan to put any excess produce out in the stand for a reasonable price mostly for our neighbors. Most likely, I will have tomatoes, beans, potatoes and peppers for sale regularly.

With the garden and chickens being well established now, I have been considering how to expand even further into our yard, making it more resourceful, making more foods from scratch, repurposing scraps of food, etc. So I started making my own bread about once per week. To repurpose the leftover bread, I toasted and blended it up to make breadcrumbs for salmon patties. I have been making my own vegetable broth from leftover vegetable scraps and my own chicken broth whenever I make chicken for dinner. I made 5 quarts of chicken broth from four chicken leg quarters, which cost me only $5. With that chicken, I was able to feed us for three nights: chicken Caesar flatbread pizza, chicken and veggie stir fry, and chicken noodle soup (which also incorporated some of my homemade chicken broth). Yes, this take some time to do, and no, not everyone is going to want to do this. However, I get tons of chicken broth, and the chicken falls off the bone. Also, the longer I simmer the carcass, the more meat I get from it.

After fully cooking the chicken by boiling it in a pot of water, I pull as much meat as I can off of the bone. I place the skin and the bones back in the pot and simmer for another hour. I strain the broth into some mason jars, and whatever meat is leftover with the bones, I pull (this is usually enough to put in chicken noodle soup). If you have a few hours, it's completely worth it. Either put on a good show, listen to an audio book or listen to a podcast while you cook. You can even fit in some laundry and/or dishes while you wait during the simmering!