Big Universe, Small World... ©2013-2020

Psalm 18 I love you, O Lord, my strength. 2 The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. 3 I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. 4 The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of destruction assailed me; 5 the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me. 6 In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God, I cried for help. From his temple, he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears. 7 Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked, because he was angry. 8 Smoke went up from his nostrils, and devouring fire from his mouth; glowing coals flamed forth from him. 9 He bowed the heavens and came down; thick darkness was under his feet. 10 He rode on a cherub and flew; he came swiftly on the wings of the wind. 11 He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him, ...

So, I have been growing pineapples plants I planted from pineapple tops for about 5 years or more now. I was told it takes about 2 or 3 years to produce fruit. Well, that just has not happened... I put them outside about three weeks ago. I have not paid attention to them since I have put them outside. It has rained plenty and been plenty hot, so I have not worried about them at all. Today, I checked on them. Lo and behold!!  I have a baby pineapple.

My husband has spent the better part of the other day and today working on adding chicken wire to a chicken tractor for us to move Love Dove to within a day or so with her adopted eggs before they hatch...I wanted the babies to have a safe place to walk around in without the other hens being able to harm them.    Love Dove before the relocation... Well, tonight my cousin called that we got the eggs for Love Dove from and left a message that her eggs were hatching. So, I went into operation to get Love Dove moved tonight. The only safe place to put her and the eggs was in the old chicken hutch which we can lock for safety against other critters. I grabbed up an old coconut fiber plant shell and placed mail shreds in it for nesting material. She was not happy when I disturbed her... It was a good thing to move them tonight...two of the eggs are pipped.  I moved the eggs to the bottom of the chicken hutch. It has an upstairs of sorts with two nesting boxes. ...

Lately, we have had a very broody bantam hen. Our rooster was killed a while ago, so we know her eggs are not viable to hatch...but, she wants some chicks anyway. She has hatched a clutch before and is a great broody hen and a great mommy hen.  Today, I went to my cousin's house and got some fertile eggs from her. Three regular eggs and 5 bantam eggs...almost more than my little Love Dove could hope for...  She has been mad at me for the last few days for taking her eggs. Today, I disturbed her enough to slip some eggs under her...three times I disturbed her. Then she looked down and noticed all her "babies"...she went about cuckling and cooing and tucking them all up under her until she felt they were all neatly arranged. She fluffed herself out quite well then.  We candled the bantam eggs I stuck under her and these should all be hatching in about a week or so. I will have to move her to a more confined space of her own to get ready for her babies!!  I do ...

   

Homemade chicken salad from chickens we raised...organic, no antibiotics, all natural!! Steamed some cabbage...from the farmer's market!! Making the rolls... Dinner with homemade buttermilk ranch dressing dip...yummy!!

My chickens have been going after the grapes in the afternoons lately...so, yesterday I shooed them away to pick the grapes. I left about 1/3 to 1/2 of the amount still on the vine to pick later. I soaked the grapes to wash them. Then, they were rinsed and washed a second time. The grapes were placed in a large pot and I added about two or three cups of water. They were set to boil.  They were stirred enough to break the skins and agitate the pulp. After coming to a rapid boil, I let them slow cook just about a simmer for a few hours. The mixture was drained and the pulp mix set to the side to give to the chickens later on for a treat. The juice still had some of the pulp and seeds in it, so it was strained again through double linen. The juice was set to boil about 1.5 cups of sugar. I did not add pectin. I do not plan to can this, as it will probably be eaten within the week.  The drip test off the wooden spoon after about 20 minutes o...