Fair Time Fun

This year was our first year to enter the State Fair. Well any fair really. We don't live in a county that has a fair as we are the home location of the state fair. Last year one of the boys friends entered the honey he collected from their bee hive and the boys were just instant at that time that we enter this year.

Madd entered a watercolor painting and our spicy spaghetti sauce. Kai entered the milder spaghetti sauce and then brownies in the youth division for baking. The latter is something we will do again but with the whole day at the fair planned around it. Wowza.

I entered our variation of a yeast bread.

Being first timers we had no idea what we were up against much less how to enter. I've read the handbook several times now and I still have to pull it up for answers. Not that it's tough to follow, but when your entering such varied categories, there's lots of different things to remember.

Even still the boys did wonderful.

Madd got 2nd place with his watercolor. I have a feeling he'll be entering several art pieces next year.

Kai's spaghetti sauce got 4th and Madd's got 6th. They were in the same group. I'm wasn't sure how those are judged, so it's interesting to me. I have heard though that one factor is the air space. I've been told they do not open them at all. 

(The green ribbon red sauce in the first pick and the pink ribbon red sauce in the second) 

Kai's brownies got first in the brownie group (He was the only one, but even if there had been another. I think he'd have taken it..everyone had to stop and look at those brownies). The adorable girl who won Best in Show for her cookies - which is the division brownies are listed in- had it hands down. She makes those cookies all the time according to her friend. They looked amazing.

They worked to streamline the judging for this years baked goods kids divisions but we were still there for Hours. As an adult I wouldn't have minded, but you sit a kid at a table in front of his brownies for hours without him being able to eat one....and things get a little antsy. He did well though. Next year, we'll enter a few things and we'll all spend the day at the fair. That way they can go ride things in between the entry, the tasting, and the judging tally. I felt really bad for those judges. The first few bites, no, but that last one. Yes. 6 tables of sweets and I better have a salt lick in that judges room.

My bread won first place in the White Yeast Bread competition. Another long day of judging, but it's amazing to see a really good chef like something you tinker around with.

Next year I think we'll enter lots of things. Mostly in the non live judging events. Something where when we show up for the live judging events that we can ooh and ahh over the ribbons because the most fun Kai and I had Sat was hunting down our jars of spaghetti sauce and checking out all the fun art.

We also want to enter chickens next year.

Poultry Workshop at Moss Mountain Farm.

This past Saturday I went with my mother to P.Allen's Moss Mountain Farm for a Poultry Workshop. The weather was perfect and the farm was just stunning.

As urban farmers, we are always on the look out for ways to improve our flock of city hens, so this workshop was something I was looking forward to. The information given may have been much the same as the first workshop (which my husband and I went to in April) but the ability to see these things in practice and pick the brains of some fantastic specialists makes it all worth wile.

The specialists are from the sponsors of the event, though the sponsors are more of a nod to the sponsorship they do on a regular basis for the farm rather than the event itself. All attendees are broken up into groups and get to rotate around to each area. It was interesting both times because of the varied questions. Yes there's a few standard, like How much feed is needed per bird, or an average flock, but there are so many more good ones thrown out there.

Last time I wasn't really sold on any of the breeds we were learning about. Not that they weren't amazing, just that I didn't feel they were the right fit for us. This time though, I found two breeds of fowl that I'd love to keep in the future.


One of the things that made me oh so happy was that there were two kids there. The last one, it had been all adults. My husband and I were pretty well the youngest there. The kids asked great questions and were fantastic all around. We were so happy to see that P.Allen got a moment to really talk to them. I'm debating taking my oldest next spring as he'd love to see it all and would learn so much.

They are building a brand new chicken barn and it's going to be fantastic when they get it all set up. The chicken tractors he'd had there before for each of the breeds were inspiring the last time and I cannot wait to see this new barn all flushed out.

Last time, my husband and I were so focused on the chicken houses that we did not even explore the other half of the working portion of the farm. We missed the gardens (outside of the flowers) entirely. I'm so glad my mother and I got to wander there this time around.

I'll stop blathering on now and let you guys just enjoy the pictures!

Photos copyright Brandy Davis- Do not use or re-post without my consent. Thank you 

Ten Little Chicks- Update

Past week 3 all our chickens just kept growing and growing. The hen house complete they have all moved outside. We split the group up and sent 4 of the Sussex chicks with my mother so ours would settle into their group in their own house.

They did so swimmingly. Adorably. We've enjoyed these past couple of weeks with a quiet house and a group of clucking cuteness in the backyard.

I've still got to finish painting their run as the laytex paint we used just wasn't doing the job. I'll explain that more in my how we built the hen house post.  It turned out very cute.

Tonight however, we lost one of our flock.

 We'd set up a temporary fencing of chicken wire and garden posts to  keep them in and so I've been having to stay outside when the dogs do because our littlest dog figured out how to squeeze under the fence (however she can't figure out how to get back out...) and I did not want any one to get themselves in trouble or have an accident. This also means that if I'm inside working, the dogs can't be outside protecting the birds and they have no rooster as (luck I suppose) we only managed to pick one boy out of all ten of those little fuzzy cuties and he went with my mom.

So tonight, I went outside to close the door on the coop and found Lazy Bones, the little Brahma bantam girl. She'd been bitten by something and was just gone. LB had become one of our favorites as she was a spunky little girl who kept trying to show she was boss. The best we can figure is that something in our neighborhood (we've got raccoon and plenty of stray cats) caught them off guard. Everyone else was huddled at the back of their house where as they normally sleep right inside the door.

 Thankfully we got to let the boys say goodbye to LB and that the bird was in decent enough shape to be seen by them. Lots of feathers saved for them to keep in their journals.

I promise to post pictures of our little but steady growing flock soon as well as a post with our coop building fun. 

Ten Little Chickens Week 3

The chicks have lost nearly all their fluff. They've almost all got a stubby little tail growing and are showing more of their adult color patterns.  They are still adorable in every way to me, but really don't look a thing like the little fuzzballs we plucked from the feed store earlier this month.

Speaking of the feed store, it was amazing to go in (for more feed- we'd run out) and see the latest shipment of baby chicks in the big metal bins. They were smaller than I remember ours ever being even though some were the same as ours. These day's you couldn't cup your hands around our chicks without someone's feet and head sticking out, but those little babies you could cover entirely with your cupped palms.

We switched homes for them as they have taken to perching atop their feeder even though we've provided perches for them. From there they were trying to take flight across the box. Even from the bottom of the box they were starting to peek over the top at each flight attempt. Luckily we ran across a parrot cage at a yard sale. Fully enclosed and having a good amount of height they now have room to go up without me worrying that someone was going to become Gidget's new toy.

They got their first glimpse of them selves in the new shiny metal water bowl and were not sure what to do about it. Soon enough though they were back to enjoying their water as usual. The cage is only covered at the base up about 6 in or so. They now have a view of the whole house. The dogs, the kids, me coming to check on them, which it turns out they've quickly adapted to. The nerf dart war in the house never even bothered them a bit. Where as sounds from outside their home before would have sent them running.

They've figured out feeding schedules too and are no longer afraid when I come up to the door of their cage to refill their feeder. They all bundle up together in front of the door and keep an eye on my arm as it comes in.

We think we've figured out at least one is a rooster for sure, as it's the only one who even before the move wouldn't run from us first thing. It's always the one to check something out first and tends to keep an eye on everyone else when most are napping.

I'll try to add a few new pictures soon, we may actually get to take them outside some this coming week if the weather cooperates.

Ten little chickens Week 2

The chicks have started growing in their feathers and loosing some of their fluff. They have grown quite a bit over the past few days, although some faster than others.

The striped ones are the Sussex and the one with a bit of gray on it's neck is the one we believe is a Silkie.

They have all become much more interested in what's going on outside their home and above it. They keep a close eye on us when we peek over the side. 

It's quite adorable to find them all piled up, but much more so when they seem to snuggle. Although, the first snap of the camera tends to wake everyone back up. They just aren't used to it yet. I'm sure with as many pictures as I'll take of them, it won't even be a sound they acknowledge soon enough. 

One of the funniest sights is to see them stretch their legs out behind them and their wings at the same time. They push one leg way out and you can just imagine them going "Oooh that one was asleep!" 

What's funnier about this is that as a dancer I learned that stretching this way popped my hips if they happened to hurt, so I've been stretching like a chicken for years. *chuckles* 

Chick Days - by Jenna Woginrich

Chick Days

An Absolute Beginner's Guide to Raising Chickens from Hatchlings to Laying Hens

By Jenna Woginrich, author of Made from Scratch

Honestly this was a quick grab for me at the farm store because it was the first book I picked up that had specific info on the subject I was in the store for, Chicks! 

I was looking for something that had more info on raising chickens than the basic chapters in the other books I have on farming. Most of those touch on the vastness of the subject and not the daily ins and outs of owning a flock.

This book has it all as far as I’ve found so far. It’s got wonderful pictures showing stages of growth, breaks things down from the first week (day by day) to the week by week growth of your flock until your settled into owning chickens.

This isn't just written for those who have been at the business of raising chickens for years, but for anyone interested in owning either a backyard flock or a larger group of hens on a couple of acres. It’s wonderful in that it relates to the needs of chickens as well as the joys of owning them. It’s defiantly earned its place on my shelf of farm info. I'll be turning the pages often as my 10 little chickens grow from their small fuzzy selves into the fine feathered friends I cannot wait to see. 


* I'll be featuring the books we have picked up along the way to share what composes our farm bookshelf. These can all be found along the sidebar under "Favored Reads" and will be updated as often as we pick up a new book on any of the subjects we cover here on the blog. 

10 Little Chickens

Today we headed over to one of our local farm stores where they had advertised that chicks would be in this weekend. We knew we wanted 6 and headed out with that in mind.

We were apparently late to the party because the chicks numbers had already been depleted by quite a lot. There were quite a few speckled Sussex babies and two lonely bantams left. There was another breed, but it was more for meat than eggs and we wanted a more rounded bird, so we went with the Sussex and at the last min asked for the two little bantams. One was white, and the kids had already been asking since they'd seen it. This brought our numbers up to ten, which is ok, because there's always the possibility that some of these will be roosters. Roosters are  no go in our city, so we'll have to re-home any that are. 

We purchased the feeders and feed we'd need as well as a book that I had not seen before that seemed to have lots of good info. Most of our books had a chapter on the subject of raising chickens but this one is all about it. I'll review it soon for you ^_~ 

They are all quite happily enjoying their new home, the dogs aren't bothering them and the kids keep running back and forth to see them. I cannot wait until we can complete their house outside, it's going to be fantastic. 

: One of the little Bantams actually has fuzz running down the sides of it's legs, so we are interested in seeing if that one turns out to be a Silkie.  The boys are having a blast running to check on the chicks as they've all perked up nicely overnight. The dogs aren't sure yet what to think even though Gidget (our little Jack Russel mix) is the only one to have actually seen them so far. The other two dogs are just ignoring the box mostly... :