My friend Feathers story.

Oct 2009 starts this story of how I got my friend Feathers. My friend Penny from backtobasicliving.com was looking for a home for a sweet little rooster she had. And I told her if she couldn't find him a home I would take him as a pet. I fell in love with him as soon as I seen his photo she has posted on facebook. So that is how I got a pet rooster. And then we had to get him a coop & pen ready as soon as we could so he could come home. My step son Scott came over to help me build a small coop for him on the weekend. And then the great friends Penny & her husband Bernie came the next weekend with our boy and to help us put up fence post and the fencing for his pen. She did a post on him called One Lucky Boy
With us working together we had it done in a few hours & Feather got to see his new home.First he got to see and spend a little time in his coop and then I let him out to check out his pen. And with in 3 months he got some girls to keep him company.

Feathers first time in his coop

Feathers first time in his pen

                                                                  

Feather got some girl friends

  I soon found I love sitting for hours watching and talking to him and the girls. And soon they were chatting it up with me too.  And then soon there was more girls & then chicks for us. And then I started letting everyone free range on my days off and in time they got to free range all the time and a bigger and new coop got build-ed for them and I had up to 25 chickens. 

Feathers with 1 of his daughters

Feathers keeping a eye on a mama and her chicks

Finding goodies for his girls

Enjoying watching them free range in the yard

Whats up mom

This years chicks he fathered

Being a good dad

teaching chicks to eat

                                                             

hang out on patio with me

This last 3 photos were the last took a couple days before my boy Feathers got killed by something while he was doing his job watching over his flock on August 25,2011   RIP my sweet boy.
  

Dust bathing

I still miss my boy Feathers so much he was a very sweet rooster and a good father to all his chicks always watching over his whole flock. I was so glad to have a son from him this year who his slowly growing into a sweet rooster who we named after his father, we are calling him 2Feathers. I hope in time he will turn out like his dad.

Part 2 of I hate to waste anything.

The turkey stock turn out good. When I got done I had about 6 quarts of stock. I using a little more then 1/2 of it and the left over turkey I had to make a big pot of turkey noodle soup. And then put the other 1/2 of the turkey and stock into the freezer for another pot of soup later. I love that 1 turkey will give the 2 of us at less a dozen meals.  Here are a few photos of the stock and our soup I made.

This is the stock once it was done.

After it had cooled down over night and before I removed the fat on the top.

After fat was removed.

What I has left to go into the freezer for another pot of soup.

Get ready to make the soup.

Soup is done and and it taste great.

 I can hardly wait to get a couple slices of bread covered in butter to go with it.                                                               

I hate wasting any thing

I want to use up every bit of my turkey from Thanksgiving day, so after it cooled down to were I could get all the meat off.  The carcass went into a pot and then 8 quarts of water, a onion, a little salt, pepper, a sprig of fresh Rosemary and a good shake of Mrs. Dash seasoning. and then brought up to a boil, cut down to a slow simmer. And will be cooked that way for up to 4 hours. Then strained and put into in fridge over night. Then tomorrow evening I will remove the fat that has come to the top. Then it will ether be ether put into the freezer or I will can it.  It will be good to use in many rice dishes & soups threw the winter here.  I love making my own stocks. Here is a couple photos of my stock cooking.

   I will post again after I have got it all done, and hope you will try making your own stock.  It taste way better then that stuff we get in the stores.    I thought I would, Join Rhonda from Down To Earth with her regular Friday On My Mind Feature.

                                  

Grandma's fish cakes

This recipe is one I learned a long time ago & don't get to fix very often, the man of the house has been asking me to fix it for a while.  So when my aunt gave me some cans of pink salmon a few weeks ago. So I thought I try it with a can of that. Any can fish you like will work. 

It takes 1 can of fish of your choice.

A large egg.
And about 1to 1 1/2 cups cornmeal.
salt & pepper
Cooking oil & a large skillet
In a large bowl put fish & egg  then mix well and start adding corn meal a little salt & pepper. And then start with 3/4 a cup, and then  1/4 cup after that until moist but not wet. You want it to form into a ball & stay.
Then add a little cornmeal to a plate for coating the outside of the patty and start forming the fish mixture into patties and coat with cornmeal before cooking on medium heat in oil until they are golden brown.
 I remember eating these as a kid and loving them.
Here are a few photos of them. 

What was left after supper of 14  fish cakes

                       I hope will will give them a try & let me know what you think.
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A little to add that I almost forgot, do not drain the liquid from the can of fish it adds lots flavor to the fish cakes. Also here is a photo of the noodles & tomatoes.

A good side dish hot or cold.

                                                              

Gettin a few things done.

Chips down & more honeysuckle off the fence.

Our pond all dry again :(

Can I help do something.

 We will help rake leaves.

We found the garden & are helping turn the ground.

I shouldn't be blooming in November but am.

To many leaves here to get at once.

Garden done & cleaned up for the winter.

Time to work on getting chips down here too.

Got the chips down.

Now were did those chickens go.

2 Feathers showing his stuff & looking so much like his dad.

Just hanging out for a bit.

Hope you have enjoyed the pictures of our weekend, It fills good when you get a few things done. I hope you have had a good weekend too.

Our Chicken Tractor

It took about a year to build this chicken tractor for us. We did it on our weekends when we had some spare time and our friend could come help us.  And I want to say a big Thank You to our friend Wayne, if not for him we mite still be working on it.

This is what we started with a old camp traitor base.

Put down 3/4 in board & painted it

Walls starting to go up

Wayne trying to hide from camera

All the walls & the door end when we stopped

Took us all day to get the roof on this day

Starting to close in the walls

And it starts raining on us

2 walls done

3 walls done

All 4 walls done & then the wrap

8 hours later we got it done even with the rain

        Next time we got to work on it a window and chicken door got cut in
                                           And I painted the inside.

Starting the inside with a nice coat of peach paint

Chicken door in

Vinyl flooring in

Window in

Roost & litter in

doors on

Nest boxes & brooder cage

It find a spot in the yard

Vinyl siding going on

All done & chickens are in the coop

It turned out great we think. I still have a couple things I will change inside now that I see what works & what doesn't. But I am loving the vinyl flooring makes cleaning the coop floor so much easier. I hope you have enjoyed see how we build our coop and will leave a comment to let us know what you think.