• Chickens

    Dirty Eggs & Cute Chickens

    So, last week our chickens decided to lay their eggs not in their cozy nesting boxes, but in the back corner of their coop, right under their roost.  The problem with this?  Well, it is the only part of the coop that is not easily accessible to us without a…

  • Food Storage & Preservation

    Pickled Red Beet Eggs

    A couple of days ago, Tool Lady heard about Pickled Red Beet Eggs from a volunteer at work.  He stated that they were one of his favorites, and since he’s been such an awesome volunteer, we decided we should try to make some for him. After several Google searches we…

  • Food Storage & Preservation

    Sweet, Sweet Jams

    One day, hopefully later this year, we will have a pantry that is stocked full with jars and jars of food that we have canned.  Oh how I swoon over pictures of pantries that have already accomplished this!  In the meantime, however, I am finding pride and joy in the…

  • DIY - Grow

    Greens and Grow Lights

    When we first set up our grow lights, we planted a few flats of greens, sprouts, micro greens and wheat grass just to see what would happen.  Well, it’s actually been really great!  We’ve harvested enough for several meals (salads and greens for sandwiches) and have juiced wheat grass several…

  • DIY

    Garlic Powder – DIY

    We recently discovered that some of our garlic was starting to sprout, so we decided to try our hand at making our very own Garlic Powder. We pulled three heads of garlic, broke up their cloves and took their skins off. Then we sliced them up and put them in…

  • Food Storage & Preservation

    Pressure Canning Beans!

    We got a pressure canner!!!  It wasn’t planned for, but sometimes (most of the time) it’s better that way! Since 2011 marked our first experiences with water bath canning, I’m super excited to add pressure canning to my list of things to learn more about in 2012!  So far, so…

  • DIY

    Hot Chocolate & a Mason Jar Cozy

    Alright, let’s be honest here…can you think of anyone you know who doesn’t like hot chocolate?  Right! So, given our shared love of hot chocolate, I thought I’d share a fun little gift that’s super easy to throw together and that is always met with joy! In layers, add to…

  • Chickens

    Do Our Chickens Pay for Themselves?

    Back in August I asked this question, so we’ve been tracking it on my sidebar ever since.  This is what’s happened in a nut (egg?) shell… For a while (read: when we first started this challenge), we were getting 6-7 eggs a day and I was feeling extremely optimistic about…