A few more mouths to feed.

Well, after picking up the chicken coop/tractor last week, it was only a matter of time before chickens showed up around the house...or more correctly, chicks.

Since most online poultry retailers have a minimum order size, and a waiting list this time of year, we were going to be somewhat limited as to what chicken varieties were locally available.  As such, rather than selecting the 1 BEST breed, we made a list which ones were acceptable, and which ones we didn't want.

After visiting a few places, we came to the conclusion that our best chance to get our hands on some chicks was for my wife to be at Ranch and Home Wednesday morning, and so she was.  And so, we got our hands on some chicks...

 

 

If you can count, you will notice there are 5 chicks there...2 Golden Sex-Link Hybrids, and 3 Barred Plymouth Rocks. 

 

Variety is fine...and I totally approve of these two breeds that my wife got.  The only problem is, our tractor/coop can't handle 5 birds.  Three easy, and 4 is probable, but will bear watching...but 5 ain't gonna happen.  So why did my wife get 5?  Well...we had talked getting 4 so we had an installed spare in case we lost a chick...but, it appears that when my wife was at Ranch and Home, the young lady working was not 100% sure the chicks had been sexed...so, my wife was concerned if she bought 4, two might be roosters we had to eat for dinner.  Her hope was with 5 chicks, at least three ladies would make it into the coop. 

 





Sure.  Worst case, we have an extra bird.  If some are roosters, we try to find a home outside city limits for them, or we eat them.  If all 5 are ladies, we try to find another home for it, or we eat it.  From some research, the two Golden's appear to be female(the whole point behind sex-link hybrids is that you can tell the sex based of the coloring of the chick). 

Either way, they are cute, and fluffy.  My wife is already worried that she may never be able to eat chicken again.  I told her in that case, I'm never getting her a baby pig, cow or deer. 

I love that woman.

A few weeks ago, as Passover was approaching Safeway had a pretty good deal on Matzos.  Normally $3.50 Or so a box, I found some bulk packaged and on sale for $6 for 5 boxes.  Score...so I bought some.

Now, for those who are thinking matzos ball sound, Matzos itself is used differently.  Essentially a big, dry cracker I have always used it to make Fried Matzo(or Matzo Brei if you want to get all ethnic about it.  Looked simply, it's Jewish French Toast.  You run the matzo  under some water to get it a bit damp, then crumble it in a bowl.  Add about one egg per matzo, and mix it all up good.  Then you cook it in a buttered skillet, salt it, and put some honey on it.

It's about 16,000 times better than gefilte fish, and every bit as much comfort food as matzo ball soup.

Yesterday, my wife calls me and says: If you stop at Safeway on the way home, pick up more matzo.  She said they had the 5 packs I was excited to get for $5.99 on clearance for $1.99.  She had bought all 4 they had on display, but thought it might be worth swinging in and checking if more had been put out to buy.

 

That is the sweetest thing she has done this week...



These are the ones that hurt.

Sad story out of New Jersey where is appears a 4 year old got his hands on a .22 rifle from inside his house, and used it shoot a 6-year old friend in the head while the playing 'pretend shooting'.  The story initially broke last night, and has been updated overnight with the sad news that the 6-year old died from the injury.

The story is still lacking details as to how the 4 year old was able to get his hands on the rifle, and make it all the way outside to play with it, while his parents were home(again, that is just according to the initial stories).

Folks...it doesn't matter how...what matters is it happened. 

23 is a bigger number than 1...but stories like this make me much more depressed than school shooting by psychopaths do.  Mass school shootings are an act of evil/crazy people, and it is my opinion you can never prevent that...only respond quickly enough to minimize.  Cases like this though...this is preventable, and shouldn't have happened.

I'm not preaching laws that say you need to lock up your guns, or keep your ammo store separately.  I'm preaching personal responsibility.  In this case, some one(Not knowing the home life I would start by saying not just one, but BOTH parents) lacked the personal responsibility to own this gun(even if it was 'just this once').  They either didn't store it correctly, OR didn't train their 4 year old correctly(at 4, both my girls knew not to touch a gun, and to come and get mom/dad/any adult before touching a gun) or some combination of those two.

The article ends by saying the authorities are still trying to decide if they are going to press charges.

The answer to that NEEDS to be yes...and us in the gun owning community should be pushing that.  I KNOW these parents are going to feel guilty that the 6-year old is dead.  That's not enough.  Their negligence and lack of responsibility lead to this death...and we need to use this as a case to show how we can punish the person responsible, not all gun owners. 

Sometimes, one bullet does solve the problem.

Somehow, I missed this story out of Spokane late last week.

Widowed grandmother detains intruder at gunpoint

It's pretty much a happy story all around.  The police point this out as an ideal home defense case, pointing out how the bad guy was 'at least half her age and twice her size'.  The lady has defended her castle AND potentially helped the Spokane Police Department solve a few other crimes, as they think this guy made a few other B&E's that night.  And she did it all without having a death on her conscience, even if society may have been better off without this guy.

The only question unanswered(and unaddressed in this article) is...did she mean not to hit him?  I mean...was this a 'warning shot' situation, or did she just flat out miss?

Either way, the bad guy took it seriously enough that he waited on the couch for the police to show up. 

Good Job, Sandra Mize.  Somewhere, your husband is very proud of you. 

Maybe he was wrong.

Once upon a time, my seldom spoke of ex-step-dad(he was a really good guy up to the point where he cheated on my mom) told me, 'Greg...there are two kinds of beer in the world...Cold, and Free'.

I used to be a bit of a beer snob, and he told me this after I came home on leave once and was making fun of him for drinking MGD. 

His point was valid, and many is the time I have run his words through my head when I have been at a cookout or party and found myself forced to drink a less than premium brew, because, well...it was free, AND cold.

It doesn't always work though, and over the weekend I was reminded of that.  Friday, on the way home from work, I took a flyer and picked up a 6-pack of Shock Top's Honeycrisp Apple Wheat Beer.

I was unimpressed.  I like hard ciders....and I like wheat beers, like Shock Top, and Blue Moon...I just didn't like the way it tasted together in this beer.  In fact, I liked it so little, that I have decided it's not worth the calories. 

I didn't throw it out through...I moved it to the bottom shelf of the fridge, and I will still use the remainging bottles for something like cooking brats in. 

Gobble, Gobble.

I know...it's not Thanksgiving, but back when it was Thanksgiving and turkey was cheap, we bought a couple of extras to go in the freezer for 'later.  With a cold front scheduled to pass through this weekend keeping temperatures in the low 60's, my wife asked me if this would be the ideal 'later' weekend instead of waiting until the temperature is in the 90's. 

Smart girl.

It was much nicer firing up the oven today than it would have been two months from now.  I was a little worried about the turkey, because I didn't brine it, but it still came out okay.  Other than the lack of brine, I follow Alton Brown's recipe...stuff the cavity with onion and apple and sage, then blast it at 500 for a half an hour, and finish it at 350. 

Other than open face turkey sandwich's, the rest of it went into the freezer to be used later.  Out of curiosity, I weighed everything out before putting it in the freezer(something I rarely have time to do when trying to get an actual Holiday meal on the table.)  From a 12.5 pound bird, I got about 4.5 pounds of meat.  I think I left a little behind, and if I had just pressure cooked the bird until it fell apart, I might have been able to get an extra half a pound or so...but it wouldn't have tasted as good as roasted. 

I want!

Now, I don't have a real use for a gadget like this right now...but when my daughters start dating, I am totally thinking of installing one on the front walkway.

Frustrated by loitering crowds, building owners turn to technology

$1300?  To keep some young punk from pawing at my daughter in front of my house?

It might be cheaper to just sit behind the bushes with the garden hose...but time is money too...