Traditions

For Thanksgiving, most people have traditions.  Over the years we've developed favorite foods that we mostly have ONLY for Thanksgiving:
    Turkey with a Pennsylvania Dutch-style Potato Stuffing,
    Candied Yams          fresh Green Bean Casserole,
    Cranberry Orange Relish        Mashed Rutabaga, and for dessert,
    Fresh Pumpkin Pie and Pecan Pie.

We tend to start from scratch, and the pecans and pumpkins are harvested from right here on our little Texas ranch.  If I'd put up some green beans in early summer, we could have had home-grown string beans too.  So this year we had our usual fare, but we totally enjoyed sharing it with 2 airmen from Sheppard AFB who were spending their first Thanksgiving away from their families.  I didn't know who Mike would come home with and was pleased when he called on his way back home with Megan and Megan 'too'. 

What a godsend they were.  They helped prepare food and set table, and they got a taste of life in "Texas-country".  They helped collect eggs and feed hay to the cows .... and since it had rained, they even got to take back some Texas mud with them.  We certainly enjoyed their company since our family was spread out and wouldn't be home for dinner.  Incidentally, we're STILL eating turkey!!!

Very loosely related to 'traditions' (the title of the post) is our new (to us) nesting boxes for the chickens.  Our friends, Neta and Junior Lackey, were instrumental in the early arrival of chickens to our little ranch.  A neighbor was looking for a home for 9 cornish hens and had asked them if they could take them.  Well, not only did they give us the chickens (indirectly) ... and find us the tailless rooster ..... but Neta's dad had chickens and Neta had his old wall-mounted nesting boxes!  She's had offers to buy the nesting boxes, but didn't want to give them up yet.  After finding a home for the chickens (with us), she asked if we'd like her heirloom nesting boxes. 

They've been up for a couple of weeks now, and the hens seem to be taking to them.  I find at least half the eggs there now.  They started in the lowest row of boxes and now I find eggs in the top row.  We've gone from the blue crates                            to nests on the wall:

 

If you can see, there are actually 2 eggs behind the exiting hen... the bigger one she just laid, and the small one is a 'seed' egg - a small 'pullet' egg I leave in there.  They like to lay on the seed egg and sometimes I will find up to 3 eggs with it!! 

Besides cracked corn, maize and wheat, I've found that chickens LOVE pumpkin and watermelon!!!  Check out the enthusiasm when they find a surprise in their yard:

It looks like a chicken convention!!!!

Note the iridescent green feathers on my black chickens.  Mr Rooster has them too as you can see below in the previous blog entry!!