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Winter hit us early, suddenly, and relentlessly this season. It’s been so cold for so long, I can not even remember how many weeks in a row it is that we’ve had the wood stove cranking out heat. We’ve had snow on the ground since early December. Other than taking the dogs for their daily romp in the woods and caring for chickens, I have spent absolutely no time outside. As a result, I’m having a hard time coming up with things to blog about. So, today, I think I’ll just bring you up to date on a few things here on the homestead.

Remember a couple of months ago when I was trying to sex a few mutt chickens I had? Well, the verdict is in.

This Barred Rock mix?

And these two big white chickens?

Cockerels. No doubt about it. Dad gum cockerels. From the last couple of hatches late last year, I ended up with EIGHT cockerels that need to be sent to freezer camp. Ugh.

But I have to tell you, some of these mutt cockerels are absolutely gorgeous. Three of them are Phoenix/Golden Penciled Hamburg mixes. And they got the prettiest rose combs from the Hamburg side:

This girl here is a Silver Gray Dorking/Golden Penciled Hamburg mix - I must say, it makes for a “different” look:

She got the Hamburg rose comb, and the five toes of a Silver Gray Dorking.

This picture simply cracks me up. I was actually trying to get a picture of the little cockerel to the right, but look at that girl to the left:

Oh, and behind both of them? That reddish chicken? Another cockerel.

We’ll be sending most of the eight cockerels to freezer camp in the next few days. Two of them are still pretty scrawny, and I’d like to let them get a bit bigger. How big I let them get depends on how angry they make me harassing my hens in the coming weeks.

If you’re one of my Facebook friends, you know that we got some bad news concerning Diesel recently. He has had problems with his back legs for some time now, and we’ve learned that he has hip dysplasia. I guess we really knew that before we took him to the vet, but he’s so young and we were really hoping it was something that could be easily corrected. He is on high doses of glucosamine and chondroitin, and it does seem to help him quite a bit. He doesn’t really act in pain, just stiff and a little uncomfortable from time to time. Asprin seems to help that. He and Dolly still run and play every single day. Such sweet pups - we just could not ask for better companions. I just pray they are both with us for a long, long time.

Bernie’s been avoiding cabin fever by refinishing gun stocks. The house has smelled like boiled linseed oil for a while now, but goodness, it sure does make a gun stock shiny! This picture just doesn’t show the wonderful job he did on this gun.

OK, I’m going to leave you with a recipe to help warm you on one of these cold, winter evenings:

Potato Ham Soup

Ingredients:
4 cups peeled and diced potatoes
2 - 3 stalks diced celery
half of a diced onion
1 cup cooked, diced ham
4 cups chicken stock
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste
1/2 stick butter
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 cups milk

Directions:
Combine the potatoes, celery, onion, ham, chicken stock, salt and pepper in a large pot and bring to a boil. Cook over medium heat until the potatoes are done - about 15 minutes or so.

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour and milk until there are no lumps.

Once potato mixture is done, add the butter, and the milk and flour mixture. Stir until the soup is thickened.

I suppose you can leave out the butter if you want to watch the fat and calories, but I truly don’t recommend it……

This is a very hardy meal. I serve it with a side salad, or some homemade french bread.

Bon Apetite - and stay warm!