Chicken, Guns, and Critters

Ever have one of those days you just don’t feel like manning the kitchen while food cooks?  I wanted roasted chicken but didn’t want to watch the oven.  What to do??  Pull out your handy dandy crock pot, pullout a whole chicken, spice up your chicken.  I usually put some garlic salt, pepper, and cumin all over the chicken with a bit of olive oil.  Then you can do one of two things, place vegetables in the bottom of your crock pot or if you’re not using veggies, ball up two balls of tin foil.  This prevents your chicken from touching the bottom of the pot while it roasts.  Place the top on your crock pot, and turn your chicken on high for 5 hours and wala…….you have a nicely roasted chicken.  

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Gun cleaning is done regularly in our home (actually outside due to the smell of the chemicals).  Our guns are cleaned right after using them or on a regular basis to make sure they’re no issues.   Do you clean your guns?

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Daily visitors on our homestead…………

 

She looks pregnant!

He/She is getting to confident, coming closer to our home.

Hummingbird Down

A week and a half ago, I had two lingering hummingbirds (most of these type of birds have already ventured down south to Mexico for winter) feeding on my feeders.  This particular morning, temperatures were 62 degrees, and it was still raining from the day before. 

Both hummingbirds were sitting on the same feeder drenched of water, shivering.  When I opened my storm door to go out on the porch one hummingbird was startled and fell to the ground.  I immediately went to his rescue.  Picking him up, he looked at me, fluffed his wings, made one of those silly giggles, and flew over to the trees lining the front yard. 

 

The second hummingbird remained on the bird feeder shivering.  I went into my house and pulled out a towel, and a syringe full of sugar water.  When I opened the storm door the second bird was no longer sitting on the feeder.  So I went down the porch steps to the other side of the porch, and there he was lying on the ground. 

Picture of his underside.

Picture of his back.

Sat him in a towel with the bird feeder.  Then used a syringe.

 

I gently picked him up, went back up on the porch, where I had laid a towel down on a shelf, placed a hummingbird feeder on the shelf, and then gently laid the bird on the shelf next to the feeder placing his beak in the feeder.  He wasn’t taking the sugar water.  So I took a syringe and filled it with the sugar water.  Gently placing a droplet on the hummingbird’s beak………the bird took in the sugar water.  I continued this process for a couple of minutes.  I made sure the towel was close to the bird on all sides, except one, so he had a way to fly off.

After two hours, I watched this little hummingbird gain his energy, and fly off to the tree line in the front yard.  

These 2 birds were back at my house the very next day……I’m not sure if that was to acknowledge they appreciated my help, or just because they needed another day of sugar water before flying south to warmer temperatures.

Bad Cut, Tree/Bush Removal, Finds

Now that we live 45 minutes from town, both Bulldog Man and Tank ask me to cut/shave their heads instead of going into town for haircuts/shaves.  I’ll have you know, I’m not a barber, nor an experienced hair cutter/beautician.  However, I do make a good attempt to cut/shave their heads in style…..LOL

I’m like Penny, from the Big Bang Theory.  I try to make everyone happy and just go with the flow.  Here’s a perfect segment on hair shaving/clipping where Penny shaves / clips Sheldon’s hair, on the Big Bang Theory.  This segment was found on You Tube. 

Now let’s look at Bulldog Man’s hair shave/clip………………..

Oops!  While shaving around his ear, my hand slipped (it happens), and I cut more hair than I should.   Sorry Babe!!!

Luckily for me, my husband has a sense of humor.  He states the difference between a bad haircut and a good haircut is 2 weeks :-)

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The tractor has come in handy, not just for cutting grass; but tilling up the garden bed and for removing stumps, trees, and small bushes.  I had 3 small bushes, directly in front of the house, I wanted removed.  Within 5 minutes, all 3 bushes were pulled and removed from our front yard. This tractor has made short order on jobs around here.

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Thrifts store finds……

I found a small bucket with a lid to use in my kitchen for compiling compost scraps to haul out to my composter.  I also found a couple of old canning jars I’m going to fill with soap, and sit on a shelf as decoration in my laundry room.

My goal is to also find some old signs to hang up in the laundry/side door entry of the house.  Here are 2 signs I just picked up.

Have you been doing anything to prepare for fall and winter this year?