Easter Babies!

It was such a treat to have our new baby chicks and ducklings arrive two days before Easter! It is so fun to have babies in the house!! We bought 8 chicks and 4 ducklings from a NH woman who sells them on Craig's list. We are so excited to see how the Speckled Sussex chicks are going to look as adults. They are the reddish ones in the pic below. We also bought 1 Barred Rock which is the black and white one and 1 Buff Orpington which is the yellow one with it's head turned back. The Buff Orpington was a must to replace Mollies chicken Fluffy who didn't survive a dog attack:(

Here are our beautiful little Cayuga Ducklings! They are so sweet and cute and soft!! They have a much different personality than the chicks, far more easy going and docile. I chose this breed after researching a little and finding out that they are much quieter and tend to be more docile than other breeds. Plus the male becomes a beautiful greenish back color when full grown. They are also very hardy in colder climates.


Our other babies are veggies!!! This is the grow table that Pat built so that we could start lots of seedlings inside without having to put them all on the kitchen table. We also added artificial lighting to help the plants to not become leggy. Under the shelves on the floor is our brooder. We can keep the chicks and duck warm and heat the soil for the seedlings at the same time!! Nothing like multipurpose!

Here is the side view and James checking on the chicks.

Our real Easter babies on Sunday morning at church were the cutest though!!! The girls are sporting the little cardi sweaters that I started as Christmas presents but ended up not being finished until last week! They were perfect for Easter though! The pattern for the sweaters and the little purses can be found on the Lionbrand Yarn website.

Easy Homemade Yogurt Method!

Thought I would share this method of making yogurt that we've been using for the last month or two. I have been wanting to make yogurt for YEARS now and was slightly intimidated by it, until I realized it really is so simple! Here's what we do:

In the morning I set a dishcloth in the bottom of a pot and then fill (to a little below the screw lines) 4 pint jars with milk. Then the jars are placed in the pot and I add water to about the same level as the milk. Place it on the stove, turn it on high, add a thermometer and go about making breakfast or cleaning up from dinner last night...oops!
You are looking for the milk to reach 180 degrees.

Also a thin film will form on the top of the milk.

When up to temp remove the jars from the water to cool down to 110 degrees. You can do this by either letting them sit on the counter (it will take several hours) or setting them in the sink or dishpan and slowly adding cool water so the jars do not break!!! (Oops again!) It will only take 30 minutes or so if you are wanting to speed up the process. I let them cool for a few minutes and then set them in a dishpan and added cool water slowly and then cold water and then ice cubes. Add more ice as necessary. Do NOT set the jars directly into ice water! Not good for your jars!!!

Meanwhile, I placed the cover on the pot I used for heating the milk and left it on the burner with the heat turned off. This is going to be my heat source for keeping the yogurt warm.

When the yogurt is down to temp I added 1 tablespoon of plain good quality store yogurt (used Stonyfield) to each pint and gave it a gentle stir until the yogurt was thoroughly mixed in. Next I screwed the caps on and place the pot of water and the jars in my cooler with a towel for extra insulation. I wrap the towel over everything and close the lid. The yogurt needs 4 to 24 hours to culture. I did not time how long they were in the cooler but that night before bed I opened it up and placed the jars in the fridge.

The next morning you have yummy homemade (and easy to my surprise) yogurt that you can add any type of flavoring to! The kids and I have been loving maple syrup and granola on ours!
Love the fact that I have almost no dishes with this method too! Just the measuring spoon I used to measure out the yogurt and stir with. The pot of water I dump and dry and put away since it only had water in it. My dishcloth is now completly sterilized and clean so I hang it up to dry. I have also now started using quart jars instead of pints since the kids eat this for breakfast almost every day!!!