Easter Weekend

I've been working very hard and decided to rest today because when I got out of bed this morning I could hardly move because my joints ached so much. Even so, I was still very busy. I prepared some of tomorrow's Easter dinner -- Blue Ribbon Peach Cobbler for dessert, candied sweet potatoes, and deviled eggs. My other half always cooks the ham and cheese potatoes. I used to do all the baking, but since Tom got his bread machine, he likes baking all the bread, so he made the biscuits. We like cooking everything but the meat the day before a holiday because we think the extra day improves the food's flavor.

While I was busy in the house, Tom boiled maple sap down outside. I have another pot of sap finishing on the stove. We have five pints so far. Our syrup is dark amber and has a wood smoke taste to it that we love. We don't care for the taste of the Grade A light gold colored syrup. A lot of people we know like their syrup darker, too. Here's a picture of Tom and my latest "sugaring rig".




Good Friday was the chicks entrance into their "Brave New World". I finally finished stapling up the chicken fence and let them out of the coop. Not all of them want to come out, but even today more of them were outside than were inside. They are funny to watch. I will be glad to get the skid built so I can move the roosters out to the field and let the ladies have the coop to themselves. Once I do that I will get the dedicated brooder built and order my next batch of chicks.





Eddy was a big help to me putting up the fence:




The door you see laying on the ground in the picture showing part of the fence is a door I got several years ago for free at a garage sale. When I built the chicken coop I put the small window from that door in the storage area of the chicken coop. Now I will use the door itself as the "Man Door" when I build the chicken skid. I'll either fill in the window area with wood or a piece of hardware cloth. Never throw anything away -- you never know when it might come in handy!

Here is a picture of our Yellow Lab, Sandy, the Chicken Guardian:



My seedlings in the basement are ready to be potted up. I hope to get to that task this week.



There's always something to do! May everybody have a blessed Easter Day, and for all who who do not celebrate Easter, may your day be blessed, too!