Meal plan for May 19th – 26th
My sister and brother-in-law are keeping Jack next Saturday. We took my nephew last weekend, so it is a bit of a swap. This week, Troy and I had the following conversation about our “free time”:
Me: hey sweetie, I have a great idea for Saturday afternoon.
Troy: oh yeah?
Me: yeah. It will take about 2 hours. 😉
Troy: :eyebrows raise:
Me: it’s something we can’t do when Jack is around…
Troy: :eyebrows now up in his hairline:
Me: we, can…
Troy: :looks at me expectantly:
Me: finally clean the garage!!!!
Troy: :shoulders sag, and he walks away:
Needless to say, our garage is finally getting cleaned out this coming weekend. Yippee!
Chicken Naming Contest results!
I’m pretty sure that anyone who read the comments kinda instantly knew what her name would be.
Of course. Of course. OF COURSE I would pick “Mother Clucker“. Around little ears though, we’re going to call her “Momma”.
The girls are hilarious, and we’re so pleased to have them here finally. We’ll be more pleased when they get around to laying eggs, but all in good time. We added more sand this week, and then last night I added a bunch of white wood shavings (word on the street is cedar is toxic for the chickies) to the floor. When I started dreaming of a coop about two years ago, I really wanted to do the deep litter method, but with the coop design I chose, I was worried about the shavings getting all wet and clumpy. Now that we’ve have the ladies in there for a week, I can see where the rain comes in, so I tried to place the shavings in the drier spots. I know they’ll kick it everywhere, but I can only do what I can do!
The shavings were a welcome distraction for the girls, as I could tell they were a little bored. They were starting to pick feathers out of each other and were having a game of chase around the coop with them in their beaks.
One two separate occasions, 5:30 and 11 am, I’ve caught a raccoon watching “chicken TV”. Le sigh. The coop is solid and Troy did a fab job securing the hardware cloth, but a mama always worries. I eventually want a chicken tractor so that they can be a bit more “free range” in the yard, but the 11 am raccoon visit has me a little stressed about letting them out of the safety of their strong coop.
In other news, my chickens are morons.
They can’t figure out how to roost, so every night at 9:30 pm, I have to go out and pick them up and put them on the roosts. Within seconds, they’re on the divider between the coop part and the rest of the run, and they stay there until morning. Yesterday, I caught them all in a cluster sleeping on the stairs up to the coop. Dummies.
Meal plan time! Reminder, I only plan dinners, because breakfast is always smoothies or eggs with something, and lunches are always leftovers. We rarely eat dessert during the week, and our dinner drink of choice is water kefir soda.
Monday:: Organic hot dogs from Trader Joes, coleslaw, and grilled asparagus.
Tuesday:: I’m working late. Booooooo. Let’s say leftovers or cereal.
Wednesday:: Grilled shrimp kebabs, grilled asparagus, and an Asian noodle salad that I just found the recipe for in my homemade recipe book.
Thursday:: Breakfast for dinner.
Friday:: Popcorn dinner. Yes, seriously we eat popcorn for dinner. It’s popcorn, leftovers, cheese slices, fruit, and cut up veggies. Everyone gets as much as they want, and no one leaves hungry. I adore Fridays because it is the easiest night of the week for making everyone happy!
Saturday:: Chicken salad on pretzel rolls, and whatever veggie I can find on sale.
Sunday:: Family dinner at my parent’s.
I didn’t track my spending this week, but I still have cash leftover, so I know I was under budget!
What are you guys having?
FYI, thought you might be interested in this if you don’t already have an executive membership. http://www.zulily.com/membership-activation-card-51896-3773478.html?pos=1
That’s funny about the chickens. Can’t say they are the smartest, but they’re quite amusing. Hope they get used to their home soon. And good luck with the quality time!
LOL….love the chicken’s name!!!
and yes bless their little hearts, even being so helpful by giving us their delicious eggs, chickens are dummies…. 🙂
Yes, that was definitely the funniest name! And you have some creative commenters! This week we will be having:
Monday: Gnocchi with tomato sauce and beans
Tuesday: Chicken and cauliflower curry
Wednesday: Crock pot pork chops, baked potatoes and Brussels sprouts (shh..don’t tell my kids or they’ll start whining already!)
Thursday: Fajitas
Friday: Spaghetti with meat sauce
Saturday and Sunday: TBD
My lunches this week will be pretty much all fruits and veggies since Teacher Appreciation Week (or Teacher Enfattening Week) has left me with a couple of extra pounds!
Chickens sleep in the same type places they learned to sleep as a chick. Mine never sleep anywhere except on top of their Rubbermaid box that is for their egg laying. Chickens sleep as high as they can to be safe from predators. Huddling together makes me wonder if they are afraid or cold–neither seems to the case, though. Get a Havahart trap and put a strawberry and a small wad of foil. If you put meat in the trap, you will get cats. I catch raccoons with strawberries and foil. Raccoons are fascinated with shiny things and will investigate even without the strawberry.
Call Animal Control and they have traps to lend. They will destroy the animal. It is illegal to relocate them.
I’m calling Animal Control today during my lunch break!
The woman who sold me the chicks said they roosted at her house. Oy!
The name you picked is the funniest one I read. Love seeing the pics of your feathered girls, look forward to reading more about them.
I loved the start of the post so much that I had to read it to my husband. He laughed!! Good luck on the garage cleaning 🙂
I’m going to venture a guess that your husband didn’t laugh as hard as you did. LOL, it’s not as funny to dudes.