What's for dinner?

How can you not smile when dinner is smiling back at you? I cracked three eggs and this is what happened in the bowl. Kevin even suggested that I needed to take a picture - which is what I wanted to do but I wasn't sure I should. But with his suggestion I did - of course, he was probably just making fun of me!

Then I put another egg into the bowl and it got even better! What a delightful was to start dinner! I hope it brings a smile to your face!

Some kind of egg hunt

We took an entire cooler full of eggs to the Payne Family Reunion. Figured we could use them or Monique could use them in their new bakery business. We were disturbed to find many of them cracked open so we cleaned all the eggs and egg cartons in their backyard. We scattered them on the lawn to let them dry and it looked rather odd. There were lots of eggs!

Ever wonder

Having our own chickens is cool (most of the time). What we really enjoy is all the double yolkers. The eggs are really big and you sort of feel bad for the poor chicken who laid it. You crack open the eggs and enjoy seeing the double yolk. Well, we had one of those large eggs and I decided to boil it to see what it was like. It was pretty neat (if you're an egg watcher).

Comparison

Just thought I'd share with you our excitement.

Our newest chickens, which joined our family back in July,

are now laying eggs.

Some of the chickens lay greenish blue eggs.

The kids enjoy finding them, along with our brown eggs.

The white one is from the store.

I just put it in for comparison.

We have at least one chicken who really likes laying double yolk eggs. It's fun to see the big eggs and even more fun to crack it open and see the double yolks.

It's just not the same.

I'm not sure why, but the kids have been finding wild bird eggs. They are not in nests, and they are not broken. Some are like this one, and others have been blue robin eggs. I'm not sure if the mother is laying them in strange places, kicking them out of the nest (which would probably cause it to crack), or if a predator is taking them from the nest but loosing them before it can eat them. Every time they find one, the kids ask if we can hatch it - like our chicken eggs. Unfortunately, it's not the same. Chicks pop out ready to eat on their own and are able to take care of themselves. Birds are not - you have to feed them and are much more needy. I'm not even sure the eggs are viable but we have not tried to hatch them.

May have messed up...

and I feel really bad about it. It all started yesterday. I had 5 dozen eggs that I needed to get rid of. I called the number some one gave me and told the lady there about the eggs. She said they wanted them and that her husband would come by the next day (today) to pick the up. Great. A little while later, the lady I call the drive-by lady stopped by for eggs. I knew she got them for her grandson and so I figured he had called her and she was here to get the eggs. What were the chances that they weren't related and that communication hadn't occurred? She paid for the 5 dozen and took them away, stating that 3 doz were for her grandson. So, imagine my surprise when the doorbell rang during lunch today and who should be at my door but the husband of the lady I talked to on the phone. I felt terrible because I truly thought they were related and that it had all been worked out but I didn't verify when the lady did pick them up. I spent a few minutes explaining it to him and eventually he said, "Yes, that was probably my grandma." Oh good. She has the eggs and just didn't tell him that she picked them up. I felt better, until his wife called and said, "I know you sold the eggs to someone else but I just wanted to know if you wanted the cartons back?" Yes, thank you. I then felt bad again because maybe her husband was trying to make me feel better by saying it was his grandma. I don't really know now what to think but I do feel bad that I didn't at least ask the lady I gave the eggs to about the people I had already talked to on the phone. I'm not a very good business person but will be better next time. I sure hope it all worked out.

Just when you think we had enough

EGGS! I know that's just what you wanted to hear about. We are getting an average of 20 eggs a day now. But every once in a while we are treated to finding a stash somewhere outside the chicken yard. Like today, Kevin found a nest with 11 eggs. So add that to our already collected 21 eggs for today and we now have an additional 32 eggs! Craziness! If you check out the two piles on the stove you can see which ones came from the coop, and which ones are the stashed nest eggs.

Here are the eggs that came from the coop. The eggs are a little bit different - shape, size, color - they came from different chickens.

Here are the eggs from a stash nest... Notice how they all look the same - they came from the same chicken.

Yes, that means our chickens are getting out of the yard. It's an every day job to go out in the morning (and sometimes throughout the day) to put the chicken (or chickens) back into the yard. Silly birds. I wonder what they will do if a dog ever catches one of them outside the yard... Do you think the others will figure out it's safer in the yard?

Just so you know

I made Apple German Pancakes tonight for dinner and used 8 eggs. It was delicious, even if it was a little under done. We'll be having that one again, maybe for breakfast instead of dinner. Last night I made crepes and used 19 eggs. We finally decided that we don't have to roll them up to eat them. They taste the same if we just cut them up into bites and pour our favorite sauces on top (or put the sauce on the side so we can dip in them). I also made egg bread, in roll shapes. That used up 3 or 4 eggs. The kids enjoy hard boiled eggs but they are not very excited about scrambled eggs. I must say I'm getting better at using our egg supply. Fortunately, I have sold 4 dozen and I'm getting the word out so maybe we won't have to eat so many. Then again, they are an easy source of food so I'll just keep being creative and we'll enjoy! (We lowered the price to $1.50 for a dozen so if you're interested, stop on by.)