Not For the Faint of Heart (or Stomach...)

Universal Yuck Face

Seriously, do NOT watch the video I just posted if you are easily grossed out. Tilly and Ella took this of Pearl, our Buff Orpington hen, laying an egg yesterday. Yep, they snatched her out of the nesting box (where she had managed to get a little bit of privacy), flipped her upside down and filmed her in the act. And here I get irritated when someone tries to talk to me through the bathroom door...

I don't want any nasty e-mails or comments because you can't say I didn't warn you.

Yuck.

But don't worry, it won't keep a single one of us from eating eggs! :-)

Goody Goody

Here's Tilly, holding and taking a picture of an egg that Mimi laid yesterday afternoon. When the girls first started laying, the eggs were a lot smaller and occasionally misshapen. Now, they've gotten pretty consistent in size and shape. They sure are pretty - I almost hate to crack them to cook with!

Oh yes - Aunt Lucy's pound cake recipe is now up!

Lazy Days of Summer

Ha!

Whoever came up with that saying ought to be spanked - and spanked hard. I might want to be lazy, but there's just too much to get done in a day! Aside from making and shipping beads, we're also taking care of several of our neighbor's animals while they are out of town. Plus, I'm getting the girls all packed and ready to go on a week-long vacation to Isle of Palms with my parents. It's my father's annual birthday trip and he and mom love having the girls come along too. (Don't worry about Davis though, he looks forward to having the undivided attention of his parents. We take him out to dinner, to go and see a movie and to the arcade/go-kart track. And somehow he has wheedled a promise out of me to buy him a new video game for his PlayStation, Secret Agent Clank. *sigh* Boys.) My aunt has been in and out of the hospital with some health issues recently and we're getting ready for my cousin and his daughter to come and visit soon. Plus, my cousin, Becca, and her daughter and pug might also be coming to stay for a bit as well.

Our garden is going like gangbusters and it feels like I'm doing all I can just to keep up with the harvest. (Or the weeds, but I don't feel like talking about them right now) I'm not complaining - I love it! We've got armloads of tomatoes and green beans. The yellow squash is surprisingly productive, considering the late start it got. Still no zucchini, but the plants are at least covered in blooms now. The tomatillo husks are starting to fill out nicely, so we'll be having some salsa verde before you know it. We've gotten several bell peppers and quite a few jalepenos, but the poblano pepper plants are just starting to flower. We ate our very first fried okra last night and it was delicious!

In other absolutely fabulous news, Mimi and Fifi have both started laying - WAHOO!! We got the very first egg on Friday before the 4th and then 1 a day on Saturday, Monday and yesterday. (I intended to get a picture of the first egg, but it ended up getting eaten before I could borrow my mom's camera. Oops!) There is a definite difference in our girls' eggs and the ones I buy from the grocers. Right now, the most noticeable difference is in the size. Hee, hee... our little eggs are like brown ping pong balls - so cute! Of course they'll get bigger as the girls grow and mature because all our girls are considered "heavy breeds" that lay large to jumbo eggs. The other difference is that the whites aren't at all watery - they're very firm and stand up in the pan. Plus, the yolks are a pretty marigold orange color instead of the yellow I'm used to seeing. And they are simply scrumptious!