Finally, a clucking victory!!!

It has finally happened. We have successfully harvested our first two eggs. Eggs are one of those things that we always took for granted when we walked into the grocery store and bought them by the dozen. As a kid I never even considered the time and effort that goes into the production of those favorite projectiles of hoodlums everywhere. As of this morning if our chickens stopped laying, those two eggs would have a production cost somewhere near four hundred dollars each. But, being the perpetual optimists that we are, those eggs represent the first of many treats that we will harvest from our foray into the wild world of agricultural speculation.

After a brief version of the happy dance and some high fives because we knew that we had proven mans superiority over chickens, we realized that eggs are fleeting and we needed to do something with them besides having them bronzed, so Chris decided it was time to make a pie. A pumpkin pie to be more specific. We eagerly set about the task of preparing fresh pumpkin filling from Kaitlin's remaining fall decorations and included our two eggs. This won't take long, did it! A short time later and some fresh homemade whipped cream and this beauty was all ours.

While the big chickens have been doing chicken things and have now started to earn their keep, the babies are just eating and running and more eating. They are five weeks old and still have no idea that some of them are destined for a very short vacation in the G.E. tanning bed along with a side of green beans. At twelve weeks we will choose ten good looking showgirls that we think will produce eggs like Chinese women produce knock-off Kate Spade purses and the rest become naked penguin look-alikes in the freezer in the shed. The truth is that neither Ed nor Chris is looking forward to "Chicken Day", but it's part of the job.

Super Chicken continues to hold his own as a standout in the baby chicken crowd. We are seeing more and more "rooster" type behavior every day, although it is still a little to early to tell by looking if he's a he or she's a she. Regardless of this ones gender, it is definitely smarter and more aggressive than its counterparts. Yes, Chris and I have had the discussion that it looks an awful lot like a hawk. Boy, wouldn't that be funny.

You can see how much our friend has grown and how silly the Buff Orpingtons can be.

We are continuing research and planning for our spring planting. This week we cleaned and dried the pumpkin seeds out of all of the pumpkins Kaitlin and Gayle were using for decorations. Gayle will probably not notice that her pumpkins are gone, but if she does Nate will not be here to defend himself. Our rule is be here or be blamed. It happens. We harvested 2584 seeds. That is enough to plant about two and a half acres. Some quick math will tell us that if we plant 2584 plants and each plant yields two good sized pumpkins then we will only have to sell them for $193.50 each to gross one million dollars. That won't all be profit though because we will need to purchase a vehicle that can haul thirty six thousand pounds of pumpkins because they all need to be sold the week before Halloween. Figuring that the average wholesale price of a pumpkin is somewhere around two dollars each, we should probably be satisfied with recovering the cost of the gasoline for the tractor. All of the seeds are stored in the window envelopes Gayle saves that come with all those pesky bills Ed likes to ignore. If you look closely you can see that six of the seven envelopes are from the same company. They must really be upset. We use the mail to start the bonfire and recycle the envelopes. Maybe we will win an award from Al Gore for being so green. Apparently anyone can get a Nobel Prize these days.

We have also been looking into raising cows for beef. There are quite a few dairy and beef farms in our area. Wikipedia said that the highest priced beef is called Kobe beef from Japan. While we have never been to Japan we have purchased goods from Wal-mart. We are thinking about hiring some experienced Japanese fellows to assist us in our Kobe beef production. Check out this link to learn all about Kobe Beef.

We had a great meal Saturday with Kaitlin and Nate. Fresh free range grain fed beef hamburgers from farmer Art and fresh homemade coleslaw using one of Chris's heads of cabbage. I think we all could get used to this.