Roast chickens

Anna Hess' book The Weekend Homesteader: A Twelve Month Guide to Self-Sufficiency includes a recipe for roasting a whole chicken. I was excited to try it out. It requires you to stay by the stove and frequently pull the chicken out to baste it, but it's extremely easy and I appreciate not needing to cut up the chicken and cook the pieces separately.

I purchased a whole organic chicken, small yellow potatoes, and gave it a go.

It came out absolutely delicious! I ended up with too much butter and oil accumulating at the bottom of the pan due to using a spoon instead of a real baster, but otherwise it made 6-7 servings and was absolutely worth the cooking time.

This weekend I'm visiting my parents to celebrate Mother's Day, and surprised them by bringing and roasting another chicken. I used my mom's baster and this time the potatoes came out crispy. A little too crispy, actually, as my dad was late for dinner and I left the pan in the warm oven so the chicken wouldn't get cold, and the potatoes kept cooking. We joked that I had made chips. I included garlic and fresh rosemary from my yard. Everyone was happy with the meal.

Brassicas

http://biology-forums.com/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=682

I seem to have a couple of actual wild mustard plants coming up in my raised bed.

Folding furniture

I heart IKEA and their folding furniture. I got rid of my standard dining table and replaced it with one that has two wings that fold out, and six deep drawers in the middle. Add four folding, bright red chairs.

Plus one outdoor chair.

Finally, a folding stepladder so that I can stop climbing onto my kitchen counters to reach the highest shelves.

Look at all that extra space now!

This will all be going with me to my future tiny house.

Spinning

I am taking a yarn spinning class at Purlescence Yarns. It is fun to work with fiber in a new way, and I always love producing things with my hands. The best part is that the store is lending us wheels to work with at home for the duration of the class! I got an Ashford Traveller.

Early attempts at spinning were, predictably, lumpy "art yarn."

But look at me now!

I bought some cheap extra roving for when I run out of the white they provided. Fun!

Spring!

The first ripe strawberry of the year was, of course, delicious!

I got a good spinach harvest before the plants started bolting.

I purchased ladybugs to help control the aphid population. I was happy to see them still hanging around and copulating for the next few days.

I digitized a ton of old client files and am in the process of shredding the paper and adding it to the worm bins.

Plus I finally harvested the one bin that was full of worm castings (and a small number of sticks). I still have 3 bins going.

Lemon juice

My parents have a lemon tree and always end up with more lemons than they can use. Since I'm trying hard to drink 8 cups of water a day, I like to add a little squirt of lemon for flavor. (Or some slices of cucumber, which make it deliciously sweet.)

The "olive oil" type bottle makes it easy to add just the right amount. I decided that it was worth it to buy a little juicer as well. Most of it went into little jars in the freezer. I'm getting into the homesteader mentality of getting stuff in bulk when it's in season, and storing for later.

Chicken fight

I'd only seen minor posturing between my chickens before, but this morning the Ameraucana and the Welsummer were just getting into it when the Rhode Island Red ran between them, pecked the Ameraucana back a few steps, pecked the Welsummer back, then promptly returned to scratching and eating. The two fighters eyed each other but kept their distance. Go Red.