Monday, December 12, 2011

The Chaos of the silly season.

Well you are all probably well and truly into the silly season just like us.  School concerts, final assignments, reports, work do's, Christmas shopping to finish, the planning of Christmas day - Ahhhhhhh why do we do this to ourselves.  Well this year with one week (the worst chaos week at that) of school to go my lovely baby gets chicken pox.  As miserable as she is there is an upside to this - instead of racing around like a mad woman all week, I have now been forced to stay home and tend to my baby.  At 7 she is still the baby of the family and a huge drama queen, and when she is sick she just wants to sit with mummy and snuggle. So this week will now be a nice quiet week at home with my little one, so a lovely rest before Christmas is definitely to be viewed as a blessing in disguise (all be it a spotty one).

I got a lovely pressie from a lady at school today.  She knows I knit and crochet and she works at the local op shop so when this yarn came past her way she snapped it up for me to thank me for helping her out this year with some school runs i did when she was unwell.  I never expected anything in return for the helping hand but this was a lovely thought and will be turned into many loved items in the future.

The first incubated chickens
Our chickens are laying up a storm, our numbers are on the way back up as Nish bought home 3 laying Isa Browns from her school project and the little chickens have really stepped up. Also I am a bit excited because the first batch of incubated chickens look to have 4 girls and 2 boy Sussex.   I am yet to decide what is going on with the barnevelders, they all look the same. lol  I also have 4 plain white cross breeds that look like they might be girls to.  This girl heavy flock will allow me to replenish and then all the others will go for food. So as annoying as the fox attack was it wasn't a complete unfixable disaster, and it has moved Ian into sorting out my chicken coup and run.

We had friends come over for a BBQ on Saturday and that bought with it 4 extra adults and 4 extra kids.  I just love watching kids up here running around and yelling with childish delight.  There was some adult giggling when I just leaned over and picked up a lamb for the kids to pat as they are more than 1/2 my size now.  The sheep do look rather impressive bolting up the hill straight at me when I call them.

I would like to introduce you all to the newest member of our family.  Sisma.  She is my little baby and I got her from my little sis Dee. She will become our mummy cat (Ma)  get it Sis-Ma.  We thought we would let the kids experience kittens "just once".  She is lovely and very smoochy.  She has settled in extremely well and has everyone wrapped around her paws, even they other cats took straight to her.

As I was writing this the kids came to inform me that Hercules our lamb ram was stuck in a tree????  Earlier today I saw him walking around the front bush paddock, he had gotten off his tether and I thought I might just let him have a wander around,  he is such a sook and wont go out of sight of either us or Billy the goat so I figured he would be OK.  Well as usual when it comes to our animals I was wrong.  I'm not sure why but he was trying to climb up a tree, I assume the leaves must be tasty.  He had one of his back legs caught between 2 branches and was stuck.  I had to lift him down but then he was limping,  I can't see any damage and he keeps shacking it out so I am thinking maybe just pins and needles so we did a few laps around the house block to walk it off - crazy animal.

I thought today I would share our Christmas breakfast recipe with you.  It is really easy to make, you throw it together the night before and put it in the fridge,  then just put it in the oven in the morning.  We put ours in just before we start with the pressie opening and by the time we are finished breakfast is hot and ready to be served.

Christmas Breakfast
250gms shredded Cheddar cheese
 6 eggs
3 c. milk
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. dry mustard
3 strips bacon, cut in half

Directions:
Trim crusts from bread. Layer bread then cheese in bottom of greased 7 1/2 x 12 inch flat baking dish. Beat eggs and milk together and stir in the salt, pepper and mustard. Pour this over bread, cheese. Lay bacon on top. Refrigerate overnight. The next morning bake, uncovered, at 180 degrees for 50-55 minutes.
Remove from oven just after guests sit down. Otherwise, it may tend to sink. Tastes just as great, but doesn't look as glamorous. Serves 6.





I hope you will give it a try, its delish and so easy.

Well that's it for this week

Catchya later