Sweet Victory

We are of course big hockey fans in this household.  Bruins hockey fans to be exact so seeing them win the Stanley Cup was a huge thrill.  My husband is the biggest fan of all and so for Father's day it seemed only fitting to make him some Stanley Cupcakes for father's day.

Again my handy dandy Cricut was useful in
cutting out the little jerseys and cupcake holders.
The cupcake holders say 'champs' on them.
Then I just used some markers to add the color
and names to the jerseys.
And yes, I spent some extra time to make a little
Stanley cup replica out of some plastic cups, a toilet paper tube and tin foil.
The cupcakes are pina colada flavored and my favorite Bruins fan was more than happy to eat them for dessert on Father's Day.

WoooHoooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Stanley Cup is back in Boston!!

Wordless Wednesday

Homemade Happenings

We had a lot of homemade goodness going on over here during the end of last week.  I get such a little thrill out of anything homemade.  I made tomato sauce Thursday.  It is still early for really good tomatoes but I made do with what I could find.  It came out pretty good and I can't wait for the really good tomatoes later in the season.  Friday Dom and I made chicken sausage.  We've pretty much mastered the pork and I wanted to try making chicken because I believe it is a bit healthier as well as cheaper to make.  I joked that if we wanted realy fresh sausage we could just grab a chicken from the yard.
 I was of course joking.
 I will be honest and say at some point I would definitly consider raising meat birds.  Yes, I am well aware of what the act of processing your own birds entails.  My parents raised turkeys when I was younger and I witnessed the whole process first hand.
Could I do it myself?  That remains to be seen.
The first time would be the hardest but knowing that the chicken lived a happy life being chickens and not crammed into little cages and pumped full of antibiotics and hormones would make it easier for me.  I am honestly quite disturbed by the size of chicken breasts that you find in the grocery store.
Henrietta and Henny Penny are quite safe from becoming sausage as we are quite fond of them and they're egg laying, insect eating contributions to the family.
Anyway,we made chicken sausage and it turned out good.  I think that we will switch to making chicken sausage for a little while since we have both worked so hard to lose weight.
Next homemade item on the agenda was Mozzarella cheese.  In my neverending curiousity to find
easy things to make at home I came across the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company. They sell kits for cheese making at home.  The mozzarella takes only an hour-(actually the box claims 30 minutes but it was closer to an hour for us first timers.)  It really wasn't that hard and the cheese came out pretty good.  You can just use milk from the grocery store as long as it isn't ultra-pasteurized.  I hope to find a more local source for milk because the cheese would be even better!

So by Saturday afternoon we had fresh sauce, sausage and cheese and decided to make pizza for
dinner by making up some homemade dough.  So fun!  I had several little helpers because Becca had a
friend from school sleepover and we had a delicious homemade pizza!
Add to that Kenzie's woodworking creations and we had lots of homemade fun!

Kenzie Creations

Kenzie is a hands on kinda girl and really likes to design and build stuff.  Mostly she had been making little inventions with erector sets and sketching out little inventions in a notebook.
Recently though, she was playing around with some wood that was in the yard that was leftover from when we built the deck.  The pieces had been used to hold down a tarp and had since just been in a little pile in the yard.  One day while Dom and I were working in the yard she stacked the pieces up in a little bench, minus the legs and was hanging out.  After commenting on her cute little design Dom offered to help her screw it all together.  Her eyes got all big "Really!?"  she exclaimed.  And that's just what they did.
Kenzie finished off her little bench with a nice little paint job and it makes a perfect addition to the fire pit!

 This weekend she and Dom took on another project that she thought up.  This idea seemed to spring from her watching us add a nesting box onto the chicken coop. We added a little door in the back of the box to easily get the eggs out.  Soon after seeing this Kenzie mentioned how she would like to make a box and soon was sketching out her design.  The little box/cabinet now sits proudly next to her bed and doubles as a nightstand!


Below are a few pictures of her working on the box.  Dom obviously did the cutting of the wood but the design, most of the assembly and painting was all done by Kenzie!

I am curious to see what she comes up with next!

Wordless Wednesday

Tuukka Trouble

It's a good thing that Tuukka is cute because lately he's been getting into all sorts of trouble. The main source of his mischief making is our little decorative pond. We had some trouble last year with Boomer thinking it was his own private swimming pool, but Tuukka goes above and beyond causing trouble with the pond.

To Tuukka the whole area is like a waterpark. For Tuukka the little fountain isn't just something to look at it's a place to get a drink. And if you chew on the fountain you can make it spray in all directions and if you try really hard you can even pull the top of the fountain off and use it as a chew toy! Fun!

Then there are the little frogs and ducks I have decorating the pond. Tuukka loves the ducks. I find the ducks all over the yard or bobbing upside down in the pond. I know he is a bird dog but pond ornaments need to be left alone.

And lastly there are the plants that are growing around the pond that he tramples in his frolicing

or the hole that he started digging after he saw me digging out some weeds. The poor pond needs some serious landscaping if it would only stop raining!!

Oh and did I mention the biggest chicken predator is Tuukka trying to dig into the chicken run?

He's not after the chickens though, he's after their food!

But despite all the trouble we still love him. He is highly entertaining in all his puppy playfulness and generally speaking, a good dog.

Just one example of Tuukka's antics-tipping over the fountain so that the water squirts everywhere!!

Wordless Wednesday

Free Range

I really wanted to be able to free range the chickens because one of the main reasons we got them was to eat all the ticks and other unfavorable bugs crawling around here. My biggest concern was our own two dogs. BIRD hunting dogs no less, but as I observed the dogs and chickens coming face to face through the wire run, I noticed the chickens didn't care an awful lot about the dogs and that the dogs really seemed more interested in the chickens food than the actual chickens.

So today we were finally blessed with a dry and partly sunny morning and I decided I'd let the chickens out of their run to free range while I did some work in the yard. Yes I did leave the dogs out with me too. I armed myself with a pocketful of dog treats and randomly caught the dogs being good by not bothering the chickens and for coming when I called them away from the chickens. The free ranging was a success which made me sooo happy!

The chickens were very entertaining as they foraged through the yard and I actually found them following me around along with the dogs.

Here the girls are checking for bugs along the woods.

A nice dust bath in the sunshine...

And who would have thought that bird dogs and chickens could get along so well?? Certainly not me on the very first day. Here everyone enjoys the warm sun.

Now I was thinking that the chickens wouldn't mind me taking a pictures but ironically this look is similar to the one the kids give me when I've taken too many pictures of them-oh well!

Where's the Sun?

I know that the sun is good for the grass and all the little plant that are popping out all over the place. And I am very thankful that it is not snow. But after 5 days straight of cool,wet weather I am soooo ready for the sun. The gray days are making me want to go back into hibernation mode which is depressing as I just came out of hibernation after a long cold winter. I refuse to turn the heat back on, though the gas fireplace has been used daily to take the chill off.

Also my oldest has been away all week at a program through school called Natures Classroom. Lots of neat outdoor activities promoting team building, social skills and an appreciation of nature. The weather has been yucky for the poor kids and I am hoping that she is having a great time despite the rain. I'll find out tomorrow. We've missed her and look forward to hearing about her adventures.

I have been venturing outside to take care of the chickens and the rabbits and have attempted a few little projects. Unfortunately everytime I venture out it is sure to begin pouring within minutes. Our little chicken coop has a leaky roof and we've placed a tarp over it until we can fix it. We've got some shingles leftover from the house and will use those.

I am desperate to just be outside and not get wet. Not to mention that I have 500 outdoor projects that I want to get done!

Wordless Wednesday

Funny Chicken Story

Many of you already know this story but for those of you who don't here you go. I think I have mentioned before that I have wanted to get chickens for several years now but we would never get around to making a coop and so another year would pass and no chickens. But the more I read about chickens the more I wanted them. Now my husband was pretty sure that this was just a phase and if he could put off building a coop then surely the phase would pass. Maybe, but one day several weeks ago as we were returning home from a trip from parents, Becca said" I just saw a chicken in the woods." as we were turning into the driveway.

Both Dom and I were like no way you saw a chicken. It must be a young turkey.

After getting settled Dom asked Becca to show him where she saw the chicken and he and the girls headed across the street to check things out while I fed the dogs.

They returned a little while later confirming that there was in fact a chicken across the street. Now we do live in a very rural area but there are no houses across the street and no one with chickens close by so where did she come from?? They had tried to catch her with no success.

So we left her to her own devices as we got on with the rest of our evening.

The next day Dom and I were walking the dogs when he asked me if I thought that the chicken was still around. I doubted it with the woods full of wildlife just looking for a tasty dinner after a long winter, but sure enough that hen was still in the same area of the woods!

We brought the dogs into the house and Dom grabbed his fishing net. We were going to try to catch the chicken. Now I wish that I thought to grab the video camera because it was quite amusing to see my husband chase after the chicken with a fishing net. He managed to catch her and get a good workout all at once.

Of course now that we had caught the hen what were going to do with her?

Luckily we have a double decker rabbit hutch and we stuck her in the bottom.

Now what?

Well I decided to keep her of course. This was obviously a sign that I was supposed to raise some chickens.

Or was it a sign to have a chicken dinner....

Anyway we kept her and now there was no choice but to build a coop of some kind. There was also the fact that chickens are flock animals and you really need to have more than one.

So my husband and I set about converting a doghouse into a mini coop with an attached run.

I then attempted to attend a chicken swap only to get rained out in the hopes of finding a friend for our new hen Luckily my parents neighbor was kind enough to provide us with another hen free of charge. So I am happy to report that we are now enjoying fresh eggs!

I have hopes of trying to work out a way for them to do some free ranging for part of the day so they can eat up the ticks and other nasty bugs that torture us. Not sure how to work it out yet since we own two bird dogs that would like nothing more than to chase the chickens around the yard. I'll let you know if I come up with a solution.

Here is Henrietta!

This is the new addition-Henny Penny.

And this is their new home.

Tractor Rides

While visiting, Auntie Lisa and Uncle Chuck checked out the new tractor by taking a little ride on the driveway.

We even got Nonna to sit on it!

Spring Fun!

We had some special guests spend the night after Kenzie's first communion. Auntie Lisa and Uncle Chuck came all the way from Colorado for the special occasion and they spent Sunday night with us along with Nonna and Nonno.

We took them hiking up Blue Job and made pudgie pies around the fire.

Here's Nonna and the girls on Blue Job.

Tuukka likes to be in the middle of all the action. He also makes a great lap warmer. Just ask Becca...

My favorite pudgie pie combination so far is this one. Cherry pie filling with Hershey chocolate bar! Just like my favorite treat- chocolate covered cherries! Yum!

Again, Tuukka is right where the action or rather the food is. He's just waiting to test the pudgie pies and make sure they taste okay...

And in celebration of the demise of Bin Laden we just happened to have an appropriate firework leftover from the summer. It was an Exploding Bin Laden Noggin.

Celebrate!

Over the weekend we celebrated Mackenzie's First Communion with family and friends.

Mackenzie was absolutely stunning and did a great job. After church we had a nice cookout back at the house. I am still hoping to get some more pictures of Kenzie all dressed up but for now these will do.

Spring Snow

It's hard to believe that yesterday I was out raking the yard in a t-shirt and today snow. I know that it isn't going to last but I have so many things that I want to do outside and other than yesterday the weather hasn't been that great. It's been cool, windy, rainy and now snowy.

There of course are plenty of things to do inside but seeing the snow right now just makes me want to climb under and blanket and sleep until it stops!

On a brighter note they are predicting much warmer temps as soon as tomorrow.

Also, Tuukka has been good about leaving his stitches alone and no longer has a conehead!

Spring Cupcakes

We celebrated Easter with my family last weekend and I made the dessert. I had decided I wanted to make pina colada cupcakes and came across several recipes. Just before I was about to make my final decision one of my favorite sites for weight watchers recipe posted a recipe and I went with that because it was more diet friendly. Now I admit I didn't use the same frosting recipe and that made it less diet friendly but I wanted a more coconutty flavor.

Now I couldn't just stop with making the cupcakes. I got out my cricut and made cupcake wrappers and toppers!

Conehead

Last week Tuukka was neutered and wouldn't leaves his stitches alone. This of course meant he had to wear the dreaded e-collar or cone. He wasn't really happy about and I wasn't really either.It drove me a little crazy because he was constantly running into things including the back of my legs. Running into everything also made him really noisey. You'd think that after having surgery he would have slowed down a little, at least for the day but no. If he didn't have the goofy collar on his head you would never be able to tell that he had surgery.

And though the collar was pretty annoying, it was also kind of amusing. Everytime he put his

head down he kinda looked like a vaccuum!

Wordless Wednesday

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