Fly on the Wall – Ahhhhhhctober Edition

Welcome to a Fly on the Wall group post. Today 13 bloggers are inviting you to catch a glimpse of what you’d see if you were a fly on the wall in our homes. Come on in and buzz around my house.fly1gifcropped

Ahhhhhhhhhhh…finally! It’s October and I can see light at the end of the tunnel. I still have some odds and ends to finish up – chores to be done before the snow flies – but things are slowing down and I’m able to spend more time playing in the kitchen. (Happy dance!)

I’ve baked some fall treats, much to The Man’s great satisfaction (garden and harvest make for a disappointing lack of “goodies”) but here’s something I’ve never made before! The smell of cinnamon, molasses, and oats was heavenly. Here’s what it looked like before I added the eggs, coconut oil, and molasses:

Mixing it up by hand in the big blue roasting pan.

Mixing it up by hand in the big blue roasting pan.

Want a closer look??

Um....are those...worms?

Um….are those…worms?

Wait a minute. I think there might be a little extra protein in this mixture! Maybe it won’t be so obvious when it’s baked?

Eeeeuw, no, they're still there. Just a little toasty now.

Eeeeuw, no, they’re still there. Just a little toasty now.

That’s okay – the ladies have no objection to their homemade “Flock Block”

So spoiled.

So spoiled.

There are lots of recipes on the internet for Flock Blocks – a nice treat for the girls, especially in the winter when they’re stuck inside a lot and get bored. I pretty much winged my recipe, and it worked really well. They love it! If anyone’s interested, here’s how I did it.

Flock Block
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Author:
These flock blocks are a real treat for chickens. Don't be too generous with them though, or your girls won't eat their regular food. These aren't as hard as commercial flock blocks, and won't last as long, but you will feel good about the wholesome ingredients you use!
Ingredients
  • 4 cups scratch
  • 2 cups omega egg supplement
  • 4 cups 9 grain rolled cereal
  • 1 cup dried mealworms
  • 1 cup raisins or dried cranberries
  • ½ cup chia seeds
  • ½ cup crushed oyster shells
  • 1 cup wheat germ
  • 1 cup wheat bran
  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 6 eggs
  • 1 cup molasses
  • 1 cup peanut butter
  • 1 cup melted coconut oil (or lard if you wish)
Instructions
  1. Heat oven to 350 F.
  2. In a very large pan, mix all ingredients through the cayenne pepper.
  3. In a small bowl, beat the eggs, molasses, peanut butter, and coconut oil together until thoroughly combined. Add to dry ingredients.
  4. Stir well, using your hands.
  5. If you are using disposable foil pans, there is no need to grease the pans first. Simply press the mixture firmly into the pan. If you are using regular pans (bread pans, cake pans, pie pans, etc.) I advise spraying or greasing the pan first. Really pack the mixture down in the pan!
  6. Bake for 30 minutes. Without opening the oven door, turn the heat off and let the blocks sit in the oven overnight.
  7. This makes 6-8 large blocks. Wrap and freeze any that won't be used right away.

 

Realistically, I can justify the expense and effort by considering it a “last meal” for some of them. I refuse to feed 20 chickens through the cold winter when I’m only getting four eggs a day…mostly from the 7 young hens. I’m afraid it’s time to do something about this situation. I’m heading to the coast to visit a Facebook friend I’ve never met before (squeee!) the first week of November, and hopefully when I come back there will be chicken in the freezer. That’s all I’m going to say about that.fly1gifcropped

October is when I get the urge to stock up for winter. I don’t know why; we’ve never been snowed in more than a week or two, but I can’t fight the compulsion to stock the shelves!

My neighbor and I went to Costco (a 3 hour round trip) and I spent an obscene amount of money on baking supplies. Ninety pounds of flour. Brown sugar, white sugar, powdered sugar. Chocolate chips. Nuts. Vanilla. Yeast. Cinnamon. Yep – I’m ready for holiday baking! Oh yes, and I got coffee and some basic supplies. My husband almost peed himself when he looked in the back of her truck and realized that everything back there was OURS. Know the best part? I forgot some stuff and she and I are making another trip next week. My list grows daily.

That neighbor, Pam, is so much fun! We think a lot alike, which is possibly a little scary. She had Starz added to her TV just so that I could come over and watch Outlander. I’ve read the series of books a bazillion times, and was dying to see the TV series. Bless her heart! It is even worth risking a mauling by her attack turkey to get to go watch it with her…and believe me, that bad boy wants a piece of me!!! He paces back and forth in front of the screen door, giving me the evil eye while I’m inside her house, then “escorts” me to my car. I hide behind her and get pretty creative with my defensive moves. Next time I go over I’ll take my camera so you can see what I mean!fly1gifcropped

Where we live, “open range” means keeping our fences mended and our gates closed during late summer to keep unwanted cows out of the yard and garden. If you live in an open range area, it is your responsibility to keep ranging animals off of your property. If you are in a closed range area, it’s the animal’s owners who are responsible. Oddly, the road in front of the house is the dividing line. The people across the way are in open range. We are not. But…cows don’t know this, so we keep our fence closed when cows are on the move.

Most of the time.

I honestly don’t mind it when the cows visit. They look great grazing on our hill, and make me wish we owned a few. But cows leave a lot of runny piles of poop everywhere, and because I leave the orchard gate open so the chickens can free range, the temptation to gnaw on the apple trees is just too much for them. The Man left the gate open and the cows came in and helped themselves to apples. I’d already picked all I wanted, but went to shoo them out of the orchard anyhow. Out of six cows, five of them “shooed”. The other one stood his (yes, this one was a young steer) ground.

Being the tough (cough cough) gal that I am, I picked up the hose and swung it his way a few times. He looked bemused.
He was not impressed.
Daisy and Otis had no intention of herding this guy out, so I picked up Daisy’s ball and lobbed it at the steer. For the record, I throw like a girl.
He was still not impressed.
Daisy did chase the ball as it flew in his general direction, but that just made him kick up his heels a bit.
He was most definitely not impressed, nor was he amused.
So I went towards him, swinging my arms and yelling. I stomped my feet.
He stomped his back and came towards me…not quite what I had in mind.

He won. Pffft. Those apple trees needed pruning anyhow.
cow eating apple2

It was dark when The Man got home, and apparently he didn’t understand my predicament.

Him: “Did you lock up the chickens?”
Me: “NO! There were cows in there.”
Him: “Did you close the orchard gate?”
Me: Giving him the look. “NO! There were still cows in there.”
Him: “Did you close the chicken door?”
Me: “What part of “there were cows in there” don’t you understand?!”

This from a man who is afraid to put his hand in the nesting box to get an egg if there is a chicken in there. Pffft.fly1gifcropped

Even though I know better (I’m sure these sites are gathering critical information from me like what my favorite color is and what genre of music makes me want to dance) I can’t stop playing those stupid quizzes on Facebook. I can tell you that I know almost all of the lyrics to Bohemian Rhapsody, my favorite decade is the ’80s, and my nickname is “Sunshine”. I suck at music trivia (unless it’s old country lyrics), identifying books by their last lines, and have forgotten a lot of the old “Friends” episodes. I’m terrible at anything that has to do with history. I’m warm, caring, and should have been a chef. There’s more…way too much more. I think I need an intervention!fly1gifcropped

In case you’re worried that I might run out of pumpkin for fall recipes, I can assure you…there are lots more where these came from!pumpkins

The funny striped pumpkins are called “Lady Godiva” because they have naked seeds. – no shells. They pop a little like popcorn in the oven and are delicious. The pumpkin itself isn’t really worth eating, but the chickens and deer love it, so it’s not wasted. I harvested about 20 of these babies…and I’m thrilled. Such a yummy, healthy snack!

Lady Godiva seeds.

Lady Godiva seeds.

fly1gifcropped

I’m very excited, because my sisters are coming to visit this weekend. One hasn’t been here in a couple of years, and the other has never seen the place. I warned them to leave their white gloves at home, but you know how that is, right? I have two days to get this place in shape. I’ve warned Lord Voldemort that if he comes this way he’ll be sleeping on a cot in the shop. We’re going to be looking at carousel after carousel of SLIDES. Slides from when we were young. And cute.  Sigh.  I should have lots of funny stories for you next month!fly1gifcropped

Buzz around, see what you think, then click on these links for a peek into some other homes:

Baking In a Tornado
Stacy Sews and Schools
Just a Little Nutty
Menopausal Mother
The Sadder But Wiser Girl
The Momisodes
Follow Me Home
Crumpets and Bollocks
Dinosaur Superhero Mommy
Spatulas on Parade
Someone Else’s Genius
Battered Hope

26 thoughts on “Fly on the Wall – Ahhhhhhctober Edition

  1. Lorinda, I love reading your posts. You have some kind of wonderful gift tobe able to grow and harvest all of that food. I be your chickens love those flock blocks.
    My favorite part of this was the cows. I wonder what they’re thinking while they’re eating your apples and watching you try to shoo them away…

  2. My guess? They’re thinking that unless I have a cattle prod in my hand, I’m a pretty small threat. They really are very nice cows (I know the owners) and aren’t used to being charged at by a manic woman with a hose.

  3. Cows can be so stubborn!! We lived way out in the country once. The neighbors cows were always getting in our yard. I love cows so that didn’t really bother me. What did bother me was finding one in my KITCHEN!! What a mess!!

  4. I SO want to try those “Lady Godiva” seeds, they sound great.
    Have fun with your company and on your visit to see your blogging friend.
    Hope you don’t mind if I skip trying the recipe this month, LOL!

  5. When I read the first part of the post, I thought you were making a mix of stuff for the family. And then I saw the worms and I thought, WHAAAA??? They eat that stuff?!? Whew! Glad it was for the chickens. Hey, I LOVE roasted pumpkin seeds—one of my favorite treats to eat in the fall. Your story about the cows—too funny. I love where you live—so beautiful!

    • Yeah, mealworms are not my choice of protein!
      These seeds are so good…no shell to hassle with. And they “pop” up all light and crunchy. One of my very favorite fall treats too. Wish you lived closer, Marcia!

  6. Haha, I have been warned about the worms. But still, I was like REALLY, Lorinda? What’s wrong with maple cookies?
    OMG, do you think that cow wanted to win or eat the apple?
    Have fun with your sisters!

    • Thanks, Tamara 🙂 I have to admit the cow pic was from the internet because it didn’t even occur to me to grab my camera.

      I’ll have fun…and tattle on them, just like when we were kids!

  7. Chicken food or not — don’t think I could do the worm thing. My favorite snack is pumpkin seeds — how I would love to taste yours — makes me want to throw the commercial ones out! Lots of fun and good honest work this month — loved it

    • Thanks, Carol. Always lots of work, but this kind of work IS fun…mostly 😉 I don’t miss the 8 to 5 routine one little bit! I’ll save some Lady Godiva seeds this year (they’re hard to find) and if you want any next spring, just let me know!

  8. I think I need to get some Lady Godiva squash stat!
    How awesome!! I love when my snacks come naturally shelled!
    I don’t blame you about the cows. I was raised with them and those suckers can kick REALLY hard and they move surprisingly fast when they want to.
    I’d keep Mr. Cow Farmer’s number saved in my phone so he can be the one to deal with 1,000 pounds of apple eating grumpy. 😉
    I can’t wait to see the goodies you make from those wonderful Costco runs!

    • The Cow Farmers are really wonderful. They offered several times to come and get them, but as long as the cows couldn’t get in the orchard they weren’t a problem at all. As soon as they’d leave to go get water we’d just close the gate behind them.

  9. I’m seriously eating pumpkin seeds as I read this. Yum. I want some Lady Godiva seeds though!

    Excellent post.

    I love Costco.

    Your recipe terrified me at first. Now I’m fully supportive. Mmmmm chicken.

    • Love those seeds – and they’re SO good for you! I’m sure I grossed a few people out with the worms…but they add a little “something” to the flock block 😉 Thanks for the comment, Jules!

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