Broody chooks

We have four lovely chooks who, until recently, provided us with all the eggs we needed plus some surplus. But one by one they all went broody. My knowledge of chooks is not great - I rely heavily on the internet for information. I also asked around my friends and family for advice. My understanding of this whole broody thing is that the chooks go through a hormonal thing and decide it's time to have some chicks. In our situation that is really not going to happen especially given that we have no rooster. But our four lovely chooks obviously didn't know that and spent nearly all of their time snuggled down in the nesting boxes - and not producing any eggs. After asking around we finally found a solution that has worked. We blocked off the nesting boxes from the rest of the coop for two days.

The picture below shows my four girls looking distinctly grumpy sitting on their perch.



They seemed to feel this was cruel and unusual punishment but once we unblocked the nesting boxes their whole mood was different - they were back to scratching around in the grass, eating well and happily clucking. And the best result is that today we had an egg! Yay! At least we now know what to do.

More changes afoot!

Apologies for the lack of posting recently - there has been a lot going on around here.

The most fantastic news is that in about a month's time my youngest son and his girlfriend will be moving into their very own house. That means I will officially be an empty-nester! They are moving out on 22nd January. We are all very excited (mega-excited!) about the move. The house they have bought is perfect for first-home-buyers - it's a lovely 3-bedroomed house on a small section.

I have decided that I will spend my spare time (hahahaha, not a lot of that) de-cluttering my house. I made a start on the weekend when I cleaned out one of my two bookcases. I now have two big boxes of books to donate to a charity store and three bags of magazines are ready for recycling. Plus the bonus for my son is that there is now an empty bookcase looking for a home. I love the feeling I get when doing a big clean-out so I am looking forward to sorting through the rest of my house.

I know I still haven't posted with the summary of my no-spend month from November but will get that sorted very soon.

I won a draw (and am slightly red-faced!)

To me, part of being a blogger is spending time reading other people's blogs. I follow a number of blogs - usually a mix of personal finance, simple living, home-making, gardening and fitness. And every now and then I encounter blogs which grab my interest. One of these is a blog titled Ramblings of the Bearded One. This blog is authored by Kim Ayres of Scotland who has an interest in photography and is also a very entertaining writer.

Recently Kim advertised a prize draw he was going to run. Basically Kim invited readers of his blog to submit a photograph to him and one randomly selected person / photo would have their photo enhanced by Kim. This was too good a chance to pass up so I duly sent off a photo of my mother and I and asked Kim to see what he could do with it. Well, I won the draw! To see the results of the enhancement work on my photo go to : http://kimayres.blogspot.com/2009/12/and-winner-is.html - watch the video (with sound) and see what you think!

All I need to do now is figure out how to copy and paste my wrinkeless photo onto my face! It is certainly interesting to see the changes that can be made - Kim is a very clever man! Thanks to Kim for showing me what can be done!

Yummy Portuguese Chicken Recipe

This recipe has been appearing regularly on our menu since we found it a month or so ago. The recipe is from the back of a Pams frozen chicken (Pams is a budget brand here in New Zealand).

Ingredients
Whole chicken
1 red chilli, seeded and chopped finely (or a good sprinkle of chilli flakes)
1 tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup (125 ml) lemon juice
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano

1. Pre heat oven to moderate temperature
2. Wash chicken under cold water. Cut along both sides of backbone - discard backbone (or keep for chicken stock). Place chicken skin side up on chopping board, press down on breastbone to flatten the chicken.
3. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over chicken.
4. Cook for 2 hours.

Now the bonus of this recipe is that we use the leftover carcass (including all the seasoning and leftover meat) to make chicken stock for rice risotto the following day. It makes a delicious risotto - quite spicy and very tasty.

Update on no-spend month - one week to go

With one week to go I thought it was timely to report on how the no-spend thing is going for me. As previous posts show there were some minor slips earlier in November but overall it's gone pretty well.

Until Sunday anyway.

We did go out for dinner as discussed in a previous blog entry, for my eldest son's birthday. Five of us had a wonderful meal at the Southern Cross in Wellington - this place was chosen because they do stone-grill which is a favourite of the birthday boy. To be honest I like stone-grill too - it's one way of ensuring your steak is cooked exactly how you would like. The evening was quite mild so we sat out in the garden bar. We enjoyed watching people who had turned up for the Sunday night free dancing lessons. None of us were game to join in but it was interested to watch.

The evening cost about $250 (eek!) but was worth every cent. That was for five adults including our drinks so not bad overall. After dinner we went home for birthday cake as shown below. Just so everyone is aware, my son just turned 23 but it's a bit of a family joke to have kiddie birthday cakes - last year was a race-track and this year the theme was Batman. My youngest son's girlfriend did a wonderful job with shaping and decorating the cake.



I will draw up a report at the end of the month showing exactly what was spent and maybe some tips on how to "not spend".