PRACTICAL PARSIMONY: dump cake

Showing posts with label dump cake. Show all posts

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Poor Chicks

They all succumbed to four hours with NO heat. I took the faulty lamp back to the store and told the guys all the chicks died due to three bulbs burning out and leaving my chicks in the cold. I was flabbergasted when he said I probably got bad bulbs. Can you believe that? I told him that the bulbs were 130 and not 120 and different brands and boxes, and I had never had bulbs blow so fast, that it WAS the faulty lamp. My tone of voice with the last declaration shut him right down.

I did get another lamp because I am not giving up this spring. Oh, the switch was hard to keep it on when I first turned it on. I forgot to tell him that. Next time, I will use the table lamp that has always worked to keep them warm, the lamp with two bulbs, along with the heat lamp!

They had a really good setup. None got pasty butt. Water and food were always there in containers taped to the bottom of their box. Chicks manage to spill everything. Or, they get caught in the little feeders and scream for their lives. I could always tell when they were caught in feeders made just for chicks!

J was sad when she didn't hear them today and refused to go near them. I have already picked out names for three hens. I need one more name and hope to have four hens. We both wanted to be outside today. I explained to her how much fun it was to sit and watch chickens pecking and scratching.

We had one chore to run, well, two chores. One of the chores was getting me another half gallon of a2milk. Then, I could come home and make scrambled eggs. I love just a glass of milk with scrambled eggs. The rest of the time from 9-4, she worked and I wore myself out just having to be up. I did make in the crock pot a dump cake or cuppa cake, whichever you call it.

My one-hour nap was disturbed by call from exbf. But, I did want him to call. Now, I have to go eat dinner. A salad and ham it is.

Your turn
How did you enjoy the warm, spring day? Isn't it sad when little things die, especially through no fault of your own? I mean I could beat myself up if I had been negligent. Have you ever made a dump cake or cuppa cake in the crock pot.

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The Cast

Fancy is my favorite hen. She is one of the three youngest hens I adopted. Because she is so gentle and friendly, she may be the one I rescued when she was being pecked to death after she could no longer stand. She got to live in the house in a box. Sometimes, I let her sit in my lap while she was convalescing. Now, she comes to sit in the swing with me, cuddling up to my body like a cat or dog. She died in February 2012.

Fancy follows me begging, complaining, needing me to do for her. She talks to me in various voices. She allows me to pick her up and carry her. When she became an adult, her head was a darker red and her body was light brown. Around her neck were tips of black feathers. It appeared she had a necklace of jet around her neck. When I showed this characteristic to a friend, he said, "Oh, you have fancy chickens and plain chickens."

Chessie has a broken toe. I broke it! She had a habit of jumping really high and almost sticking. A raccoon ate her in October 2009.

Thelma is the blonde. She is also the largest hen and the alpha hen. I suspect the gigantic eggs are from her. She often squats and presents herself to me. She is top hen, but I suspect she knows she had better be deferent to top feeder of the flock--me.

Louise is the auburn-feathered hen. She looks like the true Rhode Island Reds in pictures. She is almost as large as Thelma. Some days I suspect she is trying to be top chicken. When I got Pepper, I found out Louise is the Alpha hen.

Pepper came here from the same home as the first four. We were discussing putting red pepper on their food, wondering if it really would increase egg production. Pepper is the only name we agreed on. She is terrorized each day by Louise. Even after the worst was over, she was and is still filled with terror and very wary.

Linda is owned by four hens. They allow her to fetch for them. She loves them dearly, so she allows them to boss her around. Linda comes out in the rain to perform chores for them and make sure they have food and water. She begs scraps from all sorts of places to make sure they have fresh fruits and vegetables.

Parsimony is not a vegetable

Parsimony is extreme care in spending money. Stick around and learn about my random thoughts on accomplishing goals economically--dumpster diving aka safari, gleaning, do-it-yourself, sewing tips, recipes, and whatever is happening in my life.

Okay so maybe "parsimony" is not your thing. How about thrift, frugality or just plain saving money? I try not to go the tightwad route as that seems to imply others will suffer from my habits.

Some of my not-spending habits have very much been a part of my lifelong habits. Other habits are newly acquired and are an extension of my lifelong not-spending habits.

I am very imaginative when it comes to substituting or making instead of buying. I will tell you about making a heater for the chickens' water. Not one dime was spent since I had everything I needed right in my basement.

Practicality must rear its head alongside parsimony. For example, I will use the dryer in bad weather or because of allergies in the spring. But, I will not wash clothes in a tub as long as I have a washing machine or can find one.

You may hear more about my four Rhode Island Red hens than you care to hear. They lay delicious brown eggs.

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Thursday, April 13, 2017

Poor Chicks