Pines, Cedars, and Red Clay

Tuesday evening was a bit breezy and chilly once the sun went down. I headed down to put all the ladies to bed and shut the coop doors. On my way there I picked up the scent of  pine and cedar trees. This instantly threw me back to childhood, playing in a empty lot in  Trinity Center that was an intact forest if only an 1/2 acre. I could get lost for hours playing among the trees and ferns and mosses that clung to things. Then there is Trinity Lake, I have a certain deep affection for this beautiful part of our county. I use to walk the bank by the point and just take in the grandness that was around me.I felt like it was a secret place that most people didn't know anything about.I would sometimes find swarms of baby catfish swimming alongside of driftwood or a flower that I had never seen. I was a flat lander, as they call them. And Trinity Lake was a world away from where I lived. In the summertime our family would drive from So.California to Trinity Center where my grandpa lived. This was a VERY long trip for my sister and I . When I started smelling the warm red clay and pine and cedars it would all be worth it. So when I smell this I will stop and breathe deeply and appreciate it. It is Home.

Red porch

It's amazing what a can of paint can do for the soul. Since we are on our front porch a lot it receives punishment all year long. I was getting pretty embarrassed by our collection of everything under the sun that had made its way there but never left. I have a collection of birdhouses and its getting to be too many and some are decorative and birds cant use them. I'm letting go of them....clean slate!! I found a gallon of barn paint that I forgot about from painting the barn and 2 coops last year. There is something  special about the color red up against vast nature. I figured I'd spruce up the porch. It took me two days and another few to finish. I'm already in love with the color. My porch now has nothing on it but a rocking chair and dog bed!!!

Veggies from the greenhouse

It's pouring outside right now. In the greenhouse on the hill everything is nice and cozy. The seeds of all the veggies and melons we started two weeks ago will grow at such a fast rate now. Our ideal planting time is Mothers Day here. I say ideal..!!! We went through three plantings one spring of tomatoes, peppers, and zucchini. I'm so grateful we planted extra that year. The last two years we got together with some great friends who don't have a greenhouse and we Mass plant trays and trays of our food we plan on eating and for canning later. They bring their bag of seeds and STERILE soil ( A MUST) and within a couple of hours of talking and planting we have all the food we need and enough to share! A little bit of money and we end up with the best food I've ever tasted. And did I mention Jeff made this greenhouse pretty economically in a day. I will include photos later of the greenhouse.

Home Pictures

This view and a hot cup a coffee!

Elk that travel through our property

Scout & Gimpy becoming fast friends since we've been nursing Gimpy for the last month.<3

The compost pile.

Chicken Power!

Sometimes I daydream while resting on my pitchfork looking out the barn door

Feeding your neighbors

My husband and I started donating our small eggs to our local soup kitchen on Tuesday mornings a couple years ago. We knew there was need but we didn't realize how much until Jeff talked to the soup kitchen director Carol and she said she had an elderly lady come in the soup kitchen shaking with hunger. Jeff and I discussed how bad it is that there is elderly going hungry. So we came up with this idea of a concert benefit... Last year we raised over $ 3,000 and community showed up with cans of food for the pantry. Everyone can make a difference. If you have an older neighbor, invite them over for dinner or bring them some fruit off your tree. Sometimes they are too prideful too ask for help. Plant a row in your garden for your local food bank or heck one tomato plant will do. Share your backyard fruit with the food banks or soup kitchen, we all have one. Go by and have lunch at a soup kitchen and donate money for your meal and maybe a little tip! The aromas coming out of our local soup kitchen are to die for!

Asparagus and Compost

Our seasons here are a bit fickle sometimes. Some years the asparagus pops up at the completely wrong time. Or I think I'm adding mulch to delay them and not realizing they are up and starting to open and flower yet they are only 2 inches tall. It is a learning process being a gardener. For the last two days Ive been hauling up compost to the garden..I say hauling up because of course its all up hill. I want to give our asparagus a real good feeding of this compost but i don't want to bury the emerging spears either. Being too impatient to wait on a tea, I decided to water it in by drenching the bed. The day after I could see cracks in the soil where they were coming up. I cant wait to see how this stuff works..sustainability is the ultimate goal! Our compost pile consists of a daily 45 gal. can full of fruits and veggies that are for our chickens. This is great stuff, looks good enough to eat! The chickens eat this until they are full and walk off. About once a week we clean the floor of coops and lay this layer right on top of veggies. Let me warn you its gonna stink for a while. The black gold that comes from it is rich with worms and casting...so rich with worms i have to chuck the shovelfuls into the wheelbarrow faster than the chickens spot em. That's work!!                                                             

An egg within an egg!!!

We actually seen a Chinese video just last week that had an egg come out of an egg. We dismissed this as photo shop or some kind of trick. Come on! So we are ending our day by talking in the kitchen and hanging out (me starving looking through cupboards) and Jeff reaches down to show me another rather large egg he brought in and it cracks in his hand and he yells NO WAY! By now he's over the sink and this is what I saw.

Facebook

Hello everyone. I would just like to remind everyone that we do have a Facebook Page. Drop by sometime and leave you suggestions, stories, or just to say hi!
~DT

Great News!

Eggzilla, America's biggest chicken egg, will be at the "NO ONE SHOULD GO HUNGRY BENEFIT CONCERT", for the Douglas City Soup Kitchen on April 30th, 2:00pm till 9:00pm. Come see America's BIGGEST egg, 3 bands and 2 clowns. Good music and good food! Most of all a great cause, as all proceeds will go towards the soup kitchen!
~JE

Doll Face the Hen...

A short little story written about our dinosaur egg-laying suspect dollface, written by my mom, Krishann England.

Our home has recently gone awry with all this Egg citement. I always knew we took good care of our chickens and provided them with the ideal chicken life but I never thought anything like this would happen.The day after the discovery I went to clean out the coop and keep an eye on "the nestbox" Toward the end of the afternoon it happened...the hen I have called Dollface climbed the ladder and peered into her nest seen nothing and hopped down. Now mind you we have 400 chickens and we do not name them all, only those who stand out. Dollface as a chick had perfect circles on her cheeks that reminded me of a porcelin doll. Yesterday Dollface finally climbed into the nest box above and laid a normal size egg. She seems fine after a 3 day break from laying. I am very proud of our egg. I read a Trinity History book about a man in the 1800s had a record egg somewhere near Trinity Center. I will see if I can find it ...Maybe Trinity Co makes for The biggest eggs...
~KE

Update: Here is a picture of Dollface for those who were asking... (she's on the left)

Updates!

Hey everyone, sorry for the lack of news from the blog. I took a trip to Arcata to see a friend, and sorta forgot about the computer. But I know most of you chicken heads want the very latest news, so here's what has happened so far.

First off, the chicken. Using my last post as reference, the next day turned even more exciting. After watching the chickens for a while, we rounded up the suspects of which chicken could have lain the behemoth egg. The one which was "walking funny", has been under our watch for both concern, and interest. Perhaps this little Americauna chicken can produce an even bigger egg... Or are we just dreaming? Probably the latter, but I digress. Many people have asked which chicken it was, and I think we may be about to find out! Stay tuned...

In other news, the response we have gotten from the news and interested parties is incredible. KRCR News Channel 7 called the same morning, and after talking to local weather girl Chita Johnson, they aired our egg on the news and even sent Chita to a sports store to do size and weight comparison, using a hockey puck and baseball. Also, believe it or not, "Ripley's Believe it or Not", also contacted Jeff and offered an intriguing deal. A tidy sum of money, and one late night talk show host wanted to EAT the egg on his show! Can you believe it? America's biggest egg shouldn't be squandered on something so simple as an omelet! Besides, were in it for the love of work, not the money.

Speaking of loving your work, earlier this morning, Jeff did an interview with The Chicken Whisperer. I'm not sure how that went, seeing how I was almost rear-ended by a truck while in traffic during the interview, but i'll assume well and shall be back to fill in any details of the show I missed.

Well, that's it for my updates. Keep plugged in and checking frequently for the newest... news!
~DT

Yesterday: The Day of Discovery

Yesterday marked a major milestone in Deerlick Springs Eggs. Jeff England, founder of the business, was collecting eggs as usual when he found the "golden ticket". What he pulled from the nest box shattered the record books, and set the bar for the term "Jumbo Sized". The egg, lain by an Americana chicken, weighed an astounding 6.6 ounces or 188 grams, setting a new American record and shattering the previous record of 5.5 ounces. Now keep in mind, the biggest chicken egg ever lain was 198 grams... We're sure this is not only the biggest chicken egg in America, but the second biggest IN. THE. WORLD.