Just a quick hello to you all today, in the lull between party preparation and party party.
Today we’re celebrating, albeit belatedly, The Farmer’s change in employment status to Full Time; Christmas kind of got in the way of a more timely bash. While most of us on the Homestead would opt for a meal out at a favourite restaurant (or one we have an inkling may soon become one), The Farmer has never been one to follow the crowd. He has instead opted for a full on tea party reminiscent of the birthday soirees of old with club sandwiches, butterfly cakes, chips and dip, and sausage rolls; the menu was very specific. Afterwards The Return of the King has been downloaded for our viewing pleasure. What started as a way for him to avoid having to don his best jeans and T shirt has now taken a life of its own and there is even talk of some Homesteaders dressing up in a Lord of the Rings manner.
So, after a week in which we stopped talking and started doing:
- Plum sauce and apricots, both jammed and in syrup: it’s a start.
possibly identified the breeds of the new chick babies:
- Our uneducated guesses: one Coronation Sussex, one undetermined Frizzle, and four could be Barred Rock could be Welsumer/Coronation Sussex. See! clear as mud!
and one of our number taught herself to skateboard:
we’re going to kick back, relax and indulge in celebration of the beginning of The Farmer’s working life.
Happy weekend to you all.
Union Homestead 
I don’t remember what constituted a classic hobbit feast…but I’m sure they’d approve of sausage rolls, club sandwiches and butterfly cakes. My kind of celebration, especially with the bottle of white :). Wow! She taught herself? Bet she watched a pro, because that little pop at the end, where she sets herself up for the corner and it almost works…that’s not beginner stuff. I know, I’ve been watching a couple of pre-teen boys in the parking lot at work. I am an armchair skateboarder. 🙂 Congrats to Farmer. Congrats to you too on all that canning. And look at those fancy label!
Kind of fun about the chicken breeds. Your Coronation Sussex birds look a lot like my Columbian Rocks. Don’t see any pictures of birds that I’d call Barred Rocks, though – we’re talking black and white speckled right? Welsummer/CS cross – that should be interesting.
The party was a lot of fun but The Farmer’s choice of menu was a tad hard on my aged digestive system. White Cliffs Riesling always goes down a treat tho so all was not lost 🙂
Farm Girl is one determined girl. Today the little corner pop is now conquered and we’re on to the next move – I have deemed shoes now mandatory as we were running out of sticking plasters.
The canning (we call it preserving, took me many years to work out the whole canning thing – I mean, there’s no cans) is piffling but it’s nice of you to be impressed.
Re the chicks: you’re the expert. We know that the rooster was a coronation sussex and the options for the mum are coronation sussex, buff sussex, welsumer, orpington, New Hampshire red, barred rock or frizzle. Bearing in mind that the middle photo is quite the challenge, what do you reckon?
Sticking plaster/bandaid – where’s the plaster? 🙂 Yes, I figured shoes were coming, but I’m sure bare feet were helpful in gripping the board. I had a go at skim boarding several years ago at the beach (middle aged women should not do this when their offspring are watching, lesson learned, and I remember getting a cramp in one foot from trying to grip so hard.. We know all about broken toes in this family, and how they can really put a cramp in your style for a couple of months. Don’t go there.
Chicken breeds. I am no expert on breeding at all, just interested. I hope to be doing a similar experiment to you next summer as I have three Rhode Island Red Roosters and my 45 hens are three different breeds, two of which are hybrids. I’m hoping to get some replacement pullets out of any broody hens next summer, so I’ll be launching into what Farmer has jump started Union Homestead into.
I’ve searched around a bit on forums and websites, and the upshot seems to be that you could probably safely put your money on any colour/pattern and stand a chance. The two white birds in your pictures are definitely Sussex dominant. Are the neck feathers blue-ish or black? Blue/lavender = Coronation Sussex, black = Light Sussex which is part of the original breeding in a Coronation Sussex. Your little black ones in the middle pic – I dunno – definitely not New Hampshire – they are a much lighter. My Mum had a Sussex rooster and New Hampshire flock of layers and she got offspring that were variations on white and light brown – no dark birds at all. I’d say your dark birds in the middle picture are showing Welsummer tendencies, but you’re right, the Barred Rocks look black when they start out. It’s been a while since I kept any, but I seem to remember the barring effect started when they got their proper feathers, so I would have expected yours to show some barring if they were going to. If the Orpington hens were Black, well then…also, are they actually smaller than the Sussex types, as it appears? If so, I might put more weight on the Welsummer or even the frizzles (when do those frizzle feathers start to show up in frizzles??) – Orpingtons are big, and Barred Rocks are biggish, so I’d expect the pullets to be at least as big as the Sussex if not more so.
For me, it’s just fun to see what comes out of all that potential variety, what sort of eggs are going to happen, etc. Do you know how many are pullets/roosters yet? Will you keep a rooster? Are you allowed?
One has blue/lavender round the neck, three have black. I’m reckoning Welsumer too from what you say – the little dark chicks are waaayyy smaller than the light ones.The little frizzle has been looking like it has a bad hair day for about the last three weeks – we’re all finding it totally fascinating.
Broken toes…yep, been there done that – a very undignified decent from what we call a flying fox – a zip line type thing. anyway, whatever you call it, it wasn’t pretty.
We won’t be keeping a rooster (except in the freezer). Council bylaws allow for the keeping of all animals except pigs but if your neighbours complain you can be asked to get rid of all your animals including domestic pets. One of our incredibly tolerant neighbours is a shift worker and made it clear he would tolerate anything we wanted to add to the menagerie barring a rooster. Fair enough, I reckon.
Language is so cool – plaster/bandaid, canning/preserving. I love it! 🙂
What a splendid New Zealand spread, I hope you all had a great time.
I thought of you and your time in Auckland when I included the bowl of cheerios/cocktail sausages – mandatory Kiwi birthday party kai 🙂
A tea party with wine… that’s what I like to see!
a bit of a juxtaposition I guess but that\’s how we roll 🙂
A tea party…what better way to celebrate a birthday and what better way to accompany any Lord of the Ring movie. Mr. Walker is a serious fan of anything Tolkien and his sons were infected with the bug too already in their infancy. We had our honeymoon in Scotland and whilst Mr. Walker drove our very old little Italien car through the Highlands, I read the Lord of the Ring to him…Honestly, I expected The Knights of Rowan to appear around the next corner all the time! And over the years, my critique that Gandalf is popping up always when things cannot go worse..is now met with three bitter responses.
My congrats to the Farmer for Full Time employment too! he must be doing a excellent job!
And than the acrobatic Farm Girl…I never managed more than standing on a board for 5 seconds and than having a bruised behind for 5 weeks!
We are pretty divided down the middle regarding Tolkien. The Bean Counter is a full on fan; me: hmmm…they do go on a bit 🙂 Still, each to their own and I watched the movie happily (admittedly hiding when the Shelob made her appearance).
A feast.
What a lovely spread! Sounds like a lot to celebrate!
I’m clueless about the chickens, but they sure are cute!