Eggs and toast.

[hippywife]

We're just having plain old over easy eggs on buttered toast this morning, but...


the eggs are the first from our own chickens!

We found two earlier in the week and two more this morning! :bounce:

[kestrel91316]

1. I do mine sunny side up (but cover the pan with a lid so the whites steam)

for my egg toast. I like it even more than cheese toast.

Oh, and ALWAYS freshly ground pepper and seasoning salt on the egg.

[yellerpup]

2. The lady down the road from my grandparents in Oklahoma

had a sign by her driveway that said: Frash Aigs! We had our own, so we didn't have to patronize her. What a taste, eh? Nothing better'n frash aigs!

[hippywife]

3. Very yummy!

Eggs come from the grocery but frash aigs come from the farm. LOL DH found another one in the yard where their portable pen was parked. It was another first egg so that means two of them are now laying!

Finally! :bounce:

[yellerpup]

6. What good girls you have, hippywife.

Chickens have feelings, too, and I'm sure they are proud of their first efforts. Sometimes I really miss living in the country. :hi:

[hippywife]

13. Maybe by the time these girls

are old enough to lay, too, I can hang out a little sign of my own. LOL



As you can see, today is pen cleaning day. :eyes:

[yellerpup]

14. By the time those girls are old enough to lay

you'll probably have taught them how to talk! What beauties they are! My grandma was so proud of her 'biddies' when they started to lay that she would shed a few tears over their first little eggs. Your girls already show personality.

[pengillian101]

4. Wow!

You are living the dream, hippywife - Enjoy!

:-)

[hippywife]

5. Hi, pengillian.

It can be a lot of work at times but it's worth it. :hi:

Actually the dream would be to be able to do all of this and more without the need for a full time job but that ain't never gonna happen. Sigh.

[NJCher]

8. if you can even get to six hours a day it will make a difference

I once had that arrangement and found it really worked well with running the rather extensive horticultural operation I've got going on this property.



Cher

[hippywife]

9. I have cut my hours

down to 35 per week. I only go in for half a day on Fridays so I can do the grocery shopping on the way home and not have to leave the house for anything over the weekend. I may cut it down to 30 and not go in at all on Fridays. My husband would like to do the same and is working on that. It would really help if we both had three day weekends to do the things we need to do around here.

If I could be without a job at all, I would because I'm so exhausted every night when I get home, I don't get much done during the week. But we do need our health insurance and we get that through my job, so I keep working.

Are you back to working full time again?

[NJCher]

15. nope

I don't put in anywhere near the standard 40-hours a week. And I don't even have kids! But I do have three cats, a husband who travels a huge amount of the time, and thus the high maintenance of this property falls on me.

Back when I had that six-hour a day job, though, I was able to get them to do that and still pay me f-t wages. That was the best.

It sure looks like you're planning your time as well as you can. If this damned country would get its act together, people wouldn't have to make decisions like the one you have to just to maintain health insurance.



Cher

[pengillian101]

20. I bet you could do it!

"Actually the dream would be to be able to do all of this and more without the need for a full time job but that ain't never gonna happen. Sigh."


I am so not busy - so I read around and watch.

Maybe you haven't seen where folks stay home and cut grocery coupons and are able to grocery shop for $3 per month and feed a family with kids. Double coupons, and like that. Mostly in cities. But folks also stay at home and preserve food, make clothes, barter for goods with neighbors, etc. Some people actually do it.

I never did it whole hog, where I quit my job, but I wish I had.If you are the one w/the insurance, maybe your husband can do it :-)

Best to ya!

[hippywife]

21. He actually makes more money

and has a more marketable skill set than I do. He has a really bad back and I tend towards uric acid kidney stones on a frequent basis, so we do need the health insurance. He's 54 and I'm getting ready to turn 50 on Tuesday (yikes!) so it gets a little harder the older you get, especially when you have no savings to speak of. I'm squirreling away $50/pay period every two weeks and will try to up that soon. So basically right now, I'm strictly working for the healthcare. I have a feeling it's going to go up a lot come January when we have open enrollment, too.

Personally, I would love to see if not everyone then a good chunk of this country cut the insurance companies off at the knees and refuse to buy in until this system changes. And I don't mean like in some states requiring people to carry coverage, either. Yeah, that's the way to teach those greedy bastards! :eyes:

We don't have kids and we have no mortgage and still, I have to work for us to make ends meet.

[pengillian101]

22. Best wishes Hippywife!

Yikes, I somehow pictured you as a young gal. Well, you are still younger than me, but not by too much, lol. You must be coming into rural farming later in life. Good on ya! I live rural AGAIN but not so productive.

We have some deck tomatoes just about ready :=)

[hippywife]

25. LOL

Very late in life, and trust me my energy comes in spurts. Most of the time it sputters. ;)

How so are you living rural life again? I was a city/suburb girl all my life and loved the activity of a city but now I really cherish life away from it.

Thanx for the wishes. :hug:

[pengillian101]

26. I was an Earth Mother Hippy Chick circa 1970's

Very enjoyable living life back-to-the-land style. But when my then-hubby drugged up and dropped out, it all went to hell. We divorced.

I lived in cities after that, making a regular living. Met my current guy 20 years ago and we have been rural since. But I still worked, but had to commute 100 miles a day. Sure couldn't do that nowdays. Neither of us work anymore due to health issues.

Here's a fantasy pic of very_old_hippies, lol!

[hippywife]

27. I'm sorry

you are dealing with health issues that keep you from doing more. Have you checked out the gardening group? I don't know what your issues are exactly but there are some easier ways to do quite a bit of gardening. Drop me a PM if you like. :hug:

Except for the driving, and we try to limit that, the rural life is just the best.

That pic cracks me up. I think he's a bit younger than one would think tho, younger than she is, definitely. :rofl:

[pengillian101]

28. Younger men........

"That pic cracks me up. I think he's a bit younger than one would think tho, younger than she is, definitely."

Younger men - ooh-la-la - what a treat. LOL, but I mean it. I dated a man 7 years my junior and he sure knew what was up.

"Have you checked out the gardening group?"

Yes, but not as much as here. The garden pics give my heart pitty-pats.

[sandnsea]

7. Oooh, yummy!

We had a friend from Boston when we lived in Montana. He was renting a small acreage and somewhere along the way some chickens made their home there. I will never forget him calling and asking whether he could eat the eggs because the yolks were orange. lol. I should have said, oh no, never, you better bring them over here so I can dispose of them properly! What a treat he had, his first "frash aigs".

[hippywife]

10. I told my sister back in Ohio

we had eaten fresh eggs from our chickens and she wanted to know how did we know if they were good eggs, meaning "safe", of course. The question floored me but I had to consider that she is not a cook, she is an IT person who is about as far removed from her food as possible. I just told her they were all good when fresh and they had the lovely bright orange yolks to prove it. In hindsight, I should have responded that I knew they were good because they didn't come from the grocery store who buys CAFO eggs, but I doubt she would have appreciated the difference.

My whole family eats so horribly. I wish I could get them to eat healthier, but they think I'm just a hippie who does weird things for no good reason, even though my own health has vastly improved because of it.

[Callalily]

11. Even though it was

so long ago, I can still remember the wonderful taste of my first frash aig.

Your breakfast sounds marvelous. Sometimes the most simple, is the best.

[hippywife]

12. I can't imagine

having to eat normal eggs again, ever. The taste is so much richer. Wish we could have you over for breakfast, Fugue. :hi:

[pinto]

16. What breed of hens do you have? I'm thinking of getting a few Black Austrolops, I had some

years ago. They're mid-sized but *great* layers.

[hippywife]

18. We have a total of 11 hens.

Five are Jersey Black Giants that are huge! They are six months old. They look very similar to the ones you had.:



And we have one Rhode Island Red that was give to us by the people across the road. Their kid's teacher had the whole class incubate and hatch an egg. They felt she was lonely so brought her to us. And then we have five one month old Buff Orpingtons in the pic above.

We love having them, even before they began laying this past week. They are fun and funny to watch.

[zabet]

17. I am green with envy.

I am patiently awaiting my first 'frash aigs' from my Australorps and my Red Sex Links. We have 15 hens and currently 2 roosters.

Enjoy them, ain't nuthin' like a frash aig. :)

[hippywife]

19. How old are your girls?

I'm so excited for you! :bounce:

[zabet]

23. The Austrolorps are almost 6 months

and the Sex Links are almost 5 months.

I am like a little kid on Christmas, up early every day to check the nesting boxes, the whole neighborhood will probably hear me hoot-n-holler when I do finally get my first one. :rofl:

[hippywife]

24. Sounds like

it could happen any day now! Hope it's soon! :)