Turkey Egg!

I am holding my first turkey egg of the season!  

Unfortunately I do not think it was my FIRST egg of the year. :(  I think something has been stealing them and this is just the first one we have found out there after we set some traps out last night.  So hopefully I will start getting a lot more eggs now.  Hmmm....now I just wonder which one of my hens laid this one.

WOOHOO!  I got my second turkey egg for the day...so I am up to two eggs now!!

Garage and Rummage Sale finds!

I went out to some garage sales with my mom and brother this morning and found some stuff for the kiddos.  2 Quivers with a bunch of arrows.  Most of the arrows are to short for my older boys to use and play with though because their arms are so long!  Some of the arrows are wooden.

 I also got this little wooden toy gun.

 My 11 yo claimed this leaver belt and BB gun!

 Then 8 yo claimed this wooden toy gun and the coon skin hat....oh darn, I did not get a picture so you could see the little tail hanging down.  He has not taken the hat off since I brought it home and he looks so darn cute running around here in it!

 Here is the other quiver that had a knife in the leather casing.  The knife is in VERY sad shape though.

These 2 hand embroidered pillowcases (to make pillowcase dresses for the girls) for $3 each.

I also got:
3 little 1/2 cup glass dishes for .25  (We use these like crazy for puddings and dips.)
A flower shaped Pampered Chef bread mold for .50
And 8 pieces of clothing for 6 yo DD (Baby girl is wearing one of the shirts in her picture because she HAD to have something out of the goodies that I brought home, so 11 yo put the purple striped shirt on her and pinned it and she was happy as could be!)  and 8 shirts for the boys all for a $1 at a Rummage Sale!

Swagbucks!

What is Swagbucks?  It is a search and win site!  You earn points... or Swagbucks...and then you can cash them in for FREE Amazon gift cards, Paypal money, or other cool gifts!!

How I earn my daily Swagbucks:
I get most of my points from doing random searches 4 times a day....morning, afternoon, evening and then before I go to bed. That averages me 30-40 swagbucks a day. Then I earn 10 points from playing the games, 3-9 points a day from watching swagtv, 1 swagbuck from the daily poll, 1 from clicking on the trusted surveys tab, and 1 from clicking 'skip' through the NOSO offers. Then I usually find the 2 point ads on Gambit to watch a couple of times a week. 
Swagcodes:  If you "like" Swagbucks and Swagbucks Tricks on Facebook you can be alerted when Swagcodes are put out.  These are a code that is randomly place somewhere and they give you clues or a link on how to find it.  Then you copy and paste it into the "Gimme Box" on the Swagbucks homepage.  The points range from 4-19 for the swagcodes!
A $5 Amazon gift card is 450 Swagbucks. So it averages out to nearly a .01 a swagbucks point. But there are a TON of other options for you to choose from to spend your swagbucks on besides just Amazon.
I do not fill out any of the surveys because they require a phone number and email address and I do not want spammed otherwise I am sure I would earn twice as many swagbucks in a day.  But, when you sign up there is nearly 75 points in 'getting to know you' surveys that do not need any personal information.

SEARCHES: Use it just like you do Google search. If you are on the swagbucks homepage you just do random searches like "Goat houses", "Pamspride.blogspot", "couponing", "where can I find the best deal on oil lamps", "Swagbucks blog", or "swagbucks tricks"....anything! The more random the better. If you do not get swagbucks on your first search randomly hit the search again a few times (not to fast or you will get the TOS page up for spamming...make it random) and if you still do not get anything change your search word. I have only been able to get them 4 times a day. Sometimes if I do several searches and get no points I go to something else for about 5-10 minutes, sometimes closing out of the swagbucks page, then go back to it and I will get it on my first search when I come back.
Toolbar:  You can download the Swagbucks Toolbar and it also has random points.  I think it also gives 1 swagbuck a day.
SWAGTV: you have to watch the videos all the way through in order to see your meter on the top right go up by 10% at a time. After 100% you will earn 3 Swagbucks. You can watch videos all day if you want to and earn 10% at a time up to 75 Swagbucks.

GAMES: I have to play two games, watching the commercial thing all the way through first, play the game...GO BACK TO GAMES....then pick another game and do the same thing over again until I earn my 10 points. I usually get 2 swagbucks after every two games.  If you are a serious gamer you can enter tournaments for even more points!

Fridays are Mega Swagbucks days and you have a chance of getting greater amounts of swagbucks on your random searches!  The most I have ever received is a 51, which is awesome!!

So far I have earned over $100 in Amazon gift cards and a two year subscription to SHAPE magazine.  ALL FOR FREE!!

Hamburger Rocks or Dehydrated Hamburger!

 Here is a the dehydrator I use.  The temp setting for meat is 155F.

 I got some ground beef from my local IGA for $1.49 a pound.  It was left over from 'yesterday's grind'.  This is about 5 of the 10 pounds that I bought.  First I brown all of the meat up.

 Nice and browned!

 Then I rinse my meat and then I put it back into the pan to cook for just a minute longer to get some of the excess water off of it.

Then I start filling up my dehydrator!  I put the fruit roll up trays on the bottom tray to catch any meat that falls through the cracks.  Then I put the lid on and set the temp to 155F.  I let it dehydrate until the meat is completely dry.  

Then I store the dehydrated meat in glass canning jars.  I can also use my Food Saver to seal the meat into the jars.   This 10 pounds of meat cooked down to about 2 1/2 quarts.  The best part is that it does not take up freezer space and I do not have to worry about losing all of my meat if the power goes off for an extended period of time...or if the kids ever leave the freezer door open for an extended period of time...NOPE!  That has NEVER happened here!  The hamburger rocks are perfect for using with hamburger helpers once you rehydrate them!  You can also make taco seasoned meat and then dehydrate it!  A pint of dehydrated hamburger rocks is about equal to 2 pounds of the original meat.

Top Bar Beehive!

 A Friend of my DH's has a woodworking shop...Wudl's Workshop.  He makes just about anything you can think of out of wood! So when I sent him the plans to build me a Top Bar Beehive he said no problem!!

The instructions for the Top Bar Beehive can be found HERE.

 He makes Quilt Racks, and jewelry boxes, and craft show displays...and TONS of other totally cool things which you can see on his Etsy site HERE.

 Here is the Old Man himself!

 Ok, now for what you came to see!  This is my Top Bar Beehive.  He put Cedar boards on the lid...which is removable.

 Once you lift the lid you can see the bars for the bees to make their combs on.  There are three small holes in the front that the bees can come in and out of.   My bees are on order and should be here the end of April!  YIPPEE!  I am looking forward to having our own fresh honey!!

Brooder box lid and goats!

Here is a cute picture of my goats!  Amber has been snuggling next to Pinkie Pie and Lily, thankfully, still seems to be leaving her alone.

 Here is DH and my 13 yo working on the brooder box lid.  It turned out really nice!  We still need to put a handle on the lid though.

Hawaiian Sunday!

Every year we have Hawaiian Sunday at our church.  We all dress up in our favorite Hawaiian shirts and get a lei  when we walk in the door.  They also decorate the church up with flowers and other Hawaiian themed items and then we have a luncheon after church as a fundraiser for missions.  It is the church's way of ushering in spring and telling winter bye bye....in hopes that winter will leave!  LOL!  This is the custom boutique Flamingo Outfit I made for DD a couple of years ago with her flamingo purse.  

Pancakes and syrup!

I posted a week or so ago about going to the Sugar Shack and learning how they make Maple Syrup.  Well, Wednesday night was the night for the Ranger boys to try it out on some pancakes.  YUMMO!  

 This is what I got when I asked him to SMILE for my picture!  Sigh....

 Here is a better smile!  This is my 8 yo with his pancake.  He already ate one before this is.  I don't even want to know how many pancakes my older 3 boys ate!  LOL!  My 8 yo only had two because he ate half a hamburger before he went to church and because he is not crazy about REAL Maple Syrup.  He is a store bought faux syrup eater!  GASP!  I know....

 His buddy wanted in the picture too!

 This is a table of plates all served up and ready for the boys to grab and eat!

 I did the cooking of the pancakes.  Beautiful and golden just like I like them!  We went through 3 boxes of pancake mix!  Kathy M. did the mixing of the pancake batter and I did the cooking on the church grill (griddle??).  My DH asked me if I wanted one of these commercial griddles...ummm why YES!  Yes I do!!  LOL!  You can cook like 16 pancakes at one time on it!

Goat stalls!

 This is an update on how my new goatie baby Pinkie Pie is doing.  Lily is finally leaving her alone from what we can tell.  She is still pushing her around with her head but it is more of a nudge now and not a full out head butt or slamming her against the goat house like she was.  My oldest and DH built this stall for her so that she could still be out in the goat house at night but be safe from Lily while we were not out there.  I did not want her to get used to sleeping in the warm house.  For one because I did not want a goat IN my house all the time and another because I did not want her to be chilled when she did go back out on these cold days because she was in the warm house so much.

 The stalls are 4'x4'.  Only the one side has a gate on it right now.  The other side still needs a gate but we still have some time before it has to be put on.  We needed the stalls anyways for when Amber and Lily kid so they can be separated with their own babies.

 There is fresh hay down in both of the stalls now and not just a dirty floor.  LOL!

 You can see how big the stalls are because Amber and Lily both fit in it and have plenty of room to move around so I have no doubt they will have plenty of room when they kid.

This is my goat house!  I am not sure if I have ever posted finished pictures of it.  This is the goat house that my oldest and the neighbor built for me.  As in they went out into the woods, cut down trees, ran the logs through a sawmill, and then built the goat house!!  That is my milk stand in front of it.  My oldest and I built that together.

New brooder box and chick update!

Check out the beautiful markings on their backs!

 This is my mom's shipping box that is the same size as mine but her's has the finished lid on it.  Mine is supposed to get the lid put on it soon.  I have all of the stuff for it I am just waiting for DH to get it done.

 They were just thrilled to be in the new box and started fluttering like crazy and stretching their wings and going back in forth in the box like it was a runway!

This box is 3'x5' and like 2' deep.  To give you an idea how BIG this shipping box is my 8 yo got inside.  Pfft!  And he did not even need any coaxing!  It was more of a case of keeping him and 6 yo DD out of it!  Sigh....

 Did I mention that the shipping box was FREE!!!  WOOT!  (Thank you Uncle Leonard for taking me to go get it.)  

 You can see how big they are getting in this photo.