Dance of the Crane

I love where I live.

I mean I really really love where I live.

Y'all may watch the Nature Channel but I stinkin' LIVE the Natural Channel!

The little boys & I are were doing school when my big boy called me outside. Right over the fence line, in the field 3 cranes were doing their trumpet call. I love their trumpet call. Sigh.

I grabbed my camera & snuck over to the fence line & you know what I saw?

The cranes were dancing!

Dancing!!!

It appeared to be 2 males & 1 female & the males were dancing for the female.

It was like an episode of Wild Kingdom.

I expected Marlin Perkins & Jim to fly in with helicopter any moment...

So in case you didn't know~ I love cranes. I love their call. I love their grace. I adore the cute bright orange little fuzzballs that are their chicks. I love cranes.

And they are everywhere here.

Including the field next door.

I took bunches of pictures & these are my favorites.

The crane cha cha?  Disco bird? Fancy footed Fowl? Whatever you call it, it's amazing what our Creator has endowed.

Blessings.

Waste Not Want Not

I made stir fry the other day.

I breasted out 2 chickens (skinny Red Rangers ~remember them? Hence the 2 chickens) Cooked them up in coconut oil & they were yum.

For many folks that would be the end of the story.

They would pitch the carcass & what was left of the meat.

I mean, you cut off all of the breast right?

There couldn't possibly be much more meat on the bones right?

Wrong.

Super wrong.

Uber wrong.

After I breasted them out I put the carcasses in a stock pot, filled it with water & boiled them over night.

The next day I strained out the broth & picked the meat.

I took approx. 2 cups of meat, a couple quarts of broth, added veggies, spices & rice & viola Chicken Rice soup.

Dinner & lunch for the next day or 2.

I also took the other approx. 2 cups of meat & made chicken salad. A few more meals right there.

The remaining 5 quarts of chicken broth is canned & cooling on the counter.

So out of those 2 skinny chickens I eeked out Stir Fry for 4 adults, Chicken Rice soup which has so far provided a lunch & a dinner for 6 (and I still have more) Chicken Salad which has provided lunch for 2 adults (and I still have more) & 5 quarts of broth for future meals.

Boiling down those carcasses netted 4 cups of meat!

In years passed this would have been the SOP (standard operating procedure) of most households.

Folks had a 'waste not, want not' mentality & using all of our resources to feed our family mattered.

These days? Not so much.

I know folks are busier & many families have both parents working outside the home but the waste in our culture is so prevalent.

It saddens me.

And it inspires me to write blog posts like this one encouraging folks to learn how to get more out of their food.

More for their money!

Who doesn't want that???

So next time you think you get all the meat off of your chicken?

Boil it down & see how much you missed!

Even if you don't can you still could whip up a fabulous batch of soup, some chicken salad, shred up some meat for tacos, etc.

Waste not! Want not!

Blessings.

The Beauty of God's Creation ~ Hoar Frost

This morning was amazingly beautiful.

Amazingly.

We experienced a new to us natural phenomenon ~ hoar frost.

hoar·frost

ˈhôrˌfrôst/

noun

noun: hoar frost; noun: hoar-frost

1. a grayish-white crystalline deposit of frozen water vapor formed in clear still weather on vegetation, fences, etc.

I have seen many beautiful frosty mornings but this was, well, amazing.

Tell me this happens by chance.

No way.

Not possible.

This is the work of our amazing Creator.

Just look at these ~ amazing!

Look at these. Frost covered horse hairs.

Have you ever seen anything so pretty?

7 “But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; 

8 or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. 

9 Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? 

10 In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.

Job 12:7-10

Blessings.

Winter Wonderland

I've been a baaaaaad blogger & I'm waaaaayyy behind.

Bad blogger. Bad.

So let's start fixing that shall we?

This has been a great winter so far. We have had snow on the ground for over a month.

I love snow.

I adore snow.

Snow makes me happy.

Everything is better with snow.

The world absolutely...sparkles.

We have built snow families, made snow angels, thrown snowballs. snowshoed, sledded & just generally enjoyed ourselves.

Let's start with some photos of just how beautiful is here when it snows...

Look at the blue of that sky...

Toby loves the snow.

Petra likes it too.

The goats could live without it but it definitely beats rain.

Icicles. The perfect weapon. Just sayin'...

Snow people & their snow dogs. (we also had snow cats but sadly they are on my other camera)

Next time we'll do Christmas & maybe go all the way back to fall...(I tooollld you I was a bad blogger)

Blessings.