The Eggmobile, and Bocconcini with Pesto

Isn't it beautiful!  It's finally done, and in use, and I LOVE it!  The egg mobile turned out great, I threw up a bunch of roosts inside that need a bit of finish work, and was in such a hurry to get it into use I used sticks for the nest box entry, but for the most part it's awesome.  I've been moving it about every three days, I don't want so much poop to build up underneath that it kills the grass.  The chickens have been staying in the pen very nicely, we do have a hawk or two and an owl or two that like to perch in the trees and panic the chickens.  I managed to find some goslings locally that hopefully will grow up fast so I can put them out with the chickens as guardians.  I hate to loose my chickens to predators.

The first few days they laid their eggs everywhere, on the floor, in their food, out in the yard, and they broke and ate several.  This made me panic a bit, it would be awful if my chickens became egg eaters from the stress of moving, but they settled down after a couple days and are now laying 100% in the next boxes, and not eating any.  I put mats into the boxes instead of straw, and go down in the afternoon after they are done laying to gather eggs and pull down netting over the boxes so they can't roost in them.  So this has completely curtailed my egg washing chores, which is wonderful.  But I do have to walk all the way down to the bottom pasture several times a day, which is a pain, and the last time is after dark to lock them up.  Last night I forgot to lock them up, and I knew I had to move the house today.  I realized this at 2:30 this morning, so I had to get up and go down there, that wasn't much fun at all.  My plan is to train the kids to go down and shut them up, I need to work on that.  Right now I'm moving it every three days, it'd probably be better every two days but it's a bit of work, especially since the grounds so dry it's hard as rock and I have to hammer each fence post in.  Oh how I wish I had enough acreage that I could dispense with the fence.  But those stupid chickens will just come right back to the house, oh how I hate them sometimes, there are four that have been getting out and hanging out up here.  I carry them down and they are back again in minutes, I don't know what to do with them, other than wring their necks, but they are worth too much for that.

I have been craving some fresh mozzarella cheese lately, and have been too busy to make any lately.  But I finally got around to it today, I had a couple gallons of milk that was getting old and needed to be used.  I also have a wealth of basil in the garden, and fresh mozzarella and basil is just too good.  First I made one gallon's worth, then ate it all by myself, so then I made a 2nd gallon and the rest of the family shared that.   I'm not going to write out the cheese recipe, Google 30 minute mozzarella, it's super easy and the best cheese you will ever eat, well, the best fresh cheese for sure.  After the cheese was done I ran up to the garden and picked a ton of basil, which of course, when all was said and done, was only about 2 cups of leaves.  And all the ripe tomatoes I had, which wasn't very many, out of almost 50 tomato plants I'm not doing very well.  I don't know what's wrong with them.  Then I ground them up with some olive oil, supposed to be 1/2 cup, I didn't measure, about 1/2 cup of pine nuts, about 1/2 cup of Parmesan, two big cloves of garlic, and about 1/2 tsp salt.  Then I sliced up the tomatoes and pigged out.  Oh my goodness it was the yummiest thing ever, as evidenced by the fact that I ate a gallons worth of cheese...  Hmm, I'm writing this thinking about the two lonely balls of leftover cheese that's sitting in the fridge, maybe those need to be eaten right now, there might be room in my stomach by now, I haven't eaten anything it at least 10 minutes.  Oh, and I'd like to give a shout out to my friends at U Pick It Farms and say thanks for the lovely veggies, I hadn't been by there in a while and one of the boys brought me down two bags full of vegetables, tomatoes, squash, fresh herbs, banana peppers, and the most delicious carrots ever.  Since I've already eaten all the tomatoes I could find in my garden, theirs will provide a lovely addition to supper!