Wanted chicken escapee...reward

Just kidding about the reward although we did have one of the ladies make a run for it this morning.  Hubby woke me up and said one of them is loose and I need your help catching her.  So I whipped on some clothes and went outside.  He was talking to her trying to get her to come closer, no deal so I kind of herded her towards him and he caught her.  This is the second time one of the ladies decided to take a little take off ;)  The first time she went out the coop door and landed on the top of the run wire.  She was looking down at all the others "how did I get up here and how do I get back to you guys?"  Hubby was freaking out.  He was afraid that she would fly over the fence.  I dont think that any of them would.  They just want to be closer to us and dont have a problem going back in the run or anything.  Today the one that escaped (Matilda I believe but I was only half awake) flew out the egg box as hubby was trying to put in new bedding.  She was just doing her little chicken dance around the outside of the run like she belonged there. 

We have been getting one egg a day.  7 total so far.  The shells are pretty hard so I guess we are giving them enough calcium. 

Our blueberries are doing fine.  I am collecting them every other morning.  They are slowing down in production.  The pieces of garden hose are working really well to keep the birds away from the berries but dont seem to make a difference to the bugs which nibble on some of the berries.  I suppose they were thirsty since we hadnt gotten any rain for a while but they should stop because we did get rain yesterday and today.  I hung out clothes today thinking to get them dry before the rain started...WRONG...it poured on them but I just left them out in the rain since according to the radar the rain was supposed to stop before afternoon and it did.  Boy did the rain get them soft! 

I made some wheat bread today from the wheat that we ground yesterday.  I should say that hubby ground it and ground it and ground it.  It takes a while to get fine flour.  As I said I made bread but and here it comes...it didnt rise as much as it should have.  I was so discouraged.  Hubby said that he would eat it though anyway.  I cut it up a little while ago and tried a piece. It actually is pretty good even though it is really heavy.  I think I might have had my water a little too hot for the yeast.  I said that I would make more but didnt have enough flour to make another two loaves...hubby gave me this look, you know, the look.  I guess he didnt want to grind any more wheat...guess I'll wait another couple of days before I mention it again.  I would have ground some more today but my wrists are kind of sore from the kneading.  You had to knead for 15 minutes and then let it rest and then knead for another 10 minutes.  I'll toughen up though and be making bread out the yazoo in no time ;)

Hubby's co-worker brought him some more cukes along with some green bell peppers yesterday.  I went through my cookbooks and have found a cucumber relish that I am going to try.  Got some red bell peppers tonight at the farmer's market so maybe tomorrow I will make up the relish.  I had done relish a year ago but it was my grandma's recipe for green pepper relish.  Really good!  And very useful in other recipes.  You can make your own tarter sauce with it, use it in sandwich spread (Grandma used to use a can of deviled ham and add relish and mayo to it) and of course use it on hotdogs and hamburgers.  Yesterday I made up 5 pints of mild papaya salsa.  I had a can of papaya in my pantry that had been there for a while.  Dont know why I had it just did so used it up.   I have a couple of cans of crushed pineapple and found a canning recipe using that so will be making up some other "stuff"...

Hope everyone has a great week!

Talk to ya later,

Denise