Wine, Roosters, and Boats

43. Make a batch of wine

It's been bottled! We bottled it at 1 a.m. the night that my sister-in-law arrived. I bought some labels from Amazon and we've been having some fun with them. We printed out labels for the winners of our Ugly Sweater Party and called it "Ugly Sweater Sauvignon" and another label was called "Headless Chicken Wine." Or something like that. It was fun!

59. Eat a rooster that wakes me up too early

He was delicious in Buffalo Chicken Dip. I tried not to think about it too much.Let's just say that if there was  a zombie apocalypse, I could probably kill and eat my own chicken, but it's not something I think I'll ever be comfortable with. They're too much like pets to me. I tried to rationalize it by thinking what a better life our chickens have had than those who are raised until they're only 6-8 weeks old, then shoved into tiny pens and processed at a big plant, but it is still tough to eat something that was once a cute little peep.

76. Decide if buying a boat is right for us

I would like to mark this one off. I think it makes more sense for us to rent a boat from Schnaitman's whenever we want to go fishing or crabbing than to own a boat ourselves. Not to mention that we have several other friends with boats. It just doesn't make sense for us to buy one of our own. Yet. Maybe next year it will be a different story. Jay thinks that a small crabbing or rowboat would make sense for us to have. So, we will re-evaluate at a later date, but for now, I'm crossing it off.

I have completed 27 items of the 101 - 26.73% through my list.

177 days into my 1001 days - 17.68% through the days.

I am doing a good job keeping up with my schedule!

Down to 17 hens

67. Sell/giveaway laying hens

It's official, we are down to 17 hens. I gave three hens to an arts council friend (one black star, one Ancona and one Australorp). I know that she'll take great care of them.

Here is our current flock:

4 Rhode Island Red/Barred Rock Crosses aka sex links (2 red star, 2 black star)

3 Easter Eggers

3 White Marans

2 Australorps

2 Silver Cuckoo Marans

1 Silver Laced Wyandotte

1 Golden Laced Wyandotte

1 Ancona

Made my first sale!

68. Sell eggs from our flock (hopefully enough to sustain price of feed)

I brought some eggs in to work to give away and ended up selling them to one of our directors. We decided to price them at $3 a dozen. I was thinking that I should probably begin sorting them into medium, large & jumbo sizes and sell them at 2.50, 3.00 and 3.50. 

But $3 for a jumble of different sized and colored eggs is just easier. We have quite the rainbow of colors going on in our egg basket. I love it!

I think that I'll continue with Marans and Easter Eggers just for the egg colors.

Although I planned to take the $$ that we make from the eggs to offset feed cost, perhaps we'll instead put it in a piggy bank for something fun.