News from Up North
October 20th, 2013 · 1 Comment · Posted in News from Up North, rural life
We’ve got eggs!
Our Rhode Island Red laying hens have turned five months old and we recently found our first egg in one of the nesting boxes attached to our mobile coop. Since then, two more eggs were left in the same box, so we think it’s the same hen, although we have no idea which one that might be.
Get ready, because this could mean a flood of eggs soon to come. We’re not sure, exactly, what we’ll do with all of them. Besides eating a lot of omelets and friattas in the months to come, we hope to sell some of them to neighbors and friends.
We won’t have as many as we originally thought. Two of our hens turned out to be roosters and they’ve just learned how to crow. So now we have plenty of cock-a-doodle-do to go with our eggs. Who knows? We may even have some baby chicks come spring….
Players and coaches involved in the Pee Wee seniors first playoff football game were horrified to find the booster club Snack Shack at Cambridge Central School had been broken into and vandalized. Cabinets were upended, the deep fryers turned over and fire extinguishes discharged throughout. Portable toilets next to the building also had been tipped over. In all, damages ran into several thousands of dollars.
Authorities subsequently arrested three teenagers–19, 15 and 14–who were also charged with breaking into a storage facility behind the fire department on Main Street, as well as the burglary of a garage on Plains Road in Jackson where a motorcycle was stolen but was later recovered by police. The oldest suspect was being held on $50,000 bond.
Congratulations to children at Salem Central School who submitted winning fire safety posters. Several local fire departments recently visited the school with their vehicles to conduct fire safety classes and judge the poster contest. Two winners were chosen from each class. The winning posters are now on display at the Bancroft Public Library.
Kudos to members of the high school chorus in Hoosick Falls who once again have been invited to perform in the Music of Hope concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City. The 35-member chorus will perform several songs with the Tim Janis Orchestra, along with “opera-to-pop” tenor Nathan Pacheco and YouTube sensation Nick Pitera.
Meanwhile, the Hoosick Falls Central School district is considering switching from fuel oil heat to wood pellets. The board of education recently heard from Bioenergy Project Partners CEO David Dungate that the proposed wood pellet system would replace approximately 80 percent of the school’ss current fuel oil use and would reduce the school’s energy bill by about $1 million over the next 20 years.
There’s still time to get ready for square dancing at the American Legion hall is Schuylerville, scheduled for today from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Music will be provided by the Ole Time Country band. Admission in $5.
And Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the public library in Schuylerville, marking the spooky Halloween season, there will be a talk on Bram Stoker’s classic vampire novel, Dracula.
Is it Thanksgiving time already? The Argyle Presbyterian Church will serve up a family style turkey dinner Saturday, Oct. 26, at 4:30 p.m. Tickets are $8 for adults, $4 for children.
Finally, Rensselaer County Dairy Princess Lindsey McMahon urges readers not to forget that cows digest their food very differently from humans. Cows are herbivores, meaning they only eat plants. They have a special stomach called a rumen, where bacteria aid in the digestion of grasses. Cows are constantly chewing their “cud” in order to obtain the full energy potential from plants they eat.
With that in mind, the dairy princess suggests making pumpkin pie. Her recipe is a bit too long to reprint here, so refer to your favorite pumpkin pie instructions. But be sure to include cream cheese, canned pumpkin, sugar, salt, eggs, half-and-half, butter, vanilla extract, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, pre-made pie dough and whipped cream for topping..
Bon appetit!
This edition of News from Up North was culled from actual news reports in the Washington County Area and is presented here for the enjoyment and edification of our readers. As always, stay alert and please drive carefully.
Ed, it’s also possible that several of the hens are beginning to lay…but they really like laying in one box…our seven hens almost always lay ALL their eggs in one box. I think it’s unlikely that a hen just starting to lay will lay an egg each day. It helps to place old golf balls into the nesting boxes to get them thinking there are already eggs in the box – they might just be tempted to lay one, too! One day, after Steve collected the eggs, I was putting them away, and discovered one of them was a golf ball…it even confuses the humans! Have fun!