First duck egg of 2018, popcorn on the cob and Valentines day is for the birds

First duck egg of 2018 was waiting for me when I opened the coop this morning. I guess it was a Valentine from the ducks! Glad to have them starting up laying again. Our 2 year old Khaki Campbells didn't take their first winter off so this was a bit different. We added three more ducks last summer, a Swedish and two Rouens but they didn't start laying before winter set in because they were on the young side. It will be nice when all 6 females are laying.

 As for the chickens, they went above and beyond my expectations today and gave 18 eggs by days end. We are back in the egg laying business here that's for sure!

With this great upturn in egg production I was able to make five dog dinners as I call them. Each dog dinner takes about 1&1/2 to 2 dozen eggs to which I add garlic powder, nutritional yeast, a little water or nut milk and anything else I happen to think would go good. Today three batches had 

crumbled up left over veggie burger. The other two had rice and veggies. The dogs just love these dog dinners and some of the cats do too! Once it's all whisked together I bake in the oven at 375 for about 45 minutes or so, until they look formed up and done. One of these dishes will be a meal for the four dogs with a little taken out for the cats. So five days of dinners here. they will still get their usual dog kibble for breakfast. 

I ALWAYS line the baking dishes with parchment paper. I learned this early on. It's the only thing I've found that the baked egg doesn't stick to! 

For my snack I found a popcorn on the cob that I bought at a farm stand near the nursing home my mom was in. I bought it probably 18 months ago. We popped one but never did the other. It still popped pretty well even after all that time. Linnea wanted to share with me, I had to be quick so she didn't eat out of the bowl.

I should see if I can grow popcorn on the cob.

I liked that popcorn, now naptime!

 The rest of the day was spent making dinner for the humans, prep for teaching my co-op class tomorrow, homeschooling with Tristan and of course some time out with the birds.