December's Menu Plan

Monthly Dinner Meal Planner

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
					1	2
					Bratwurst, Hotdogs & Chips Carrot & Celery Sticks	Hot or BBQ Chicken Wings French Fries Celery & Carrots
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Meatloaf Mashed Potatoes Broccoli & Cauliflower Rolls	Lemon Pepper Chicken Egg Noodles Peas	Tacos with ground goat Pinto Beans Mexican Rice	Chicken Noodle Soup Salad Rolls	Red Beans, Sausage & Rice Biscuits	Orange Chicken or Beef & Broccoli with White Rice & Egg Rolls	Grilled Steak, Baked Potato Salad Corn on Cob
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
Smoked Chicken Cheesy Potatoes Butter Carrots Homemade Bread	Grilled Cheese Tomato Soup	Bean Burritos Spanish Rice	Chili Cornbread	Spaghetti & Meatballs Green Beans Garlic Bread	Pulled Chicken BBQ Sandwiches Sweet Potato Tots	Beef Stew Rolls
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
*Drinks, *Soups *Meats & Cheeses, *Breads & Veggie *Salad Bar *Cookie Tray	Spaghetti & Meat Sauce Salad  Garlic Bread	Chicken Enchiladas in Green Sauce on Rice	Loaded Potato Soup Salad Garlic Bread	Lasagna Green Beans Garlic Bread	Subs Chips Salad	Bacon Turkey Club Sandwiches w/ French Fries
24	25	26	27	28	29	30
Swedish Meatballs Cocktail Winnies Meats & Cheeses Veggies	Roast Goose w/ Apples Roasted Veggies Cranberry Sauce Raspberry Trifle	Goat & Cheese Quesadillas Pinto Beans	Beef Barley Soup Homemade Bread	Homemade Mac & Cheese Green Beans Rolls	Sloppy Joe's Chips Salad	Porcupines Peas & Carrots
31
Shrimp, Lobster Steak Tips Baked Potatoes Salad Desserts

*Party Menu

Cold Drinks: Cranberry Raspberry Punch, Eggnog, Cold Apple Cider

Hot Drinks: Wassail, Hot Tea, Coffee, Hot Chocolate

Meats: Roast Beef, Ham, Turkey, Salami

Cheeses: Cheddar, Swiss, Provolone, Colby Jack

Breads: White, Wheat, Poppy Seed

Veggies: Carrots, Celery, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Ranch Dip

Soups: Loaded Potato, Squash Soup & Beef & Barley

Salad Bar: Lettuce, Cherry Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Bell Peppers, Cheese, Green Onions

Cookies: Spritz, Gingerbread, Sugar Cookies, Peanut Blossoms

Candy: English Toffee, Fudge, Pecan Logs

Creating Our Nightmare Before Christmas Tree.

We are having our Annual Fall Party and each year we pick a theme.  This years theme is This is Halloween, Nightmare before Christmas.  What could be better than uniting both my favorite holidays!!!  The first decoration we've created for our party is our Jack tree. 

  

We've gathered ornaments, ordered wired ribbons and a stuffed Jack for the top of the tree, and....

We had to add some Twin Haven, so all the Pumpkins under our tree, we grew here at Twin Haven.  Jack is the Pumpkin King, after all.  

I just love how it turned out!  Now, onto the rest of the house!!!

Gretel Has little Oreo Cookie!

Gretel's had her kid, a little black & white buck that we named Oreo Cookie.  He was born on March 5, 2017 at 5:15pm.  He is black and white with twin black bands across his little nose. He is still pretty small at 4 lbs, but that is very big for Gretel's kids as they are usually 3 lbs or less.

Joe had to help Gretel a little as his shoulders got stuck.  

He is very active and was already jumping on Mom at 12 hours old.  He is also small enough to crawl under the door to their pen so we had to hang a blanket over it.  He is drinking well and Mom is making milk on both sides :) (Last year Trinity only drank from one side and I didn't catch that in time.)

I'm anxiously awaiting the births of the others kiddos.  Hopefully, it will be soon! 

Hanging Treat Baskets

Today, I added treat baskets to the poultry area.  I've had these hanging plant baskets for over 5 years, in fact they came with the house.  I dug them out from under the front porch stairs right after we moved in.  I've tried to grow plants and herbs in them but the porch overhang is too big and they don't get enough light.

The turkeys really seemed to enjoy them the most,  I cleaned out the produce drawer in the refrigerator and got some wilting lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, celery, bruised apples and a had half of a small sugar baby watermelon last night so they got the rinds from that.  They really, really loved the apples and watermelon.  

I also hung a suet basket and suet pack for them.  Jamie & I will be making some coconut oil seed & fruit ornaments to hang on their little pine tree in their pasture area, but that's another blog, coming soon!  Also, the goats will get in on the fun later in the week!  

Chicken Tunnels

Sooooo..........our gardening planning has begun. Today, hubby and I had our first conversation about next years garden. Right now, as most of you know that every year we move the chickens and turkeys to our garden for wintering. They are working the soil and fertilizing it for next year. We also use our goat poo in our compost pile to make rich compost that is added to the soil in the spring.

 

We have a pretty big garden that is over 3500 sq ft. with very nice soil but our problem is that weeds also love our soil!!! We are not spring chickens anymore so getting down and weeding the garden is not easy. So in order to keep the weeds down we are looking for ways to still plant a traditional garden but to have more weed control. Last year we tried boxes but with no rain, they just dried out and blew all over, same 

with newspaper. Also, hay and straw are not an option as I have asthma & hay-fever and molding hay sets off my asthma something fierce. 

My chickens and turkeys love being in the garden, they are always trying to sneak in for dust bathing and insect hunting. Rarely, do they eat too much of my crops, but love to get snacks of spinach, lettuce or tomatoes. Those are their favorites and I always plant extra just for them. 

This year, I want to try chicken tunnels to see if they can do the weeding for me and keep my poultry happy by letting them in the garden, too! What I'm thinking is to run a long tunnel semi permanently along the back of the garden and then make a couple of smaller portable tunnel rows. We would have to make close-able openings every 3 ft for the portable tunnels to connect to the main tunnel. I was thinking the portable tunnels could be 8 ft long and we could hook 3 of them together to make the row. They need to be sturdy but fairly lightweight so that I could move them by myself. 

Anyway, this will be a project that I will be researching and engineering all winter with hubby. Can't wait to see what we come up with come spring.

From the Garden

From the Garden (yeah, there's lot of weeds, every week same thing, lol): Lettuce & Peppers I pick this am, Bean Towers, Peas, Tomatoes, Lettuce, Pumpkins (Connecticut, Sugar Pie, Little Max, Green Striped), Winter Squash (Buttercup, Butternut, Acorn), Cucumbers (Picklers, Lemon, Straight Eight), Melons (Canteloupe, Sugar Baby Watermelon, Green Honeydew), Zucchini (Black Beauty, Round), Yellow Summer Squash, Potatoes.

https://www.facebook.com/TwinHaven/photos/pcb.714146525318066/714143225318396/?type=1

Sweet Potato Grill Pack

Did a little experiment tonight, I've been making Grill Packs for Potatoes with onions & bell pepper and Corn on the Cob ones. Tonight I decided to try a Sweet Potato Grill Pack and it turned out very yummy.