Blog Post

Today's blog post has been canceled do to frantic construction. More after the Christmas break. See you next year. Merry Christmas!! Happy Holidays!!



                      Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!   

Christmas shopping

    I am almost done with my Christmas shopping (just a few knickknacks). I would have been done on the 12 but the carrier wouldn't leave the last two packages across the gate because we don't have numbers displayed on our house. Yes, I live on one of the few roads that doesn't have mailboxes down it. We have a bunch of mailboxes along the highway, instead. Which is crazy because it's dangerous getting the mail like that, our boxes have been wiped out a couple of times, and the road in front of our house is paved it's just a dead end. I'm always amazed when Mom and I go looking at properties and we'll see these places down long dirt roads, sometimes dead ends, and they will have mailboxes at their driveways. Crazy. We'll be painting our address within the next few days, though.

    Anyway, we went to the post office to pick up the packages. Fortunately when we got there the line wasn't so bad. It got worse after we got there, though. I have a feeling it's only going to get worse as the week wears on.   
  
  I ordered all the books (the ones she's getting me too, so the order would cost enough for free shipping from Barns and Noble.) online on Cyber Monday. It was nerve whacking waiting for the them, but being able to track them really helped. If it hadn't been for online tracking I wouldn't have know one of them was in. For some reason we didn't get the notice.   
   I'm going to slowly go though the items in my shop and raise the cost of shipping on all my items $0.95 to include a tracking number. Except for the Colorful Boucle Cowls, I've already raised their shipping.

   ~Use coupon code HOLIDAYS for 5% off your entire purchase from 12/13/13 to 12/17/13!~

        Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!

 

No-knead Rolls, Kolatches, and Cinnamon Rolls

  At the end of this post is a link to a blog with a good no-knead dough recipe. I was skeptical at first, but decided to try it anyway, and am very glad I did.
 You might need extra flour. I made them with oil and had to add a half a cup of extra flour to be able to work with them. I made four rolls that were really good, but little sweet. And made the rest of the dough into cinnamon rolls and marmalade and cottage cheese kolatches. I've been having a craving for kolatches and this is a much smaller and easier dough recipe than my old one. The one I have makes 3 dozen when cut in half, and it was cut in half from the original recipe and uses a lot of different mixing bowls for the dough alone. This one used one bowl and made the four rolls, a dozen kolatchs and about 15 cinnamon rolls.

                      For Kolatches:

  I used some Marmalade from last year, but somehow it ended up losing it's sweetness after I caned it. (If have any idea why this would happen please tell me.) I added a little sugar to it. And made the cottage cheese filling by draining about three tablespoons of the cheese and mixing in a tablespoon of flour and some sugar to taste. Then I spooned some into an indention I made in the middle of a golf ball sized ball of dough using my thumb and forefinger. And added a teaspoon of marmalade because cheese and fruit kolatches are delicious. And don't forget the posypka (crumble topping). The recipe I have calls for 3/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup flour and 3Tablespoons butter to be mixed together and sprinkled on top before baking. I didn't want to make that much so I wing it the on the measurements.

         For the Cinnamon Rolls:

    Roll out half the dough and spread with soft butter. Then sprinkle with cinnamon, sugar, and chopped pecans (if using) . Roll the dough up and cut into one inch rolls.

             For Either:  

   Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until browned.
Here is the link
http://www.averiecooks.com/2013/06/no-knead-make-ahead-dinner-rolls-with-honey-butter.html/

    You can freeze them before or after baking. If you freeze them before I recommend taking them out to rise the night before.

          Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!

Chirstmas Lights

     Last Thursday I told you my mom and I were putting up the Christmas lights after I finished my blog so I thought I would show you the pictures. We're not having a tree this year. The cats destroyed the last one and we decided not to get a new one since we don't have a room that they can't get into that also has room for a tree. We're probably going to makeshift something. But for now since we can't have a tree we're stringing lights all around the living room walls and the entryway ceiling.

  Yes, those are rooster ornaments hanging from the lights mom strung in the entryway. It turns out that as much as I like the roosters Mom likes them even more. Here is a close up of Mom's with it's extra long tail feather.

 

 

 

Here are some of the ones I put up around the door.

 

And over the cat poster.

 

Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!

Ornaments and Chistmas Lights

          There's a cold front blowing in that's supposed to drop the temperatures here to the 40s and 30s and bring rain to boot, so Mom and I are going to spend today inside putting up the Christmas decorations. (and baking cookies)


    After many tries and several site changes I finally got a good picture of all three of my knitted roosters. It was almost impossible to get a photo that wasn't too far away and still showed their pretty tail feathers and the rest of them, at the same time.

      I ended up having to get my mom to hold a branch from or tree while I took a photo. And spreading a bunch of gauzy fabric under my window with some between the roosters and my window to make the sunlight less harsh.    

   As you can see the black rooster in the picture has green eyes. He is a Christmas present for my mom and she said she wanted it to have green eyes. Unless someone orders a custom color the black roosters will have yellow eyes.  After this I will also be gluing an extra long tail feather she found while feeding the roosters onto mom's rooster. She was born in the year of the rooster so this is a good luck charm for her, too.   

 Here's a link to the listing: https://www.etsy.com/listing/169909098/rooster-ornament?

                  Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!

Colorful Boucle Cowls

I've got a new listing! It's my 43rd. And like everything else in my shop ships for free within  the US if ordered before midnight 12/4/13 using Promo code FREESHIPPING.

I love this cowl. Unlike my feather and fan stich cowl it only takes about 6 hours to knit. Last time it took 8, and about 20 extra rows. It was like a horror movie I kept knitting and knitting but it didn't get any bigger. I think I was knitting too tightly. I'm giving a couple to my mother and will be keeping a few of the prototypes for myself. Anyway here's the listing:

These boucle hand knitted cowls come in a verity of colors to fit any skin tone or color preference. Buy one for everyone on your list (and don't forget yourself). 

  Each cowl is 10" square and knit so that it stretches to be worn fashionably loose, but still fits snugly against your face and neck when things get chilly. Stylish, functional, and oh so soft. A truly unique gift; Due to the nature of variegated yarn no two cowls will look exactly the same. Each cowl is signed with a small 'J'.
    Available in A Lighter Shade of Green (green and cream), Turquoise Sea, Ocean Blue (mix of light and dark blue), Berry Purple, Fade to Black (shades of white, grey and black), A Forest of Green (different shades of green), Cosmic Colors(black with stripes of different colors), and Magenta Pomegranate.   
  They are made in a smoke free environment from a soft 88% acrylic and 12% nylon blend yarn that feels wonderful against your skin. Hand wash and dry flat.

Click here to order your own: https://www.etsy.com/listing/171658076/colorful-boucle-cowl


Note: Last Tuesday I told you I was making pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, and green bean casserole for Thanksgiving. I didn't burn anything! The cranberry sauce was good. And I mixed two different pie recipes to made a good pie. With enough pumpkin left to make three more pies. The green bean casserole was pretty good, but it was just frozen green beans, mushroom soup and onions.

               Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day! 

Thanksgiving

   Next Thursday is Thanksgiving. I doubt I will write a blog post that day. Just so you know. I will be making the green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, and a pumpkin pie this year. The green bean casserole is almost fool-proof, but the other two are a different story.

  Last year, after seeing a recipe in the 'Chronicle' for real cranberry sauce. I decided to buy a bag of cranberries and try it myself. I burned it, but the non-burned part tasted pretty good. Apparently making cranberry sauce is more like making candy than jam, if you turn your back for a moment at the wrong time it'll burn.
  
 The store had pie pumpkins for a dollar, so this year I'm making pie out of a pumpkin. Last weekend I quartered the pumpkin, put the pieces in a cookie sheet lined with tin foil, covered them with tin foil, and roasted them in the oven at 350F for about two hours. This is my first time making a pie like this this could end horribly. I'll let you know. Wish me luck.      

     Happy Thanksgiving!

   Bats Bizarre is having a Black Friday/ Cyber Monday sale! From 11/26/13 through 12/4/13 use coupon code FREESHIPPING for free domestic shipping.
  
                     Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!

A Present for Lobo

  I'm a still under the weather, but the weather is beautiful today. It's been raining on and off all day, sometimes with the sun shining so the rain drops sparkle on the leaves. That being said I'd better get over this soon; Mom's getting sick of doing my chores, and I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. Not to mention Thanksgiving next week which is going to take a lot of work.

   This is Lobo enjoying his belated Birthday/Early Christmas present. It's really a bath mat that was on sale, but he doesn't seem to mind. Mom wasn't sure about it because it's white, but I pointed out that we can always dye it after he stains it too badly.

    Of course the cats tried to take it over and we had to chase them off. Lobo is too nice to the cats. But I suppose that's good, because otherwise he probably would have killed the little jerks a long time ago. He sleeps there every night and looks so cute.


                  Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!

Rooster Ornament

     After a week long hiatus I'm back, sort of. Thanks to copious amounts of orange juice I'm not as congested, but I'm still getting chills and fevers and have developed a cough. My brain is a little  better, but unfortunately still isn't 100%. I am afraid to look at what I wrote last week. I was having trouble reading, not to mention writing, and wasn't making that much sense when talking. But am a little better.

   Anyway... I had most of the rooster finished last week all he needed to have his wings sewn on and for his tail feathers to be picked out and glued in. It drove me a little crazy-er, but I finally finished him.

   I sure wasn't which one to make first, until I saw the gold and black swirling Red Heart Fiesta yarn in my stash. I think it looks like a Golden Wyandotte which is why I crochet him a pea comb.
  The Pattern is a modification of my chick pattern with a comb, wattles, and an ornament loop crocheted on and of course feathers glued in. I used foam balls instead of stuffing, because it will hold it's shape better. I think they are perfect for Christmas and will be great for Chinese New Year. Which is a couple of year from now.
 
  Each rooster is 4" (10.16cm) tall from comb to bottom, 2.75" (6.985cm) wide, about 3.75" (9.525cm) from his beak to start of tail, and dangles 4.75" (12.065cm) from the ornament hook(included).
  Each rooster has 7 rooster tail feathers (from my own farm raised roosters) securely glued into place, is hand knitted out of 100% acrylic yarn and has a foam ball in the body and one in the head to keep their shape. Made in a smoke free environment.
  The pictures are of the Gold and Black version, but they are available in Gold and Black, Black, and Red. I will post pictures of the others soon.
  No two roosters will look exactly alike. Each is signed with a small 'J' on the bottom. Custom orders are available but I am limited to the color feathers I have on hand.    
  *This is not a toy. Allowing children or pets to play with a rooster ornament may result in damage to rooster and possible harm to pet or child.
     Here is a link to the listing so you can buy your own: https://www.etsy.com/listing/169909098/rooster-ornament


            Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!     

Gluten-free Double Chocolate Cookies

I'm still under the weather, so I thought I'd take it easy again and share a link to a blog with a fantastic recipe for gluten-free double chocolate cookies. Try them with a cup of pecans mixed in they're even better.   

http://www.recipegirl.com/2007/11/24/chewy-gooey-flourless-chocolate-cookies/



                          Thank you for reading Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!

Under the Weather

   We've got a Blue Norther blowing in today. Mom and I moved some of the potted plants into the greenhouse or under the eaves of the porch. We watered and covered the plants in the garden, here's hoping it'll work. I'm under the weather, I've been trying to catch something for a couple of days now; ironically I caught it when I got a flu shot. At first I thought I was a little sick from the shot, but I'm pretty sure it's cold. I'm taking it easy now and depending on how I feel I might not write a post on Thursday. My brain seems to have been push out by sinus pressure. It seems to get worse at night fall and I'm declining rapidly now.  



                   Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!

  

A lamp for the chicks

This is a post I meant to write a while ago but all the Halloween stuff kind of pushed it to the wayside.

    Anyway, not long after we put the 'Surprise Chicks' into the brooder pen we got a cold front. We got nervous about them, but there were too many and too large to move back in the house so we put a heat lamp in there. It attracted a lot of bugs. And after the two nights we were able to leave the lamp off.

 




   I was worried that having a light on them all night would mess up their sleeping habits. I shouldn't have. Thanks to the cooler weather we've been able to sleep with our windows open without sweltering, and I can hear the chicks shuffling around. All night.

 It's been a couple of weeks and sometimes I still get up to check on them; sure that I'm going to find a opossum or a coyote trying to help themselves to a squab dinner. Nope. Just a bunch of teenage chickens looking at me like I'm crazy.
  The first time I thought it was because the moon was close to full and it a very bright night. A few nights later I learned that was not the case. They are even louder on pitch black nights. They bashed into things more and there was a bunch of screaming, like they were being attacked, as sleeping chicks got stepped on by chicks blundering around in the dark.
   What are they doing at night you ask? Eating. Their feeders are empty every morning.      
  Adult chicken might sleep pretty soundly, but teenagers will keep you up at night. And wake you up early as the young roosters try to crow. It sounds like someone being choked, loudly.

11/6/13 marks Bats Bizarre's one year anniversary! To celebrate I am offering a coupon code for free domestic shipping. From 11/4 to 11/11 use coupon code: ANNIVERSARY for free domestic shipping on any purchase to be shipped within the USA.
 Here is a link to my shop's homepage: www.Etsy.com/shop/batsbizarre/    

                   Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!

One Year Anniversary

  I can't believe it's been a year since I opened Bats Bizarre with a few pieces of jewelry and a dial up connection; hoping I could make a little money still have time for my writing. Now I have 41 items for sale and plans for more, broadband, and have made 8 sales.
  A lot has happened.
   Originally I thought I might clean some of the old clothes from my closet, but they either aren't that good looking, they used to belong to relatives with questionable taste, or aren't in that good of shape. And I didn't know how to price them, anyway.
  The original patterns I've created are the first time I've made up a pattern with an end in mind that I stuck with.
   When I started bats bizarre I didn't even know what polymer clay was.
   I'm going to start packaging my item like this for shipping.

    

   I am offering a coupon code for free domestic shipping. From 11/4 to 11/11 use coupon code: ANNIVERSARY for free domestic shipping on any purchase to be shipped within the USA.
here is a link to the shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/batsbizarre


                   Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!

The Legend of Cat Woman

                     This year's Jack o' Lanterns. Mine's on the right and Mom's on the left.
   One night when Mom and I were sitting on the front porch looking at the stars and the scenery at night we started talking and somehow ended up telling scary stories we had heard. One of the ones Mom told was The legend of Cat Woman.

   When she was a teenager a friend of hers told her about what happened to her sister and her sister's boyfriend one night.

     It was late, but neither one of them really felt like calling it a night. Thinking of spending a little alone time before he dropped her off the boyfriend pulled into a little dirt track within a thick stand of trees. No one would surprise them there he knew; hardly anyone went to Tombson's Bottom during the day and no one ever went there after dark.
   "What are you doing?" Her sister had screamed.
   Her date stopped the car. "Aw, your not afraid of that stupid story are you?"
   "But..."
   "Come on. It's just a something they say to scare kids. You're not really afraid of Cat Woman."
   She forced a laugh. "No, I was kidding."
   He shoved the gearshift out of park. "Good." He grinned and dove a little farther down the trail. The girl nervously watched out the windows as the headlights cast strange shifting shadows amongst the trees. Once she thought she saw a pair of eyes glowing in the underbrush, but it was only for a moment. An old can someone had dropped, She told herself. Her boyfriend finally stopped and killed the engine, plunging the couple into darkness. "There. This should be far enough." He grinned. "You're not still scared are you?" He asked leaning towards her. Somewhere near by a cat screamed. Very near. The girl jumped. The boy laughed, "Just a cat fight. They always sound closer than they are."
    THUNK. A dent appeared on the roof. "What the heck?" The boyfriend demanded reaching for the door handle.
  "Don't go out there!" The girl screamed as a loud shriek like metal scraping metal sounded from the roof. A cat's yawl echoed from the top of the car.
  The car shook as if something had jumped from the roof onto the hood. More yawls and scratching.
  "It's her!"
  The sounds moved to the driver's side of the car. The boyfriend swore when the engine didn't turn over immediately. The sounds moved to passenger side. "Start the car!" Something smacked the window by her head.
  "I'm trying." The engine started and he backed out of the trail.
   The next day he saw that the car was covered in scratches, long black hairs, and muddy prints. Most were too smeared to make out, but one on the passenger side window looked like a woman's hand with five long claws.

This is the last day to use coupon code HALLOWEEN for 15% off your purchase.

           Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day and cat woman free Halloween.

No post today

I'm sorry but there won't be a blog post today. (It's probably for the best all I had was an lemon pie I dyed weird colors.-_-)

   As you probably know this Thursday is Halloween (Yay!) and for the Halloween blog post I will be posting a spooky story my Mom told me; a rural legend, if you will.


Bats Bizarre is having a sale! From today October 3rd until November 1st use coupon code HALLOWEEN for 15% off your entire purchase.


Sorry about today's post.  Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!

Cotton Spider Earrings

  Well, I've finally gotten around to posting the Cotton spider version of my Spider Earrings. As you can see they are black spiders with white dots added to the abdomen and randomly to the legs.
  Apparently what we call a Cotton Spider (My Grandmother called them that because they would see a lot of the spiders in the cotton fields) most people call a Jumping Spider. And what we call a Spring Spider (because of the way they spring on their web) most people call Cotton Spiders because of the way some of their web looks like it's made of cotton.

Here is a link to the add so you can by your own spider earrings: https://www.etsy.com/listing/122983739/spider-earrings?

 In honor of Halloween Bats Bizarre is having a sale! From today October 3rd until November 1st use coupon code HALLOWEEN for 15% off your entire purchase.


                 Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!

Halloween Jack O`Lantern Cake

   Flush with success from my  earlier Halloween cake I decided to make another. Since I'd already done purple and orange I decided to make a Jack O` Lantern cake. The frosting is my usual Cream Cheese frosting dyed orange and the cake is a yellow cake I dyed green, because green is cool and it makes it look like the jack o` lantern is rotten. It was little weird eating it, because we kept thinking the frosting should taste like pumpkin and the cake should taste like lime, but that's part of the Halloween-ness of it, right? Originally this was a bundt cake recipe, but I couldn't find a recipe for a two layer cake that used as many eggs so I added baking soda to the batter and baked it in two 9'' pans.

 I was supposed to mix nuts into the batter, but I forgot and had to put them on top of the batter. Which worked out better because if you layer the cakes right they end up like seeds in the middle of a pumpkin. The ones that toasted on top even had a pumpkin seed texture, so that's how I will type up the recipe. Mix them in or omit them, if you like.




              
                                                           

                                             Egg and Butter Cake  

1/2 pound butter                                           1/4 teas. salt
2 cups sugar                                                 1 teas. vanilla      
5 eggs                                                           Green food dye
2 cups flour                                                  1 cup chopped pecans
1 1/2 teas. baking soda                                                                    

    Cream butter and sugar well. Blend your dry ingredients together. Add 1 egg then a small amount of the flour mixture. Continue alternating ingredients until all are used up. beat in vanilla and green food dye. (if using) Pour into two 9" cake pans and sprinkle nuts in the center of the batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes.

     

                                                            Cream Cheese frosting

1 8oz package cream cheese              Yellow and red food dye (optional)

1 stick butter                                         1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

1 box powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla  

Beat cheese and butter. Add powder sugar (a little at a time until desired taste and consistency are reached). Mix in vanilla and food dye (if using). Stir in nuts (if using). Spread on cooled cake.

Here is a link to a printer friendly version: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Vi0fnYHdgM26XncdXXgWTBnXmeBBOpiVcnwsohXwca4/edit?usp=sharing

   In honor of Halloween Bats Bizarre is having a sale! From today October 3rd until November 1st use coupon code HALLOWEEN for 15% off your entire purchase.

                              Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!

New Halloween Lights and make your own ghosts

Normally we don't buy more Halloween decorations until November, but when we saw these spider and 24' purple and orange lights on sale at Kroger we couldn't help ourselves. It looks a little busy now, but next year we'll either be in the new house or will try to find a better place for them here. The spiders are great I'd like to get some more after Halloween. The purple and orange are cool, but I wish they were more purple. Hopefully there will be a string of solid purple lights this November.

   How to make your own ghosts. These simple, lovely Halloween decorations are very easy to make. Most of the items are garbage. Mom came up with this design years ago, using some gauzy fabric she had left over after making curtains. The best part is the older they get the better they look. Right now we have four and plan to add more. She made a bunch of little ones using dryer lint for the head.




What you'll need:
 Tulle or sheer white fabric
 Newspapers/ handful of plastic grocery bags (preferably white)
one plastic bag (preferably white)
Fishing line
Optional: Glow in the dark paint

   Cut the fabric into a rectangle-ish (you could cut a big circle too) shape that's about 8 inches longer that you want the ghost to be about 4 1/2 feet long and 2 wide. Make a ball about the size of a head (most of ours are around 5 inches in diameter) out of the newspapers/ plastic bags and cover with one white plastic bag. Place the fabric over the head so that some of it hangs a few inches below the head. Tie fishing line around the bottom of the head. Optional paint a face on the head. Thread an embroidery needle with fishing line and use that to hang your ghost in a tree. The lighter the fabric the less wind they need to fly.

They are great for telling which way the wind is blowing. They are very easily customizable, too.            



 In honor of Halloween Bats Bizarre is having a sale! From today October 3rd until November 1st use coupon code HALLOWEEN for 15% off your entire purchase.

                         Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!

Rain in Barbie's Dream Chicken House

We got a little more than two inches of rain this weekend and learned that the new chicken house floats. Or at least is so light weight that water seeps under the walls and puddles up before it sinks into the soil. With a chance of rain all week we knew we had to do something quick. The girls were walking around in water that covered their feet.

  Fortunately Mom just happed to have a thirty-three gallon trash can full of pine needles. We put a five inch layer of pine needles inside so the girls would have something dry to walk on. Now their feet are dry when it rains!
   
   Surprisingly they haven't scratched all the pine needles out. Mom thinks the threshold kept them in. I like to think it was because they liked the pine needles so much.


In honor of Halloween Bats Bizarre is having a sale! From today October 3rd until November 1st use coupon code HALLOWEEN for 15% off your entire purchase.

    Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!

The New Chicken House

   We where out of cages, and the Surprise chicks were out of room. We didn't want to put 'Possum, Handful, and Amy's girl in with their parents because the peaking order is so horrible and we have a thing about putting all our hens in one house. Mom and I were trying to figure out what to do when it hit us: put my old play house in between the house and the garage and use the two 10'x6' fence panels to make a run.

                    The panels were going to be part of a second chicken house we planed on building, but didn't, because we might be moving soon and were afraid taking the building apart would weaken it.

    We've taken to calling it Barbie's Dream Chicken House, and have named the girl from Amy's brood Barbie.

   Here is a picture of the nest Handful made for herself complete with egg, which for some reason looks blue in the picture. 'Possum who is the same age as Handful isn't laying yet, but both of the Ameraucana girls took a while to start laying.

  The cats love it. Bird watching, particularly close up chicken watching, is one of their favorite things to do. And the chickens in turn seem to enjoy cat watching. Whenever they see a cat laying on the cinderblock or in the dirt near the pen they run up it and hang out. When they aren't watching cats they are usually ruining Mom's heirloom Amaryllises and Pineapple plants. The little flock is all together for the picture to the right. Possum is in front, Handful's facing her, and Barbie is to the right with her back to the camera.

   A couple of days ago when the cold front blew in Persephone, who's favorite place to hang out is the roof, jumped off the garage roof onto the play house and hung out in there while Mom and I finished setting up the light for the little girls. Before we were done Sephy was out. As you can see in the picture she was looking at the roof from the top of the chicken house so she might have jumped straight up onto the roof. We're not sure.



In honor of Halloween Bats Bizarre is having a sale! From today October 3rd until November 1st use coupon code HALLOWEEN for 15% off your entire purchase.

             Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!

Halloween Sugar Cookies

While sugar cookies are usually a Christmas treat Mom and I always have to make a batch for Halloween. Mom loves Red Hots; I put them on as much as possible. They are best if you put them on before you bake them.

  The frosting is milk mixed with powder sugar and food dye. Put powder sugar in a bowl and add a little milk. Continue adding very small amounts of milk until it reaches an almost spreadable consistency. Add food coloring. (It will make it more liquid.) If it's not spreadable at this point add more milk.
  These are ones we made from some new metal cut out shapes we fond on sale at Michaels. Some of the shapes are weird, like the cat that looks more like a chipmunk, or the candy corn (Seriously?). But the price was right and you don't have to worry about them getting stuck like with some of our older one that have a covered back so you have to dig the cookies out if they get stuck. And the bats are cool. 
   You could also use them to make Halloween biscuits. :)
    Here is a recipe for really good Sugar Cookies. There is a link to a printer friendly version at the end.
                                                              Sugar Cookies

1 cup sugar                                              2 cups Flour 
1 stick butter                                           1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg                                                       1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon Vanilla
                                                        
 Cream butter and sugar. Add an egg and vanilla. Sift in flour, salt, and baking powder. Chill for an hour. (Hint: leave the dough not being used in the refrigerator. It's easier to work with when cold.) Bake on a cookie sheet at 375 degrees for 8 minutes. Makes two dozen.

    Here is the printer friendly version:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/136TAN9EWeFhOvoBV6dUydKbEDmYjKjlSA8g7c-cOIpA/edit?usp=sharing

Bats Bizarre is having a sale! From today October 3rd until November 1st use coupon code HALLOWEEN for 15% off your entire purchase.

         Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!

Halloween Sugar Cookies

While sugar cookies are usually a Christmas treat Mom and I always have to make a batch for Halloween. Mom loves Red Hots; I put them on as much as possible. They are best if you put them on before you bake them.

  The frosting is milk mixed with powder sugar and food dye. Put powder sugar in a bowl and add a little milk. Continue adding very small amounts of milk until it reaches an almost spreadable consistency. Add food coloring. (It will make it more liquid.) If it's not spreadable at this point add more milk.
  These are ones we made from some new metal cut out shapes we fond on sale at Michaels. Some of the shapes are weird, like the cat that looks more like a chipmunk, or the candy corn (Seriously?). But the price was right and you don't have to worry about them getting stuck like with some of our older one that have a covered back so you have to dig the cookies out if they get stuck. And the bats are cool.  
   You could also use them to make Halloween biscuits. :)
    Here is a recipe for really good Sugar Cookies. There is a link to a printer friendly version at the end.
                                                              Sugar Cookies

1 cup sugar                                              2 cups Flour 
1 stick butter                                           1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg                                                       1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon Vanilla
                                                        
 Cream butter and sugar. Add an egg and vanilla. Sift in flour, salt, and baking powder. Chill for an hour. (Hint: leave the dough not being used in the refrigerator. It's easier to work with when cold.) Bake on a cookie sheet at 375 degrees for 8 minutes. Makes two dozen.

    Here is the printer friendly version:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/136TAN9EWeFhOvoBV6dUydKbEDmYjKjlSA8g7c-cOIpA/edit?usp=sharing

Bats Bizarre is having a sale! From today October 3rd until November 1st use coupon code HALLOWEEN for 15% off your entire purchase.

         Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!

The Chicks

Unsurprisingly the 'Surprise chicks'  out grew their cage. Thanks to a little creative chicken shuffling we were able to put them in the brooder cage. We separated them; putting the ones we think are girls (very little comb growth) to the left and the probable roosters to the right. The photos are in that order too. We have five in the right side and six in the left, and are hoping that some (most) of them were mistakenly placed in the rooster side, while all the ones in the hen side are in the right one. (We can dream can't we?)

There is a cold front coming in soon and we will probably run a light out to them.

This is one of the few chicks that we've named; she is a pure blooded Ameraucana. She looks like a quail. Her name is Charlotte. She's probably going to look like 'Possum when she's grown.

    The mostly white chick to the right is Mira, short for miracle, she was the first one to hatch. She's a Buff Orpington- Ameraucana mix.

I call this one Barn Owl because of her markings.

I put an old rabbit waterer in the hen cage I wasn't sure chicks could learn to use one. Leopard, who has lost her spots, was nice enough to demonstrate that they can while I was taking pictures. 

It was nice to deal with chickens that weren't terrified of cameras.







 In honor of Halloween Bats Bizarre is having a sale! From today October 3rd until November 1st use coupon code HALLOWEEN for 15% off your entire purchase.

Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!

Halloween Decorations

    We got excited and put up the Halloween decorations early this year. September 8, so just a little early. I put up the spider webs and Mom put up the lights. There are three webs in all. We were going to hang the yard decorations together, but I took too long with the Spider webs. (Which I consider works of art.)




Two pictures of the Haunted Hallway. One in the day light and the other at night. The eyes blink on and off. It took a couple of tries to get one with them all showing.


Here is the living room: 

Finally Outside. There are a few more ghosts, but I couldn't get a really good photo of them all together and I didn't want a photo overload.














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The purple egg

   There was a surprise waiting for us this morning when we went to give the youngsters some kale. An egg was sitting in the back of Handful's cage. (still haven't put up the new chicken house. Sorry girls!)
   Handful has at the tender age of four months and eleven days old, laid her first egg. And it's purple! Very pale, but still purple! I guess we should have seen it coming, her mother is an Australorp (Ally or Lea I'm not sure which), both lay rose colored eggs and her father is Abe an Ameraucana, they lay blue eggs. But it's still cool!

Here it is in a carton with several others including an Ameraucana. 


There won't be a blog post on Thrusday. I'm having a VERY busy week. I'm sorry if this inconveniences anyone. I'll try to write one on Friday. But it might be Saturday.




Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!

The trouble with Roosters (Warning: it's awful)

    If you hatch your own birds or buy a straight run from a hatchery (a mix of males and females.) (Anyone else think it should mean a 'straight run' of either males or females? Anyway.) if you do either each chick has a 50-50 shot of  being a boy. If your luck is like mine it'll seems more like 70% when you buy a straight run, my theory being that more people buy all girls than all boys and the hatchery ends up with the exes of boys for the straight one shipments. Which is why I try to buy pullets (girls) when I buy chicks. There is still a chance of getting a boy when you buy all pullets, but I'd like to think it's lower than 50%.

     Unfortunately, we've been having a better than 50-50 shot at getting roosters when we hatch.  Three of Amy's chicks are most likely roosters, including that tricky Bared Rock. I won't stop hoping for hens until the caged birds crow, but I fear it's only a matter of time.

   The trouble with roosters is manifold. They don't lay eggs, they get into fights, bad tempered ones will attack you, and the worst one of all: they may kill your hens.
      We had a horrible time with Rhode Island Red roosters. When I was younger (9 or11) We put some young chickens in with the flock. Two were half Rhode Island Red roosters They "jumped" the hens, fond the weakest one and took turns jumping her until Mom grab one by the neck. The hen later died from her injuries. The rooster died immediately from his.
  Last year, we had two roosters that couldn't have been more than a quarter Rhode Island Red. We didn't know they had any Red in them until they got older and started looking exactly like one. When they were about two months old Mom and I went to feed the chickens and saw one of them on top of a buff hen. We put him in a separate cage and mistakenly thought the second one was a hen because it looked like the offending rooster had been jumping him as well. (his tail feathers had been ripped off.) While we were setting up separate cages I heard a commotion and saw that the second rooster was jumping the injured hen. The hen didn't survive. We later ate the roosters.

  So watch suspected roosters carefully. Rooster's often grow combs faster than the others and get taller faster. If you hear crowing remove them from your flock  immediately unless it's only one, its the one you plan on having as your rooster, and you have the hens in a large enough pen.  It seems worst with ones that mature early. (two month is early.) I've had roosters that were of different breeds and matured later and they were fine. But that might have been their temperament.

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Horace Horse

   I've added a new stuffed animal to my listings. Horace the horse, named for one of the lead characters in 'The Ranger's Apprentice' series. (a great series of books by the way.) I decided to work on a pattern for a knitted horse because 2014 is the year of the horse, I couldn't find a pendent I liked, and I cannot make a horse out of polymer clay.

   It took me about fourteen hours to make Horace, most of that time was either spent holding up one of his body parts and asking my mother 'This looks like something, right?' or going back and fixing something I didn't like. I'm hoping the second one won't take as long. I'm shooting for nine hours, that's an hour more than Roxi Rabbit, but there is a lot more involved in making Horace so nine might be doable.

   I learned to make a loop stich for his mane, but I'm not very good at it, yet, that's one of the reasons Horace has the longest processing time of all my items. Hopefully I can lower that as I get better at making him. For some reason tassels, like pompoms, are hard for me to make. I don't know if there is some trick to it or if I just naturally bad at it. Not that that stops me. I sew the base of the tail to secure all the threads. Otherwise it falls a part if you pull on one of the threads.

  This horse doll is about 10 1/2" (26.67cm) when sitting up, not counting his ears, and is 8" (20.32cm) at the shoulder when on all fours. (It takes a bit of work to make him stand like that.) He is one and a half feet (31.75cm) tall if you count the ears. Horace's body is 4" (10.16cm) wide. His legs are 4 1/2" (11.43cm) long and 1 1/2" (3.81cm) wide. His luxurious, black tail is about 8" (20.32cm) long at longest point.
   Here is a link to the listing: https://www.etsy.com/listing/163016552/horace-horse
He ships everywhere. 
   Every horse is unique; yours may not look exactly as pictured. Each is signed with a brown J on the seat.
   Horace is latte brown with a black mane and tail, but custom colors are available.

  Mom thinks he looks like a buffalo on all fours, so I guess I'm half way to a buffalo toy. And 90% of the way to a unicorn or a Pegasus.  It took a bit of work to make him able to stand on all fours while still being able to move his legs, but I really wanted him to be able to. Some of my favorite stuffed animals growing up were ones that were like that.



                 
                             Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!