The Plumeria

  Earlier this month in the Saturday edition of the Chronicle there was a picture of a Plumeria flower in the gardening section. Mom says she saw it and thought to herself, 'That looks familiar. We have a Plumeria. Where is it?' But all I know about it is that all of a sudden she looked up and said. 'Oh God! We forgot to take out the Plumeria!' 
  We had placed it in the garage because it was too tall to put in the green house with all the other plants that need protection from the cold. When we found it the poor thing was growing two small shoots despite being left without water or sunlight.
  Now the plant has leafed out and is about to bloom. Got to love a Plumeria. It's a real trooper, unlike all the other plants that wimp out on us. I'm looking at you Gardenias. That bit was Mom.  'Wintergreen, catnip.' That was me. 

   Bats Bizarre is having a fourth of July sale! Use coupon code
JULY4 from 6/28/13 to 7/6/13 for 10% off your purchase. Discount doesn't include shipping.

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

Amy in the nest

 Amy, one of our Ameraucana hens, has gone broody. After a few days of being screeched at when I picked eggs, Mom and I decided to mark some eggs to put under her. The eggs should hatch around the 10th of July. We write the date and swirly lines on them in pencil, because writing on them in pen or marker can supposedly poison the chick by soaking through air holes the shell. She's got eight now, but the other hens keep laying in her nest, often with her in it, once when I picked eggs there were ten eggs under her.
  We tried putting Amy in one of the wire cages in an open section of the barn, because we were afraid that one of the hens would break the eggs while trying to lay in Amy's nest. But she didn't like it. She got really anxious and wondered around the cage clucking. So we moved her back in the hen house.
  Hopefully, she'll like the broody pen better once we move Mohawk and her clutch out. It's less open which I think was the problem with the cage. We put cardboard and pieces of a bag from feed around the nest in a corner of the cage to try and make it feel more private, but we didn't want to enclose it too much because then she might overheat and I guess it wasn't enough for her.
 
  

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

Abraham: The good, the bad, the rooster

This is our Ameraucana rooster, Abraham. We usually call him Abe. As you can see he's a very good looking rooster. We got him from my uncle's daughter. She had him and Silkie rooster and they weren't getting along. Since a hawk had just killed our buff rooster she offered to give us Abe. I wish I'd have taken a picture of him when we first got him; you almost wouldn't believe he was the same rooster. He was a lanky teenager, and smaller than the hens. Now he's a sassy bruiser, taller and wider than the lot of them.
 But calling him sassy is being kind. He's a jerk. Every time we go out to check the chickens he sidles up to at a lest one of us giving that person the evil eye. Three times actually flew up at one of us (usually me) trying to get that person with his spurs. When he does that I grab him and dunk him in the rain barrel. Unfortunately, thanks to this drought the level in the barrel is too low to do this any more. I guess we'll just have to use the hose on him. Which is what we do when sidles up and pecks us. Just the other day he pecked Mom's hand while she was putting ice in their waterer, so we soaked him with the hose. Even wet he's still large. The bum. Every time we leave the hen house he crows, even when soaked to the skin. As if to say, "And don't came back." I'd like to think he'd treat any intruders the same way.


~Sorry I forgot to worn everyone, but this is Thursday's post.

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

Carrot Cake

 I know I published it before, but I really love this cake and I it makes such a great Easter dessert I wanted to republish it. I will be making one this Sunday.

 The first time I made this recipe I burned it a little. (it still tasted pretty good) I don't know if it was because I used the second hotter baking suggestion or because I used too many carrots. The second time I baked it at 300 and started measuring after the 4 carrot so I didn't end up with almost an extra cup of shredded carrots and with nothing to do with them but put them in the cake. It worked out better this time, whatever the problem had been. The first cake had a bicarbonate after-taste (at lest to me) so I used less baking soda in the second. (Mom says it's one of the best cakes I've made) Well, without further a due here's a recipe for really good Carrot Cake. There is a printer friendly version at the end.

                                                       Carrot Cake

2 cups flour                                                     4 eggs
2 cups sugar                                                    1-1/2 cups vegetable oil
1-1/2 teas. baking powder                               3 cups grated carrots (5-6 medium carrots)
2 teas. baking soda                                          1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 teas. cinnamon
1/4 teas. ground ginger
1 teas. salt

   Mix together all the dry ingredients. Beat the eggs and add oil. Add the egg and oil mixture to the dry ingredients and beat. Stir in carrots and nuts. Pour into 3 greased 9 inch cake pans and either bake at 300 for 45 minutes or bake at 350 for 25 to 30 minutes.


            I didn't really like the cream cheese frosting recipe it came with so here is a repeat of the one I posted earlier with a recipe for Humming bird cake. I used 33% less fat cream cheese.
                           
                                           Cream Cheese frosting

1 8oz package cream cheese              1 cup chopped pecans
1 stick butter                                       1 cup flaked coconut
1 box powder sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Beat cream cheese and butter. Add powder sugar (a little at a time until desired taste and consistency is reached). Mix in vanilla. Stir in pecans and coconut. Spread on cooled cake.

And here is a printer friendly version: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13McxHYCth8C9a3LwmMKrwMJhPaMds1N0DAS8KSAMInU/edit?usp=sharing   Please let me know if there are any problems using the link.

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