Mussel Soup

After an errand that took me to the north end of Whidbey Island, I could not resist the temptation of stopping at Penn Cove to grab a few mussels for dinner. 

Easy hike across the sand dune from the north access point to the mussel beds:

Grab a dozen or more mussels off of the rocks and on my way!

Always check to ensure you can safely harvest before collecting shellfish:  DOH Website for Penn Cove

I love cioppino but never have time to make this delicacy at home, instead I have developed this quick and easy mussel soup.  Tracy does not eat mussels, and usually the boys have refused Dad's strange foods, but today Carter ate some of the mussels through he would not try the soup.  The soup was excellent - roasted garlic, rosemary, tomato, and mussels make an excellent taste combination that I need to try in other dishes.

Tomato, Garlic, and Rosemary Mussel Soup

Recipe:  Mussel Soup - two servings

1 Tablespoon of Butter
3 Cloves of Baked Garlic - Baked a head of Russian Red Garlic the night before
1 Can Tomato Soup (10.75 oz)
2 Cans Water
2 Sprigs Rosemary
15 Fresh Mussels

In a small pot, melt butter.  Add baked garlic.  Maybe chopped garlic would work?  But baked garlic is soft and melt into the sauce so that it disappears, only to resurface on the taste buds.  Brown garlic and butter.

Add can of tomato soup and two cans full of water, bring to boil.

Add two sprigs of rosemary - fresh or dried both seem to work well. 

Add mussels to boiling soup, cover for 3-5 minutes until all shells are open and cooked.  If any shells do not open, they are bad and should not be eaten.

Fish out rosemary, serve in bowls with a fork and spoon and a secondary location for the shells.

Enjoy!

Chicken Coop Construction

As soon as we moved onto our new property, we started figuring out where to put the chicken coop.  Chickens are easy to raise and take of if you build them a nice enough place with extra room and easy access.  Benefits are free eggs, great manure, and lots of fun for the kids!

For this coop, I used alot of materials left over from other projects or left by the previous owners of our home who left extra supplies from building the house in the garage.  Siding, shingles, and roofing asphalt were all leftovers, along with about 25% of the 2x4s and other boards.

We picked up the windows and doors from the local Habitat for Humanity store.  They are all old farmhouse style - windows were $5 each and the door was $15.  Habitat Store 

Design:  I used a 6' x 8' design for my chicken coop, 6' high walls and a peaked roof.  Tracy did extensive research of coop designs and determined what the coop should look like.  Our primary source of information was a great site  - Backyard Chickens - it was also a great source for the "how to" for me to create what my beautiful wife needed our coop to look like.

Base:  I leveled the base then placed 4" cinderblocks, ensuring that they were all level.  The base is built out of 2x6 treated boards to prevent rotting.


Building the base.



Foundation construction

Over the foundation timbers, I installed 3/4" treated plywood to cap my foundation.


Carter enjoying an improvised slide!

For the structure, I used 2x4s roughly 20" on center.  Corner posts are double 2x4s.  Note the door framing on this structure - a slight drawback of buying a used door is that you do not get the exact dimensions that you may want, but if you find something that you can make work then it is great.  A slight modification to the top of the door frame, raising it up three inches, allowed me to utilize my Habitat for Humanity door.

Dylan "tests" the ladder when Dad is distracted.

I sheathed the sides and top of the coop in 1/2" plywood then cut out the windows.

I used 1x4 inch trim around the windows, corners, and door of the coop, then used left over cedar siding from our house, with cedar shingles in the top. 

The chicken run is constructed of 8' poles planted 2' into the ground.  Six foot chicken wire fence surrounds the coop buried one foot into the ground.  Bird netting covers the top of the coop to keep away hawks, eagles, and owls.

Chicken coop and run

Hatch opens into the chicken run!  The hinged hatch has a cord that runs through a pulley so that we can open and close the hatch from outside the run.

Scruffy and Stripes foraging away in their new home!

The lucky girls - only two for now that were donated by a neighbor who's coop was overrun by hawks and raccoons.  Scruffy and Stripes are the survivors!

Nesting box hatch.

Hatch opens on the back of the coop to allow access to the nesting boxes and the eggs.

Dad and Carter feeding the chickens.

Job complete, fresh eggs for everybody!