Busy Day: Work, Chickadees, Quiche, and Hay Delivery

It was a busy Monday.  Marc went back to work after having taken his vacation week last week, and my work task list has picked up a few items lately, so I was ready for a busy day.  I started about 9 am and ended my work day with a one-hour conference call at 7 pm.  The good thing about working from home is that I'm able to take breaks during my day to do other things, and I can take breaks according to the time I have available - not limited to a 15-minute break imposed by an employer!

Today I took a break to feed the chickadees, as I usually do.  They were very active today, and I had them eating seeds from my hand, but the "line-up" of waiting birds was taking advantage of all available space, including waiting spots along my arm, on the top of my head, and even on the top of my camera lens.  Unfortunately I can't take pictures of this phenomenon - someone else would have to take the picture of me with birds on my head and arm! When I ran out of seeds, one kept coming back and gripping the front of my sweater and pecking one of my buttons.  Persistent little birds!   Here are a few shots of the chickadees today.

They gave up when I ran out of seeds and reverted to pinecones.

I do love my little feathered friends.

I needed something quick for supper, so I made a variation on the quiche recipe I found at the Broken Teepee blog.  I had done a smoked picnic ham in the slow cooker last week and there were still a few leftovers, so I thought it would be a good recipe to try.  I would like to try the crust recipe from the Broken Teepee blog too sometime, but with my busy day, I opted to use a frozen pie shell.  I pre-baked that, and then cut up some ham.  I don't have fresh corn, but I do have nice frozen corn niblets, so I ran those under hot water for a couple of minutes and used that instead.  I decided to add a few sliced cherry tomatoes.

Quiche recipes are usually fairly flexible and forgiving, so the tomatoes seemed like a good addition. I didn't have cheddar cheese, but I had a blend of edam and mozzarella, so I used that, and poured on the eggs and milk mixture.

I baked it at 375F for 40 minutes.

It came out very nicely and I enjoyed a slice of it before my conference call.  It was very tasty. The sweetness of the corn paired well with the smoky ham, and the tomatoes added extra vitamins!


Just after my piece of quiche and just before my conference call, I had 10 bales of hay delivered.  The goats and sheep really love the hay that I'm getting locally.  It's hay taken off the Tantramar Marsh area and has a great variety of grasses, clover, and other plants as well.  Goats and sheep aren't as finicky as horses when it comes to their hay, but I'm glad my gang really like this stuff!

They still like to eat bark, too.  Crazy critters!