Once again, the chicken scores up on produce that would have gotten thrown out, were it not for her.  I had picked a lot of green and yellow beans, scarlet runner beans and cranberry bush beans as a last and final picking last summer.  They were all pretty old and tough looking, but I washed, trimmed and parboiled them and froze them in a big, gallon size plastic bag.  Although I've been using my "good" frozen beans now and again, these seemed destined to just sit there and get freezer burn.  Then the light bulb in my head went off - the chicken!  Of course.  I've thawed them out, and now cut them up into bite size pieces with a scissors.  She is out there now, gobbling down today's handful.  She really is enjoying them.  This morning, for her breakfast, she finished up the box of Ralston Purina hot cooked cereal.  I'll have to move on to Farina and oatmeal after that.  Who knew chickens liked to eat human food, too (just like dogs).  It's going to get colder again, but with her daylight sunshine, and her warm house at night, I'm not worried about her now.  Of course, I still feed her the regular laying mash, sunflower seeds, bread or croutons, a small handful of oats and whatever carrot peels, etc. that accrue from cooking.

Yesterday, I made split pea soup with brown lentils.  John specifically asked me to make it and even asked that instead of chopping the carrots, would I shred the carrots?  Sure I would, fussbudget.  The hambone, after carving off all the ham I could, also went into the pot, and we have a big bowl of carved ham for sandwiches and for adding to our soup to make it even hammier.  That, 6 or 7 cups of water, and one small onion, chopped, one stalk of celery, chopped, was all I put in it, besides a bay leaf.  I would guess I had about 2 cups of peas and lentils altogether.  I just poured them into a strainer and rinsed them under cold water.  Simmered on low most of the day, and it was all the heat needed to keep the house warm, too.

Today, I got all my Christmas cards addressed and mailed out; I think there were 10 of them.  And I finished Chapter 19 on my novel - a difficult part for me that ended up being only one page.  It took me all week mulling this over, but it's done now, and the story can finally move on.