An Overdue Update

Things have been wonderfully busy here. I can't even begin to express how much we are loving living here. The sunrises over the hills, the peace, the sound of the creek flowing, the bees that are flooding the plum trees, all of God's handiwork around us. It's amazing. And humbling.

And I for one am just downright thankful.

 

{Driving home}

We've been doing some clearing around the homestead and besides that there isn't much news around the property. Except that we finally added another rooster to the flock. And that we added 17 (which turned out to be 15 after they arrived) new chicks to the homestead. Timber and Layton now have their birds for fair and we have some new hens for the flock.

 

As far as the off-grid brooding, I took the easy way out....and we have the chicks at a friends house until they fully feather and can head up here.

 

I finally finished the top of a block-of-the-month quilt I did with my mother-in-law....which we began back in 2008. Yeah, I know. That's sad.

But it's done and on it's way to Kathy now.

 

 

I also added this quilt to my Etsy shop.

 

 

A special little girl turned 6 recently. Her Auntie made her a special cake.

 

 

She got a new bed from Grandma and Grandpa for her birthday.

 

And everyone helped to put it together for her.

 

She also got a new sewing area, compliments of her Nana and Papa.

 

The only problem is that the generator must be running for her to use it.

Which has been our sewing problem since we moved here.

So, to resolve that somewhat this got added to the homestead....

 

 

Mercy, I am in love.

 I could go on and on about this machine. But I think that's for another post.

It is amazing though and works beautifully. I have already sewn curtains on it and have begun piecing my first quilt on it.

Now Timber says that she needs one in her room. And I think we're just going to have to share.

 

 

          

 I've also been soap making. I got a new mold that makes a 1/2 batch of my normal soap recipe and love how it allows me to try different things in smaller batches. Now I only have 8 bars (plus the ends) in a batch instead of 15!

 

I think that's about it for now. I hope that all of you are well. If you're still here and still reading, thanks!

 

Be blessed!

The County Fair & Camping & Everything Else

Wow. Over a month since a post. You know it's summer!

Here's what we've been up to........

 Layton and his ribbons from fair.

 Miss Timber Ann and hers.

 Our county fair was the first weekend in August and we entered a number of things. Our most exciting entries though were our chickens! Both Layton and I entered hens this year in the fair and Layton also entered our drake Magpie. We had a great time. As with every fair, there were things that we entered that we were sure would be first place winners.......which got nothing! and then things that we didn't even expect to be noticed that won first! Each year is a surprise!

We've also been camping.

 Picking blackberries from a small patch in the field.

 Cooking hot dogs for our second nights meal. The first night we were treated to....

TROUT! Caught by the world's best 5 year old fisherman! (And yes, the barefoot 2 year old is flailing a hatchet. Thankfully it's rather dull.)

Watching Daddy gut the fish and then cooking it. After it was cooked and we divied it up, I asked Layton if he wanted any. He looked at me and said, "No Mom, I caught that for my family to eat." His heart just melted mine. What a sweetheart.

We spent 4 wonderful days in the back woods and loved every minute of it. Well, except nap time in the tent when it was 90 degrees outside. Thankfully our tent was mostly shaded. And the creek was less than a 1 minute walk from camp.

I took a survey of all the trees there and found that most of them were very straight. I mentioned that to my husband and told him that we could probably easily build a cabin with what was available there. While he liked the idea, the hour and a half drive to work everyday turned him off slightly.

The garden is finally producing. We're eating peas and green beans and broccoli along with some strawberries and spinach. The hoop house is like a jungle and we've been getting lots of cherry tomatoes and a few plum size ones too. I have a huge Brandywine in there that I am waiting on so very patiently. I can't wait till it's red! The Delicata squash is also looking great. I can already taste the buttery nuttiness of it paired with some wild rice this fall.

And speaking of fall........are we already almost there?! Hunting season starts this month. Archery begins this weekend and rifle starts next month. Here's hoping we'll have some venison to butcher too!

 Last but certainly not least, Wyatt and his BMX bike. He's 14. Have you had a teenager? O.k., then you know what it's like. He specifically asked me if I could post these pictures on my blog. He also wanted to know if I could upload videos. I think he may be thinking of hijacking it and turning it into a blog all about BMX.

 Ya gotta love that kid!

I hope that your summer has been wonderful!

For Lack of a Better Post

Ya see, I have about 3-4 posts that are half written. And I just haven't had the time to finish them to publish! So, for lack of a better post, you'll get a whole lot of pictures and not so many words. A picture is worth a thousand words anyway so I'll let them do the talking for me.

In no particular order.........

Enjoy your week!

New Baby Chicks with Video!

Our second round of hatching eggs in an incubator came to an end last Saturday with the hatching of 7 new Buff Orpingtons! I caught quite a bit on our little handheld camera (sorry the picture quality isn't better.)

We started with 18 eggs of which some I knew weren't fertile. I just wasn't sure which ones they were. We have mostly Buff Orpington hens and a BO rooster. We also have 3 Barred Rock hens that our rooster refuses to mate with. He won't mate with any of the other hens either....unless they are a Buff Orpington. How in the world can a rooster be so picky?? Anyway, the Barred Rock eggs look JUST like the BO eggs so I knew that I would have some infertile eggs. I must have been bad at collecting because we started with 18 eggs and on day 7 I threw out 10 of them. I had candled all of them on day 4 and then again on day 7. The eggs that were clear got tossed and we ended up with 8 fertile, growing chicks!
7 of the 8 eggs hatched. Here are the girls and boys in their temporary brooder which is currently sitting in our bathroom.
I feather sexed them on day 2 and it looks as though we have 4 cockerels and 3 pullets. Once I get a handle on my chick situation, I should be able to move these babes out into the garage. I currently have 8 chicks out in the coop that are almost fully feathered, under a light and 10 chicks and 1 duckling in our garage under several lights.
It's chick-mania here!

Can I Call it Spring?

It is March after all. We are so ready for spring to be here. How about you?
I think I am going to work on a spring banner for my blog. Because if it says "Spring!" then it should surely be here sooner!

We're riding bikes....

Waiting to till under the cover crop in the garden....

Watching plants and fruit trees bloom...

Planting new crops.... This is Timber's garden. It was part of her birthday present.

Baking chocolate cakes after Amanda shared this recipe..... Anne Bibby, are you reading this? Make this and you'll never give that Pillsbury box a second glance!

And raising baby chicks... This is another part of Timber's birthday present. Meet Daisy. She's a Golden Sex Link. And she's the only chicken we own with a name.
I'm going to go out now and soak up as much of the sun as I can because our 10 day forecast is showing nothing but rain starting tomorrow. Here's to spring coming in right after that!

"Lessons From The Hen House" - A Review

This ebook review is so timely and appropriate with all we have going on in our own hen house lately!
When Carol Alexander asked me to review her new ebook, Lessons From The Hen House, I knew nothing about it. From the title I gathered that it was a book about lessons on what to do or not do with chickens. I was wrong. And, once I read the ebook I was so glad that I was wrong!

Carol has done a wonderful job putting together a homeschool book that uses your backyard flock to complete activities in math, art, science, language arts and literature.

After reading it, I feel that this book would be best geared towards children in say, 2nd-7th grades although there are things for your preschooler and highschooler to do as well! If you're looking for a fun little curriculum that can encompass all the children in your home, this is it!

My favorite thing about the ebook is simply that it takes real life and turns it into education. Which is what true education is about anyway! Instead of being stuck in a stuffy text book, you're using a wonderful homestead animal to learn some basic and creative subjects. Your children will enjoy learning when it's taught this way. They'll feel engaged instead of bored.

A little about the author: Homeschooling since 1993, Carol J. Alexander lives with her family in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. She and her husband have graduated three of their six children from homeschooling.
You can visit Carol's blog Everything Home With Carol and see other lessons that Carol has put together at her Lessons From the Homestead website.

Thank you Carol for asking me to review this ebook. I can't wait to use it here on our homestead with our chickens and children!

This post is linked to the Barn Hop.

What Is It With Baby Chicks?

Have I gone insane? Are all the hens of the world dying and if I don't replenish my hens now, I'll never get another chance??

If you asked my husband that last question his answer would probably be, "Well, my wife seems to think so."

Here's how it all went down.

I thought it may be fun **and educational** to hatch a few baby chicks with a kindly loaned incubator. We got 8 chicks out of the deal.

I also put in an order with Mt Healthy hatchery for 15 pullets and 1 cockerel. Technically only 9 of those chickens were mine, the other 7 were a friends.

But, some of those didn't make it on the long trip and died. I called the hatchery. They're replacing my 5 dead chicks and they are also sending me 10 cockerels, for free, + 1 extra hen, to keep those 5 chicks warm on the trip. (Those said cockerels will be future chicken stock.)

A week before those chicks were shipped, I started incubating our Buff Orpington eggs. 8 are fertile and I'm hoping that all of them will hatch on the 17th of this month.

This past Saturday we made the long journey to Grants Pass, hauling our hogs to the butcher. We made the mistake of stopping by the Grange Co-Op. Guess what deal they had going on? Buy one 40lb bag of Organic Chicken Feed- Get 3 chicks free. I thought.......

STOP. Did I just read that right? You're giving away free chicks along with the bags of chicken feed we already buy???!! Did the heavens just shine down a ray of sunshine directly on me? Will my husband allow me to buy 8 bags??? Sadly, no.

Are you still with me here? I know that I'm not even with me here. 2 people in the last 24 hours have asked me how many chickens we have and I just stand there with a puzzled look on my face. "Um, well, ya know, I'm not quite sure right now."

Let's see....

8 chicks in brooder in garage (if my feather sexing was correct, 6 hens, 2 roosters)

4 chicks in brooder in 2nd bathroom

3 chicks in brooder at friends house (who I split the hatchery order with)

16 more chickens (including roosters) coming from hatchery this Friday. We'll see how many live.

8 eggs in incubator, due to hatch March 17th

1 duckling coming on Friday, as well, from feed store

9 hens outside

1 duck hen outside

1 rooster outside

See my dilemma? The next time someone asks me how many chickens we have I'm just going to say, "A lot."