Spring is in the Air

It is already April, and somehow, life has just sailed by and I haven't updated in what feels like an eon. Spring is in full swing again, it's warming up and flowers are popping up everywhere.

Noah and I have flown across the world and seen some of the most amazing places on Earth. We had an unbelievable experience and I hope to post an review of the week we spent in Israel. I hope that this is the first of many adventures in Noah's life. I hope that the reality of how truly small our little corner of life is and how amazing, and huge, and wonderful the possibilities of seeing more of our wonderful world can be has been fully engrained in his young life.

We got home just after Christmas and as usual life has been moving along at full speed with little time to stop and take a breath.

Nathan is now 18 and on his last few months of high school. In February he was awarded the honor of Eagle Scout and we are truly proud of his accomplishments in that regard. We look forward to see what he will do moving forward.

Benjamin turned 5 in January, and is growing like a bad weed. He is starting his Pre-School/Kindergarten work and learning his letters and numbers and how to tie his shoes and using his ninja skills.

We still have the chickens and a goat. We are also trying to raise rabbits for meat, and the kids have decided that they want to learn tanning and use the rabbit pelts. I am assuming that the process will be long and arduous and probably will become another project for Matt and I, but I really like the idea of using all of the rabbit, being respectful of it's life and not wasting any part of it.

So the reason for this post was mostly to update on that process and progress. It has been a rough start, and our first experience lead to quite a few fall and winter births and a lot of deaths because of cold, wet baby bunnies and inexperienced moms and inexperienced "farmers"; we lost most of the young rabbits before they got to an age that they could be used for meat.

This past year we had several times that neighborhood dogs attacked and killed most of our population of rabbits and there again we never were able to grow any out to an age of harvesting meat.

Just a couple of weeks ago, we(Matt, because I was busy making cakes for Cub Scouts) harvested 5 of our youngest rabbits that survived from last year. There were just to many young males and they were terrorizing the females that we had left. So now we have three females and two males.

Today we discovered that our little grey female gave birth to five beautiful healthy, active little bundles of joy, and over the next couple of weeks we will have two more bunny nursery boxes to set up, so we should be up to our ears with bunnies again soon.

We also have two dozen eggs incubating that will be hatching on the 18th of April. We will have baby farm animals coming out of our ears before too long...

We have also collected a turtle that was buried in the nest in our back yard that it was hatching from, and today while walking the new puppy(yes, we have a new puppy also...her name is Sadie and she is such a cutie) Noah found a new turtle trying to cross the street. It is about the size of a quarter and is so very tiny compared to the one we found last month. So now we have two red-eared sliders to entertain us. They are very entertaining they have such great personalities.

So...Spring is definitely in the air...



How is your Spring shaping up?

New Baby Chicks

In early February(the 6th, to be exact) we started incubating a new batch of chicks for the spring. This new group is a group of eggs that come from a special line of French Black Copper Marans, and a motley mixture of our current layers that are Ameraucauna, Cinnamon Queen, Rhode Island Red, Olive Eggers(Easter Egger/Maran mix), and Buff Orphintons with a French Black Copper Maran Rooster. Hopefully these new chicks will be laying in late summer to replace some of our older hens that are becoming less productive.

We are working toward specializing in a couple of breeds that we prefer to have as a dual purpose breed that is appropriate for both high production egg laying and still be big enough to use as a meat bird. So far my favorites are Easter Eggers, Olive Eggers, Marans, and possibly a couple of egg layers that are blue in color. There is nothing better than opening a carton of eggs and seeing a rainbow of colors...you just can't help but smile, really.

Back to the chicks...They began hatching on the evening of the 26th and as of this morning 20 of 24 have hatched out successfully. More than likely the last four will not be hatching, but I just have to give them a couple of extra days just in case. I hate the idea of not giving a late bloomer a chance at life. 

 Last night I spent quite a bit of time with two of them that were having a hard time getting out of their eggs on their own. I carefully helped them break just the shell around the edge that they started to unzip making sure that I did not tear the membrane on the inside of the shell. I added water to dampen the membrane to keep it soft so that they could work their way through a little more easily. They were both very week and although they were able to finally break free from their shells, they did not look like they would make it until morning. 


This morning I was excited beyond words to see that both, even though they were weak, were still alive and hanging in there. Now they are running around with the rest of the pack and trying not to get pushed around. One of the two has a toe that was crooked, but I have put it in a splint to help it grow right. I find it amazing how observant these little guys are...as soon as I put these last two chicks in with the group, they immediately started picking on the one with the curved toe...which although is sad, they saw a difference and reacted to it.

Happy March First Everybody! Hoping the new life of these chicks encourages some great Spring weather.
 

Farm and Garden: Our Daily Eggs

Spring Is Here

Spring has officially arrived and we are in the middle of all the usual projects and a few extras this year. We have added a rabbit, and Bearded Dragon to our list of pets, and we now have a new puppy named Lucy. She is a Border Collie/Australian Shepard mix. Hopefully she will be a help to us in protecting the property and keeping our animals where they need to be. She is now about 11 weeks old, and already showing promise. She is very smart and is already beginning to learn the basic commands of sit and down. She is more interested in watching the chickens than trying to chase them so that is a definite advantage. Our hope is that she will herd instead of chase down and "play" with our chickens.

We have extended our chicken runs, began building another coop, started planting the gardens, found the previous years asparagus beginning to break through and the first blooms and first leaves developing on the trees and exploding into anticipation of warmer days ahead.

Today we have new chicks hatching. It is so exciting to see those first pecks on the egg shell after having to wait for three weeks for them to develop...waiting, wondering, anticipating, and hoping that you will have a successful hatch. The sound of those first peeps, the struggle as they unzip their shells, and the wonderful moment when they finally finish and take a little nap before actively encouraging others to do the same. It is a very exciting couple of days indeed.

Chicken Trauma

Today is a sad day for us. More of our chickens have been taken.
I can not even begin to tell you how sad, frustrated, and angry this makes me...I don't know what to do anymore. It makes me so sad that we have not been able to protect these guys. The whole point to this is to have happy chickens who are given a happy life and collect happy eggs, and eventually when they come to the end of their lives, we have happy dumplings, gumbo, or stew.

On a chicken swap page we jokingly talk about chicken math. Many people talk about how they started and suddenly they go from 5 chickens to 100 chickens within a couple of weeks. ..well our chicken math is more of a subtraction thing instead of an addition thing...well it is an adding and subtracting thing for us. I keep adding chickens and life seems to keep subtracting them for us.

It seems that we have had to start over almost completely every year because of predators that surround our area. Mostly we have had trouble with dogs, from the neighborhood, as well as strays just passing through. This year we have also added raccoons and a fox to the list.

Today three more chickens have been taken...and now we are down to two young pullets, three laying hens and a rooster.
We started out this year with 23, lost some to some mysterious death, put some extra roosters in the freezer, bought new chicks to add to the flock and brought it back up to 21, lost 12 of those, got an incubator and hatched 11, 1 died, sold 3 and lost 6 of the 7 that were left, added 2(still have these), hatched 11 more, one died. These are currently in the house and I really don't want to send them out in the world.

 We have been at this raising chickens thing for almost 4 years now and it seems like every fall we are whittled down to a handful of chickens and have to start completely over in the spring. Our goal is to use our chickens in a sustainable way, having young hens for eggs, eating the extra roosters and the older hens, and hatching out new chicks for future seasons. So far we have managed to have 6 roosters for ourselves, and enjoyed, shared, and sold lots of yummy eggs, but sadly for the most part all our hard work and effort has gone to the predators surrounding our property.



Most of the pictures were some of the really nice chickens and the great ducks that we have had and lost. Some days I just want to quit, not worry about continuing to purchase or hatch more chicks only to feed them to whatever is lurking around the yard and ready to strike.
Some of our options is to get a guard dog of our own, but the issue is we don't have a fence and don't want to have a dog that will roam the neighborhood. The other option we have I just don't like because it means that our chickens will be contained. Part of the joy of having them is that they are allowed access to the yard to graze and clear our property of weeds and bugs and also supply us with lovely rich eggs full of nutrients because they are free range.
This will also mean building a larger, stronger enclosure that is also predator proof...can we say chicken prison. Really, chicken prison is not an option to me; I guess this means back to the drawing board. I'm starting to feel a bit like Wiley Coyote trying to outwit that the Roadrunner.

I'm not sure what the solution will be...there will be a solution.

Life Lessons...Connecting with the Natural World

We don't have a proper farm, by any means, but what we do have does give us a glimpse of living that life, by keeping chickens and gardening, with to possibility of adding to our "farm" in the future, keeping bees, and possibly having other types of animals. This allows us to be a part of something bigger and open up a whole other world for our children. Our world has become so detached from the natural world because of hectic lifestyles and the advances of technology.

In thinking about our school year officially starting up soon, I have been thinking about all the lessons that our children will have in all of the subjects provided in the books that we study in each year, and realized that what we are giving to our children beyond the books, is really beyond compare. I truly love our homeschool life no matter the challenges, setbacks, struggles; it is truly a blessing and a gift to be able to explore life with our children and learn and grow together, not only in knowledge, but also in faith, family, spirit, and community.

In living a "farm: life" we also give our children the knowledge of where their food comes from and keeping them in touch with nature and the importance of that balance.

This week we have new chicks hatching. Of some of the lessons learned in the process patience is the biggest.
Chicks take twenty one days to hatch...the waiting is horribly excruciating, even(especially) for me. We haven't learned to candle the eggs yet so we have been having to wait the whole twenty one days to see what happens.
Yesterday they began to come out of the eggs and so out of eighteen there are eleven.

 This clutch of chickens hatched almost two days late which added to the stress of hatching. The next biggest lesson is disappointment. Knowing that death is part of life and it is natural, it is still a very difficult thing to handle. Some eggs just never develop for whatever reason, but it is still so hard to sit and watch the unhatched eggs and realize that it isn't viable.



You move on, though because the next lesson is caring for something smaller than you. These little guys need lots of time and attention. They have to be fed, given water, kept warm, and kept clean. It teaches responsibility, charity, and dedication. Animals are also a great supplemental education tool for teaching science and math.

During hatching the kids and I have to chart the progress and make sure that the variables are at their best. It is also a game of percentages when the eggs hatch because you never know how many will actually hatch for what ever reason. The egg development and life cycle(we haven't figured out candling, but there are lots of pictures out on the internet of the development of a chick) is amazing and fascinating. The other thing that I came across recently in the science of hatching eggs is the genetic aspect. I loved this as a kid. It is amazing to me how the different traits being combined can create new and wonderful(or sometimes not so wonderful) differences in living things. One fact sheet that I found touched on a few of these things and it was great to share it with the kids.

Funny story that got me searching for information. One of the chicks after being taken out of the incubator and put in the brooder box, still only a couple of hours old and still slightly wet, stretched his neck, flapped his little wings, and let out this little "reeep". I knew instantly that I had to see if it was a girl or boy. So I searched for wing sexing and decided to try. From what I could tell according to the previous fact sheet mentioned he is a boy. I was amazed that at that age he was already showing rooster traits. I can not even begin to describe how adorably cute it was I wish I could have gotten a video of it. So needless to say having a mini farm is a wealth of investigation, exploration, and learning opportunity.

Do you have a hands on lifestyle for your children? What are some of the opportunities that you give your children a chance to explore with?

Farm Trouble

 We are slowly trying to build on our sustainable lifestyle, and as you all know we have chickens. Well the last couple of weeks have been very difficult. We recently hatched out our first set of eggs in late June. Last week 6 of the 7 that we had were attacked and eaten out of the coop. We secured what we thought was the weak spots on the coop and run and the next day we discovered that we were wrong and there were other weak areas that needed to be fixed...and lost 3 laying hens. 

While fixing the coop Matt had to chase down a fox in early afternoon that decided to grab one of our hens and try to run off with it. The story of the fox actually has a funny side...our cat chased down the fox too when he saw Matt going after it! Kind of unbelievable, and I wish I had been able to see that. He is a really cool cat, a great mouser, and squirrel hunter! But chasing down a fox...that's pretty cool.

For now we have fixed the weak spots and the chickens are protected again, the one chick we have left has a new friend to keep it company until they are big enough to go into the coop with the others, and we have more eggs in the incubator getting ready to begin a new life. It is really hard to lose chickens, from a financial standpoint, because of all the time, care, energy, food, etc, that we put into raising them, but also because even though they are livestock and have a purpose we really do love them and they each have a distinct personality and being able to watch them grow and provide for us is a really wonderful and enduring trait. Each one is named, each one is loved and each one is remembered. 

In the last few weeks we have also been talking about adding goats, probably just 2, to help with the brush, overgrowth and neglect of the property. We have been here for almost 4 years now and clearing out our overgrown woods is proving to be a very daunting task. We keep toying with the idea of getting help of the furry sort, but losing goats would be so much harder to deal with than losing our chickens. There are so many issues, like fencing, a guard dog, keeping our pets/animals in our yard, keeping other animals out of our yard, and doing it all without killing them or having something kill ours. It is a balance, just like everything else in life.

I don't know what it is about this year, I have seen more wild animals this year than ever before, hawks, owls, squirrels, rabbits, deer, fox...I love nature and love that all these animals are hanging around our house, and woods. It is great to know that our woods are alive. We even have a honey tree! I want to respect and preserve the balance that we have, but I also want to be able to control what lives here.

So in the spirit of balance we have decided to re-home these guys when we catch them instead of killing them. There is a wonderful National Forest not far from our home with lots and lots of place for them to live happily...and I don't feel guilty of cutting his life short.

Chickens: Results from the first hatch.

So here they are! Our new brood. 10 chicks out of 12 eggs all healthy happy and thriving so far. There is one Copper Maran, a couple of Copper Maran/Australorp, a couple of Copper Maran/Easter Egger mixes, and possibly a couple of Copper Maran/mutt chicks. 

The whole group

Sunshine our Copper Maran

Add caption

What projects do you have hatching this summer?

Successful Hatch!

Success! This was our first attempt at incubating eggs. It is/was a very exciting and anxious 21 days! Early this morning our first baby chick was born, and since then at least 3 others have broken their shells. This guy is active, curious and running around the incubator like crazy pecking at everything he sees.

 Most of these should be Olive Eggers. It will be very exciting to see what we end up with. Two are Copper Maran eggs and I really hope these make it through the hatch.

I will post progress over the next couple of days:
We have a poll going in the family on how many eggs will actually hatch. We have 12 total.
Matt 4
Jacob 5
Michelle 6
Noah 7
Nathan 8
Evelyn 10

Evelyn  is very optimistic,  and I am hoping she is right, but I guess I can't count my chickens before they hatch, lol!

Gardening: New Raised Beds!

Area Before Clearing

I am so excited that our weekend plans actually worked out! We were given and absolutely beautiful day; the perfect amount of sunshine, breeze and a wonderful balmy temperature that just beckoned us to go spend the day outside. It would have been an absolute "sin" to not enjoy the day given to us.

Newly Cleared Garden Space

 Today we cleared out the space that I decided to dedicate to more vegetable gardens and putting in raised beds along the length of it for ease of gardening, keeping the critters out, and in order to more easily build in healthy, organic garden soil in order to hopefully have a successful year. This section is also just off of the kitchen next to the patio so it will be more accessible, easier to water and hopefully to maintain and keep alive too.

The Foreman Hard at Work

The Boss Lady

Nathan and I spent most of the morning and early afternoon clearing the area of all the daffodils that have taken over the area for probably many, many years-there were several hundred of them, I also removed a couple of succulents, two rose bushes an azalea bush. We also removed lots of buried bricks, old landscape timbers, a couple of concrete stepping stones and lots and lots of weeds, roots and grass. 


Nathan, Matt the rest of the crew spent time laying out the area, and building the boxes. Benjamin played the role of the foreman.

The ducks and chickens have been really excited to see what has been going on too. They have actively been helping to mix in the soil and remove some of the bugs that have been happily living in the dirt.  

Matt and Nathan Working Into Evening

The frames are very simple 4' x 6' boxes built with untreated cedar planks. They have been constructed so that they can be easily taken apart and moved. Also, we left extra space on the stakes to add and extra plank if wanted/or needed. We are also leaving a two foot walking path between each box to easier access each edge. Although it is not complete and will probably be an ongoing project for a while, we now I have the beginnings of four new planting beds. We are so excited about the prospect of planting these out and filling them with loads of yummy vegetables, herbs, flowers and maybe some fruit of some sort. Now the hard part is-what do we plant. 

Jacob Hard At Work

Noah Lends A Hand

Catching up

The younger kids learning about
mixing colors to make new colors.

Looks like it's has been a while since our last post. We had a nice and busy summer. The kids are now back in school. Nathan is entering his first year of Middle School this year. Noah is beginning Second grade. Jacob is beginning Kindergarten, and Evelyn is hanging out, practicing her language and communication skills and just being cute in general. 

Evelyn helping to adjust
  Nathan's neck slide. 

Scouting is now back in full swing, meetings, projects, belt loops, badges, selling popcorn, outings. Nathan is in Boy Scouts, but he is also helping out as Den Chief for Noah's Cub Scout group.

Some of the new baby chicks

New additions since the summer time. We now have some ducks, and this week we got another order of chickens; we normally wait until the spring, but since we are expecting another baby we figured that having our peepers in the fall would be a better idea. This batch of chickens also includes several extra roosters that we will be using as meat birds. 

Plans are in the works for a new and bigger chicken coop. One thing that I really want to figure out is how to split the run(hopefully expanded a bit bigger) so that we can keep grass or other types of green things growing on it, mostly because I do not like the mud pit that the girls have created it is very messy when it rains. Also, because I really want the girls to be happy when they are not able to free range; grass, seeds, yummy bugs = happy and cleaner chickens. The extra roosters are going to need a shelter too, we just haven't completely figured that one out yet. The ducklings are hanging out with the chickens in the run, but they could stand to be a little less messy too, I guess we will have to put them in etiquette classes. 

Our duck so full of cuteness.

The garden didn't go over too well this year. We got a few tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, a couple of watermelons, lots of kale, spinach, and swiss chard. The rest failed because of the heat, and our visiting deer.  She must have been desperate this year, besides eating the pepper plants, tomatoes, tomato plants, purple hull peas, and snap beans, it also ate my okra and the okra plants. We will keep trying, hopefully next year will be better. 

Canning was minimal this year. We were able to put up some tomatoes, blackberry jelly, and jalapenos(pickled pepper jelly, and cowboy candy). Dehydrating started out well and slowly stopped over the summer, but we did get strawberries, peaches, cherry tomatoes, onions, potatoes, carrots, and some fruit leather. We are getting closer to true pantry storage, it has quite a learning curve to change your lifestyle.

Liquid Soap during the cooking stage

Soap is back into production...slow, but steady. We have several new batches curing, and new batches of liquid soap has been made and is now sitting ready to be bottled and scented. We have also started making Bath Salts to go with the soaps, I am looking forward to making coordinating products that could be packaged together for gift bags, baskets and packages. I think my next trial will be solid lotion bars; hoping to have these ready for Christmas stocking stuffers.

New batch of Patchouli Lavender

Well That's all on the home front for now...What have you been doing now that fall is approaching?

Garden/Farm Update

As of today Garlic, red shallots,  and yellow onions have been put in the ground. Three tomato plants(creole, sweet 100's I think, and a pink variety that escapes me right now). A few egg gourds just for fun. Sweet Peas and a few bush beans. Yellow squash and zucchini two of each I think. A couple of asparagus plants.

The blueberry bushes seem to be doing really well right now and even though they are really small this year, several are bending under the weight of the berries they are holding so I look forward to future years. I also have five new bushes that need to be planted soon, hopefully this week, but the question is where.

Sadly, the strawberries that I planted a few weeks back do not appear to have taken, so it looks like we will have to try again another time...maybe seeding would be better. It was very disappointing I figured they would take off rather well considering there were already a type growing in that area.

Right now there aren't many flowers actively blooming, except a few purple iris, a couple of roses, and one of my favorite my wild gladiola. It is a beautiful spike of bright fuschia/purple blooms that bob and sway with the wind.

Our weaknesses: The soil really needs amending. I will be sending in soil sample tests soon, but recently we did a home test kit just to see quickly what we were looking at and it was also a great project/science lesson for the kids to see. It turns out that one part of our yard is very acidic, very low in nitrogen and potassium and moderately low in phosphorous...so basically it needs quite a bit of work. We also really need to get more sun into our yard. Although we don't want to clear cut and cause issues, there are very few places in our property that has the daylight hours we need for garden plants.

The chicken run/coop progress has basically just stopped, just way too many things going on and being taken into too many directions. We are still just where we were at the last post...the posts have been put in. All the chickens are still okay where they are; our big girls are happily laying and egg a day(3 total), and the chicks although restless and I am sure ready to be outside will have to hang in there for another couple of weeks.

I am interested in getting several plants...one of the top on my list right now is jewel weed. Mostly because I will be using it in a future soap and spray in next year's soap season. It is good for relieving poison ivy. So I look forward to testing it...especially right now because I have poison ivy...ugh. Licorice, Bay Laural, Artichoke(saw the plant this weekend and love it), a few woodland ferns and other types of shade greenery that could be used for decoration, marsh mallow, and a few others are also on my mind.

The weather is getting really bad so I will post this now and fill in with pictures later...

Garden/Farm Update

With rising prices lately I am even more determined to make this Homesteading adventure work for us. It seems like every time we make another trip to the grocery store the inflation that is not possibly happening, is happening. Even the children are starting to see the rising prices. My eleven year old is noticing the gas, and some of the grocery stuff...you know the important things like Pop Tarts. We don't buy them, but his comment was, "now we will never get Pop Tarts when they have gone up to THAT price". So it is amazing to me that even our children can "see" what the some can not seem to. It seems to me that many are being lead around with blinders on and music blaring so that they can not see or here what is being pulled from under them. Okay, enough rant...garden.

We have lettuce in the ground, a few of the blueberry bushes have a few berries this year probably just enough for the boys to pick at while playing outside. The okra, green peas, green bean seeds have been started and have really taken off in the last couple of days, a couple of squash and zucchini plants, and new strawberry plants started so that we can hopefully have something more than fairy berries like last year. Recently we also got a bag of seed potatoes, onions, asparagus, shallots, and garlic that I would like to try this year. My guess is the asparagus will be an ongoing project because it takes time to get anything out of it. Soon we will start some warmer weather seedlings like peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, basil and such...I just can't wait for some fresh pesto.  Next week I will put the two tomato plants that my mom brought in the ground. I did a quick soil test on the area that we would like to garden on and it looks like it will need some help and nutrients over the next few years. I really wish that I had followed through and done that last summer so that we could have been adding stuff over the fall.

The chickens are now one month old and growing really fast...faster than we are getting the run and the coop expansion done. With all the busyness that is going on here lately I have a feeling it will be a race to see who wins...us or the chickens. Our older three chickens have really been enjoying the weather, so much so that they are being naughty and escaping out of their enclosed run to explore the yard for tastier things...I can't blame them I enjoy them being out in the yard to explore. The other day one of them even killed a snake. It was a garden snake and not a threat, but I didn't know they would do that.

Until next week or so...

Garden/Farm Update

What a wonderful time of the year, and it is beautiful outside. The sky is the bluest hue and there are very few clouds to be seen. There is a wonderful breeze and the temperature is a wonderful 68 degrees. I don't believe anyone could ask for a better day. As soon as this is posted I will make my way back outside to continue planting what my mom brought on her recent trip up. We will have squash and zucchini plants put in the ground, a few chive plants, a few herbs, a couple of tomato plants, small lettuce plants, several different flower and decorative plants.

Other things happening on the Mini-Farm Front:

The plum tree has lots of small fruit, but didn't produce any last year, so I don't have much hope for it this year. I'm not really sure if the tree is too old or if there is something I can do to keep the fruit from dropping off like last year.

Our blueberry bushes planted in the fall are beginning to show new life and some are already starting to bloom and grow a few berries.

The new strawberry plants that were planted a couple of weeks ago have started to show leaves.

If I have the time today, we will also try to plant some green beans seeds in the ground, maybe a couple of other things, and start a few seed trays.

The chickens(big) are now happily laying an egg each per day. The chicks are growing very fast and were finally moved from their little box inside the house to a large refrigerator box on the porch. They are very happy to be in a new space where they have more room to run and play. Today the boys and I gave them some limbs from the yard to 'roost' on and they have been happily playing and jumping around.

So far on the new run we only have the posts placed in the ground. I will probably try to dig a trench for the buried hard wire cloth to be put in and then we will put in the larger fencing. At the end of the month we are hoping to move the coop to the new run and begin adding on additional space for the new chicks.

Time to go plant. :)

New Chicken Run Construction and Chicken Update

Today turned out to be a great day; it had a rough start, but once we got going it was great. We started putting up posts for the new chicken run, which is now going to be 25' x 30' and 4' high. Matt Nathan and I dug out 20(I think) post holes and put in the posts(4 4x4's and trees we cut out of the yard). After the first couple of hours it looked like we would never get finished, but by supper time we had actually completed putting in all the posts and filling in around them.

This week I will start digging the trench to bury the wire. Eventually we will be moving the existing coop and adding on to the side of it. We have been trying to decide what to do with the existing coop, if we should add on, add another, or just start over. I hated the idea of starting over because it seems like such a waste. Building another, although a good option, isn't very pract

ical, so I think we have decided to just modify what already exists to accommodate the new brood.

Since it looks like we will not be able to let the girls out as often as last year, I have hopes to maybe split the run into two parts, and grow grass on it periodically so that the chickens don't live in a muddy mess like before, but have not completely figured that one out yet. That will probably be an on going project to accomplish, I have a feeling it will be a very challenging one.

As of Wednesday, the new chicks are doing great. One of my roosters wasn't growing well and hadn't figured how to eat and drink well on its own so I have been feeding it a mixture of sugar, water, and feed with a syringe. Last night it seemed to be doing much better, but it is smaller and getting picked on quite a bit by the bigger birds. The Leghorns and Austrolarps seem to be a bit more aggressive than the Easter Egg Chickens and Wyandottes that we had last year. My little rooster is a Easter Egg Chicken and they are really being rough on him. I really hope he makes it. (The picture is of my little rooster, not the best picture because of the broken camera, but you can see he is really cute.)

Also, it has been about four day without my camera now, and it is almost driving me crazy...not to mention all those people around me that I keep telling, "oh what a great picture that would be..." It should arrive at the Nikon fix it shop tomorrow and I am really hoping it doesn't take too long before I hear something from them. The auto-focus just stopped working on it last week and I am hoping that they can fix it and it doesn't cost an arm and a leg since it should still be under warranty. So there will either be no new pictures, or old pictures until further notice.

Wordless Wednesday

Random Thoughts of Spring

This year has been very challenging so far. Winter just seemed to drag on way too long for some reason. It is interesting how hectic life can get, but yet the level of accomplishment just doesn't seem to go along with it. It's not to say that nothing gets done, it just gets done at the level of a scattered-brained snail's pace. How do you handle the fog of Winter and get into the Spirit of Spring?

We are finally starting to see and feel the warm sun again. March is a very exciting time of year; new life comes in many forms this time of year, a time of renewal, rebirth and birth on many levels. For many religions it is the Lenten season; a time to step back, remember, and refocus our priorities in our spiritual lives. It is also the beginning of a new Spring and time to get household priorities together and begin to prepare for all the projects both inside and out. It is garden time, time to start organizing the planting beds, getting seedlings started, preparing garden spaces and landscape areas. Farms and Zoos come alive with all the new baby animals. It is such a wonderful experience for children to see the happy playful new babies.

Some of the projects we have started(some conceptual some actual). In welcoming spring I have begun planting mini-landscapes and and creative plantings to get ready for the coming farmer's market season. The kids are looking forward to being involved in the Farmer's Market this year with activities of their own which could be a great learning experience. Because of warmer weather we are all looking forward to being outside to do more nature studies and hopefully getting nature notebooks together. We will be expanding our chicken coop and run area, we lost too many chickens last year (We should get chicks this week). We are also enlarging our garden space and trying new plants this year. Expanding on the products that we make for the soap company and looking for new stores to carry our products.

These were just random thoughts that have been floating around lately. What are your thoughts on Spring and how are you refocusing and start the renewal process for spring in your families?