Family Day at the Lake

On Sunday Daddy finally had a day off and we took a family trip to the lake.  It was so beautiful and COLD!  This was a mountain stream fed lake i.e. melted snow and even at the end of July the water is still freezing.  But the kids had fun and even little Fiona enjoyed putting her feet in the water.  We went early and practically had the lake to ourselves and later when people started getting there we packed our stuff back in the van and hiked the loop around the lake.  So many pretty spots and the kids loved it!  We have said all summer that we wanted to take the kids to the lake and to go hiking and we were able to do both in one day!  And of course this post wouldn't be complete without pictures!

Fiona getting her toes muddy

The kids even got Daddy in that cold water!

Fiona and I on the beach

I love this picture of Daddy and Fiona!

She liked the water!

Off on the hike!

My beautiful Claire

She had to take a picture by this "cool tree"

 

One of the many creeks going into the lake

My adventurers

Farm to Table Field Trip and Waterfalls

Last month we got to an amazing Farm to Table field trip up to Old Edward's Inn in Highlands, NC.  We got to tour their garden and then they brought us in for a wonderful meal made from that garden!  The ice cream sundae bar just topped the event!  Oh, and did I mention it was completely free?  They were wonderful!

Listening to Farmer Dave

"Does anyone know what this vegetable is?"

Beautiful garden

Fiona was fascinated by my fresh picked carrot!

The spread

Gorgeous room

Ice Cream!

On the way home we took the time to stop at the waterfalls.  So beautiful and the kids loved it! 

Claire and Chandler

Behind the waterfall

On the far side

Me with all my babies

Summer Craziness!

We have had a lot of fun this summer and I plan on blogging all our fun field trips!  But we've been so busy doing I'm not getting my computer time in - I guess that's probably a good thing!  Between homeschool field trips through our co-op, weekly pool days, the animals, garden and my summer project of organizing the basement I have a full plate.

Oh, and did I mention my husband flipped his truck?  Scary!  It was totaled by the insurance company but my husband walked away with only a couple scratches and a bump on the head.  I mean look at what he did to it!

He had to kick the windshield to get out!  Our insurance company got us a check quickly and he found an old Bronco that he loves and he had enough to get the trailer he has needed.

Suffice to say it has been an eventful and busy summer!

I'll finish up with some pictures at the pool and a promise of posts about our trips!

Happy Fiona!

In the sprinklers

Chandler and Claire

Chick with Crooked Toe

We discovered one of our new chicks has crooked toe.  It can be serious or not.  It makes them difficult to scratch for bugs and food and to roost to sleep, but some chickens have long productive lives with it.  There is some debate on how it happens, I have heard vitamin deficiency, birth injury and genetic malformation.  I don't know which is right! 

The little one

It's toes should be straight out - not curled like that!

 We read up on it and it seems to be correctable - sometimes.  So we decided to try.  First we made a little sandal out of cardboard like The Chicken Chick showed on her website.  It did not work for us.  It took forever to get on and then it fell off within minutes.  So we made a splint with pipe cleaners and surgical tape.

All splinted up!

Hoping this helps correct it for her!

We contacted the man we bought her from, just to let him know.  We didn't blame him at all - things happen!  But he was very apologetic and brought us 3 replacement chicks for free!  They were wonderful to deal with and I highly recommend Fisher's Farm and Feathered Friends if you are in the market for new chickens!

Transporting baby chicks in a Bojangles box.  It's just wrong!

All our newest babies!  8 Easter Egger chicks to add to my flock!

Update on all the chicks!

I have a sad update.  Only one of the chicks made it.  The three injured ones passed away within the next two days and another seemed fine, but suddenly passed one morning.  That just left us with one lonely little chick.  Chickens are extremely social and they do very badly by themselves.  We ended up finding some friends for her!  I found a home hatchery about an hour away that raised gorgeous and rarer breeds.  He had some Easter Egger chicks that were the same age as our little chick for only $3 a piece!  I can't wait for those blue, green, or pink eggs!

The brown one in the middle is our little survivor.  Doesn't it look so happy with it's new friends?

 And a little update on our other chicks!  We moved Mama and her 5 chicks into the coop with the other chickens.  Mama had a few big scuffles with the other hens when they tried to peck her babies, but she went Kung Fu Chicken on them and literally wrestled them into submission!  It was amazing to watch.  No one is messing with Mama or babies now! 

They are in that awkward teenage stage, but mama loves them.  They stick close to her!

And gratuitous pictures of my other lovely ladies!

Broody Hen Take 2

Letting our hen raise her chicks went so well we another hen went broody I got some fertile eggs from a friend and placed them under her.  We were so excited on day 21 to hear peeping!  Only to find that the mom was pecking and kicking the babies out of the nest as soon as they were born! 

We quickly rescued them and realized we needed to raise them ourselves.  So we set up a bood and heat lamp in the corner of our living room.  There was one little yellow one with a neck wound, a little brown easter egger in really bad shape, a little black one that looks like it was pecked on the stomach and a brown easter egger and black australorp that look fine.  There was 3 more eggs that hadn't hatched and we didn't hear anything for them so I don't think they finished developing.  Hopefully we can nurse these babies back to health!  Claire and Chandler say they want to eat "that bad mom"!

The perpetrators

The little box in our living room

Claire's 7th Birthday!

Claire had her birthday earlier this month.  We celebrated her birthday as a family the weekend before and on her actual birthday we had a homeschool co-op field trip planned.  We headed to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park and the kids got to help the park ranger catalog the salamanders in the woods.  They had so much fun.  Then we headed to the next town and had a picnic and the kids played in the pool.  Best birthday ever!

My 7 year old!

My silly Chandler

Yum!  We had a Brave themed cake, strawberry shortcake, watermelon, chocolate eclair cake and brownies!

Fiona!

She loved her cake.

Claire looking so grown up.

At Mingus Mill on her actual birthday!

They loved the water

Talking to the park ranger

Claire found a salamander!

In the pool!

My goofball son.

Candle in her dessert that night.

I can't believe my baby is 7 years old!