Expanded Chicken Run!

We have some happy hens (and roosters)!  We tripled their run this weekend and they now have fres grass again and should still be safe from predators.  It's around 1,000 square feet for them to wander and play now. They are very happy scratching under the rabbit cages and finding all the bugs!

I am beat.  Mom and I ran nearly 80 feet of fencing while connecting the pens and it wasn't as simple as it sounds.  Have you ever tried to take down old fence and put new fence up all while trying to keep 30 odd chickens from escaping?  And while trying to keep an eye on two toddlers playing in the yard around you?  

The rabbit cages are still tarped and stapled with feed bags for the winter.  It stops the wind and keeps their hutches cozy. 

Happy chickens!

Spring Fever and Renovations

March is moving right along.  We are ready for winter to be over!  We had some lovely warm days last week and everyone was quick to break out the short sleeves and sandals.  Today it is in the 40s and rainy and feels so cold!

We are moving along with our schoolwork and only have a few more weeks in our co-op class!  Isn't it crazy that the school year is almost done?  I am feeling restless in the house and need to get some good spring cleaning done and Daddy feels the same way because he keeps talking about some of the many remodeling jobs that he needs to get done in the house.  We have so much to do!  Our hopeful list -

1.  Mom and I are setting up a couple raised beds for a veggie garden this year.

2.  We want to enlarge the chicken run.  It is 20x20 now and I want to make it 20x40.

3.  Daddy needs to finish building the cabinets for the kitchen (don't I have a talented husband?) and then we get to knock the wall out between the kitchen and dining room.

4.  Daddy is going to build drawers into the eaves in Claire's room.

And the one that I may be look forward to the most after a finished kitchen (oh, to have real countertops and not just plywood) ....

I want a bedroom door!  And walls!  When we moved in upstairs was a finished 400 sf (or so) room.  We built a wall on one side to give Claire a bedroom of her own and she has a curtain for her door.  You walk up the stairs straight into our bedroom.  I made a little diagram. 

We plan on making a small hallway, a closet and maybe even a half bath!  I am desperate for some privacy.  My goal is to make our bedroom a refuge.  Somewhere that will not have toys and piles of papers and is just for us.  Kind of like this. 

I think it will be wonderful!  Now to just get it done ....

Christmas Stockings

Something I take great pride and joy in is our Christmas stockings.  My mom made mine when I was a child and I made one for my husband when we got married.  And one for each child when they came along.  Last year when Fiona's 1st Christmas came along Claire decided her stocking was too babyish and asked for a new one.  So last year I made Claire one and Fiona used Claire's old one.  This year I made one for Declan and one for Fiona. 

Fiona was "helping" me. 

Our stockings!

And they are done!  Nicholas has the Grinch, I have the red one with birds and lace, Claire has the sparkly Christmas candy, Chandler has blue snowmen and trees, Fiona has the gingerbread men, and Declan has the red one with snowmen.  I love them!

Spring Gardening

Spring is here and that means I haven't been online much.  We have been busy getting our new garden plot started.  We are in the process of buying my mom's house and we have so much planned for it it's overwhelming!  The new garden plot it where the old chicken run used to be plus a little more.  It's about 25x35 and we are shoving as much as possible in there!

Yes, that is me digging a garden with a baby strapped on my back.  I am woman, hear me roar!

This is what we have so far.  Nicely tilled and straw on the pathways.  The large area with straw on the right is already planted potatoes.  

We also have a broody hen!  I got some fertile eggs from a local woman for her to sit on so we might have more baby chicks soon.  Praying she will be a good mama!

Edith our hopeful mama

Chickens in the Sun

My wonderful husband finished the chicken outside run!  Now all we have left is to put the siding on the coop and it will be finally finished!  This has been a never ending project and I know he is ready for it to be over.

Run!

My pretty gate

Peeking out cautiously

The first ones out!

Oh, they didn't die!  It must be safe!

Enjoying the grass

Pretty girls

Exploring the run

They all stuck right next to each other.  Stay with the herd!  ;)

My New Homeschool Cabinet

After getting tired of all of our homeschool books, games, kid's activities, my cookbooks, etc all being on a big messy shelf in the dining room I decided it was time to add to the Honey-Do List.  And my husband stepped up to the challenge! 

Before-ish.  I forgot to take a picture before I took everything off!

Everything that was shoved on that shelf!

Daddy relocating the outlet that was behind the shelf.  He's a handy guy to have around!

Half way there!

He wasn't done painting, but everything couldn't stay on the table much longer!

The finished product!

Isn't it beautiful?  It's huge and wonderful!  I love that I have everything easily accessible without being in the way.  And whenever the kids put something back it doesn't immediately turn into a mess. 

Purging, purging, purging

So even though we have no date for our move - not even a real projected month - I am attempting to prepare.  First off purging the heck out of my house. 

Daddy and I tackled the kid's rooms a couple weeks ago.  I know from past experience however it will require a multiple prong attack.  We did the preliminary purge.  In a few weeks we will need to do another one to narrow it down further.

Today I started on my books.  Sigh.  I am a proud bibliophile and I own about 4 large bookshelves worth of books - not counting the small bookshelves that Claire and Chandler have in each of their rooms.  However, I know that in a big move like this I'm going to have to pare down.  I packed 6 boxes of books and found one box and a grocery bag worth to sell/donate.  Some of those were doubles and others were ones I got a long time ago and am just not as interested in anymore.  That still leaves me with a LOT of books to sort through.  It's so hard and sad.  Which are my most important friends?  Which books do I definitely need to keep for the children even though they are years away from understanding them?  Are these two books of Hans Christian Anderson's tales different?

My clothes and kitchen goods are also on the list of sort and purge.  I will tell you this - when we have our yard sale it will be an awesome one!  ;)

Planting ...

Like I mentioned the other day we have major Spring Fever in this house! So we decided to plant watermelon and green beans! The Girl did not seem to understand that they wouldn't be available right away. She wanted to have watermelon for dessert. She also said that she would wake up and there would be a big beanstalk out side her window that she could climb up! Not sure what she was planning to do about the giant though.

My mom lives next door so she helped. Well, actually it was her green beans and we did it in her section of the yard, so maybe we should say that WE helped! We sent up a teepee with bamboo so the beans can grow up them - hopefully it will work!

Planting seeds ...

Little Man helping Grandma ...

Surveying their creation!

Messy Fun

Daddy has a job that is kind of far away this week so we miss him terribly. He's been leaving the house at 5:30am and getting home at 10pm. :( He pretty much has to go straight to bed so he can do it again. The kids have been upset that they really haven't seen him for 2 days so last night I pulled out two pans and shaving cream and they went at it!

The original plan was to try writing our letters in it, but I got the cheapest shaving cream that Walmart had which ended up being Barbarsol and it actually was TOO good a quality. It was very thick and stuck to their hands. So, for future reference you want to get the cheap dollar tree type. It was lots of fun to squish through our fingers and it culminated into a winner takes all shaving cream fight. ;) I ended up having to throw both of them in the shower to get it out of their hair and off their backs! Lots of fun!

Making soap!

On Thursday my BFF, my mom and my kids met at my grandmother's house to make soap! My grandmother has made homemade soap for the family for years and it's starting to get a little tired of doing it so it's time for someone else i.e. me to take over the reins. We all met to make a bunch of batches and go over how to make it. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera. :( But, when I went back over the next day I brought it and got a few pics. First off, the recipe for everyone:

Grandma's Basic Lye Soap

1 Cup Lye Flakes (Sodium Hydroxide)
3 Cups COLD water
8 Cups Fats (lard, vegetable shortening, etc)

Mix Lye Flakes with cold water outdoors (due to fumes). Melt fats. Let both cool. (Lye to 90-95 and lard to close to the same, can be slightly more). Mix in large bowl (not metal. Glass is best, the lye can ruin a plastic bowl) and stir with a wooden or plastic spoon until thick enough that it "traces", the soap should lay on the top for a moment before sinking back in. When soap is consistency of pudding you can add any essential oils, colors, etc. Line soap molds with plastic wrap and pour into molds. Leave soap in molds 24 hours. Turn out onto towels and cut into blocks. Leave in an out of the way place for 2 weeks, turning occasionally. Then ready to use!

Some quick tips:
#1 Wear Gloves!!! Lye burns if it touches your skin, keep vinegar on hand if it does.

#2 Instead of using a spoon to mix it (which feels like forever) pick up a cheap hand held blender. Makes it MUCH quicker!

#3 You can get the lye at Lowe's or any hardware store but make sure it's Sodium Hydroxide. If you get Potassium Hydroxide the soap ends up too soft. My grandmother says she usually orders it online from a chemical company.

#4 Drawer organizers make great soap molds.
We had a lot of fun! Pictures of ingredients:

The Hand Blender we used. It really helped!

Ready to take out and cut.

Doesn't that look pretty?

Nice even pieces ...

The fruits of our labor! We made a lot!

The Girl and Little Man were so good playing at Grandma's house and not being in the middle of everything. And it was fun to have bonding time with my Mom and Grandma! It was so great that Anna (my BFF) was able to make it. We plan on trying to make a batch or two at her house together so we're both more comfortable at it. I really am turning into a hippie! ;)

Laundry Detergent Update

It works GREAT! My clothes have been very clean and fresh and smell great. The biggest test was in this last load. The Girl had gotten taco meat on her pale purple dress and I forgot to put stain remover on it. It then sat in the laundry room for several days. I just threw it in the washing machine and used the homemade detergent and 90% of the stains came out! There is one still there, but it is very faint and I think I only see it because I know it was there and searched. I am very impressed and will definitely plan on continuing making it!

My next batch with be with a bar of homemade soap and I will see how it is. I may decide to continue using Fels Naptha since it's so great at stain removing.

Look how crunchy I'm getting! Or is it cheap?

Well, I decided to try to make my own laundry detergent. For several reasons, it's better for the environment and it's cheaper! Not to mention it sounds cool! :)

A friend gave me the recipe and at first I was having a hard time finding all the ingredients. I looked on Amazon.com and everything would have come to $20. :( I was about to move on when I decided to check in our local Ace Hardware. I don't know about the Ace Hardware near you, but our Ace always seems to have all the weird, kooky things you can't find anywhere else. So I asked the lady at the counter and she pointed to the end of the aisle where all three ingredients were all standing right next to each other! It only came to $10.37! So here I go ...

Dry Laundry Detergent

1 Bar of soap (Fels Naptha is recommended and that's what I used for my first batch. I've been told Ivory works well too. Next time I plan on trying our family's homemade soap.)

1 Cup Borax

1 Cup Arm and Hammer Washing Soda (NOT baking soda) This was the hardest one to find.

I decided to go with the dry kind because it seemed simpler to make then the liquid, easier to store and I've always preferred powder detergent.



First I chopped the bar of soap into chunks and put it in the food processor. Luckily my mother was about to get rid of a food processor that was finicky, but that worked for me! Then I didn't have to get my regular food processor all soapy.



Then since I'm a little lazy and it seemed simpler I put the borax and the washing soda straight into the food processor.



Then I was done! I threw it in a quart size ziploc bag for now. It looks like a small amount, but it's concentrated so I am told you only need 1 tablespoon per load, 2 tablespoons if it's an extra dirty or big load. I should add that a friend told me she bought $12 worth of supplies the first time and it took her nearly a year to run out of one of the ingredients! $12 for a year's worth of detergent? Heck, yeah!



I'm excited and can't wait to see how it washes our clothes!

Nice day!

My husband is working this morning so the kids and I hung out around the house this morning and I finished reorganizing The Girl's room! Whoohoo me! Her room is always a disaster area - usually books completely covering the floor. So I took all the books off her shelf and have two bags full of ones to donate to the Friends of the Library, I filled a large rubbermaid tub with books that were too old for her or she doesn't read much, put the younger books in her brother's room and the rest was put in two clothes bins. She had A LOT of books! I put her larger toys on the bookshelf - the top shelf was reserved for Barbies and she liked arranging them. Dolls and stuffed animals are in a wicker basket at the end of her bed and I had one smaller bin for her little toys. Oh, and I filled a garbage bag for Goodwill!

Pictures ...
The usual state of her room:


Now:


One bin of book and her larger toys



My Girl!

A little reading spot!


After all that the kids and I went downtown to get "Water for Elephants" the new book my Mommy Book Club is doing and we had fun window shopping down Main Street. Then off to home for lunch and naps. It's been a nice day so far! I hope work is just as good tonight!

Cookies!

Princess Red Chief and I made Snickerdoodles! So yummy . . .



Rolling the dough into balls



Dipping it into the cinnamon mix



Monkey chilling on the floor



Ready to go in the oven!



Cleaning up!



Yummy cookies! We had a lot of fun and the nice things about Snickerdoodles is they only take 10 minutes to bake. By the time we cleaned everything up they were about ready!