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!  ;)

Thanksgiving Family Pictures!

My awesome, talented sister took some pictures for us on Thanksgiving Day!  It's harder to schedule these kind of things now that she is out of college.  She settled an hour away from us and has a great full-time job.  I'm really happy for her - but it is sad that we don't get to see her as often.  At least she is still close enough that coming for family birthdays and holidays is not a big deal!  Her hobby is photography and design and she always has been nice enough to take pictures for us every once and a while.  Love my sister!  I think she did a great job!

The Family!

Me and my babies

Belly pic! 

I think this one came out adorable!

Me at almost 34 weeks pregnant! 

And just because Claire insisted she wanted a picture under the bush with Chandler!

Blessing in the Pain

This pregnancy has been really hard on me.  My grandmother - who had 4 children - said her 3rd pregnancy was her hardest as well.  Maybe that 3rd baby just really breaks your body in? 

My hips and pelvis are killing me.  A grocery or Walmart trip ends with me wincing and completely ready to go home and sit down.  I toughed it out yesterday to help Daddy work on the chicken run and oh was I regretting it last night.  Daddy tried to let me sleep in but I was in so much pain laying in bed I got up anyway.  My doctor is referring me to physical therapy so I can get a support belt fitted and I can't wait.  But unfortunately I won't be going for nearly 2 weeks.  I can brave it out, right?

I just keep thinking about that sweet little baby moving, pushing and wiggling inside of me.  She will be totally worth it.  I will already do anything for her.  And I can always put the Jewish mama guilt on her later in life, right?  Of course right!  ;)

Life

Do you know how many times I have made it to this page to write a post an then life got in the way? 

A child asking for help wiping their nose .... a little baby bouncing on my bladder .... Claire asking for help with her math page .... the fire needing another piece of wood ....

And then whatever I was going to post disappears into the back of my mind like wisps of ether. 

Trust me - don't ask a 7 months pregnant woman to hold onto a thought longer then 5 minutes, it's just not going to happen. 

But life is good.  A coughing, drippy nose crud has been making the rounds in town and our household, but it could be worse and be a stomach flu or the like!  Little Girl is growing well and moving frequently.  We love our weekly homeschool co-op and my kids cheer when I tell them it's Thursday and I look forward to seeing other women with whom to sit and chat.  The chickens are growing quickly and are almost fully feathered and we still like seeing them everyday and are noticing all their personalities. 

The holidays and Little Girl will be here before I know it and I have to much to prepare!  But we are so ready to meet her! 

Chicken Coop!

So last weekend we put the chickens in the coop even though it was not finished.  They were just WAY too crowded in the box!  I'm so lucky to have my awesomely talented husband who can do these things for me.  I told him that I thought a chicken coop was an awesome 10th anniversary present and he just laughed at me.  Hey, I'm a simple girl! 

Handsome husband doing the roof!

The coop!

We still need to put the siding on and make the chicken door and chicken run, but it was closed in so the chickens could be in there!  It's 10x10 and we plan on a 20x20 outside run for them.  Everything I have read recommends at least 4 to 10 square feet per chicken for happy, thriving chickens.  We will have 450 square feet for 22 chickens!  Yes that's 20 square feet per chicken.  Hey, room to grow our flock if we want!  I don't want to have to do this again!  We live in the city limits of our town and town regulations say that we may have up to 49 chickens inside the limits.  I like living in the mountains sometimes!  Freedom is prized.  :) 

Claire and Chandler trying out the coop

Our temporary set up

We laid a bale and a half of straw on the floor of the coop and hung the feeder and heat lamp from the rafters.  The tree branches are temporary roosts until we can build some (and they are big enough to climb up to them!).  The waterer is in the corner of the coop, but eventually it will be in the run so it doesn't get the straw wet.  

Their new home!

We transported them down from the porch in rubbermaid containers very carefully.  Excuse my kid's big winter coats!  It was a little bit of a cold snap that weekend and they were cold!  Silly kids. 

The girls!  As far as I can tell - and I probably have been obsessing over this too much - we have 6 Black Stars, 5 Plymouth Barred Rocks, 4 Buff Orpingtons, 3 Rhode Island Reds, 3 Dark Cornish and 1 bonus Easter Egger!  (She is the white one on the right side.)  

Chandler and Daddy petting one of the Buff Orpingtons

Claire making a silly face with her favorite chicken "Ella"

I can't wait for them to be able to scratch and peck outside - hopefully within the next few weeks we will have the outside run ready.  And then yummy brown eggs in early spring! 

Wow. 10 years.

Last weekend was Daddy and I's 10th wedding anniversary.  I can't believe we have been married a decade.  10 years, almost 3 children, 7 moves and 8 jobs between us and he's still my best friend. 

The Fair! And Chickens!

Crazy days!  Sorry I haven't been around more!

Last month was our county fair - one of the last purely agricultural fairs in the country.  Fun was had by all and this year our homeschool co-op got to decorate a booth!  We had lots of fun and I think it turned out great! 

The theme was "Home Grown Goodness" - I think that is the definition of homeschoolers!

Each family decorated a plant with our "Home Grown Kids" - this one is Claire and Chandler!

Claire

Little wannabe farm kids

They LOVED petting the horse!

 The chickens were outgrowing their little washing machine box and we had to upgrade them to a refrigerator box.  They were very happy to have the space and kept running back and forth once we put them in there! 

No more room!

After some creativity to make it closed in.  Have you ever tried to get out of a refrigerator box while pregnant?  That was interesting! 

5 minutes without food equals starvation at this age!  ;)  But they loved their new little roosting branch. 

The coop at that point.

Daddy has made great progress on the coop.  It's 95% done now!  I will update once I download more pictures.  Promise!

Chicken Update

The chickens are growing like weeds and Daddy has started our new chicken coop!  He would have gotten more done this weekend, but rain derailed our plans.  :-/ 

Claire adores the chickens - and Malcolm the cat desperately wants them!  ;)

Laying out the posts - see the ramshackle old coop on our property?  Next order of business is to tear that down!

Concrete setting!

Claire capturing us at work!  It's hard helping with that big belly!

Daddy and his helpers

Handsome man at work

A floor!

New Babies in the House!

We got a call from the post office that our baby chickens came in the afternoon run!  The kids ran to the van and were SO excited.  We walked in the post office and could hear little chirping coming from the back.  I just told the postmaster that the loud package was ours.  Everyone in line was smiling at Claire and Chandler dancing and singing through the post office, "We have baby chickens!  We have baby chickens!"

In the van

That is the loud box full of chickens!

Sneaking a peek!

When we got them home Mom and I made sure they all were introduced to the water.  Baby chicks do not require food for the first 3 days after hatching.  They absorb all the yolk before breaking out of the shell, this is so the mother hen does not have to leave her eggs before they are all finished hatching to help her babies eat.   We had to dip each of their beaks into the water and make sure they swallowed - and that's all they needed!  We kept a close eye on them for the first few minutes they are rather silly.  They kept trying to climb into the feeder and one actually got in and got stuck!  One chick needed to be shown the water again, but they all figured it out quick.  Not bad for only 2 days old! 

We are splitting the order with 3 other families so we ordered 50 chicks and we got 56!  Murray McMurray Hatchery sent me a wonderful batch.  I highly recommend them!  They always throw in one exotic breed for you as a bonus and we are trying to figure what the little stripped one is.  Possibly Araucana?  They rest are just a brown egg layer mix.  It looks like Buff Rock or Buff Orpingtons, Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rocks, Black Stars or Australorps and possibly Sussex??  But they are so hard to tell at this age!  Many breeds are extremely similar as babies.  I guess we will see!

Introduced to water and food and being so cute!

Claire and Chandler watching, they kept exclaiming "They are so cute!" over and over.

Claire is in love!

Getting Ready for Chickens!

Preparing for baby chickens!  We are all very excited around here.  We stopped by the local appliance store and they were happy to give us a couple of big boxes to keep them in until they are old enough for outside. 

My mom cutting an opening for the top of the box while Claire supervises

Claire testing out the chick box

We were sure to make a cover so our cats aren't too tempted by noisy, little treats. 

We also have a waterer, feeder and a heat lamp.  Baby chicks like 90-95 degree temperature for the first week.  It's nice that the weather is still warm so we don't have to worry about them freezing! 

First Day of School (sorta)

We started school week last week and Thursday was our first day of homeschool co-op.  The kids were so excited!  I thought to grab their pictures before we left since everyone was dressed and it finally was a sunny day! 

Claire, Age 6, she insisted on decorating it

Chandler, Age 3 - love his pose!

 Our co-op is growing in leaps and bounds this year.  We are starting the year with over 50 students!  We had to divide the classes more then we expected because there was so many.  But it is only an hour and a half once a week and I love the fun activities we plan and the weekly exposure to a low key classroom experience.  Plus fun social interaction!  Claire was excited to meet new kids this year, but Chandler just clung to me.  That's okay - he's always been my cautious little guy.  We are meeting in a new place this year so everything was different for him.  I'm hoping he will be more comfortable within a few weeks. 

First Day of Co-op!

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.