Spring

My oh my it is spring already. Yes, I know it feels nothing like it at the moment for those of us dwelling in the land of perpetual winter, but it’s here! And with spring comes all the wonderful things such as dirt and flowers, farm animal babies, and Resurrection Day…

Here’s just a snapshot of some spring happenings over here…

my sweet sister Lillie turned 16 this past week… what a beautiful day it was! She so loved the encouraging words of her friends, laughter, food, and simple graces that were shown to her throughout her special day… and I am totally loving her green headphones…

the 5 chickens whose Chicken Mama takes such egg-cellent care of them are doing fabulously. We’ve been thoroughly enjoying the 5 eggs a day, and now cannot imagine life without our fabulous girls.

I am so thrilled to announce that we’ve recently added 2 more feathered foul to our happy homestead…

Yes, I am ever so slightly in love with these two ducks.

They’re names are Puddle and Ginger, and we absolutely adore them. We think that Ginger (yellow) will be your standard white duck with the orange bill, but Puddle (brown) is a mystery, though we are pretty sure she’s either a Mallard or a Rouen (Ruen? Roun? Something like that… :) )

I launched a photography site this winter to help keep my portfolio “out there” and so far so good! I am simply excited to have taken 1 more step.

 

What’s been happening around your home lately?

Homestead News

Hey y’all!

Life has picked up as summer starts to roll into our life full force, and I am so excited to see what adventures God is going to take us on this summer!

Our first weekend in June was spent moving lots of plants, adding some details onto the chicken run, playing in the garden, and lots of bike rides on the cool afternoons.

Dad and Ruthie have been hard at work these past few days putting the pretty new roof onto the chicken run. We had a long week of hard rain that nearly turned our chickens into ducks, and they decided that it would be a good investment to put a roof onto the run. It’s hard to see on the pictures, but the roof is slanted so that the water runs off and not into the run. And do you see the new vent on the back door of the coop? Yep! Those gals needed a bit more air on the warm nights (and cool ones) so after some Pinterest inspiration, my dad put in a vent on the back door! I thought it was perfectly genius of them.

 

Those sweet faces we love so much are still keeping us hopping- especially that little white one :) You can read more about our latest escaped with Piper the puppy here. She recently discovered that we do live on a pond, and decided to try it out. My oh my was she a mess! It was very funny to watch her get hosed off afterwards though- her face just glared at us, and I could see that she was rethinking the pond jump.

The drills haven’t been the only machines hard at work these past few days. Our sewing center was recently rediscovered as all three of us gals plunged headfirst into some exciting spring projects. Lillie  (who just recently started a new blog! did you know? she’s going to let you know about some great books she’s been reading: the Hobbit, some Historical Fiction, and some great funny reads too! Check it out over here!) made a purse out of fat quarters and it turned out so cute that the Ruthie decided to make one too while Lillie makes another one for Mom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While my sisters are cranking out some darling purses, I’ve started another quilt! I am very excited, as this is the first quilt in which I’ve used triangles to make wonky stars. (isn’t wonky a fun word? :) )

I found precut squares by Moda fabrics at my local (Christian!) quilt store, and am so excited by the sheep, chickens, and flowers that I could hardly stand it. I am using the pattern called Starry Eyed off of the Moda Fabrics blog, Moda Bake Shop.

 

Hooray for spring!

More news to come later this week as our neighborhood starts to fill up!

Blessings!

jk

Chicken Yard Updates

Goodbye Ricky Lou, hello chickies!

The last few weeks have been transitioning ones for our little flock as the rooster moved out and the three smaller birds moved in. Ruthie (whose wonderful writings about all things chicken can be read over here) has been working very hard along with my mom and Lillie (the official Chicken Aunt) to make sure the younger gals fit in with the older ones.

And, praise God from whom all blessings flow, a week ago, all 5 of our birds walked together into the coop at night! No pecking, bullying, or meanness here! :) We are so excited to be officially past the chick stage and into the pullet/laying hen stage over here.

I’ll let you read her blog to catch all the details on our first eggs, as she writes about the happenings in the chicken yard much better than I could.

Go ahead and check out her blog “The Chicken Coop” at www.ruthieschickens.blogspot.com .

Blessings and enjoy!

jk

back by popular demand :)

oh me oh my, how time does fly!

(just a little poetry for your morning ;) )

But despite my quirky poem, time really has flown by these past few weeks.

But oh how good the times were!

for starters, the last few weeks have included the following:

- tomatoes in the ground

- seeds starting to come up in the garden

- baby chickens integrating into the flock of big chickens

- finals… a perfect name for the FINAL things I needed to do to finish High School

- spray painting chairs… love love love the colors now… I love homeschool projects :)

- and loads more coming in more posts this week… get ready, folks!

to be a farmer

is to pray storms don’t strike right after the garden is planted,

to romp and play in the grass,

to realize that doing school can wait when all you want to do is haul dirt,

to raise chickens and laugh as they begin to grow,

to watch rainbows arch across the sky,

to pray and seek and trust that God’s got it all figured out, no matter what.

To Move a Coop

This past year, my sister has acquired a new name for herself: The Chicken Mama. It has been a blast to see her build a coop, raise 6 chickens from 2 weeks old, and now, to move them outside.

My grandpa and grandma up north helped her to build the coop, and it was housed in our garage for a few weeks. The older chickens (who are now 4 months old) moved into the coop in the garage, while the younger ones (now 10 weeks old) took their place in the large rubbermaid container in the basement.

Now that the weather has warmed up, we were able to get the chicken coop to it snew location in the backyard. If only we could lift it all the way back there (the coop weight at least 150 lbs).

To save our arms and backs from pain, my parents devised the idea to back our minivan up and into the garage, then lift the coop only the 12 feet to the back of the car.

And praise God, it worked!

this picture below is a photo of the new area where the coop will be going. It looks much cuter now, as we have put up the fence, black metal gate (so charming!) and strung grapevine along the fence to add some sweetness. This summer, my sister Lillie will be putting in 4 raised garden beds in this now fenced area.

To say the least, my dad is a great driver, and managed to back the van across the vacant lot next door and into the chicken area- great work, Dad!

A few minutes later, we lifted the coop off of the van and onto its stand, connected to the run. These chickens are living in high style with a beautiful coop and nesting boxes, and a large run to, well, run around in.

We are so excited to start getting possibly 3 eggs a day (about 21-24 eggs a week!) from our girls, and are so so happy to have them outside and all settled in.

In case you wanted to get an inside view of “Ruthie’s Rhode Island Red Resort,” here’s a photo of the interior of the coop:

The stick-on tile is attached to a board that slides out for easy spray-off cleaning :)

And the nesting boxes attached to the left there.

Who knew that we would get chickens? It still makes me laugh some days…