It's all Flocked up around here!

  I know the title is cheesey but I really could not help myself.

 So I found this lady on craigslist that was down sizing her flock of hens that are about 1yr old. Turns out it is a home we lived by for 3 months (while waiting for our home to be vacant) that I always drove by and wanted to stop there to buy eggs from her, just never got around to it. This woman Beth, was just a great woman. I purchased 4 new lil year old hens from her, 2 Buff Orphingtons now named Wynona and Naomi "The Judds" lol along with a Beautiful Silver Laced Wyandotte whom is now "Lacey" and last but not least, a black Austrolarp currently with out name. Now I have a total of 9 amazing hens.

  I never knew how much I loved chickens. We had a few quick squabbles between some of the girls when I put them together, but all in all they seem to be fine. Although this was the first time I had to rangle up chickens for the night. The old girls just go right in. Plus I had one of the Buffs that decided she was going off on her own and came inside the house yard or "dog yard" that was fun getting her all the way back to where she needed to be.
  She yelled back at me as I chased her, aparently she felt she had the right to be where she was. But I showed her!
  Now they are all in the coop, deciding whom is going to sleep where. Not really any fighting just compromising.
  Oddly though, one of the Rock girls "Mrs. Pecky Peckerton" got into one of the nest boxes and made it look like she was going to lay for me...... She looked at me and told me I should go look it up and see if it was ok for her to lay this late in the evening. So I did, and yes hens lay at all times of the day. As I do I became very excited and went out to check on her progress, still there she sat in the box. I waited a few then out I went again... and .... there it was...... NOTHING! Nope, not a thing. I got a look of " ha ha I got you".

May have confused the chickens!

  As well as the roof on the nest boxes I also built a new feeder. Before it I was just using a bowl type thing that they would bury with the wood chips in their coop! I took some PVC pipe that I had laying around from the Chief's company and put the pieces together like this......

  It is working great! I have it filled to the top and it just flows nicely. I think that I might try and make one for water.

Excited, but almost overwhelmed! But Pig changes are next.

  Everyday after my morning chores, I sit down and read about Homesteading! I love to read about all the people that are doing these things that I want to and am working towards doing. I get so excited, and I wish that I was already there and doing it all.
  Right now the Chief runs his Construction business from home, which is great. But as for me, I have only got as far as having two pigs and 5 chickens of which only two are laying every few days. What do I mean by doing it all? Well, I would like to have at least 10 laying hens, two pigs a year, 2 dairy goats, a pair of breeding rabbits for meat and my own great lil garden of Eden! To go along with that, I would like to learn how to can and cook, jar my own spices for cooking and anything elts I can think of along the way. Then I get to thinking about it all at the same time. For some reason I can't just stay with one and I get overwhelmed. I don't even know how I came to want all of this. Yes I have always LOVED animals and always will, but I was not raised on a farm. No one in my family has a farm and neather does the one friend I keep. I live on a 7 acre farm that happens to be right in the middle of Richy rich town and know no one of the same thoughts as me as to how I want to live. I have no one that has done these things before to guide me. My husband is a great help as much as he can be, but again he has never done any of this. I just feel a bit boxed in. But hopefully through other blogs that I read and books I might be able to pull this off myself.

  Other than all that babble you just read, my thoughts for today are my realizing that I need to move my pigs from the all dirt area right behind our house, out to the lush green Field that is not being used for anything! There is so much free food for their enjoyment, I just need to figure out how to get to that point.

  This is what they have for now, and I can't just pick up the fence and move it. My father in law and the Instigator set this up for me. the fence panels are buried 2 1/2 feet down so the piggies could not burrow under them. Then I had the thought that this would also be great for our first garden area, obviously because it is now very fertilized and tilled as well as all the big rocks have been brought to the surface for easy removal. But also because I do have dogs that are not use to living on a farm and do not yet understand that there are going to be things that they will not be aloud to pee on. So the fact that it is already fenced will help with keeping them out and other pesky lil things that might want an easy meal! I am luck that these guys have not begun to stink to bad.
  My biggest dilemma about moving the pigs to the front pasture (which is 6ft chain link fence with a barb wire top) is that our property ends right on the road. All though this is a dead end road it is the beginning to a very popular city walk way. Not only are there always people on this street walking but there tend to be lots of teenagers who these days are not ones to respect peoples properties, which has resulted in our front property house (waiting to be remodeled and lived in) with many broken windows and stolen doors ( not sure why they would steel the doors, it must be a cool kid thing lol). So I do worry about putting animals our there. But even if they were not messed with my other larger concern would be that many moms walk down here with their young children and hardly anyone knows that pigs can and will bight. I don't want some lil munchkin running up to reach in and pet the cool looking piggies as mommy takes a picture and chomp, baby has one less finger. I really do need some help with ideas on this one. I was thinking hot wire, and I would set it up about 2ft back from the fence so no one could reach it or the pigs but I don't have the means for that right not either. Arrrg, what to do???????
 

Also, I was having problems with my hens roosting on top of their nest boxes that had no lid, so they were pooing in them. Eeww, I was having to got out and clean them out twice a day, which as you can imagine was using up quite a bit of hey. So I went out and had my brother in law (The Instigator that we love so much) show me how to use the saw and I made some changes to my coop! Sadly one thing I did not read before we built the coop was to have the roosts up higher than the nests so they would not poo in the nest boxes. I have sense come across that information!

 This is before, see no top and oh what is this..... Well it's Not an egg!

  So I did this! Ta Da, I added a top that they can't roost on, also there is now a roost in front of the boxes for easy access. Yeah me! Next I will be making them a feeder because they tend to poop in the bowl and that just does not work for me either.
  Now my other challenge that I need to concur is how to organize this blog of mine. I am not sure how to go about that.

Lots of snow days & now girl time!

  This is the lil bit of beautiful sun that we got between snow cession earlier this week!

This is Bently trying to avoid touching the snow.... It didn't work very well.

  Bently is now an indoor outdoor cat, but he is not to sure about this cold white fluffy stuff. At first he didn't even wanna touch the snow.

 We have been having a lot of fun in the snow with the kids and dogs, but aside from that we had a great dinner that the chief made from our left over ham the other night. He made amazing split pee soup! It looks horrible, but taste like heavenly goodness.
      ?????Not sure why this part is whited out????

 In  other food news we have a total of 3 blue eggs now. One of which is HUGE!

Bottom is our first egg, Top is the second, and middle was our third. I can't tell if they are from different girls or black beard is just getting a bit "loose". lol

The girls are not to sure about the snow.

The piggies could care less....

The dogs on the other hand are loving the snow. Jazz just wants Baricade to go away some times.

Well, I guess that is away to get a break from Baricade. There is no way Cade could get up there, his back legs and hips are not strong enough. Jazz got the idea from the kids being on the work trucks and machines for our snow ball fight.

Chase had the upper hand.

The boys are so good about possing for me when I take pics.

This was our sunset the night before it began to snow....

This is the creek on the lower part of our property, It is sooo beautiful. Summer it is great too.

Our 3 boys have gone to an uncles house for some fun as the girls just got back from there. So our two girls and my youngest sister Carmen are haning out, playing poker and planning on doing some baking!
  Other than snow and more snow along with no school, there is not much to report for the last couple of days.
Hope everyone is enjoying the snow!

It's not easter yet but I have a colored EGG!

  So These last few days have been full of great news. My cousin Karen and her husband Don had their first baby yesterday at 8am. Big boy, 8#'s 9oz. Just a cutie pie! Although I was not feeling great the other day and yesterday/lastnight I was in so much pain from my teeth, this morning it has gone away. I was doing my normal chicken checking and feeding this morning and noticed that Black Beard was not outside of the coop. So I checked inside, there she was checking out the nest boxes. I noticed that  she may need a bit more hey in boxes so I added that and had to leave. I went to my cousins to feed her animals and clean up her house a bit to help out. Only took about an hour. When I came home I figured I shoud check on Black beard, and low and behold, she was out of the coop and there sat a beautiful, warm, BLUE/GREEN egg! I am so happy, you don't even understand. I have been jumping up and down over one egg. I love it.

 Here is our egg compaired to a store bought egg....

Really helps you see the color of our egg! It's so much bigger too!

 

Good Job Black beard, Maxx will be so happy his chicken layed an egg!

Taken for a fool.

  So I went to my local feed store to pick their brains about the chickens not laying eggs and the gal there said that with it being winter, the fact that they are 4yrs old and the stress of the move they will probably not lay eggs right now and if they do start again in the spring or summer that it will be only a few eggs here and there. So it looks like we will be having chicken dinner for a while. I was really looking forward to seeing eggs in the morning sometime soon. But I will be getting chicks soon and will have eggs around September I guess.
  So today is the first day I opened the gate of the chicken pen. For some reason I pictured them running right out when I opened it (probably cause the goats alway did) but they just walked around as if nothing had changed. Figured I would give the girls a few minutes with our me looking over their wings every second.

 It seams that Sir. Bently has a thurst for the outside life now. Returning to the door every few minutes to shout out a new command hoping that it is the right one to open the door. Were as Miss. Shelby is content with getting a sniff of the outside but yet staying by me. I think she enjoys the prosses of telling me what she would like me to share with everyone here. She has told me with those sweet eyes of hers that it gives her a sense of importance. I keep trying to tell her that it is a very important job to keep my lap and my heart warm with her lil body and soul, yet she insists on doing more! Lovely little gal she is. My ruff, tuff Cheif enjoys her warmth from time to time as well, untill she decides it is time to see him jump and squirm. So she will lay with him and once she feels that he is relaxed and possibly asleep..... she does not move a mussle except to penitrait her sharpend lil claws right into his leg. 

Escape! Escape! Move out, let's find our lost comrad....

  Alert! Sir. Bently took to a personal jurney late lastnight (around 1:30 am Jazz had to potty) Was thought to return this morning to report for breakfast as he did on the one other outing he took. There has been not sign of him this morning. Round up the troops and head out lets bring him home.

Here is who we are looking for.....

  On another note, we are still not seeing any eggs from our girls. Thought today will be the first day that I will let them out of their confined area out to free roam! They should enjoy that.

  This, this is not an egg!

What am I doing wrong?

Their cluckers are to full to comment on what they want from me right now.

BREAKING NEWS, this just in.... Sir. Bently has returned! " It was a gloriouse jurney", " I explored caverns and mingled with wild cats as if I were one" Said He. "Now for some chow and a nap!"

Cause for consern or am I just impatient? + BUNNIES at some point.

This evenings sky! I love color.

  For the last two mornings I have run out the front door at 6:00 to turn the light on hoping to see one of our new girls laying in a nest box atop a beautiful white treasure just for me! Then again at about 7:30, but so far nothing..... Have I not given them enough time to settle in? Most likely not. Plus they are use to being let out to free range. Which I will let them do in a few days, but I want them to get use to their new home so they know where to go for safety and bed time. Maybe that will make them happy enough to lay me some white delight!
  Today the kids thought is was so cute, and so did I, that one of the B.Rock girls had dug a good sized whole and proceeded to lay in it and throw dirt all over herself and any one that was standing to close to her. Oddly enough she sings in her dirt bath as I do in the shower, though it was quite a cute lil tune she Melody she was chirping! Something about sunshine, rainbows and meal worms all around.

  My goofy girls can't figure out why the dryer wont start when they push the start button....... Anyone else see the problem here?

  Bunnies, Bunnies, Bunnies. What do you think of? Cute fluffy lil pets, right. Normally I do to, but now I will be thinking of how to cook them. I have found that rabbit meat is Very healthy, not only that but less expensive than raising cows and they don't take up as much room. Although I do not believe that "tipping bunnies" will work as well. 
  I will be building the rabbit hutches myself because I will have more time to put my thoughts together. As for the chicken nesting boxes, my super human Chief threw that together the night before we got the girls, as if it were just a quick sandwich. My brain does not work like that for some reason, I am very slow to think and remembering anything does not happen. Everything must be written down, unless it is something that I repeat quite often. It is a scary thing, but no worries on to what I know. I already have the idea of what I want it to look like and where I will put them as well as the measurements. Just have to make sure I have all the materials to put together.
  I have a few friends that are a bit put off by the idea, but that is fine. They are not the ones that pay our grocery bill for 5 kids and 2 adults. I hope to be able to lessen the stress put on my husband by some of the bills, by dropping the amount spent at the grocery store and at the same time having healthier food for our family. As well as being a great learning experience for us all. Milking goats will be another thing in our nearish future. That way Maxx (our youngest) and my Chief will have some relief from their lactose intolerance. They are both really missing ice cream and I will be making goat milk ice cream for them. It will take some getting use to but it is worth it!
  I hear my bed calling.... So we will see what tomorrow brings us.

Think we need to make some chicken changes.

 The sun is not up, the air is still touched with ice, no one elts is awake in our home JUST ME! Crap, our kids sleep in until 8 on weekends which is really nice, but will no longer be sleeping time for me. As we get more animals that are going to provide for our family I will have to get use to not sleeping in any more. Right now the only early morning hellos from me are to the chickens at 6:30 this morning as we do not have a timer for the light in the coop.  This is the first morning sense we have had them, that they were able to find their own way out the door after I "opened" it. Really I move the barricade of stuff that I put in front of it so that nothing can get in. That is one of the many things I need to change for them and myself. I will be putting in some sort of lil door with a rope on a pulley so that I may open the door from inside the other half of the building they are in.
Another thing I must do is "Golden eye" and "Black Beard" are taking turn roosting on top of the nesting boxes and there is Pooooo all over the top. So I need to make it so they can't do that. As well as find a solution for the girls to be able to get into their boxes. I have seen many boxes without tops so I am thinking of removing the top! Hopefully that will help because as we are waiting for our first eggs, Golden Eye and one of the Barred Rocks look like they are very ready to give us what we want!

 Sadly I am on a level of concern already. Our lil moulting Road Island seemed to have way to much to drink this morning! As I watched the girls find the door this morning they said to me "no no we got it today", our lil Red stumbled a bit, side to side and walking backwards when it looked like she wanted to go forward. Every time she went the wrong way I could have sworn I herd her say...."Damn it"..."Damn it"...."DAMN IT". Then it seemed she got her footing and out the door she went.

Hopefuly the first of many to come!

This will probably be an odd post as it is my first and I am unsure how to go about it. But here it is, this is me! I am 26 years young, my husband super human Super Man, our 5 kids and I live in the middle of a very busy, ritzy town where all the houses are annoyingly close together. Some how here is where we found 7 acres to buy.

 We share our home with our amazing Muttly Crew of two (for now only two) Jazz the blue merle Great Dane 3yrs old, whom was named from Transformers as was Barricade, our "mini" English Mastiff 1 1/2yrs old.

 Our home came equip with many lil guests that were not welcome, so along came Sir Bently. He is a lean mean mousin machine. Bently has earned his keep, all though he is not one who wants to be touched unless it is on his terms. Oddly enough that seems to be around 2 o'clock in the morning. He came strait from a shelter a few miles away. I figured one is great but two is better and Wednesdays you get free cats there, not quite sure how I feel about that but it worked for us, so we also got .........

 Lil miss Shelby. Yea I am in the habit of naming dogs and cats after cars. I love cars! This is pretty much all you will ever see her doing other that eating, that is all that makes up her day. But that is ok with me as she is the lover of the two kitties.

Three lil piggies, awww so cute right? Not so much. lets put it this way, one is named bacon and the other is pork chop, the third lil one did not make it and not sure why but two will do for this year.            

These are the newest additions to our home. I just picked them up the day before yesterday. They were FREE, now ya can't beet that. I already had an area ready for them that we had used before for our Pygmy goats that I miss so much. The Chief helped me build four nest boxes (which the lil buggers have yet to use) and we put up the roosts and chicken wire and poof a chicken coop!
 Here is where my thinking was, got these 4yr old chickens for free and was told they are still laying so I assume (which can be dangerous) that they will need some time to get use to their new home before they resume their laying. I do have a light on in the coop, it gets turned on in the morning by the Chief at 7am and off by me around 8 or 9pm.
 Then in Feb. I plan to buy some lil baby chicks to hand raise with the kids for a younger generation of layers for this summer.