Changes...

I thought it was time for a facelift around here. I was getting bored with the appearance of my page. Hope you like it! I think it's easier on the eyes. Let me know what you think!

Mary

Kids...gggrrrrrrrrr!

Okay, I may be the mother of many..but would someone please explain to me, why kids do the things they do. Especially when said child is an 'adult' and has the 'freedom' to do what they want. Now, take a look at this and tell me what you see. My description is under the pic.

Punk kid with piercing! Blahhhh!!

Yes, this is my oldest blessing...isn't that a handsome pic of him? Hmmmm?... UGH!
Oh and by the way..I found this out on myspace...this pic was on his page (he doesn't live at home). And how long ago did this happen??? New Years...well, there is a reason the internet is called the information highway.

Oh my...

Well, I see it's been a while since I was here. Sorry to all those who check in with the hope of something new. Time just seems to get away. Let's see...almost 2 weeks ago, we got 4 ducklings they were about a day or two old at the time, so it would be safe to say they are 2 weeks old now. I don't have a current photo though. I'll put that on my list of things to do :)



Last Wednesday was K's 8th birthday. I took some pics to share. My step-daughter came down from Indiana with a friend and stayed Thursday through Saturday. We all really enjoyed their visit.


I made her a strawberry ice cream cake with chocolate frosting..yum..here is a pic of the inside of it


Yesterday, we bought some paint and hubby started painting the coop


Oh and in case you didn't notice...drum roll please.............I finally got around to putting a REAL pic of myself on here. Now you can see who is writing all this drivel.

Well, have a nice week...

Mary

New pic of the chicks

Here is a new pic of the chickies taken just a few minutes ago. Aren't they getting huge? They are one week old.

one week

newly hatched

Mary

DVD giveaway over at...

Sharri's place...she is giving away a christian homesteading DVD called Inherit the Land.



Please visit her blog to find out more! Thank you Sharri for letting me know about this and for visiting here.

Blessings,
Mary

The coop has a roof

My husband put the rest of the roof on the coop yesterday. I took some pics. There are only a few cosmetic things to finish inside and out. There is trim to be put on, doors to put on the outside of the nest boxes, ventilation windows to install and roosts to put in. I probably forgot something in there, but you get the general idea. There will also be a fence going up.

Here is the front. I really hate when my shadow gets in the photo!

Here is the back with the nest box bump-out. There will be three doors here for egg collection.

Here is the door

Here is the interior box view. You can't really see the one on the far end in the pic.


This is the inside


Here is the chicken door


And here it is open. There is our lab Nestle wondering what I'm up to.

I'll keep you updated on the progress.

Blessings,
Mary

The new babies are here!

Our new chickies are here! Out of all the trays of Black Jersey's they incubated only 5 hatched. So...we didn't get any. Instead, we chose to get 2 Black Australorp cockerels and they didn't even charge us for them. They are doing very well and are eating and drinking like little pros. Here are a couple of photos.


And to those who might be concerned, I added more bedding after taking these photos. They kicked more of it away than I thought they would. We don't want any of them getting hurt on the slick bottom of the container.
Well, I just wanted to show them off.

Blessings,
Mary

Chicka, chicka, boom

Hello! We pick up our chicks at the hatchery on Wednesday next week. They will be hatched that morning. We have ordered 15 Buff Orpington pullets which will look like this:

These are day old

These are full grown

We also ordered 2 black Jersey Giant cockerels which will look like this:

Again, day old

and full grown

We will be keeping them in the garage for three to four weeks before moving them out to the coop. We took the coop apart and set it up outside last weekend. Dh built on the nest boxes which extend out the back of the coop and will have doors you can open for outside access. He will be roofing the coop this weekend probably. I will take another pic and post it soon.

It rained and rained here the past couple of days. Lots of thunder and lightening. There was some minor flooding and a tornado not too far from here. It was finally sunny for most of the day today.

Last of all, I will be having a birthday tomorrow. Nothing special though. Ever since 2005 it has been a very sad day for me as my mother passed away on my birthday that year. I don't celebrate anymore, but alas will be adding another number to the total.

Well, here's hoping all of you are doing well. Spring will soon be here...at least where we are.

Blessings,
Mary

We 'weathered' the storm!

Well...we didn't lose our power!! We got about 2 inches of ice on the ground...our trees had about 1/2 an inch on them. On top of that, we received about 3 inches of snow. Not far south of here in Northern Arkansas, the power went down and is still out...some places they predict will stay that way for quite some time. The power company we had just North of the MO/AR border before moving, is one of the companies who lost power...whew!! I would have updated sooner, but hubby was home for 3 1/2 days because of the roads. He has about a 45 minute drive to the office on secondary roads. They finally got a plow down the road yesterday afternoon. We live way out in the sticks and I was surprised they even plowed the gravel road out here. Hubby took the trash down for pick-up yesterday morn and barely made it back up the hill. We have to haul it a little over a mile for pick-up. Our lane is about a half mile and then another half mile or so down the hill on the gravel to the black top. They won't come up our road! I have been trying to convince dh to get a burn barrel so we can burn, but I haven't won him over on that idea quite yet! Incidentally...the trash never made it yesterday, so we are stuck with a full barrel. I took some pics over the past couple of days I wanted to share. The first two were taken about six hours before the ice stopped falling.




These were taken the next day. Here is our driveway.



This was taken off the east side of our front porch. Isn't it pretty?



This one was taken from the back deck. I took this using the distant landscape setting on our cam which I didn't even know we had. I think it turned out gorgeous.


I finally took a pic of our mostly finished chicken coop...Yay!! It's looking very nice. Hubby designed it himself. It's about 4 feet by 8 feet. See the little chicken door on the front?! He will put 3 nests in and some perches. He said to make sure I mentioned that it will be taken apart and set up outside as soon as he gets the materials for the roof which will probably be this weekend. It will be set up on skids...as you can see if you look at the bottom...so it can be moved. We will be enclosing the front in the run which will be I think about 20 feet long...I can't quite remember though. We will not be free ranging as there are too many critters around here to do that safely. We've seen a few coyotes in the drive, lane and yard during the daylight hours since moving in. Besides, I do NOT like to step in chicken cr**...yuck!! Child hood memories of that are still very fresh. Running barefoot through the yard and splat....EEEEWWWW!!! Of course I did like to walk barefoot through the cow lot and squish my toes in the fresh paddies...hehe...and no, that is NOT gross...when you're a kid anyway!


Well, now that you all know we weren't frozen solid, I'll end this post. Hope everyone is staying warm and doing well.

Blessings,
Mary

Preperations

We are under a severe ice storm warning...It has actually been sleeting here since shortly after 1:00 this afternoon. We are supposed to get about an inch. YUCK!! I have been busy getting laundry done and filling as many containers as I can find with water. They are predicting major power outages. I have about 20 gallons of water collected. 6 of which is for flushing the stool when necessary and the rest for washing, drinking and watering the pets. We have several candles, 2 oil lamps, a couple of flashlights and a couple of camping lanterns we can use. If necessary, I will cook on the wood stoker in the basement and we also have a propane camp stove. I suppose I could use the fireplace, but I don't think that will be necessary. I'm not sure what hubby will do if he has to stay home. He has been building our chicken coop...I still haven't taken a pic of it...and his power tools will not work if we lose power. Neither will the television. I'm sure he'll think of something. As for the kids and me, we have school to occupy our time...storm or no storm. I just checked out the window and it is really coming down out there. So much for hoping it doesn't get too bad. They have been running school closings across the bottom of the t.v. screen for the past 2 1/2 hours.

Tonight, I made lentil soup and it was delicious. I figured we could use some warm-you-up comfort food. Hubby even said I could make it again. He's not much of a soup eater. I just threw a bunch of stuff in and made some corn bread. The ingredients were: lentils, split peas, quick cooking barley, diced ham, carrots, diced tomatoes, onion, garlic, water; beef, chicken, and veggie bouillon, and salt. YUM!!
When I got out my garlic press, I discovered it had a problem:
It seems my 9 year old dd tried to crack a hickory nut with it...LOL! Ah well, I didn't use it much anyway...the little stinker!!

Well, hope you all are staying warm.

Blessings,
Mary