Exploring Life In The Grit Of The Earth
Posted in Chickens/Ducks on Aug 5th, 2011
Yep, yesterday morning I loaded up all of the chickens and brought them to my friends farm where they will hopefully have a long life munching on lots of bugs and greens. Though I hemmed and hawed about getting rid of them, the final decision was made for me when the raccoon shimmied his way [...]
Posted in Chickens/Ducks on Jul 31st, 2011
Yep, you read that right. I think I’m done! We build them their fabulous new predator proof coop, fenced in a fabulous run, and spend many many hours feeding them, cleaning their space, keeping them disease and pest free, and worrying about them. Well, two weeks ago the bear was back and tried to break [...]
Posted in Chickens/Ducks, Mothering on May 20th, 2011
Posted in building our home, Chickens/Ducks, Mothering on May 19th, 2011
We started our week by getting more new chicks … four Easter eggers, to be exact. I stuck the camera in with them and each one had to have its turn checking the camera out. This one reminds me of a Skeksis, only cuter The rock wall began! And Leif put on his most fashionable [...]
Posted in Chickens/Ducks on May 13th, 2011
Kaia is now the proud mama of 5 baby chicks. Two are white silkies, one is a sizzle (of these three we don’t know if they are boys or girls), one is a Buff Orpington, and one is a Speckled Sussex (these last two are girls). We will be getting a few more in the [...]
Posted in Chickens/Ducks, Home Schooling, Mothering on Mar 25th, 2011
This week, we’ve been doing crafts to decorate our Spring Nature Table. Today’s craft was simple and fun with such beautiful results. I picked up a few silk scarves and shirts from Good Will and blew out some duck eggs. Then we followed The Magic Onion’s directions on silk dying eggs. So lovely! We loved [...]
Posted in Chickens/Ducks, Knitting, Mothering, Pets, Sewing on Dec 28th, 2010
It was almost exactly this time last year that we had the big snow of ’09 and got snowed in for a week. Well, we are snowed in again and actually have been since Christmas. We’ve played in tents, made snow cream, baked, gone sledding, read, and just relaxed. The duck surprised us on Christmas [...]
Posted in Chickens/Ducks, General, Home Schooling on Dec 5th, 2010
I’ve been wanting to post about all the things we’ve been up too lately… projects, crafts, homeschooling, the ducks, the land. There’s always so much to share. But, I’ve been finding it hard to take the time to sit down at the computer when life has been so full. With having the kids at home, [...]
Posted in Chickens/Ducks on Sep 11th, 2010
The ducks have been putting themselves to bed for about a week now. That means that as the sun starts going down, they head up the ramp and into the coop without me having to chase them around. Yay!! So, they have officially earned their time free ranging. And because they are no longer enclosed, [...]
Posted in Chickens/Ducks, Pets on Aug 16th, 2010
The Ancona babies are a little over a month old and doing great! I am going to move them to the main coop tonight. I’m sure they will be very happy to have more room to make a mess. We also got three new ducks yesterday. The two that are lighter and larger are Saxony [...]
Posted in Chickens/Ducks, Organic Gardening on Jul 19th, 2010
Posted in Chickens/Ducks on Jul 8th, 2010
Look what’s new around here! The first baby piping. Just born. Kaia reading to the babies so they will come out sooner! We now are the proud parents of 5 Ancona Ducklings!!! They couldn’t be any cuter! Yes, they are snuggling with a stuffed piggy!! Every baby needs a stuffed piggy!
Posted in Chickens/Ducks, Home Schooling on Apr 18th, 2010
One thing I really like about homeschooling is going on field trips! (OK, I know that I could go on field trips even if Kaia was in public school, but it just seems like more fun when we get to design and plan them ourselves!) She just finished up her solar system and prehistory studies. [...]
Posted in Chickens/Ducks, Sustainable Living on Apr 4th, 2010
Our ladies have had a great egg laying month!! Last month we averaged about a dozen a day (from 22 chickens), and the numbers just keep increasing. I’ve put a fence around the garden so that I can let the chickens out of their gated area to free range in the afternoons without them getting [...]
Posted in Chickens/Ducks, Home Schooling, Knitting on Mar 30th, 2010
Let’s start our morning with some daredevil antics! Don’t see anything wrong with this? Let’s look again: Then off to a sweet farm tour where we enjoyed some fabulous home made jellies and ice cream, and I scored an angora fleece from this guy: Then we spent the rest of our day enjoying the beautiful [...]
Posted in Chickens/Ducks, Home Schooling, Mothering, Organic Gardening on Jan 16th, 2010
Finally, it’s gotten above 35 degrees!! The snow has been on the ground for a month and it seems like every morning I’ll wake up to a little more! The past few days it’s gotten up into the 50′s and it’s been wonderful! The chickens are having a field day taking dirt baths and stretching [...]
Posted in Chickens/Ducks on Nov 9th, 2009
Despite all of the garlic and pumpkin seeds that I’ve been feeding the chickens, it seems they have worms. Maybe that explains why I’ve been getting 2-3 eggs a day from 24 hens!!! I thought they were just taking a long time recovering from their molt. So, after dusting the whole hen house, laying boxes, [...]
Posted in Chickens/Ducks on Oct 26th, 2009
We finished the coop this weekend, and the chickens are ecstatic!! It was quite a show trying to chase them down and move them all into the new coop. Luckily we had help! They are settling in nicely, but still having a bit of a problem figuring out how to get onto the roosts. Some [...]
Posted in building our home, Chickens/Ducks, Mothering on Oct 21st, 2009
The coop continues to be our main project around the homestead (although it would be a really good idea to get to winterizing the house!!) Toby’s father came up last Friday and gave us a hand siding the coop. We still have to put up the windows and doors and then put the roosts and [...]
Posted in building our home, Chickens/Ducks on Oct 9th, 2009
We have started on what I hope to be our last project this year… The Chicken Chalet (I was going to call it the chicken palace, but being in the country, it just seems more like a chalet Toby and I have promised each other that we will have no more big projects until [...]
Posted in Chickens/Ducks, Home Schooling, Mothering, Pets on Sep 25th, 2009
Kaia has been studying the 5 kingdoms of life at school for the past 4 weeks. So, we thought we’d take a trip out to the Nature Center to see what in the Animal, Plant, and Fungus kingdoms we could find. Poor little papa peacock is moulting and has no tail feathers. But you see [...]
Posted in Chickens/Ducks on Sep 11th, 2009
I headed in the house after picking up Kaia from school today. She took a while getting her stuff gathered up and then followed me into the house a while later. When she finally came in she said, “Mom, there is a chicken in the car. I tried to get her out, but she wanted [...]
Posted in Chickens/Ducks on Sep 11th, 2009
Well, that funny little bear that was knocking over my chicken food bin decided it was hungry. Wed. night, at about 1:30 Suki started going crazy. She was inside for the night (dumb me for keeping her in) and was whining and pacing at the door. Toby went and let her out and heard a [...]
Posted in Chickens/Ducks, Mothering, Organic Gardening on Aug 5th, 2009
Of course, we’ll start with the cutest!! Leif had a few bites of rice cereal yesterday, and he downed it!!! “Hmmmmm, I think I might have a bite, thank you!” “WOW! I LIKE! Give me that spoon!” “Mine!! ALL MINE!” “Yes, boys can too play with Barbies! They are very tastey!” I finally got around [...]
Posted in Chickens/Ducks on Jun 9th, 2009
Last week, Buttercup hatched 7 of her eggs. Two died within hours, but the other 5 are doing great! So that makes 9 new chicks altogether! Yay! I hope they are all hens
Posted in Chickens/Ducks on May 12th, 2009
Snowflake ended up hatching a total of 4 chicks (out of 8 original… but one was squashed, one was dropped, and two didn’t fully develop). Poor Sparkle didn’t hatch any. I waited until day 23 before I took her off the nest. I cracked open all the eggs and only one had a chick and [...]
Posted in Chickens/Ducks on May 6th, 2009
The chicks are very late in hatching… normally, a chicken has a 21 day gestation. Our first chick hatched at 22 days, three more hatched at 24 days! I don’t hear any peeps coming from the other two, but they had moving chicks in them last week. Our other broody mama is due on Friday… [...]
Posted in Chickens/Ducks on May 4th, 2009
Well, at least one that I know of. The chicks were due yesterday, but snowflake never hopped off of her nest, so I couldn’t tell if they’d hatched yet. But, just a few minutes ago, I went outside and heard some peeping. One little chick had just hatched (I believe this one is an Ameraucana [...]
Posted in Chickens/Ducks on Apr 23rd, 2009
We went out to candle the ladies eggs this evening. I made my own candler with a strong flash light and a piece of cardboard wrapped to make a cone for the egg to sit above. that focuses the light so that it shines through the egg. I thought it would be a good idea [...]
Posted in Chickens/Ducks on Apr 17th, 2009
Well, they say (who ever They are) that Silkies often go broody and make great mamas. So far, They are right. Both my silkie ladies are broody. Snowflake started sitting on eggs this past Sunday, and Sparkle started sitting a few days ago. So, Toby, sweet construction man that he is, made a broody box [...]