Another Hard Working Weekend

This weekend we took advantage of the weather and worked in our garden some more.  Jamey read an article about using old gutters to start lettus for your garden.  Once they come up you simply trench the area intend to use and slide the soil and baby lettus into the desired area.  This is an easy, less invasive way to transplant.  Grace and I work on planting several varieties of lettus and spinnage. We can't wait to taste them all. 

Here a photo of our chickens free ranging in the yard.  Sadly we lost one of the white hens after this photo.  That was the 3rd one that wondered into the fenced in yard with the dogs.

Puppies No More

Ellie (11 mos.)

It did not take long for our puppies to grow up.  Well, at least in size.  They have definitely enjoyed the new house.  They have a lot more room and Hannah loves to take them on adventures into the woods.  They have become very fond of the creek near our property.  It is rare that they return home dry any more. 

Oliver (11 mos.)

It's not all work!

Last weekend we stopped and enjoyed a nice dinner over our new and improved fire pit.  Jamey set it up 3 weeks ago and we have already christened it in style.  We had a whole meal prepared over the open fire.  Steaks, sweet potatoes and cherry cobbler.  The steaks were perfect but, everything else has room to approve upon.  Especially the dutch oven cooking.  I think that will take time to master. 

April 2012

We started the month in Pawley's Island, SC on spring break.  This was our 3rd trip there in 6 years.  It is starting to become an enjoyable Spring tradition for our family.  This year was much needed since the kids and Jamey spent most of the winter cooped up at home.

Emma's very pink room

After our vacation we returned home had started on the long list of spring projects around the house and yard.  The rooms in the garage are coming around.  Emma's is 95% completed, just waiting for a few last furnishings and decorations.  Hannah is a few weeks behind her.  She finally picked out her paint and began painting this past week. 



Caleb heads out to collect some firewood.



We also had to buy another garden tractor.  The kids, especially the non-drivers, are really getting a kick out of it.  It has taken a lot to let them know it is not a toy.   We will see how long the excitement lasts once cutting the grass becomes a chore for them. 

Grace watches as mom rakes the soil.



This past weekend we tilled two small gardens.  Jamey started some seedlings a few weeks ago and we can't wait to get them in the ground.  Caleb and I also worked on the base for our new water collection system.  We will be feeding a 275 Gallon tote from the one side of our garage.  The goal is to collect enough rain water for the garden and perhaps some of the animals. 



Setting the frame for our water collection system.


UPDATE 5/7/12

We finished hooking up the rain water collection tote this week.  Today had our first good rain of the year(0.64") and we collected about 230 gallons.  Not bad for one day.  We just need to finish getting the seeds in the ground to take advantage of it. 

Turkey Anyone?

I got a new toy for my birthday this week. It is a trail cam which I mounted in the back corner of our lot last night. In the first day I snapped 100+ photos of about 2 dozen turkeys. They were in our yard for about 30 minutes feeding. I am eager to see if they return to feed again. Maybe Thanksgiving will be at our house this year.

Gobble Gobble!

Congrats to Emma

Congrats to Emma on being casted in the Waterville Playshop's presentation of Seussical. All the main roles were taken by adults but, Emma was picked to be one of the Who children. She will be in the first 2 shows so book your tickets soon!

We got Eggs!

About a week after we moved in we got 2 roosters with hopes of getting a dozen hens or so. I found someone on craigslist getting rid of 2 young pullets a few weeks later so we introduced them to our roost. As you can imagine the roosters started to fight as soon as we introduces the females. We put up with it for about a week until we ended up eating one for dinner. The whole process was quite an experience. Since then, we have been eagerly awaiting all winter for eggs. This evening I went into the coop to take some measurements for hen boxes and to my surprise we had 3 eggs. They were nearly frozen and I was lucky to get them before they cracked. We look forward to many more... By the way, does anyone know anyone getting rid of any hens?

2/24/12 Update: It has been just under 2 weeks and we have harvested our first dozen eggs and we finally found out what hen was laying. Infact, we are no longer certain we have 2 hens. The 2nd one is acting alot like our rooster. Only time will tell.