Spring has hatched

The chicks have arrived!! The lady that called from the post office early this morning sounded a bit surprised at my excitement upon hearing that my chicks had arrived and were ready to pick up. I promptly called my parents and left them hurried messages to PLEASE dash to the post and bring my new babies home, then rushed through the work day, eager to go get the kids and see the chicks.

Much to my surprise, and delight, all 12 of the little chicks arrived alive and peeping, and quickly took to the water dish. It wasn’t long before they found their way to the feed as well.

This was the first time I’ve ever held a chick- I still can’t believe how soft and tiny they are. It was so fun sharing this 1st with the girls, experiencing the same curiosity as they were feeling.
So, we now have 3 females each of Buff Orpington (since they are yellow we easily spot these), silver laced Wyandotte, Dominiques, and Barred Rocks. As these 3 breeds are all black and white, I have no idea how to determine which fuzzballs are which…. Guess we will have to wait and see. The kids wanted to start naming them already with the names we’ve chosen from our favorite Harry Potter characters, but I told them we need to wait a bit and see which chicks make it. Maybe that was mean, but I feel like they shouldn’t be surprised to find a few less chicks in the brooder over the next week or two…
In the meantime, we will keep hammering away at the “barn” my husband is building where their little coop began. He argues that he just knows me better than I realize and that there is no way I will be satisfied with a tiny coop and 3 hens…
It’s been a busy week or so around here- we got the garden planted finally, and helped out with shearing at my mom’s alpaca farm. That was a very interesting process, which I will try to post some pics of soon.
For now, keep your fingers crossed and wish us luck with these little chicks!

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being neighborly

It’s been a busy day in the neighborhood today. A new neighbor moved in at the office – a female mallard built her nest under a shrub near my office door. My coworker took this awesome photo of her down-filled nest.

On the way back to the house we ran into another neighbor, out for a leisurely stroll while taking a much needed break from her lively crew back at the farm.
she graciously stopped for a quick chat, then took a quick jog through the nearby cemetery while another neighbor helped her find her way back home.

Growing memories

What’s the best birthday gift you got as a kid? Do you even remember the gifts? I am trying to recall them for myself: lots of barbie dolls and books and cassette tapes (heh-heh, remember those?).
We celebrated our youngest daughter’s 4th birthday this weekend- a time to really hit “pause” and note how truly blessed we are with these amazing little girls. I often think that one of the hardest things to do as a parent is to just stop and really BE here with them – relishing the little moments of each day with the kids and creating memories that will last. Most weeks are just a blur of activity, with the hope that somewhere in there we are managing to teach them some valuable lessons about what’s important in life and how to do things for themselves.

Which brings me back to the birthday gift. Amongst the many sweet and adorable gifts generously given to my daughter, there was one unique and brilliantly simple one: a tree.

Now I can’t really expect a 4 year old to grasp a tree as the most fun and exciting of all the gifts- but I applaud the givers for succeeding in a gift that will be memorable for sure. In time, we will see it as one that creates memories- as she plays in its shade, climbs its branches, reads her books under it. A gift that will grow as she grows. What a great idea!

Her Aunt wanted to give a gift that would model the importance of sustainability, which is a value we all work hard to instill in these kids- hoping to make it a natural part of their lifestyle as they grow.

We helped her choose a place in the yard for “her” tree, and she danced in the rain as we planted it. I snapped a picture of her next to it- it’s pretty much the same height as she is now- and we made a plan to take a birthday picture each year next to her tree. Creating memories, capturing moments in childhood. I am in love with this gift idea, and wish I would have thought if it years ago- and am thankful to have family as thoughtful as this in my kids lives.

The best part, I think, is that our 8 year old is actually kinda jealous of the tree, and asked for one of her own so she could watch one grow with her. “Plus,” she informed me “trees are really good for us.”

I think just maybe some of the lessons are working.

And now we wait!

I’ve done it! I’ve placed my order for our first chickens! In about 8 weeks ( oooooh, the waiting!) we will HOPEFULLY have a chirpy box of Plymouth Barred Rocks, Buff Orpingtons, Dominique’s, and Silver Laced Wyandot hens. Pullets. Whatever, the girl kind

So now to hustle the hubby into readying their new home.

In the meantime, the vegetable seeds have arrived and are waiting for me to get them started: Hello seed, meet dirt….. Then there’s the garden plot to be tilled…. Which normally we never get to until around Memorial Day around here… but this year is just, as you’ve noticed… different.

I hope we are not going to suffer the brunt of some great cosmic joke in which we see the sudden return of ” the winter we never had” come April or May! We are just so ready to dive right into this spring.

Even the alpacas at my mom’s farm are eager for spring, as they eye us up and wonder just how quickly the fresh pastures of orchard grass will sprout up for them.

We even discussed getting out the lawn mower this week , and I guarantee that I have never seen grass being mowed in March in my 30+ years!

Plenty of stuff yet to be done in the meantime as we wait …. and wait… on seedlings and chicks.

The downside of spring

As much as I am glad to see spring arrive, I am just that unexcited to start the yard work. Frankly, when we bought this place 12 years ago the property was completely overgrown and full of broken fencing, dead trees, etc etc. While our focus has been on the remodeling of the entire house and construction of a new deck and garage, we spent the better part of the early summers clearing up the property. New veggie gardens have gone in ( although I have decided that raised beds are really the only way we will ever defeat the evil weeds), and I have tried (and mostly failed) to plant and maintain some nice flower beds. Then came 2 babies and an extended period of minimal funds ( unemployment can really wreak havoc on your Landscaping budget). We stuck with the gardens throughout, as it became very important to me to grow some of our food- but making the gardens pretty was pretty much out of the question.
Which brings me to this spring- and the view out the window.. It’s certainly not as bad as when we first started, but I see a long summer ahead of us to get the property back into shape. At least this year I can get the kids more involved in some of the projects, and my “insane” idea of borrowing some goats to start clearing the back areas is sounding slightly less crazy to my husband, i think. I found him checking out pricing on goat fencing last weekend.
As if this weren’t difficult enough to do, I really do want to stay AWAY from using chemicals on the gardens and yard, so I welcome any tried and true recommendations on how to naturally prevent insects, weeds , and moles!

Spring fever

Dad’s freshly boiled maple syrup is on the table, garden seeds are on order, and the lambs and goat kids are arriving daily for us to go visit! Welcome spring!!!!

Get out the aloe!

The aloe is for the burns now blustering all over my fingers from the hot glue gun I used to make this shell wreath. I was wondering what to do with the Zillion shells we brought home from vacation and spotted this idea on Pinterest- perfect! I love the idea of wall decor combined with vacation souvenir. Despite the blisters, a pretty simple craft to do. We covered a styrofoam craft wreath form with cream colored ribbon and then glued on layers of shells. I think tomorrow I will probably fill in a few spots and then it will be ready to hang.

Ahoy Mateys!

Ocracoke Lighthouse

We’re back from our trip to the seashore. Ocracoke island in the Outer Banks is beautiful. The island is not quite open for tourist season yet, which meant we got a real feel for the island itself- quiet and isolated. Legend has it this island was a hang-out for Blackbeard the Pirate, and the place where he was killed.  My daughters spent hours burying seashell “treasure” in the sand to hide from the pirates… but the only pirate I saw was a weather-beaten plastic one on the front deck of a restaurant… maybe the pirates are seasonal too.

We spent hours enjoying the beaches entirely to ourselves, and had our pick of the very best seashells each morning. I’ve got buckets of shells soaking in bleach now, hopefully enough to make a shell wreath. I ALSO have a bucket of bleach way out in the barn- where we are soaking 2 very stinky starfish we found washed ashore. Those were quite a pleasant surprise for my husband- you can imagine how thrilled he was when I asked him to deal with that particular package. Hopefully he can manage a way to hang them to dry away from all the stray cats. Speaking of which, Ocracoke is curiously filled with cats. We saw dozens of them as we explored the island. Cats and cemetaries tiny little graveyards strewn about, each with just a handful of residents.

I also spent a lot of quiet time (and there is a lot of quiet time on an island that depends on a ferry to get on or off) trying to make some decisions about my spring chicken raising project. Pretty sure I have settled on a design for the coop- a 4×6 style with a fenced in area with a roof connected for pasture area. I fear we have too many loose dogs and coyotes in our neighborhood to let the chickens totally free range. I will either try to let them range about when I am home and can keep an eye on them, or may go with a chicken tractor to move them around the yard. Early in the mornings I could hear roosters crowing, but couldn’t find many coops visible on the island.

Finally, I think I settled on breeds. I’ve always wanted to raise some American Heritage breeds, but since this is my first go-round I am a little wary of investing heavily into specialized birds.  My plan is to order some Plymouth Barred Rocks and some Buff Orpingtons, and I’m still considering whether to get a few Buckeyes as well.  The Buckeye is what I had originally wanted to raise, and I finally found a place where I can order just a few to start with.  I’m trying to stick with cold-hardy birds with reputations as good layers- so far these breeds sound ideal.

Barred Rock

Buckeye

Next up, I have to figure out when to order these little chicks and plan for their arrival date.  It  NORMALLY is pretty cold up here into May, but this winter has been totally bizarre and not nearly as cold as normal so I’m not sure what to expect for spring.  I think I’m still going to shoot for a late May arrival, or possibly early June. That should give us plenty of time to get the coop built.  Which means I also need to decide on a location for the coop.  I haven’t really any idea how close or far away from the house I want these girls to be- far enough to not be smelly, but near enough to run out and do chores quickly, and maybe even let the kids go gather the eggs.  Yeah, I guess location is the next thing to settle upon.

Hitting the Road

I’m finally getting around to packing up for vacation (nothing like leaving it to the last minute, as always). Outer Banks, here I come!  I’m pretty excited, having never been there before.  The downside being that my favorite guy (don’t worry dear hubby, I am referring to YOU) won’t be joining us, as he is staying behind to take care of these lovely ladies for my mom instead.  (Ain’t he just a sweetheart!)

I will try to control my jealousy

Vacations are pretty hard to plan when you’ve got a farm in the mix.  Can’t really just turn on the tv softly and set up the automatic food and water dishes.  Something I will need to consider further with the arrival of the chickens this spring- who will I get to care for them when we want to go away? Hmmmm….

Choosing a coop…

So it seems that the most logical place to start with my new chicken raising venture is to get a coop ready.   Only problem is, as I noted before, there are a million different coop designs out there and I’m having a terrible time trying to pin down the one for me.  Speaking of “pin,” this past week has also brought the onset of a new addiction- Pinterest!  This site is completely wonderful and beckons to my inner dorm room living girl- the one whose entire life and style revolved around whatever lovely scraps of art/media/recipes/notes I stuck to the bulletin board at the time.  A digital place to stick (and ORGANIZE!!) the many many wonderful ideas and items I find online.  But I digress….

After weeks of perusing the like of Backyard Poultry and Chickens Magazine, scouring the internet (and making a crazy list of them in Pinterest!), and snooping at neighboring farms as we drive by- I think I’ve finally narrowed the possibilities down to a few.  There’s the small, tidy, herb-garden-roofed option seen in the spring issue of Chickens Magazine.                      

Or the grand palace of chicken coops found at Chez Poulet. 

I LOVE this one, but my husband and in-laws think I may have lost my mind on this.  Literally- I got the raised eyebrow thing from my mother-in-law…but she probably thinks I am a nut anyways….

 

Then there’s this one- pretty simple design, seems very practical, cleanable, easy to maintain- except that I think we’d skip the brick edging at the bottom:

backyardchickens.com

 

 

Of course, there’s also the completely impractical, insanely fun, and illogical ones that I adore like this one at off beat home :

Or this one that looks like it belongs in Lord of the Rings. It’s fabulous, but honestly, my kids would throw the chickens out and move in to this one (and I would not blame them):

backyardchickencoops

Like I said, there are endless possibilities when it comes to coops.  I’ve even seen a few sites that suggest “upcycling” the plastic kids outdoor playhouses in coops (and we just happen to have a couple of those kicking around the yard….).

I’m hoping to make a decision on the coop style in the next week so we can begin to figure out the materials and cost it out. Whichever design we go with, I’ll be using as much recycled material as possible which should hopefully keep the costs down. One thing is for sure, after all the work it takes to pick out a chicken coop design, I’ve realized that we will NEVER be able to build our own home from scratch- it would just be impossible to make that decision!