This and That

     It's spring again!  One of my favorite times of year.  Everything looks promising in the spring, doesn't it? 
     Last week we just picked up our first successfully raised steer, Sir Loin, from the butcher.  It is so nice to have a freezer FULL of meat again.  But it is sad to no longer have Sir Loin's company.  We look forward to raising another steer again sometime in the near future, we hope.
     Our garden is only partially planted, but I'm OK with what we have so far.  We have lettuce, onions, garlic, kale, cabbage, tomatoes, and bell peppers.  I tend to want to plant too much, and then once the summer heat hits, have a hard time keeping up with all the weeding/watering/harvesting/preserving. 
     I'm excited to have a bunch of new chickens as well!  We have 10 hens currently laying and one rooster with a lovely crow - that flock is already established.  But we ordered another 26 chickens in February to help boost our egg supply.  I think we are down to about 20 (after losing a few, and giving some away), but they are growing so fast.  I'm expecting them to start laying around July.  It'll be wonderful to have all those eggs!
     Our youngest child, Charity, is 6 months old now, and such a pleasant baby.  She is army-crawling around the house, faster everyday, and keeping us on our toes with all the things she likes to find and put in her mouth.  The children all love taking care of her.  What a blessing she is!
     This winter my husband repaired the barn out back so we have a place to store some tools.  It is so nice to be able to clear some things out of our shed, which was already over-crowded.  He has recently been busy building a new coop for our new flock of chickens.  They are quickly outgrowing the one they are in now.  We are hoping this new one will be easier to move.
     I am in the process of switching out everyone's wardrobe.  I'm also reorganizing our files, which is so overwhelming and time consuming, but I'm betting it will be worth it. The children are finishing up their year of homeschool.  The 8 year old should be finished by the time of the homeschool bookfair, Mother's Day weekend, the 6 year old has finished first grade and eagerly began working on some second grade work, 4 year old is working through her Bob books and reading so well.  I'm planning to do ACE kindergarten with both the 3 year old and the 4 year old, starting this summer.  I have great memories of doing kindergarten with both boys a few years back, and I'm looking forward to that special time with the girls.  It is a busy time, since the kindergarten work requires my full attention, so I'm hoping that things won't get too behind around here.  I'll just have to take breaks as necessary to keep the ship running. :)  

Farm Projects in the Works

Right now we are working on building a new movable chicken coop, called a chicken tractor.  We modeled ours after the Joel Salatin design, with just a few modifications.  Our other chicken tractor is very sturdy, but VERY heavy!  In order to get the wheels out of a rut, we had to lift it way up off the ground, and out would run our flighty chickens, into never never land.  Have you ever tried to chase a chicken around 7 (no 14 acres, because they run to our neighbor's property, too!) acres?  What about 7 chickens? We bought a net to catch them with, but it is ridiculous!  They fly up high into the trees, too.  Well, at least we keep the neighbors entertained. :)  Well, the new chicken tractor will hopefully keep them confined so that we can actually get their eggs (and hopefully, add more chickens, so that we won't have to BUY eggs!).
Next on the list (well, MY list at least....) is a deck for our back door.  Currently, the sliding glass door opens up to a 4 foot drop - not very safe with little ones around!  Not to mention that if I want to hang laundry to dry, I have to go out the front door and walk all the way around to the back - with all that wet laundry!  A deck will be nice. But really, our front "porch" is very rickety and needs to be replaced as well. 
Fencing across our front yard would also be nice!  Right now our whole pasture is fenced, but our yard is not.  So anyone, along with their animals (horses! dogs, etc.) can just stroll in, and our children (though they know better) could just stroll out.  Our garden has hoof prints in it.  Not good.
Oh!  With us living in tornado alley, an underground storm cellar in also very high on the list to accompany our mobile home.  Preferably before the spring time.
Some friends of ours were at the Big Texas Shindig with us in Big Sandy, TX, (post to come about that trip) and they were talking about looking into building an earthbag home.  That got me researching them, and just finding out more about them.  I also liked that straw bale homes were COOL in the summer time, but they are made out of straw, and that just seems strange.  We just have lots to look into before building our home!

Chasing Chickens

Today I got a knock at the door from the neighbor across the street, who spotted one of my chickens in the front yard while he was mowing his lawn. I live in the suburbs, folks, so that must have been a sight. Apparently, some unnamed person in our family didn't get the gate all the way closed, so it escaped. So, I started chasing the chicken around the yard, and it did NOT want to be caught. Fearing I would chase it out of our (small) yard and into the street, or a neighbor's yard, creating a scene, I decided to lure it with food. Instead of it running to the food, it crouched down really low, and FLEW straight over the fence, back into the back yard where she belongs. I'd heard that some chickens CAN fly over 6 ft. fences, but I'd never actually witnessed it. So, the moral of the story, my friends, clip your chickens' wings, even if you don't think they will attempt an escape!