Lost From The Blog World

I didn't get lost. I have just been lazy. My life has been pretty chaotic and I couldn't get my thoughts together to post. We have put up quite a bit of food this year. One thing I have noticed is that everything seems to happen at the same time. When the crops are coming in then things seem to start happening that keeps me running all the time. I have been racking my brain trying to figure out how to stay home more. I can not do the things that I need to get done and never be home.
We have our grandchildren full time. I am homeschooling 3 kids so I truly need to get my act together more. Isaiah has issues that we are going to have to get help for. Kaitlynn falls into acting like her brother to see if it works for her. Ross is having to learn to share his parents and home with 2 other children. There is a lot for all of us to get use to.
My main priority is making sure I take care of these kids. We are trying to make as stable a home as possible for them. Isaiah has such a hard time dealing with any kind of change. The simplest thing can set him off. If they are with their mother more than the norm, if we change our daily routine any at all, if anything at church changes anything like that just sends him into behaviors that are so hard to deal with. Johnny and I are doing all we can to make him feel as stable as we can. Kaitlynn is starting to show signs of acting out too. I have never had to deal with these kinds of behaviors and it is hard to deal with at times. We pray daily for them and believe that God will move for them.

The farm animals have grown, we now have 150+ chickens. We have them of all ages. We will be selling chicks in the spring. The young ones are starting to lay so we are starting to get lots of eggs. YEAH!!!!
We had large gardens this year and we ate pretty good from them. I put up quite a bit of food for the winter. I love eating home grown in the winter. God just keeps blessing our land and we are able to feed us and give some away.

I am hoping that I will be on here more this fall and winter. I have a lot of stuff I want to get done around the house. I also want to work on me with the help of my Jesus that I make the changes I need to. My biggest ministry right now needs to be my family and home. I will have to try to get some pics up of the chickens and gardens soon.

God Bless everyone hope to write again soon.

Black Jersey Giants

Hen next to a Buff O. hen for comparison

Another one of the girls

Goliath is our 5.00 Roo

You know you are a chicken addict when.............

You turn your big bath tub into a brooder. LOL 78 chicks sex links, buff orpingtons, welsummers, australorpes, cuckoo marans and 1 light brahma. Aren't they purty.

new chicks

Indoor Garden

This is my indoor garden.

Sweet Basil

Spinach

Lettuce

Radish

I am really excited to see how this works. I will transplant some of this when it gets a little bigger. I want to see how much I can grow indoors. I like the idea of having fresh lettuce and spinach all winter. I might have to try some other things just for the heck of it. If I can grow most all of what we will eat then that is going to be a huge money saver. I just need to get some spots to work with in the winter. I have been reading about row covers. You can also set things up to fit over one pot.

I am trying to figure out how to set my gardens up this year. I am going to be doing a lot of container gardening. I am looking at selling some produce at the farmers market this year. I will also be doing a lot more canning. It will be a lot of hard work but I am excited and can't wait to get started. I am ready for warmer weather so I can get stuff in the ground. I am going to try to grow cauliflower and broccili this year. I have tried cauliflower in the past and not had much luck. I have been reading up on what to do with it.

I am trying more herbs this year also. I have been reading natural bug control. Growing different plants together can keep bugs away. You also need to encourage good bugs. So, with all that rambling I am trying to figure out what to plant with what. Putting potted mints, basil and marigolds through out your garden is good. I didn't have much luck growing marigold from seed last year. I will probably just buy some plants. We need sunflowers again too. We have to be careful wtih them because parts of the sunflower are poisonous to chickens.

The chickens are fertilizing my garden spots for me.

My compost is another story. The pile is slow to work but the tires make great compost fast. Soooo I will have piles of tires composting for me this year. I know what a site. Oh well I am not trying to win yard of the year just feed my family.

I am also going to try to grow potatos in tires too. I have read they are great for potato growing. I have some potato seed to get out. I think now or soon is when I need to get started on that.

I think I have babbled enough. Those of you that know me know that when I get excited about something I do tend to babble.

I will try post soon on what God is doing in us also. More to come on gardening and chickens. I know you can't wait. lol

Kids being silly

Katie and Zay are trying to look like their uncle Ross. They haven't quite got it.

Another Day in the Life

Things have definitely been busy around here. Having the grand kids really keeps us hopping. Dealing with Ross on school work and karate has been a nightmare. So, we have made some changes.
Ross now has to earn computer and game time. We are using a ticket system. He earns tickets from chores, doing school work in a timely manner and doing his karate workout/fitness. We started this last week and so far this is working better than anything else we have ever tried. With that said, he tested for his 5th stripe yesterday and we were all surprised how well he did. Mr.Reynolds said he didn't expect him to do as well as he did. Obviously working out at home every day is working. He didn't pass but was told that if he continued he would probably get his stripe in March and should get his black belt in June. He has to work hard though. He has been lazy for about 2 years now. We all have actually. Things are a changin'.

The grand kids are active little bundles who need something to do at all times. Working with them is taking some getting use to and I haven't gotten it all figured out yet but I will.

Our grocery bill is going through the roof. We are buying milk every other day and 4 to 5 loaves of bread a week. So, I have started baking bread every day. Isaiah is ok with it but Katie is not liking it very well. They will get use to it. They are just now getting to the point that they aren't hollering for Micky D's every time we leave the house. They are starting to eat foods they did not eat in the past. I will get them healthy yet.

As a whole we are working on getting healthier and changing our eating habits. Johnny got 3 months free at St. Mary's Fitness, next month we will be adding the fitness room at karate to our yearly karate. That gives Johnny and I a place to work out for cheap. It also includes a kick boxing class. NO I AM NOT DOING THAT. I would fall over dead the first class. I have to lose some weight first. This is not a new year resolution. Those just don't work. Three of us need to lose weight and the little ones need to eat healthier they are junk food junkies. I won't make them eat what they do not like but am making them try new things. Adding vegs to recipes that they will eat is a great way to get them to eat more. We are also trying to eat foods that aren't loaded with preservatives and additives. My aunt sent me an email about MSG being in almost all the foods that we buy. It is also addictive and causes obesity. That is very scary to me. We are doing a lot of cooking from scratch here. I am using up some boxed things that I had bought with coupons and I will still keep a few things like that here just for convenience.
I am working on the gardening. I have radish, lettuce, spinach and sweet basil already coming up. The eggplant and parsley are planted but not sprouting yet. The lettuce, spinach and radish are tests to see if I can grow them indoors. I will let you kno wthe results. Today is going to be a good day to get out and get some beds ready to plant in. I am heading out after lunch to get going on that. I have much more I want to share on this topic so I will try to get some pics and write another post today or tomorrow.

Hope everyone is having a glorious and blessed day.

Life on the Farm

We are loving the life on the farm. Hearing the roosters crowing sometimes as early as 4:00 am is kind of cool. They do not wake me up I just woke up and heard them. If I slept on the end that they are located they might wake me up. If walk outside here about 6:00 am you can hear roosters everywhere crowing it is so peaceful.

We are up to 42 chickens:

Barred rock hens 10

Rhode Island Red hens 7 Roo 1

Mutts hens 2 Roos 2

Buff Orpingtons hens 7 Roo 1

Black Jersey Giant hens 5

Ameracauna/mutt? 7 we think 2 maybe 3 might be roos too young to tell

I am getting some seedlings started in the house. I have started sweet basil, parsley, eggplant and a lettuce experiment. I will take some pictures and show. I will be trying some spinach and radish indoors tomorrow. I will do that then take a pic for here.

I just wanted to check in since I had not written in a while. I have some other things I want to write about I just need to find the time.

The pictures are of my two grandchildren. The Bishop and the Princess. You got to love them.

Americana or Mutt that is the question

My husband is now a chicken addict. I have to say I like them too. These were sold to us as Ameracana. We are not so sure. They are 3 months old. We are not sure how many roos we have. I am now thinking the white one is and the one with his butt towards the camera in the last pic. They seem to be the leaders in this small flock.

My DH made this tractor for them so they are working my garden. Today is the first time they have had straw, they like it.

What kind of chickens are these?

We would like to know what kind of chickens these are. We know those are barred rocks and rir. The roos and the pullets that my son is holding is what we are wondering.

These were free so we took them.