Lots of Love

Before the month is over, I want to make sure to share about Valentine's Day!  Our homeschool co-op had a little exchange - well, actually lots of people showed up and we kind of freaked out the ice cream shop employees (note to self: hold it in a bigger venue next year!).  Reed filled little bags with homemade treats - he melted a Hershey Hug on a square pretzel and then squished an M&M on top.  Sweet and salty yumminess! (not my photo)

Blossom did marble paintings.  If she had her way, she would probably spend a good portion of each day painting.

In a baking pan, she rolled paint-covered marbles over paper until it created really cool designs.

We let the paintings dry and then cut them into heart shapes and glued on little Valentine messages.  They turned out really sweet!  Even though Reed's treats were probably more of a hit with the other kids, I like to fool myself into believing that the kids loved these as well :)

The kids get to share a little more love this month with our new chicks!  These are called Buckeyes (from, you guessed it, Ohio).  We bought them on craigslist.  They are a rare breed and I am excited to add them to the flock!  They will turn a very lovely dark reddish-brown as they get older, and the roosters are supposed to be very docile.  They are good meat birds as well as egg-layers.

We have 5 of them peeping away in the brooding box in our living room.  Never a dull moment!

This morning started out with the loud sound of peeping chicks from the living room.  They are too cute to be mad at!  These little guys are all of 4 days old.  They are Dominiques, a breed I have been looking for, and just found a few on Craigslist.  The fellow also gave me 8 fertile eggs, which I squeezed under our broody hen (that means she's trying to hatch out eggs).  Hopefully she'll stick with it and we'll have another batch of chicks in the beginning of October.

Blossom is doing a very good job of holding these little guys gently.  This chick, the kids named "Fatty" (he's the biggest, and probably a rooster).  He got to play in the dollhouse today.

We had our Sunday Art Group this morning.  The attendees have dwindled over the Summer, but we're hoping it will pick up once everyone is back in the rhythm of Fall schedules. 

Blossom and Willow picked lots of flowers and leaves to bring to the table.  The table was so lovely with all the colors!  They made designs of petals and leaves on clear contact paper and then sealed it over with another piece.

I secured that inside a paper plate frame, which they could decorate with crayon.  Then we hung them up in the window to see the sun shine through!

Lovely!

Dollywood and Home Again

We finally got our sweet boys home!  Two weeks was the longest they've been away from home.  They had a great time in Memphis, and Bobby did lots of projects around the house!  Not only did he repaint the living room (turquoise!), but also painted the boy's bathroom and gave them a new toilet, and the most work went into completely remodeling our bathroom.  My favorite part is after nearly 2 years of the initial start of the project (tearing things out), there is now tile floor, which means I can clean it!  So, pretty much Bobby's a rock star :)  Here's some before and after :

When I picked up the boys in Tennessee, we spent the night in Pigeon Forge and used our season passes for Dollywood & Splash Country (the big Christmas present last year, which a couple other family friends bought also so we can all go together). 

Dollywood has fireworks every night, which were fun, and then the next day the boys went with their friends to Splash Country and ZB and I had a little-kid day at Dollywood... she loved it!

We went to two shows (the Gazillion Bubbles show and a play of "The Little Engine that Could"), and she just adored that she could go on rides of her own!

Then she had a great time playing in the designated play areas for young kids.

The weather was nice and overcast, and with the high chance of rain, the park was not at all crowded.  We happily avoided rain and everyone had a great day :)

 A couple chicken pics before I end this post!  I've struck up a friendship with a guy who brews beer in huge quantities.  He calls us when he's brewing and we go pick up the grains he's used for brewing, in trade for a couple dozen eggs for his family.  The chickens are in heaven, and I appreciate the free (local & organic) food!

Here's they are munching away, under our hops vines (which I will hopefully use for our own homebrew this Summer)

Have a great week!

Asheville Urban Trail

At the thrift store, I found a book called Artful Asheville.  It is a walking guide to the Urban Trail.  I doubt it is published any more, as this edition is about 10 years old and there are definitely outdated parts.  The Urban Trail is an art walk through downtown Asheville that is split into 5 different walks, with various themes (frontier, black history, etc).  All the stops are at interesting architectural sights, statues, murals, etc.

We found some homeschool friends to do this with, and set off on the first walk.  The kids are here with the pigs that are set in a path of footprints, representing first the Cherokee, then the drovers taking their animals to markets in TN and SC.  The metal edging is representing the street cars that used to go through downtown when it was first a bustling city.

The giant iron in front of the Flat Iron Building.  This building inspired others around the country, has marble floors and person-operated elevators.

We couldn't go inside the Basilicca since it was Sunday, that will have to wait until the next walk!  We also found out really neat things like the Grove Arcade was meant to be 20 stories tall, but is only 4 because the owner died.  That would have been huge in our downtown!  We also found out that there used to be a huge hill right in downtown, but it was flattened out and the dirt was used to make Coxe Ave (a main road in downtown now).  I love this kind of local history!

Back at home, Blossom is still just tickled that she's old enough to be allowed to hold the chickens.  I straw-baled off a section on the side of the house for them, so they can't wander too far.  We do have to put them back in their box in the afternoon when the big chickens are let out, or else the small ones get picked on.

A Handful of Goodness

These chilly nights are sneaking up on us!  For our little farm, this means harvesting the last of the Summer produce and planting the Fall gardens.  This was my first year growing sweet potatoes and they surprised me with how huge they are!

The regular potatoes are here as well - there are plenty to dig for dinner each night, and they'll be fine to stay underground until the weather gets pretty cold.

Reed's job each day is to do a lot of chicken tending.  He feeds them each morning and collects their eggs through the day.  We're starting to get quite the bounty of eggs as all of the hens are laying now!  The duck doesn't seem to be laying yet... not sure when that will start.

Of course I can't resist to add some photos of the youngins - I do love the nice hot Summer, but something about snuggling up in a sweater is a great feeling, too!  Here's ZB wearing the first sweater of the season...

I'll leave you with a shot of Reed goofing it up for the camera - he always like to be featured on the blog!  Happy Fall everyone!

Morning Chore Surprise!

ZB and I headed out this morning to do the outdoor parts of the morning chores.  I have started putting two areas of food out for the chickens.  The younger chickens are quickly catching up in size to the older ones, but still not hanging out all together.  So, while the big girls feast on their breakfast and don't let in the younger ones, I fill up a frisbee with some nibbles for the young ladies.  Here you can see an older hen eyeing the frisbee food, so it's not an entirely foolproof plan yet.

As we walked back to the house, ZB spied a little frog friend in her pool.  This girl has a talent for finding frogs, I think!  She has been known to run up to us all excited, with a patient little frog in her tiny grip.  This one was quick in the water, but ZB sure tried hard to catch it!

She even tried baiting it with her swiss chard snack...

She eventually gave up and toddled away to share her picture story with her brothers.

Chicken

Well, I'm either a chicken or just lazy. I'm going to go with the latter to save face. Our little flock of birds is getting smaller by the minute, I tell ya! We have 8 chickens and 2 ducks currently. Turns out one of our sexed chicks was not properly identified (it happens), and we happen to have a lovely rooster. He really is a pretty thing, and that why I feel like such a chicken for not loving the guy - but I really can't stand him

 I have bad associations with roosters from our days living in Colorado and taking care of a neighbor's flock. His rooster would routinely attack me (like, several times a day, I just got used to kicking the guy in the face). I've read the stories about roosters blinding children, because they go for the eyes, and they freak me out! (not to worry - this is only if your kid is between 1 and 2 years old - hey wait! that's us!). Our rooster isn't especially aggressive, but I'm just afraid he'll get there. Plus, his breed is not my fave. So, if he were to procreate (and yes, I witnessed his attempts at this, for the first time, tonight... yikes! those poor hens!), I wouldn't really want any of his off-spring.

I've done lots of you-tubing of chicken "harvesting" and actually feel pretty okay with doing it. But, alas, I really just don't feel like killing him myself! He's not particularly meaty, so it'd be a big deal (in my opinion) for maybe a few pounds of meat. I just want him gone more than I want to deal with him. So, yup, I'm probably a chicken.

Hey, anyone want a rooster??

http://asheville.craigslist.org/grd/3115198129.html

Beginnings

All projects have to start somewhere - even if it's a small start, it still feels good to see beginnings of progress.  The strawberries are producing a handful a day - this is from the off-shoots of our 1 plant last year that survived the move, so next year hopefully we'll have a basket-full a day!

 She says, "Stop taking my picture, mama!  Let me eat my berries in peace!"

This years starts are ready to be put in the ground, I believe...

The guys built a half-fence around the veggie garden.  We were thinking the hens only get into the garden from close to their coop, so we'd experiment with the fence only being on the side of their coop.  Well, it took them about 2 hours to figure it out... see them on the trellis next to the pink flowers?  They think they're hot stuff for sure.

We shooed 'em outta the garden, and look how big and pretty they're getting at 8 weeks!

Plums are starting to fatten up, too...

 I just turn my back for a second, and of course ZB's found mischief to get into :)

We're feeling good about the little farm beginnings, and yet have no time to dwell on them because a full-fledged toddler is emerging, and needing a "watchful eye" nearly always ;)  Love to all~

Warmth

Short-sleeves for the family and outdoor field trips for the chickies - crazy warm weather around here!

Push me! One of ZB's favorite toys, for sure! This carriage was an early birthday present from her Sissa (B's mom). She loves pushing it around the house, and also climbs on in, expectantly waiting for a ride. Thank you Sissa :)

Chickies in their outdoor playpen/tropical cabana (complete with potted banana tree for shade :)

Fast asleep watching the chicks...

My Little Chickens

Our little chickies needed their heat lamp raised (they wouldn't get anywhere near the heat, so they were ready for it to not be quite so warm). I couldn't figure out a good (safe) way to raise it, without B drilling a new hole in the ceiling for a hook. So, we brought them out into the living room, where there already is an unused ceiling hook. It also lets them get more attention, since they are in an active area, and it's easier for me to take their waterer outside to clean it (which is pretty often now!).

10 days old - chirp chirp!
And here's the other little chicken in the house - this one was supposed to be sitting on her potty and decided to teeter down the hallway with it, instead :) Too cute to stop!