new babies

Yesterday morning we welcomed our first little baby chicken. I kept looking in the incubator to see if anything was happening, and was starting to worry that it didn`t work. After a little while though we had one to hatch. Willow came running at me full speed (I was doing the laundry) tripped over the dog, and landed at my feet, got up and screamed " we got a ugly chicken " . So after an eyebrow raise and a huh? I follow her to the incubator, and yup we had a very wet pitiful looking chicken sitting there. So I told her he`s not ugly, he just has to dry off and get his balance.....so she dutifully watches over him for about 20 minutes, and I hear an "awwwww, he`s adorable" . I go back to see what shes gushing about and another one had hatched. By the end of the day we had 14 to hatch.
 It was getting pretty crowed in the incubator, so we moved the dry ones to the brooder the hubby had got ready for us. Now we are waiting for the rest to hatch. I think if we give them another day or so they should. Theres  alot of eggs with holes or cracks, so we know theres still more to come.
I`m thinking we should do this again soon, maybe with bantam eggs.

homemade dish liquid

We tried our hand at making some dish detergent. This does not make bubbles.....and I found out that bubbles are added to store detergents, and are not even what cleans your dishes. Now at first, this stuff is amazing, it literally cleaned the dishes without scrubbing. After a few days though it separated and just didn`t seem to work as good. Here`s the recipe we used, but note that we will be working to make it better over the next while. 

- 1 tbsp. grated ivory soap
- 1 tbsp. washing soda
- 1 tbsp. white vinegar
- 1and 1/2 cups hot water

stir all together until melted, then stir on and off throughout the day. After it gels some, add a few drops of an essential oil, mix well. We used orange oil. Then pour into an old dish soap bottle.



After doing some research, I found that  mixing vinegar and soap was the problem, the vinegar clumps the soap, and takes away the cleaning power of the soap. So next time I will try it without the vinegar.

Fun in the sun

Its official the youngest child and Cletus the rooster are at war. We had to keep them separated this past weekend after he chased the poor child into the house, and she came back out with the fly swatter and  threatened to fry him.......

The ducks are growing and growing, and have become instant buddies to the children.

We are starting to be able to tell what breeds of bantams we have now, we had bought chicks of various breeds.

The incubating eggs are now on lock down and should be hatching in the next few days if all works out well. Stay tuned for news on them...

Hubby saved the tomato plants from the weird late frost, and they look amazing.

We found baby birds and had fun playing with them until hubby told us the mom was gonna get us...



And now some pictures........

                                                     duckies !

                                                 everybody loves green apples.....

                                                   
                                                       the garden so far........

                                                        baby birds we found in an old birdhouse

mulberry jam coming soon......

the onion and garlic patch

We love a good auction

We spent this past Saturday at the auction sale. Had a great time, and found some good deals. This is always a great way to save money and meet new people. The sale has two parts. First is the junk sale, where people can try to sell or buy anything at all. There were old tools, lawnmowers, animal cages, dishes, furniture, etc. for sale. The second part is the small animal sale. This includes chickens, rabbits, other poultry, and eggs.

We took 2 dozen eggs with us, just to see what they would bring, ended at  $2 each.  The hubby found a whole bunch of animal cages of various sizes for cheap. I got a rabbit hutch with 2 free rabbits in it for $17. Then we went inside to watch the chicken sale......
I got excited, and bought more bantams, and hubby got him a pair of carrier pigeons. What we`re going to do with these very strange looking bantams I don't know. They have really long legs, and boy are they noisy. I just couldn't resit though. I plan on having a pair of a few different breeds of bantams, so that will be my justification. 
Sunday I found California baby girl bunnies for sale, so we went after a pair of those . That way we now have the ability to breed our California buck.....I'm thinking these will be great to sell around Easter time next year.

Here's some photos of our new additions.......


(here are some of the bantams that I bought, they`re called old english game. see how big they are compared to the coffee cups ? They are very small , and see how long their legs are ?)

( here are the other two bantams I bought, they are the same breed as above, just a different color )

When we got the bantams settled in , we went to check on them and these (above) had laid an egg. See how it compares to a regular chicken egg ( rhode island red )

This is the little rabbit hutch I found, it needs a little work, but it was too cheap to pass up.....

finally, here are my 2 new baby California girls

Houdini Birds

So all the baby chickens have been hanging out on the back porch in our little brooders for a few weeks now. We added 14 more babies the other day after a trip to town resulted in finding clearance baby chicks. So now we have speckled Sussex chickens as well.  I think I know why they were reduced now...they are little escape artists.
 I had opened the door to go out on the porch to do laundry, when I noticed a little baby sitting on the floor. Great I thought, now Ive got to catch him. After chasing him around for a few minutes, then him chasing me for a few, I called for the youngin......get this creature I told her. So she chases him into the corner and has to  do some contortionist like moves to reach under and behind some stuff to get him. Finally the little fellow is contained.
 I watch over the next few days to find these critters on top of their waterer, and walking along the edges of the brooder like little acrobats.
 The hubby had to put chicken wire on top of the bantam babies brooder because they have begun to fly , and were running around the back porch as well. They don't want you to know they can get out though, as they will jump back in as soon as they see you coming.

The bantams are starting to feather out now, and will soon have to move to the great outdoors. The ducks have finally moved to the garage with their little brooder and light ( by the way I really do not recommend that you have ducks anywhere near the house because boy are they funky).


The new baby speckled Sussex chickens.......

My little bantams......

Remember our lovely cats who enjoy nothing more than Tripping folks up? They have now multiplied. We have about 4 new baby kitties........anyone want a baby ? Please? :)



The proud mommy.....

The babies

Did you know......maybe you don`t wanna know

A few great  reasons why growing your own food is a good thing ........

After an afternoon of research on the net I came up with this :

• Apparently butter is only yellow because companies add the coloring to it......real butter is whitish.
• Vanilla ice cream and such is made from castoreum.....also known as beaver anal gland secretions......shudder...
• Beetles,or  cochineal (as it is perhaps more commonly known), is used to dye foods red purple and pink, like fruit juices, wine, ect.
• cysteine, made of human hair and duck bristles.....used as a dough enhancer for prepackaged breads
• methylparaben......ugh....found in wines, soft drinks, and concentrated juices.....it originates from the vagina's of dogs when they are in heat.....
• the FDA states that an average of 30 or more insect fragments and 1 or more rodent hairs per 100 grams of peanut butter, a kid staple, is allowed, before any action is taken. An average of 60 or more aphids and/or thrips and/or mites per 100 grams of frozen broccoli is allowed while 5 or more fly eggs and 1 or more maggots per 100 grams of tomato juice is okay......
• Brominated vegetable oil, a flame retardant......also found in sports drinks
• civet coffee, very expensive, made from the poop of the civet creature....
• Worcestershire sauce.....made of dissolved anchovies, bones and all
• half of all grocery store meats contain MRSA......

Makes you think, huh?

Homemade lotion

So I gave it a whirl, and attempted to make lotion. I think it turned out pretty good, not as thick as commercial brands, but it smells like vacation, and seems to do the job. Hubby doesn't like it though, he says it smells like apricots....sigh.

Here's what I did.
 I had gotten a shipment of cocoa butter, Shea butter, and ylang ylang essential oil the other day. So I wanted to mess around and see what I could do. I took a spoonful of coconut oil, a similar amount of Shea butter, a smidgen of cocoa butter, and 4 drops of the essential oil. heated it up for a few seconds in the microwave, mixed it up real good. I didn't think it was thick enough so I added some cornstarch until I had the right consistency. I then put it in a jelly jar and let it thicken on up. After you put a bit on, it is a bit greasy, because of the coconut oil, but its kind of nice on your legs, especially after shaving. Like I said it smells wonderful to me. The girls tried it, said it smelled like cake.

 Ive been playing with straight coconut oil in my hair also, and it has been a godsend. No more frizz ! :)



After playing with the ingredients, I think a simple shea butter ,cocoa butter mix would be sufficient. Just mix equal parts and warm slowly, mixing well every so often. This is much thicker, more like a body butter.

The past few days.... in pictures

This past week the ducks have grown by leaps and bounds, and are almost ready for the outside word. It couldn't`t come fast enough for us, these guys really do have an odor issue. Just messy , and funky , yet cute little guys.

The baby bantam chickens have about doubled in size, but still have a bit before they venture out from under the brooder light. This one is my favorite .....

Hubby threw down while I was at work, and planted all the tomato plants......

Hubby came up with a way to make his own hay by cutting strips in the field, letting one strip grow , then cutting it and letting it dry.....

Willow learned that you can`t mess with the hens when daddy lets them out or Cletus may have something to say..... Hubby said she didn't get hurt just scared. Unfortunately she won`t go out in the yard when he lets Cletus out (smile).

The bunnies are getting quite comfortable, and have been enjoying our weeding the flower beds immensely. I`m hoping they wont make the cages fall , they`re getting kind of chubby.

The fruit trees we planted are filling out, and hubby made the yard look like a park.....

All in all its been a wonderfull week, Willow even stopped to smell the roses.....

Incubator

We have baby chicks due April 17th .....

So it was during another trip to town that we decided to get us an incubator. Got the fancy egg turner to go with it, and all in all it was about $90 . Brought it all home, opened it up...its made out of Styrofoam? Seems like a strange way to make something that has a heater attached to it....but OK. Hubby wanted the fan attachment to go with it since it helps regulate the temperature. So after looking at the store, and such, found we had to order it. While waiting on the fan we saved eggs for a bit from our Rhode island gals. In all we have about 40 eggs ready to go, just had to keep them put up in cartons on the counter (cool, dark place) . After about a week and a half, the fan arrives. Hubby is excited, just a few minutes, and we`ll be ready to go.
OK, the fan came with instructions, but he had to wire this thing into the top of the incubator behind the heater. It took him a minute, but he finally got it. I didn't even go near it, I was sure I`d electrocute myself. I had to go to work, so I didn't need my hair in that kind of condition.

So now we had it all ready to go, set it up ,and it  took a day to regulate the temperature to 99.5 degrees. We put about 40 eggs in it, and have been waiting patiently. You have to put water in the bottom under the eggs for humidity, and that's not fun because of the design. You can`t see where the water is going, or when you have enough.

Now we are waiting on day 21 or so , and then we should have some babies.  We learned that not all are likely to hatch, and that's kind of sad, but it will be fun to teach the children. We can look every so often at the eggs by candling them, which is where you take a flashlight or candle and hold it up behind the egg to see what the shadow is doing. This also gives you an idea of how many will hatch. 

Here`s what everything looks like now, and I will keep everyone up to date as the days go by.....