chickens

I enjoy having chickens. I love fresh eggs. I love that they eat all sorts of bugs. Simple things in life :)

The black one above is the one the boys have named Alpha. We weren't too sure she wasn't a he at first. She can be quite nasty at times.

Later this week I will be adding some more hens to my flock. I originally started out with four ( 2 rhode islands and 2 australorps). A gentleman in my church who lives by my parents ( which is a block from my house) moved, and I inherited 4 more. He used to have more, but a raccoon got into his hen house. Only 4 survived. I had one die 6 months later- I think she was egg bound. My hens are 2 1/2 years old. I am not getting as many eggs as I used to- much to my childrens dismay. Another lady in my church is looking to rehome some of her hens. They are 16 weeks old. I am looking forward to it! They are leghorns. I will post pics once I receive them!

Busy!

This word describes my life the last 2 1/2 weeks.
We celebrated the 4th, redid our kitchen and I had cub scout day camp to attend. In my little spare time, I am the program director for cubs and tigers.
Now that it is done, I can breathe :)
My hubby started the taking down the kitchen cabinets with the help of the middle two boys. They rocked. We got the cabinets up, I stained them and then proceeded to paint the kitchen.

It was definitely time consuming!

The only thing different is I painted the walls- they are currently a primer white.
I will NEVER paint a dark color again. Its too time consuming to cover up!
We also picked up a new fridge. With 6 boys- 2/3 of them teens- we needed a bigger fridge. The new one is almost 31 cubic sq feet. I can fit 12 gallons of milk in it. I. Am. In. Love. I despise grocery shopping. The fridge was on sale, we really couldn't pass it up.

Moving on to other items- our adoption was finalized. R never stopped smiling. It was great. His other foster dad and one of his friends were able to come down and attend.

R has wanted to be baptized for several months.
That happened the same week as the adoption.
*He has never smiled so much as he has that week. It was great!
J's dad came and did the baptism.

Can you see the family resemblance?

I love my aunt! She came too.

Complete! ( almost)

I came home from work Thursday to find the old cabinets, countertops, and sink in my driveway.
Inside, the boys and hubby were working on putting in the new cabinets.
I am happy.
I have to stain and seal them. Its been too hot here to do that at the moment ( high today was 92, and yes for the Seattle area- that is just HOT!)
I also need to patch some holes and repaint. That's all easy :)
Pictures coming soon!

Sick

I hate being sick. Especially when its nice out. My room gets way to warm, which doesn't help any. Why is it that my kids willing share germs, and not other thins..
On the plus note, hubby returned home yesterday. I wont have to be "single parenting it" for a while.
I am hoping that we will start our kitchen remodel this weekend.

Our foster kids ADOPTION will be FINALIZED TUESDAY!
We are excited. As of Tuesday afternoon, we will have another son!

Beginning of Summer

I love this time of year. The days here have been pleasantly warm. Even when it rains, its not too chilly. Friday I ordered 10 yards of dirt

It was delivered Saturday, before 8am- I couldn't believe it.
We ( my kidlets and I) began to spread it. My parents loaned us their wheelbarrow and some more shovels.

I then decided to remove the side garden fence, and move the garden to the property fence. My older kids were not impressed, but they took it down for me.

 



 The fence they removed was on the left hand side of the picture.

The above picture is what it looks like now..
Same with the below pictures.

 

I have so much more room now for vegetables!

We filled in the garden area around the fruit trees as well.

I planted Marigolds under the trees, in addition to parsley and cilantro.
I am excited to see how they do.
We still have over 1/2 the dirt left, I am hoping that when hubby gets back we can finish getting the cement pad demo'd. Once that is done, we can move the dirt where the cement was. I am looking forward to the yard looking neater.

We also added dirt to the chicken coop.

 

I do occasionally let my hens "free range" in the backyard when I am back there. They are great pest control.

 

 

   Here is a picture of strawberries I picked tonite from my strawberry patch

I think I will be making strawberry jam tomorrow!

 

sun!

It's been warm here, 84 today. It feels so nice! My garden is beginning to grow, my trees are budding. I dried 6 loads of clothes on the line! Dinner was BBQ chicken and baked potatoes. Simple,easy and filling.
We have been pricing counter tops, sinks and faucets. We found a sink we like, now we have to decide on what type of counter top. I like quartz, but hubby didn't see any colors that he liked. We will have to go to some more home improvement stores and compare.
On a better note, for those who are aware, we have a foster kid. The good news is the adoption should be final by the end of this month. We will be glad once this process is done,it is so much paperwork.
We had a birthday party for our FK. I will post pics later.

Projects Projects Projects

My hubby arrived home a few weeks ago from his first year at BYU-I.  Its good to have him home, I'm not too sure who was more excited, the boys or him.  Needless to say, he has been busy here with the boys and the never-ending honey-do-list, as he likes to call it. We decided to put in a raised bed for herbs this week. He and the boys took scrap wood that we had to create it. As you can see, my hens were using it as a bird-dust bath area instead.

Here is the before area. Grass did not grow well there because there used to be a huge fir tree on my neighbors side of the fence. They removed it this fall. So, now I have lots of sun to plant things! ( Such as my dwarf apple trees)

Here are the younger boys digging and planting the trees... My FK is watching, he's never lived any place or with anyone who gardens or does yard work or crazy projects :)

 

Here the kids are, haming it up... BTW- this picture is evident that there is sun in the Seattle area..

 

 

Here is the almost-finished project. I just need to add my dirt, and then I can plant away... My hens were eating all sorts of grubs and bugs, which I am thankful for. I tell my husband they are dual purpose. I use them for eggs and pest control.

My husband was able to expand the garden. Son #3 was kind enough to put the chicken wire up between the fencing to keep my little dogs out.

 I look forward to getting the dirt in there and seeing how much I grow in that space this year. My garden did really well last year, one of my goals for this year is to stagger my seeds. I do have some volunteer lettuce and spinach growing. I am leaving it for now. We can eat it all the same once it is big enough. I am also going to look into how to save seeds once my plants bolt. If I can save some money, why not-right?

Unfortunately for us, the rain is suppose to be moving back in tomorrow. We have really slacked with homeschool this week. One of my goals for tomorrow is to make an itinerary for my son and husband to follow for the week.  We'll see how much I get done tomorrow.