Introducing...

"Look what we got!" Canaan says.

Jonah's Aracauna(really Easter Eggers but this is what they were sold as) is named Henrietta but he's at work and named her over the phone without even seeing her, gasp!


Tricia. No clue why he chose this name but he said he liked it and it was the first girl's name he came up with. Justus' chick is THE cutest with this cool mohawk and really pretty coloring.



Ari. Short for Ariel but I wouldn't allow Disney movie names unless they were nicknames so...



Jazzy. Short for Jasmine, see above.


Penzy. Short for Rapunzel, see above.


Nancy(after Nancy Drew).


Fairlight (someone's been watching a lot of the "Christy" series).



Buffy. It seemed fitting since she is a Buff Orpington, ya know?

After a very frustrating afternoon of not getting all the chicken's I wanted(they said they had them but they didn't and then a lady rushed in without paying(literally) and took all of the one's I was in line paying for before I had put them in my box). I will be going back in to town early Friday morning as the chicks come off the truck in hopes of finishing off our flock with some Barred Rocks and Wyandotte's and a friend is giving us some already laying Rhode Island Reds in about a month. Fun, fun!

Through Isaiah's eyes

Isaiah asked me the other day if he could borrow my camera to take pictures. I handed it over, interested to see what he would capture. It seems like he spent most of his time in our garden, where he loves to be. Enjoy!

The start of a dream

One of the things Jonah and I dreamed about when moving on this land is having animals that would give us fresh, organic, wholesome food. The garden is growing and we are learning what we want to do next year to make it more productive for our needs. Chickens have been on our list for a long, long time and now, here we are!



The chickens are not here yet, of which I am extremely anticipatory, because we have a vacation coming up in September and don't have anyone who will take care of them while we're gone. Anyone want to house sit and take care of some chicks and a dog for a week? Just thought I'd ask. :)



Anyways, the chicken coop is done and ready for some chickens! I think it is just beautiful and matches our house and well house perfectly. The kids keep begging to sleep in it and can barely wait to go and collect eggs from the "egg door".



One of the chicken doors opens into our garden(and closes too) so that they can forage during the winter/spring months and give us some good manure. The rest of the year they will be out wandering in our little forest with hopes that our dog, Stella, won't get into her cute little head to eat one. We'll see how that goes, right?

Snacks

First off, today my amazing husband turns 36 years old. How is he so old already? Wow. :)

I am gearing up for our homeschooling year and want to organize snacks for the kids each day and have a master list of things available at all times. Last year I spent way too much time each day trying to decide what to give them for a snack and I want that time back! We do 2 snacks a day(at 10:30 and 3:30) and I want to stay away from packaged snacks completely. I don't want it to take more than 5 minutes(at most) to prepare and get on the table for them. I am open to making something on "baking" day for their snack for the week too but don't want anything with too much sugar in it(or any at all).

So, give me your best ideas.

See this cute little guy?

He's five years old and taught himself how to ride a 2 wheeler all by himself just like 3 of his older siblings did at the same age. I'm pretty proud of him and amazed at how brave he is becoming. I love my JuJu Bee a whole heck of a lot!

Bullet post

As you can tell from my lack of blogging, we have been busy. Like crazy busy stuff. It seems that things always come all at once and you are left with your head swimming.

- I have been trying to post a blog post but something was wrong with my internet in that it refused to let me publish a post and I had to change it so it would work. I'm glad I finally figured it out!

- Our garden is growing great. It's just taking a really long time since we had such a late start.

- Our car that fits our whole family broke down and we were left without it for 3 days. Even though we could have gotten a rental they don't rent cars for a family of 9 so it's pointless.

- When we got back from camping we discovered that a coupling had cracked from freezing this past winter and the boy's room was all wet by the door, along the wall was saturated and it completely buckled some of our wood floors. Talk about blah!

- We have a crew working on fixing all the damage done by the water this week and are grateful for home owner's!

- My kids are great and so much fun to hang out with.

- We are STILL waiting to be able to finalize Canaan's adoption. If you would pray about that, we would really appreciate it! It is getting beyond frustrating and we just want it to be done.

- We made a turn around trip to Southern California to go to my Papa's funeral. Lots of driving...

- Jonah is working on fencing... again. This time it's for something fun though but I'm gonna keep it a secret just because I can.

- My 11 year old turned TWELVE last week. I'm still trying to wrap my head around how that one happened.

-I have no plan on starting school right now. I haven't even bought curriculum yet, yikes! Other things have been taking my time and energy(and money).

- I fall in love more and more every day with my amazing man. I am one pretty blessed woman.

The garden is growing

My very first garden ever got a very late start this year. Finally, we are seeing things that are very exciting. I wish you could see Justus when we walk into the garden each day. He goes to each plant and exclaims loudly over what is new and what is growing bigger. Oh, the delight of a child!




Roma tomatoes for homemade tomatoe sauce. We planted 15 of these puppies. They aren't touching the ground yet and it's on my to-do list to tie them up.



Purple Cherokee's. These are huge and just keep getting bigger! I can't wait to cut in to one of these and see how it tastes.


Arizona peppers waiting to be ripe to get slapped on the BBQ.



Watermelon!


Our very first yellow necked squash is growing. Fun!



Carrots are almost ready.


Green beans are itty-bitty but you can see them:)



The corn is starting to, uh, not sure what it's called but it's new so I documented it.



Sugar pumpkins are taking over.

Next year we will be planting much, much more. I'm wondering if any master gardeners out there can tell me if square foot gardening is really worth the effort in terms of production? I'm seeing that our garden space is not going to be big enough for what we'd like to do with it the way we are now. Thanks!