Busy, busy, busy …

... as if that is any excuse for neglecting this blog for three months!

I started this as a form of record-keeping for our family and way to keep our extended family members and friends abreast of what is going on in our little world.  Oh, woeful failure!

Since last I blogged …

… the wildlife has turned out after a hard winter.

… the chicks are now over a month old.

… the ducks are fully grown and should soon produce eggs.

… the garden beds are all planted.

… our foundling cat turned out to be female and gifted us with two wee kittens.

… and most of all, the children are growing up, loving our life.

This photo features our five younger children.  Our oldest was the photographer that day.

 

Seeds, Freebies and Nerds ...

Our seed order arrived from Baker Creek!  We received it in just six days, including the weekend.  They even included a free packet of Red Romaine!  I'm blessed by that because we were bemoaning the fact that we hadn't ordered as many greens as we ought to have.

In other news, Homestead Revival is hosting a give-away from the folks at Homestead Drying Racks.  I've been eyeing their drying racks for a while now.  They have an excellent design and look to be well-constructed.

Such a drying rack would be ideal in front of our woodstove for drying clothing in the winter.  It dwarfs our wobbly little drying rack purchased at a big box store.  I finally gave up using that one because it was so precarious and held so little.

Last night I watched a video on NaturalNews.tv about misrepresentations in the organic poultry/egg industry.  (Click the image to view the video.)

I wanted to revisit one of the statistics in the short bit, so I replayed it today and all the children gathered around.  I joked that my children are nerds.  While other children are talking about video games and cartoons, they are watching organic poultry videos.


I don't mind at all.

Chicken order placed!

Things have been hectic at our place for the last few weeks, preventing me from blogging regularly.  I've really missed it!

Today we placed our first order for chicks.  We're very excited to raise heritage breeds from Sand Hill Preservation Center in Iowa.

We ordered just 50 birds to start and they will be surprises.  We requested 25 Assorted Heavy Chickens as well as 25 of the Super Assorted Chicks.

Hopefully this will give us an idea of what breeds we like and which birds will do well here.

Do you raise chickens?  If so, do you have any tips for us?  Please leave a comment!