A look at the chicken coop

We call this the "Chick Mahal."  Bret, being an architect, couldn't just make a coop. Noooooo  This coop came with 3 dimensional plans done up on a computer program.

I'm kind of partial to the color red, but apparently all paint isn't made the same. After careful selection (ok, an hour of looking) of just the right farm color of red, I took the card to the paint counter. The helpful guy told me he could only get that tint with the really expensive paint. (That's not exactly the way he said it, but that's what he meant.) I looked at him and said "Really? This is for a chicken coop. Can't you get close?"  I think he did pretty darn good, don't you?

The girls seem to like it ok! They're really starting to give a good amount of eggs and we're oh so thankful for that! Having chickens is something I never knew I loved!

TTFN

Hay vs. Straw

Do you know the difference between the two?  If your learning curve is as steep as mine, this post will be very informative. We had to clean the dog house thoroughly for the second time in a week. We want to put some bedding down for the puppies for the winter. I called my friend to find out where she gets her hay and she gave me a great little tip that I'm going to pass along.  Hay is for eating, straw is for pooping on. Now I'll never get the two mixed up again!  If you'd do me a favor though, and not share this little tip with my little boys, I'd appreciate it. They're liable to take it to heart.  Thanks so much!

TTFN

Do you walk around your house barefoot? At night?

I don't!

TTFN

Ah, the joys of country living

This post is kinda gross. Don't say I didn't warn you! This morning my son, Joshua, came to me and said "Mom, you need to come look at this chicken."  Gosh, I hate it when they say things like that. It never means something good! Sure enough, that chicken has a problem. Now this is Rocky we're talking about here. So far, she's been our best layer. We have to keep this chicken healthy!  Ends up she has an "impacted crop".  A what you say?  She's not digesting her food properly because the silly thing isn't drinking enough water. Doesn't she know it's hot outside??

We asked Dr. Google what to do about her and he said to gently turn her upside down and massage the crop. This would help some of the undigested food come back up.  Well, since it's Joshua's job to take care of the chickens, he gets the responsibility of doing the good and the bad. (Thank goodness for kids!!)  So he does what Dr. Google says and let me tell you, chickens throw up about as gracefully as toddlers! Which is to say, they don't.  He had to change his clothes after it was all over. The good news is.....he'll probably have to do it again later this afternoon.  Pray for him.

TTFN

Captain's Log

Ok, this is the first post on my new blog. I've really wanted to have some kind of log if you will of the events of our days. They just go by so fast. One of these days I'm going to wake up and wonder what did I do with all my time? Where did it go? This blog will hopefully help me to see that the days were indeed busy with many fruitful activities.

My name's Janice. I've got 7 wonderful kiddos ranging in age from 16 to almost 2. Yes, that's driving down to diapers! We're a homeschooling family and wouldn't have it any other way. We moved this past spring to 7.5 acres in the Oklahoma country. We had such great summer plans for our place, but alas, we didn't realize this would be a summer to beat all summers. The heat has pretty much kept us indoors. On the bright side, we got A LOT of school work done. No sense sitting around just staring at each other. We did get to start our chicken flock this summer and I'll tell you all about that in further posts.

Well, TTFN!