Twelve Chickens and Two Ducks: Chirp, Chirp!

I'm so happy to announce the addition of baby chicks to our family!! If you follow me on Instagram, you've already seen my little flock growing but let me properly introduce them to you here.

Their birth story begins like this...

I've been wanting my own flock for some time now (read the beginnings of the bird envy here) so after much research and prep, I decided a definitive yes on my babes. I knew I would get them from the TSC since they are local and allotted me the perfect amount to start my flock. I called daily to see if they had arrived yet. I'm sure the people at the TSC were very tired of hearing from me each-and-every day and were thrilled when my persistent stalking of the chicks was over! They hatched on a Tuesday and finally arrived at the store on a Thursday. I went in to pick them up with a big smile of a new Mommy!


When I arrived, they had various tubs of chicks. The one marked with "pullets" had black and yellow little bundles of fuzz. I thought I would get three of each since the minimum is six. When I got assistance in wrangling up my chicks, the TSC sales clerk said only the black ones were pullets. With that, I purchased six black hens to take home. The car ride home was a real treat as they pecked at the box and chirp, chirp, chirped all the way home! Once home, in the brooder they went.

Later that afternoon I went to pick up the kids and decided to take them by TSC with me as I had forgot one item for the chicks. While there, I had a conversation about the black vs yellow pullets. The sales clerk (different from the original) said they were all pullets. Kimmie really loved the yellow ones so out the door we went with six more chickens for a total of 12. Oh, and two ducks. Lord, help me!

All twelve little chicks and two ducks ended up in one brooder together! Our first brooder was a big storage tub--nothing fancy. We put it in my father-in-laws workshop so they would be safe from predators (like my cat). There are a couple of things I realized about owning poultry right away...

1. They grow fast! 
2. They eat A LOT! 
3. They need their water changed as soon as you put it in their brooder.

The first week was a learning experience for this new chicken Momma but I've enjoyed it! The joy that these little chicks and ducks have brought my kids is amazing. I love that they will get to grow up with a chicken family!

More to come on my experiences and what I've learned about chickens!

With love,

Reynie

Around Here

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind! I had a short week because hubs and I were leaving to go to a trip to the Bahamas. More to come on that later... But I was trying to cram everything I normally do in a week into three days. That makes for some hectic times! And on top of that, I was in the office every day because I was holding a configuration session for a new software product my company is implementing. I love those sessions because of the team work efforts you go through to configure a system, but at the same time, it was a bad week for me. The drive time alone takes time out of my day to get stuff done! ugh. But once I hit the beach... all was good!

Hi, Bahamas. I love your pretty blue waters and always 70ish degree air! And it's just me and hubs...

Besides the Mommy-Daddy trip we had, we also got our new flock. These little guys have been so much fun! I have lots to update you on about these little girls!

And while on vacation, I had conversations with our breeders about our new pup that will be coming our way mid-April!! My little Will is so excited about his new dog-dog!! He will be a Brittany Spaniel and will be very loved by our family. Really excited! Here is the proud Mom and Dad!

But of course when hubs and I got home from our trip, the kids got sick. Nothing like trying to take care of your sick babies while digging through the piles of work email that compiled while gone. The life of a working parent is never easy! Heck, the life of any parent is never easy!! 

This virus has been brutal on my littles! One threw up all over my bed Wednesday night and then the other started running 103.7 fever and then when I thought the first one was better, the fever started with him. They have logged some serious sleeping and TV watching hours this week! Thank goodness I do have the luxury of working from home so I can keep them here when they are sick. While they are sleeping, I get my work done. And when they are awake, I just try to hold them. Poor things!

Nonetheless, it has been a long couple weeks making it all juggle without dropping any balls. Thank God for beer or I might not make it through some days! Blessed through it all though!

More fun stories of all the exciting stuff of vacation, chickens, and dogs to come though as I want to make sure I don't lose the good stuff!

With love,

Reynie

Choose Love; Have Peace

I saw it all over Facebook at the start of the year--choose your word for the year! I thought it sounded nice and perhaps I would come up with a one-word motto for the year. It sorta reminded me of college football teams. They select a word, post it on a sign, and then hit that sign as they run out of the tunnel onto the field. It's their inspiration.

My problem was that I couldn't come up with a one word motto for my year.

Not that it mattered because I could definitely proceed along my walk with the Lord without having a one-word slogan. He wasn't going to be too disappointed in me for that one (I give him a list of other things I do that he shakes his head at). I just filed the thought away and didn't put much consideration into it again.

Until one night... I have these horrible dreams sometimes that something has happened to my children or my husband and I have a hard time waking myself from them. I feel myself being so sad and try to talk myself out of these thoughts and dreams but it seems like such a challenge as I lay there in slumber. Perhaps this fear of something happening to your off-spring is just the burden that every mother carries but the bible tells us not to live in fear. This is one thing that I try to remind myself of as these thoughts occur--fear not!

This particular night though as I laid there struggling with my mind I got a new message--choose love. God so gentle whispered it that I could barely hear it in my distraction. I said the words in my head--"choose love." The fear seemed to start to fade. With each repeating of those words, I could feel the love and safety that God brings to me. Choose love.

I think because God is love that when I focus on that, I'm in turn focusing on HIM. I choose love.

And peace, it just seems to follow.

Once I choose love, God provides me peace. 

Psalm 29:11 "The LORD gives strength to his people; the LORD blesses his people with peace."

So I may not have settled on just ONE word and ended up with a few, but I have something that God gave to me that is a pretty darn good motto for this phase of my life. Choose love; have peace.

Isaiah 26:3 "You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you."

Since that night, when I have those awful thoughts that enter my mind, I repeat to myself "choose love" over and over again until I feel the peace of God. And all is good.

John 14:27 "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."

With love,

Reynie

Chicken Research

I grew up with chickens and one really mean rooster by the name of "Big Red!" He was a fierce old fella. That's the "Red" below...

My grandmother had them around her farm and when I was a little older I remember us having them at an old yellow house we lived at in Moreland. We entered some chickens in the fair one year and I remember getting a blue ribbon. The ducks one ribbones, too.

They always seemed like the playmates for me and my siblings. They would roam around free range--or maybe they just got out of the pen--who knows, but nonetheless they were always our constant companions as children. I remember we had one of those classic blue plastic swimming pools in the summer and the ducks always got in with us to take a swim. I think once they snapped at my little brother, Carson and after that, we let them have their "adults only" swim.

Usually in summer I get lucky enough to obtain a few local chicken eggs which is always a treat to me! The color of the yolk and the fresh taste of a local, fresh chicken egg is like magic. The store bought eggs, even if free range organic, can't compare.

Last year we took on our first family pet, a tough-guy orange and white cat named Mittens. Little terrorist. We love him dearly and he is essential to keeping the mouse population under control at our little farm. I've been able to adjust to having another mouth to feed in addition to my four and six year old kids! I was worried that it might stress me out, but I've had no real stress problems... well, nothing that a nice glass of red wine at the end of the day can't fix. After I felt comfortable with our cat I started to feel more confident that I could add more pets to our palace. That's when the chicken craze started.

I knew spring would be coming and that would be the prime time to start my own flock. I've been researching and reading and chatting and day dreaming about all things chicken!

These are some of my favorite sites that I've found very helpful in my research:

Backyard Chickens
Fresh Eggs Daily
The Chicken Chick

Now, those are the "big timers" when it comes to chickens. There a ton of other bloggers out there that have info on chicken keeping. To track everyone, I started a Pinterest board on chickens. This allows me to keep up with my articles and what I should be reading on.

The best advice though is going to come from the other local farmers. My father-in-law has been a wealth of information for me. Although, he did try to convince me that I need thirty chickens! ha! Love the Big One!

After all the research and the investiagting and praying, I finally have settled on my own little flock that includes 12 chickens and 2 ducks!! Here's a snap shot with more to come!!

With love,

Reynie

Chow-Chow

I think "chow-chow" is a Southern thing, but I may be wrong about that. Wouldn't be the first time. Nonetheless, I love this classic Southern relish. Some times it's sweet, sometimes it's spicy. I like mine with a little of both. The spice up front and the sweet that trails on the back-end. Yum-O!

Once a year I try to make a big batch of chow-chow and then stock it away for when the fresh peas are harvested. Of course, we eat it along the year, but I always keep an eye on how many jars are left to ensure we have some come pea time!

I usually find myself making my chow-chow around late fall into winter. Since the main ingredient is cabbage, I wait till my garden produces enough big, crunchy heads of cabbage to use for the recipe.

I grew up watching my Momma can things--if that woman could harvest it, jam it, relish it.. she was going to put it in a mason jar for future consumption. I was always fascinated by the rows of neatly stacked mason jars with their various colors of food contents. I knew that each one held some sort of treat! But for some reason, I was very intimidated by canning--I had this fear that I was going to give some one Botulism. I'm sure the fear developed from watching some documentary show about bad canning technique.

 

A few years back I got over my fear when I ended up with an over abundance of cabbage in my fall garden. It was just one of those years that Mother Nature sprang everything to life in mass quantities. And since I hate to waste my beautiful garden produce, I looked into cabbage recipes. After many nights of cooked cabbage, cabbage casserole, cabbage soup... you name it, I needed something else to do with it. That's when I came across a chow-chow recipe.

 

I sucked up my fear, broke out my Momma's old canning guide from many moons ago, and went to experimenting. I shredded the cabbage, added salt, and let it soak for a night. The next day, I did as the recipe directed--added tomatoes, onions, peppers of all sorts, and spices galore! When I started cooking it, I could smell the wonderful aromas so I stuck my head over the pot to get a better sniff and about burned my eye balls out with the onion/pepper fumes! Holy-moly!  

I got out my collection of mason jars and washed them in the dish washer... maybe twice just to make sure the bacteria was dead and I wouldn't have botulism stuck in any cracks. I boiled them as directed... maybe longer... you know that entire botulism thing?

The first time I tried adding the hot mixture to the hot jar was comical... and painful. I may have burnt myself once or twice. The next time I did canning I was sure to purchase some neat little gadgets that would help out tremendously in the pouring process. Lesson learned.

After they were canned up, back in the hot water bath they went for a while before coming to their final resting place on the kitchen counter for full cooling. After having a few years of canning under my belt now, I think besides eating the goodness, my favorite part of it is hearing the little jars "pop" as they cool. That little pop of the lid always excites me!

Don't be afraid of the botulism!

With love,

Reynie

Weekend Review

This past weekend was a typical weekend around our house. The highlight was taking the kids to their cousin's birthday party at the bowling center. Have you ever been cosmic bowling? The kids loved it, but I've decided I'm too old and too blind for that stuff. I've got to have lights to see where the ball is going! I can already predict I'll be grumpy when I'm old(er). Regardless, it was a big hit for my young bowlers even if I couldn't see in front of me! And happy birthday cousin, Addy!

Saturday morning, pre-birthday party, we started the day off with a big breakfast. I have fond memories of my Daddy always making these big breakfasts! Makes sense that the man now owns a Huddle House restaurant that serves breakfast 24 X 7. So I guess I came with the big-breakfast gene naturally. This week it was a fixin' of bacon, homemade biscuits, and eggs. We also had a few blueberries--my son's favorite!

After the birthday party extravaganza we stopped at Tractor Supply Co to purchase some items we will need for our new baby chicks (that's another post!). While shopping on chicken supplies my children feel in love with this plush, red barn chicken coop. After explaining that we were not taking the chicken coop home, they settled for the consolation purchase of a new kid-sized rack and shovel. Off to the garden we went to try them out.

This was the end product of our Tractor Supply Co shopping trip... My baby chickens will arrive soon! This Momma bird is prepared! (i think).

While the kids were occupied with digging in the garden, I planted my new raspberry bushes. I think once they get a little size on them, I will transplant them to my "orchard" (my husband laughs when I say "orchard" as all it consists of right now is three blueberry bushes, a half-to-almost-dead grape vine, and a fig tree... but soon enough it will be a big, bountiful collection of fruit trees and bushes that the Garden-of-Eden would be envious of!!). 

And this guy... still making such crisp, green collard leaves! Yep, we ate some of that for dinner on Sunday!

After some hard garden and yard work one deserves some homemade pizza and beer. Well, beer for me and milk for them. You can't tell in the picture below but that pizza had about four different combinations to it. The one thing about making pizza from scratch is that you can jazz it up anyway you want to and hopefully please everyone!

Sunday was a little lazy. It started out raining so we skipped church. I had the ongoing earache issues that I seem to be suffering with this season so I needed some down time and an extra cup of Joe. (note to self: look into the essential oils to try to find something to help my stupid earaches.)

 

After a few cups of coffee I went to work in the kitchen. A few weeks back I had tried to make a batch of rolls for dinner and they failed to rise properly. I ended up using the dough for pretzels which turned out okay knowing what I started with. I had to redeem myself (and my confidence) so I went at it again. This time I opted for bread loaves vs dinner rolls. And it turned out beautiful! Ahhh, the smell of fresh baked bread on a Sunday is so comforting. Good stuff, kids!

 

Sunday afternoon Kimmie and I started work on the kids homework area. I shared how I have a Pinterest board for all my ideas to make this area more efficient. I finally put some of those ideas to work. We made a good run at organizing the craft supplies (and Lord knows there is a magnitude of craft supplies!) but we have many more details to complete. I'll post a after picture once it all comes together.

I'll say though that I love this sort of time with my daughter. It is so rewarding getting to spend time with her working on some sort of project and watching her work through the ideas in her head. I know the time will come too quickly where she doesn't want to spend her Sunday afternoon doing projects with Momma so I try to soak up the goodness while I can!

And this guy kept a watchful eye on me all weekend! My cat loves his kitty window seat so he can observe all things going on in the kitchen. He's a curious fella but at times I feel like he is sitting there thinking, "she ain't doing that right!" Look at his face... You know how cats are... judgmental little beast.

The weekend overall was a nice one and now back to the grind! Blessed to have a grind to go back to though!

Here's wishing you had a nice weekend and great week ahead!

With love,

Reynie

Bread Making

For some time now I've been a little freaked out that the store-bought bread never seems to mold. It can sit in my bread basket for two weeks plus and never grow any penicillin! Weird. That just doesn't seem natural or normal. That has lead me to want to make my own bread. That way, I know what goes in it and that it isn't full of chemicals, bread conditioners, and other no-nos.

I decided to start basic so I used the recipe on the back of the White Lily bread flour bag. Seemed pretty straight forward so here goes...

I've made my family's yeast rolls since I was knee high to my Mom so I'm familiar with working with yeast. The important thing is that it bubbles and gets all yeast-ee like.

The milk and shortening mixture always seems so good to me. It has this comforting type smell that let's you know that something good is coming.

Working with the dough is classified as an aerobic workout. It takes some muscle power to mix this stuff around for the needed time.

I get anxious watching it rise. It looks so pretty and puffy and I know it is going to taste wonderful once it's baked.

And it didn't disappoint!

I was proud of myself for stepping out to try a new bread recipe. I now have a little confidence in the bread making department on hope to start doing more of this. I'll be blog hopping looking for some good recipes but if you have one, please share! 

With Love,

Reynie