Tis the Season

New chicks arrived today!

Last year, because of my pregnancy and morning sickness, we did not order baby chicks. I honestly have missed having the little balls of fluff.

I ordered pullets to replenish my flock of laying hens. I only got 50 total: 25 each of Welsummers and Buff Orpingtons.  Later in the spring I will order meat birds so we can run 2 batches this year.

Since I really didn't feel like keeping a make shift brood box in my kitchen this time, we finally forked out the money for an actual brooder.

We plan to move it to the garage once we get past freezing night time temps, but it has been super handy.  Although the company says day old chicks can walk on the wire floor, they seemed wobbly this morning when I put them inside. I decided a couple of days with paper on bottom would be simple. 

It also has food troughs on the outside, but again I felt it was easiest to use a feeder inside for a day or two. 

The pictures show it with half the top cover removed. It all gets closed up and has slats to vent on the sides. It really is a great to have the chicks warm and cozy inside.

This weekend I plan to get bee boxes cleaned and ready for new packages.

Yes, tis the season of spring!!!!

Happy Wednesday Ya'll!

Re Usable Food Wraps

I have a love-hate relationship with paper towels. I love how convenient they are, but I hate the waste and expense.

Several years ago I stopped buying and using throw away towels and started using cheap wash cloths. I bought a bundle of wash cloths and keep them in a basket inside a deep kitchen drawer. They have been easy to use and wash.

Lately, though, they have needed some replacing. They are very worn out. Well I got the grand idea of making some "paper towels" from fabric this time.

I bought some yardage of diaper fabric and used my serger to go around the edges. I absolutely love these towels! I cut them to be the size of a real paper towel too, so they are a nice size. I was able to make 25 from 5 yards of fabric. I plan to buy more fabric and make another 25.

I really need to make some baby wipes too!

This project got me thinking about other throw away items I could start eliminating from my house.

Enter reusable plastic wrap.

There are a few companies that sell fabric soaked with beeswax that can be used to cover dishes and food, etc.

I thought this was a perfect opportunity to go through my own fabric stash and make my own.

The results are fabulous! I spent some time online and decided to add tree rosin and jojoba oil to my beeswax mixture. 

It did take me a few tries to get the right balance of wax in the fabric, but they do work!

I made some sizes in 13"x13", 10"x10" and 7"x7". I also made one that is 15"x13".

I was able to pull some really pretty fabrics from my quilt fabric stash and used some fat quarters that have been sitting around fro years.

My first use was to wrap up some left over egg rolls.

The wraps can be used in place of plastic wraps. They are not water proof, so wet foods are not good for the wraps. They do allow the foods to "breathe", so food will dry out in the wraps eventually.

To clean the wraps I just rinse them with cool water. If they must be soap washed always use a gentle soap like Bronner's Castile soaps. 

I am going to keep using them and if they remain fabulous I will make some to sell at a farm day this summer. 

In the meantime, if you want to make some yourself, just look through Pinterest. There are several tutorials. I read through several before deciding how to make mine.

Next I plan to make reusable sandwich wraps. I will post an update once I finish sewing them.

What else can we reuse and recycle?

Here's an updated picture of Bucky Bear.

Happy Wednesday Ya'll!

Kids and the Kid

Gotta admit it!

Georgia has atypical winters. One day it is cold as ice and the next day we are wearing shorts.

This week has been a short wearing week. In fact, my pasture wasn't this green back in the summer, thanks to the drought.

I took the baby on a walk to the mailbox this afternoon, carrying him in the Ergo he got for Christmas. We stopped to snap a picture of Hilda the pig grazing in the pasture, which gets greener by the day.

The boys took advantage of the warm weather too by playing outside the entire week.

Today Devin took a hose to drain water off the swimming pool cover. What happened next was a delight to both boys and Kid, the German Shepherd pup.

The water draining off created the perfect scenario of mud piles and a small mud pile dam. 

I include Kid because she has become a close companion to the kids, especially the boys. The boys cannot go outside without Kid, unless we want to hear her whimper wild inside the house.

She loves to watch over them and play with them too, especially when water or sticks are involved.

The kids have been watching a show on Netflix called Most Deadliest Animals and they had sharks on there last night. I am going to assume that is the reason the boys built a shark pond.

We will soak up the warmth while we can because it is just the start of February.

In a few days this water could be ice. 

Happy February Ya'll!!

Family Field Trip

Devin is home for a nice stretch so we decided to visit a museum nearby.

The Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville, GA.

We pass this place when drive to Atlanta and I had always wondered what was inside. I decided that a visit was in order!
Yesterday's family field trip proved that this is a rather fun museum.

 Excuse the blurry pictures, but it wasn't until we left that I saw my lens was on the wrong setting for indoors.
At any rate, we were able to see some wonderful dinosaur models. We also got to see real fossils from the era.
There was another exhibit with minerals and gems that the boys especially loved. Those kids love rocks.

There was a model of a mammoth skeleton that I especially liked. It's cool to see how large the things were up close.

There was also an exhibit with old cars and space shuttles. We even saw a display to scale of the Kitty Hawk.

Looking inside a real Mig fighter jet showed us how many switches and gears those jets use! I honestly don't know how pilots fit in such small spaces or learn everything on the jets.

Of course there were some awesome rock specimens outside available for climbing and photo taking too. It gave us some fresh air before going back inside for a planetarium show.

The kid also got to pan for gem stones (pretty rocks) as part of the ticket price. They each came home with a small bag of treasures.

They also came home with shark teeth that they dug from the archeology dig exhibit.

We missed Quinn. She had to work and missed out on the trip. We brought her a gift from the gift shop though.

After the fun day, we stopped at Steak and Shake for dinner, something we rarely do with this large family.

I bought a year pass, so I plan to go back throughout the year. They are building a solar house for display, and they also have an observatory for use on certain nights.

We did take a couple pictures of me and the baby, so we have proof we were there too...and I brought home a shark too as well :-)!!

This was a fun school day and a short break from farm life!

Happy Thursday Ya'll!!

Baby Season

There are seasons in our life. 

Here I am in the midst of baby season once again. It had been 6 years since I had a demanding baby to care for all day.

Here I am holding and rocking and nursing a baby, all while trying to cook and clean and care for a household.

This season makes me slow down.

All of you moms out there know what I mean. 

When you have little babies and toddlers you must put aside some of the projects and some of the goals to an organized house. 

Your priorities turn from a date night out to keeping the laundry from taking over. Your house is messy. Dishes sit in the sink half the day. Furniture stays dusty. Bathrooms are a disaster.

I've been doing this for over 20 years now. There are days and years that are easier than others. Days when I can sew or knit and days when the floors get mopped and picture books get put back on the shelf. Then there are days I can only accomplish a day of fussy baby holding.

Today this new baby turns 3 months old. It has been almost a year since I had a positive pregnancy test.

It has been almost a year when I started praying for this baby. After 2 miscarriages I was certain this one would end tragically too. When I saw those 2 pink lines I prayed he would get here. 

Every. Single. Day.

The morning sickness was almost unbearable, and the fatigue was paralyzing. Hormones and emotions were all over the map. Every single day was a day closer to him being in my arms.

This season in life. It is by far the shortest of seasons and yet the sweetest.

 It's truly a miracle.

Happy Miracle Day!

Mid January Catch Up

A week ago it was below freezing for the high and we had a dusting of snow.

Today it will reach 68 degrees, and I slept with the windows open last night.

Winter in Georgia.

Our elderly weimaraner has pneumonia, thanks to age and extreme temp changes. We called the vet and gave her the appropriate medicines. Today she is acting her normal self again.

Last weeks cold weather required extra hay for the cows, however Devin wasn't here to get hay from the barn. Luckily I had several friends offer to help.

This week Devin gave me a lesson in how to drive the tractor and use the hay spike.

I can add this to my list of things I can now do on my own, and hopefully we will have enough hay to get through winter. The weather looks to be warm over the next 10 days and that will help.

Zeb bought a racing dominos set with his Christmas money. This set has 1000 pieces and I confess we had fun playing with it over several days. Hands on learning!

We cleared the dining table off and let these dominoes stay out. We all took turns building configurations to knock down. I imagine this will be up there with wooden building blocks as a toy that is enjoyed for many, many years.

I've knitted many things but never socks. I have always wanted to learn sock knitting.

I love sock yarns! This year I decided to take an online sock knitting class and Journee is joining me. This will either be a really fun class or a frustrating nightmare.

Stayed tuned for verdict.

I have taken classes before on Craftsy before and enjoyed them. The instructor for this class seems really good too, so I am betting it is a good class.

Today is my day to finally get my house and projects in order. I chuckle at that statement, but I really still feel disorganized and fog brained since having the baby.

Maybe today I will get everything back in order......just maybe. Maybe not.

Happy Saturday Ya'll!

Sami

2017

                        Happy New Year!

Normally I am diving head first into a new year with goals and plans out the wadzoo.

Right now I am hoping for a 3 hour stretch of sleep at night. New babies are needy and demanding and hungry and fickle. So this is my reality at the moment. Don't get me wrong, for I am super happy to have this little angel, but I must dampen my usual enthusiasm for accomplishing lots until he is less needy.

Today the younger kids and I did attend a meeting for a new home school co-op. I decided to enroll them because they honestly do not get out of the house much. When I had just the 3-4 oldest girls I had them in music classes and play groups and art...lots of activities.

I do not wish to be that busy with outside activities, but one day a week is perfect for my young crew.  They are super excited to start too!

We had a huge cold snap over the weekend in which we became snowed in with a little less than a half inch of snow. That's the South for you. It was very cold, though, not above freezing for a few days.

I needed more hay for the cows, but Devin was out of town. Fortunately I had several friend offer to come fetch hay with the tractor. My goal this week is to have Devin show me how to get the hay myself. A HUGE THANK YOU to Larry for helping me out and to all the many people who checked on me to see if I needed help.

I am currently looking at ordering new pullet babies for eggs this summer, and we plan to run at least 2 batches of pastured chickens. I was hoping to have a nice brooder built, but it might be  project for me and the girls to tackle. I just don't feel like having rubbermaid boxes as brooders placed all through my kitchen this year. Time to upgrade.

I have several farm projects to tackle before spring which includes pregnancy checking cattle, finishing orchard/garden area and deciding/buying temporary fencing to move cattle with on property.

But today I am going to hold my needy little earthling and maybe warm up a cup of coffee. Dinner is staying warm in the Instant Pot and the kids are playing downstairs. 

It is a new year, and I hope 2017 is a blessed and prosperous one for everyone!

Blessings,

Sami