Day Old Baby Chicks

I wanted to share some pictures of our new baby chicks, we have 11 little fluffy chicks right now and we are waiting to see if anymore will hatch later today and tonight. there are 10 eggs unhatched right now.

I really lost count somehow, I thought we only had 18 eggs in the incubator but it turns out we had 21!

Here is one of the chicks in my daughters hand

They are very clumsy and will run right over top anyone in their way!

They take frequent little naps all day

and they love to cuddle with each other!

This has been such a wonderful experience, we have raised chicks in the past that we bought from a hatchery but, this is the first time we hatched our own!

Ryan loved every bit of it and was amazed to actually see the hatching!

Boys and their Toys

We had some work done around our homestead on Saturday, we had an area that we are turning into parking graded down and the top soil removed and placed down by the garden area, He also graded some of the ground for our raised garden beds and had a manure pile brought up from the barn to the garden area. Then down by the barn we had an area widened and a wet weather pond worked on a little bit. It was exciting to see all this work done in such a small amount of time!

Here is the skid steer before they started

Ryan got the ride of his life for awhile, he got to ride in the skid steer and move some of the controls!

All the work that had been done in about three hours by this machine would have taken us about two months or more to complete by hand, The operator was a friend of ours and would not accept any money, God had answered a few prayers for us that day!

Newly hatched chicks

Our little chicks are starting to hatch out!

In this picture you can see a little beak poking through the egg!
And here is the little one just out of its egg!


This is our first baby hatched and all dry, under the heat lamp of the brooder!

It takes a long time for these little ones to hatch from the egg, hours into the hatch process we are still patiently waiting for the others to hatch!

Earth Hour

We took part in Earth hour last night and turned out all the lights, we unplugged everything that was non essential to have on.

We lit the oil lanterns and played board games.

It was so wonderful spending the quiet time together as a family.

This was something we did to help raise awareness on global warming and to help reduce our carbon impact, we plan to have regular Earth Hour nights and we have taken the steps to switch out our light bulbs to compact fluorescent, we have our electronics and cell phone chargers plugged in to a power strip that gets turned off when those things are not in use. We have given up on Plastic and paper and instead now try to use reusable canvas bags when we do our shopping.

We are starting a garden to grow some of our own food and we have chickens, Turkeys and Rabbits that help also.

We are trying to buy local when we can which helps save on carbon emissions and the best part is that the food we buy local... Tastes so much better than the food we purchase from the grocery store!

These are small steps in the big picture of things but, if we all took a small step and changed some of the things we do, we could make the environment a little better for our future.

Did you participate in Earth Hour?

Please comment and let me know what steps you are taking to help the environment and yourself!

Garden Beds and Snail Shells

We started putting in our raised garden beds!

This is the area before we started.
We are building 4 ft X 4 Ft beds with old cinder blocks that we had in a big stack down by the barn, so that means that this project is free! Recycling materials that we already had and cleaning up another area of the property!

This is one of the beds, we will be topping it off with lumber that we also have and will recycle for our garden!

Ryan Loved digging in the dirt and found some snail shells that occupied him for a long time!

He held each shell carefully and examined them closely.

Here is Robin with Ryan hamming it up for a picture!

and Hunter, waiting for someone to throw his ball!

When we finish building the garden beds, we will have 22 4ft x 4ft beds total, I am so excited that we have started this project, I have been wanting a garden since we moved into this house!

Garden Seeds have arrived!

The garden seeds I ordered have come in and I got busy right away getting some of the seeds started!

This is just a few of the seed packets that arrived!

Here I have Black seeded Simpson lettuce sprouting and in the middle is Lavender and at the top is coleus.

This is dill

and here I have broccoli, cauliflower, sweet Spanish onions and Brussel sprouts started!

In the coming weeks I will be starting many more seeds like tomatoes, peppers and herbs.

I will be getting many varieties of vegetables seeded directly in the garden also!

Easter Bunny and Chuck E Cheese

Today was a very exciting day for Ryan, The Assisted Living that I work at had an Easter egg hunt for the kids.

Ryan got to meet the Easter Bunny for the first time!

Here is Ryan with Mommy and Pop Pop
taking a little break after the egg hunt.

After we left the Assisted Living,
We treated Ryan to his first visit to Chuck E. Cheese's

Everyone had a good time playing the games!

This was Ryan's favorite game, he kept going back to it all evening!

He had so much fun that he didn't want to leave, we cashed in his tokens and he got a ball and an ugly plastic spider but, it sure made his day!

Candling the eggs

We candled the eggs in the incubator last night,

The tools you need to candle an egg are very simple,

We used an empty coffee can that we cut a quarter size whole into the bottom,

Then we placed a flashlight under the opening that we cut into the can, and placed the egg over the opening. we kept all the lights out in the room so we could have a better view.


We were looking to see if the light would pass through the egg, you should see an air pocket at one end of the egg and at the other end there should be just a dark area that the light could not pass through.

If the light passed through the entire egg, it means that egg was not fertile and we disposed of it.

We candled all 20 eggs and only had 1 bad egg so far.
We will candle one more time before the hatch, from what I have been reading we should at that time be able to see the actual chick!
We should have little baby chicks hatching around March 29Th!
I'm so excited!

It makes me feel like an expecting Mom!

Incubating Chicken Eggs

This is our first attempt to incubate eggs

We set 20 chicken eggs in the incubator on March 9, 2008

The temperature and water levels are checked three times a day along with watching that the egg turner is properly working.
it takes 21 days to hatch the eggs and they will get candled at 8 days and again at 14 days to make sure that the eggs are indeed fertile and that life is starting to form!
Our first day of candling will be Monday, I will try to take pictures of our process as we go!

Seeds of hope!

Today we placed our order for garden seeds!

We ordered or seeds from Heirloom Seeds, This is a company that guarantees the seeds they sell are non hybrid and untreated and that they are NOT Genetically Modified!

That was the most important factor for our purchase from this company.

Here is the package we ordered;

The VICTORY GARDEN package includes:
BEANS (6 varieties): Black Turtle, Bush Blue Lake, Commodore, Fordhook Lima, Old Homestead Pole and Pencil Pod Black Wax
BEETS ( 2 varieties): Chiogga and Early Wonder
BROCCOLI (1 variety): De Cicco
BRUSSELS SPROUT (1 variety): Long Island Improved
CABBAGE (2 varieties): Early Jersey Wakefield and Red Danish
CARROTS (2 varieties): Amsterdam Minicor and Autumn King
CAULIFLOWER (1 variety): Early Snowball
CELERY (1 variety): Golden Self Blanching
COLLARD (1 variety): Georgia
CORN ( 1 variety): Golden Bantam
CUCUMBER (2 varieties): National Pickling and Tendergreen Burpless
EGGPLANT (1 variety): Black Beauty
GOURD (1 variety): Ornamental Small Mix
KALE (1 variety): Dwarf Blue Curled
KOHLRABI (1 variety): Early White Vienna
LEEK (1 variety): American Flag
LETTUCE (5 varieties): Black Seeded Simpson, Buttercrunch, Freckles Romaine, Gourmet Salad Blend, and Mesculin Mix
MELONS (2 varieties): Jenny Lind and Sweet Passion
MUSTARD GREENS (1 variety): Southern Giant Curled
OKRA (1 variety): Clemson Spineless
ONION, BUNCHING (1 variety): Evergreen White Bunching
PARSNIP (1 variety): Hollow Crown
PEPPERS (4 varieties): California Wonder, California Wonder Gold, Jalapeno and Long Red Cayenne
PEAS (3 varieties): Early Frosty, Mammoth Melting Sugar and Sugar Daddy
PUMPKINS (1 variety): New England Pie
RUTABAGA (1 variety): American Purple Top
RADISH (2 varieties): Easter Egg and Crimson Giant
SPINACH (2 varieties): Bloomsdale Long Standing and New Zealand
SQUASH, SUMMER (4 varieties): Dark Green Zucchini, Golden Zucchini, White Patty Pan and Yellow Crookneck
SQUASH, WINTER (2 varieties): Butternut and Spaghetti
SWISS CHARD (2 varieties): Lucullus and Ruby Red
SOUTHERN PEA (1 variety): California Black-Eyed
TOMATO (6 varieties): Besser, Big Red, Giant Beefsteak, Homestead 24, Pink Brandywine and Roma
TURNIPS (1 variety): Purple Top White Globe
WATERMELON (1 varieties): Sugar Baby
HERBS (10 varieties): Basil, Chives, Coriander, Cumin, Dill, Marjoram, Oregano, Parsley, Summer Savory and Thyme

Please wish us lots of luck!

I will post pictures on our progress!

Counting Down to Earth Hour!

The countdown has began only

Three weeks to go!

On March 29th at 8:00 PM people from around the world will be uniting in an effort to save energy for our Beautiful Earth!

last year in Australia alone, one city started the movement they called Earth Hour, Homes and Businesses turned off their non essential electric for one hour. The result was dramatic, they saved enough power and eliminated enough emissions from our environment in one hour and the result was the equivalent of taking 48,000 cars off the road!

That was One city for One hour!

Imagine what we can do this year by joining in a world wide effort to help ease a little bit of the burden we put on our planet,

one hour might not stop Global Warming but,

it is a starting point to help slow it down.

This is just one little thing we can do to help insure a better future for generations to come, to make people aware of Global Warming and to start taking small steps toward the things we can all do that will make a difference!

We are ready, we have the oil lanterns filled and we are planning a family game night by lantern light.

and as a continuing effort;

We have switched over to compact fluorescent bulbs in our all our lamps.

We turn out all lights when we are not in a room.

We burn wood in the winter for heat instead of using gas or electric.

and we are planning to power down at least once a week, it is our way of helping make a difference in our environment and

the chance to find better quality family time, that is not being distracted by modern technologies like

the T.V, Computer or Video games!

I hope you will also consider joining the effort that started in Australia and has grown world wide in only its second year!

Visit Earth Hour to learn more!

Little Helper

Alan started building steps that will lead down to my garden yesterday and Ryan jumped right in and offered his help!

He picked up the shovel and went right to work helping Pop Pop!

He sure looks like he knows what he is doing!

Ryan is not quite three years old yet but, he wants to help all the time, He will help me at the barn and he helps Alan with chores like carrying firewood! We give him little jobs to do because it just seems so important for him to lend a hand! I think we have a special boy here!!!