Our Ladies (AKA Hens) are Growing Fast!

I haven't wrote about the chickens lately but they are doing great. Growing so fast! They are 4 and 5 weeks old now, tomorrow they will be 5 and 6 weeks old. Soon we will be putting them outside a lot which means we better get a coop up and fast! The lady at the feed store said that at about 7-8 weeks old the chicks can go outside and then at about 5 months old they should start laying eggs! Eek!

From left to right- Henny Penny (Rhode Island Red), Betsy Ross (Americana or AKA Easter Eggers), Zee (Plymouth Rock or AKA Barred Rock), Rosie the Riveter (Americana or AKA Easter Eggers), Ariel (Rhode Island Red), & Eveie (Plymouth Rock or AKA Barred Rock)

What is the difference in the breads? and What's up with the names you wonder? As far as the breeds go the Americanas, Betsy & Rosie (get it?) will lay blue or green eggs, that is also why they are called Easter Eggers- and the kids in the neighborhood think they look like hawks! The Rhode Island Reds, Henny Penny & Ariel (clever huh?) should be a beautiful deep reddish brown color and will lay Large-X Large brown eggs and sometimes 2 a day! The Plymouth Rock, Zee & Eveie (Eveie is always in the other hens' business and my husband's old neighbor from his childhood home was always aware of the min we arrived and would greet him and chat up a storm, she was a riot! We had to name her Eveie.) They will look like zebras when they are full grown and will lay light brown medium-large eggs.

Hopefully this is what our egg cartons will look like this summer

This past weekend when we were working on the yard and garden stuff we decided that we should bring them outside to enjoy the warm day and play in the grass. Since we haven't filled in the planter boxes we put them in one of those. They can fly out but they only jumped on the edge and would jump right back in. They had a blast scratching around and pecking at everything that moved or looked like it maybe eatable.

Since this week is going to be in the 60's we will have to wait until the weather is a bit warmer and the sun is out to do this again. But it was awesome to see the chicks out and about in the yard. We have been talking about it so much that to see the hens take the big leap outside, even if it is for the afternoon, is exciting!

Square Foot Gardening

We got our garden beds assembled!!

 I was looking into soil and my mother in law mentioned that she saw something about Square Foot Gardening. After reading into it I was able to go to http://www.gardeners.com/ and use their layout design to plan my beds. My daughters and I had a planting party last week and we were able to get a lot of different things planted into solo cups.

 I also ordered more seeds from Ark Institute and will hopefully get those planted soon. I took time to buy organic seeds, find Redwood to make our boxes and research planting methods and I don't want to buy soil that is just a bunch of bark and empty filler type material. I don't have the time to compost 96 cubic feet of organic soil. I am going to take some time and call around for places that sell organic soil by the cubic yard because buying it by the cubic foot from Lowes is going to cost about $11.00 each bag! Ouch. Last Sunday when the girls and I went to the local dairy to get milk I saw some guys shoveling manure into the back of a truck so maybe that would be a good place to start. I could at least use it as a mix in right? Who knew there was so much to this!

Saying NO! Nicely

We are constantly drilling it into our children to be polite to others, use their manners, smile and say thank you, but what about teaching them that it's okay to say NO? My parents raised me to always be polite and curtious which I really appreciate now because I am sure that my manners and the occasional "Yes Ma'am" have helped me out more than I'll ever know. They did not however tech me that it is just as acceptable to tell someone No when they ask for help say moving or for a ride when you know you will be rushed and possibly late. I have done many favors for people and wasted a lot of time just because I didn't want to say No. We are raised to please but at some point we need to also learn that the first person who should be happy is ourselves. After all if we are not taken care of then how can we adequately take care of others?
In the words of my father "When your emotions are up, your logic is down". When I get asked for help I want to always say yes because I want everyone to be happy but then I usually say yes nd panic later as I am reworking my schedule. Now when asked for something that could mess with my schedule I don't give an answer right away if possible. I might say I need to check my calendar or discuss plans with my hubs first and will get back to them. This way I can take a moment to look over my To Do List, breathe and decide from there. If I jump to saying yes right off the bat and later get rushed, I will be frustrated and maybe rude to my friend. Situation= me grumpy, my friend who needed help will be confused by my rudeness all because I had no tact in saying No. When the moment arises a good thing is to thank the person for thinking of you. Politely say "I'm sorry but I can't watch your kids on Thursday but thank you for asking me."
Showing our kids how to decline a request for help in a nice manner cn save them frustration and waisted time in the long run. Just like everything else I encourage small steps when trying to change something. So don't drop out of the carpool but maybe cut back to only 3 days a week. Good Luck!

My Potato Project

 Recently I was sent the video below. I shared it will my friends on my Facebook page and it sparked some good discussion between some of my fellow moms. Please take the time to watch this 2 min video now.

 

 

 

 I know that there are some people out there that think this stuff is made up so I wanted to do my own potato experiment. I was also thinking that my potato would grow vines right away since I only shop at Henry's and buy mostly organic. So at first I got a regular sweet potato and put it in water. 

 

After 2 days I didn't see any sprouts... Weird, I probably should give it a couple more days, put it in the window with some sun and then it will sprout...

 

 

 

3rd day after a day of full sunlight.

 

4th day and still nothing. I'm really confused. I will go back to Henry's and buy one of their organic sweet potatoes and start another experiment with that one.

Day 2 for the organic, Day 6 for the regular.

Day 4 for organic, Day 8 for regular

Day 7 for organic, Day 11 for regular. Yikes...

Day 10 for organic, Day 14 for regular. 

This is obviously not working. Now I'm frustrated. Like I said before, I buy mostly organic produce. To see the potatoes not sprout made me look up Bud Nip. Disgusting to say the least. I encourage you to research it.

Today I am heading to San Diego to spend some quality time with a bestie. We have been friends over half our lives and she is really into the organic food scene. She is going to take me to a farmers, organic, vegan market tomorrow. I hope that the sweet potatoes from there will sprout like the one from the girls video.  I will keep you update on what happens with those potatoes.

I am so glad that this video was sent my way because it has been a great experiment for the kids to see and helps my case for raising our own chicks and building a pretty big family garden. Some of my friends treat me like a hippie or call me an Amish Mama but it's all compliments to me ;-) as a mom and the one who is responsible for what goes on their plates I have to be informed. We're talking tumors, kidney failure, heart disease. Never mind the fat content in butter... What chemicals were sprayed on your apple?

Thanks for reading this post especially! I hope you get inspired to look into what your family is eating. 

 

 

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