Down and Dirty Chick Starting

I was at my local Tractor Supply Company the other day picking up some duck food and I was so surprised by the overwhelming number of poultry products.

How to Cut Girl's Bangs

Here's a few "professional" tips for the DIY salon mom!

Now, we all know that you can just comb them down and cut them off, right?  Pretty simple.

 But have you ever noticed that bangs cut by a salon always seem to turn out better?  There's just a few little tricks that make all the difference!  So, here's my basic how-to.  Sorry about the mess in the background... we had an extremely busy Saturday which just happened to end in a haircutting tutorial.  : )

Tip Tuesday: Red Or White Wheat?

 Have you ever wondered what the difference is?  I have.  So, I thought you might have, too.

I've been using both for several years now.  And I can tell you from experience that neither one is red or white.

Still Alive

Hey guys!  How's it going? Are you all done with your shopping/baking/decorating/wrapping etc?  I'm getting close... still have a few things to buy.  The gifts are boxed and stashed, but not wrapped.  The Christmas bins are still in the foyer, half full.  The ingredients for baking are here.  Thankfully, Patience is really into baking! : )

You probably guessed what I've been doing.... yep, jewelry!  But, I've just gotta tell you how amazing this all is.  I just made over 100 sales!  Made enough moolah to pay for Christmas for our family.  I'm exhausted but so blessed!  Been working 18 hour days for three weeks straight--I take off Sunday morning, and that's about it!  But, gosh, it's been so cool.  I've gotten to talk with people from allll over the country.  And everybody has been so kind and friendly on Etsy.  I hardly ever get on Facebook anymore!  I love getting feedback from customers telling me that my jewelry has been a blessing to them.  Wow!  What a blessing to me!  This is the first time since I've been married that I've ever gotten a legit paycheck.  I know it's all just the Lord's blessing.  It feels like co-working with Him!  And also co-working with Captain--since he's been so supportive and helpful (he even shops at Hobby Lobby for me after work!!).  My kids also have an opportunity to earn money-- they get paid to smash pennies.  It's so neat to be able to pay them out of somebody else's money rather than our family budget.  They are such good helpers around the house, too.  (Especially when they're getting paid)

I'm thinking that this will all slow down after Christmas.  That's good, really, since I actually have to do laundry and make food, oh, and homeschool.  But for now.... it's the perfect amount of work.  Sooooo amazing, right??!!

So, that's where I've been.  Out in the garage and up in my jewelry studio/schoolroom.  Getting some pretty stunning calluses on my fingers.  But....I'm still alive!


Hope you all are having a merry Christmas season!

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡ 

Chicken Fest: Homesteading At Its Best

Here's sweet Graci.  "Say Hello to my little friend."

Half Way There... Raising "Meaters"

Just in case you were curious...here's an update on our very high-speed chicken raising operation.

We call these chickens "meaters" to help us distinguish them from the "layers" when we're assigning chores.  I guess they could be called "fryers" or "roasters" or "crock-potters"... but that gets a little confusing.  What they should be called is "eaters," since that's all they really ever do!

Be advised, you may never eat chicken again after seeing this.  But these guys are actually pretty happy chickens, believe it or not.

So, here's our epic temporary pen... Noah and I built it out of an old dog kennel.  We've got 48 birds in there.  Heat lamps and an old dog house keeps them nice and cozy at night.  Thankfully, we don't have any neighbors, because this thing is a real eye sore.  This is the third year that we've raised our own meat chickens... and having them outside is definitely much cleaner and more humane.

They're always freaking out over the feeder.  You'd think we were starving them!

Raising Meat Chickens

Hey ya'll!
Our new batch of 50 peeps arrived in the mail last week.  I thought you might like to take a peek and check them out while they're still adorable...

Tip Tuesday: Amazing Vinegar

I've been meaning to tell you guys about my various vinegar experiments for quite a while now.  But I was concerned that you might think I'm weirder than I actually am.  Which would be hard for me to handle.  Since I'm already realllly weird.

Life on the Farm... Another Montage

Because I'm too busy to write words...

 I'll just show you what's been going on around the ole homestead in pictures.

A Morning Stroll

Tip Tuesday: Homemade Yogurt!

I have no idea why it's taken me so long to get around to doing this.  Making yogurt is easier than just about anything else we make in the kitchen, except for maybe Ramen noodles.  But it's not much harder than that!

So, here's the lowdown.

Getting A Garden Going

 Thanks to a beautiful weekend and lots of helpers... the garden is coming right along.

 It's hard to believe that it's already time to dig something out and make room for something else.

We've Been Busy

Update on the garden progress...
Turns out that we do actually have some dirt in our yard!  Yay!  Noah and I started digging around a few weeks ago and discovered where the previous owners had their garden rows.  The cats and chickens then discovered them.  So now we're working on a fence.

Most of the tomatoes and peppers are doing great.  Very happy to get out of their tiny little pots.

Ruthie was enjoying digging.  We're trying that method of planting tomatoes super deep.

Sweet Peas and A Little Honey

 Remember those peas that Benjamin and I planted back in March???

Hardening Off Baby Plants

 Check this out!  A tiny little pepper bud!

I haven't shown you guys my plants in a little while.  This is pretty amazing stuff.  A couple weeks ago I moved them to the garage.  They were starting to make the house a little stinky.  Sounds weird, but it's true!  It took me several days to figure out what the smell was.  I think it was a combination of wet dirt and tomato plant.  Whatever the case, it's gone now.  And the little guys are just as happy out there.

Now it's time to get them ready for the garden.

Dr. Noah's First Patients

Well, today has definitely been a learning experience.  On several fronts.

It started first thing this morning.  Elijah went dashing out the door to run the trash to the road, since he forgot last night.  He noticed a chicken laying by the coop door, panting.  That's not good, especially since everybody else was tucked safely inside.  Something was wrong since she missed coming into the coop the night before.  Something chickens don't do.

Frankenbirds

 
Hey, I think I finally got this figured out!

We've been wondering where these kind of freakish chickens come from.  They're certainly not selected by nature, and if they were, they wouldn't survive long enough to make more.  They're the kind of chickens that most Americans are used to eating.  They're the standard rotisserie chicken.  They're what restaurants use.  They are what we buy in the grocery store.

 But what exactly are they?

A Good Weekend

I've always wanted to do a corny family portrait like this.  You know, instead of holding violins...  This one just sortof happened spontaneously.  Too bad Benjamin was taking a nap and I was taking the picture.  Don't they all look so friendly???

Anyways, here's how it all panned out.

Building Raised Beds

A few friends have asked me about this lately.  I know it's really popular to build your own raised bed gardens and there's lots of websites to show you how.  I just wanted to add to that by saying that if you don't have any woodworking experience and you don't even own a saw, you can STILL build yourself some of these and have a nice little garden going this Spring.

Here in Kentucky, the weather is nice but the soil is not.  Our land consists of boulders mixed with rocks and boulders.  Covered lightly with a deceiving layer of topsoil that makes you think you might actually be able to dig a hole.  But don't kid yourself.  You will hit a rock... and then another.  Never fear... Raised beds are here!

Seedlings, Schooling, Potatoes & Prizes

After only one week, these babies are reaching for the light.

Here's my rig-jig operation.  So far... Hey, it works!