What Do We Have Here!

You know me! I can't resist a baby chick. At this time of year all the Farmers Co-op stores have baby chicks. I didn't intend to buy any chicks. I went in the store to purchase chicken feed, and came out with six pullets. I was doing great in the store, focused on feed, when I heard peeping. I thought to myself, I will just go over and look at them. That never works for me. I came home with this carton of peeps and my husband couldn't believe it. He is not fond of chickens. I had to explain to him, I have too many customers and not enough eggs. And how long will you have to wait until these peeps lay? Well, I said, 6 months. The conversation ended abruptly. I am sure my husband will come around. David, I am just a farm girl at heart.   

 

 

New Rooster

Here he is in living color!  Thought for a while, I wasn't going to get him.  A friend from yoga told me the other day that she had a friend who wanted to shed a rooster.  I needed one to finish the job in the chicken yard, Chumly can't quite handle all the hens, so I was totally up for it.  He is here, and he's a beauty.  I think he has some Buff Orpington in him.  Adding a cockerel (rooster) to your flock is one of those things where you will find almost as many different opinions as there are chicken breeds!  I have him in a small cage that I am going to put outside the chicken yard fence when it stops raining.  The following week I will keep him in the cage and put him in the chicken yard.  Finally the third week  I will integrate him in with the flock.  By then, hopefully all will be well and at peace in the yard.  I am trying to pick out a name that will suit him.  Can you give me some ideas? 

 

Fencing For A Chicken Run

I have been looking at the space my chickens have to run, and it is quite barren, and too small for the 26 hens that I have, plus one rooster. Creating a chicken run is often less about keeping chickens in and more about keeping predators out. As chickens have a variety of predators including hawks, rats, snakes, skunks and more I want to keep them safe. So I was reading my Hobby  Farms magazine and on the back cover they are advertising electric netting. I ordered the netting and yesterday it arrived by UPS. This weekend I am going to install the netting. Should be a hoot. I am not mechanically inclined at all. I will let you know how this project turns out. Not to worry, I will take pictures with my iPhone. Results Monday!  

Middle Class America

If you are still fortunate enough to call yourself Middle Class enjoy it while you can, because thanks to the ravages of Obama care you are liable to lose that status at some point in the future. The law is also causing dramatic rises in premiums for many people. Many private sector and public sector employers have either trimmed their workforces to fall below the law's  employee coverage requirement, or have cut employees hours to part time. Both of these measures are socking it to the Middle Class.

Swim Suit Season Will Be Here Soon!!! 

It's always here before you know it, but by todays weather you would never know it. Snow showers and blustery winds. Spring break is only one week away, and that can only mean one thing: SWIMSUITS. How about these flattering, comfortable, and stylish styles for any figure. Too funny!

Keep The Free Drinks And Eats Coming

With my new Gold Card from Starbucks I receive a free drink, juice or food item for every 12 stars. Once you are at Gold level it takes another 30 stars to maintain Gold level for another 12 months. If you don't qualify for the Gold level again by your anniversary date (i.e. the date you qualified for the Gold level, you will revert to the Green level and lose all your stars. It looks like this could go on forever. I do love my Gold card though!

Helpful Ways to Better Afford Organic Food on a Tight Family Budget
Hello its Tuesday, and a dreary one at that. The sun just can't shine two days in a row in South Central KY. I would like to talk about organic food. Of course we all know that growing your own food is the best way to make sure you have chemically free clean food. But if that is a problem for you try to buy local. Know your supplier. Also take advantage of generic organic. Kroger now carry's Simple Truth. Organic products that are affordable. Become a coupon shopper. I don't know about you, but coupons have never worked for me. Usually the items that have a coupon are not items that I buy.
"He who works his land will have abundant food, but the one who chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty. Proverbs 28:19 

 Lordy, Lordy Kevin's 40

 Kevin and Jennifer Mingling Among the Guests

Bettie and I Serving Soup

Friday Jennifer had a surprise Birthday Party for Kevin. He was definitely surprised. A fun time was had by all.



Peppermint Essential Oil

Peppermint Essential Oil is one of the most versatile essential oils available. Peppermint Essential Oil is incredibly powerful!This oil has multiple uses such as, soothing your digestive discomforts. It lowers fever, and clears your stuffy nose. It also freshens your breath. Relieves your headaches and migraines, and curbs your appetite. All this from this green leafy plant.

 

Wal-Mart Spreads Across America

Cheaper goods may sound alright at first, but when you consider that the Wal-Marts of the world have a tendency to drive mom and pop stores out of business, it becomes a little more real so to speak. And that can be upsetting to some folks, especially those trying to make a living in the economy in rural America. The formula for destruction is always the same. Move in, open the doors with lower prices, get employees on welfare and Medicaid, because you don't want to pay well or provide medical insurance. Force smaller shops out of business. Raise prices, because now you are the only game in town. Rinse, repeat 15 miles down the road!

It Is So Pretty Out My Window Today!

The sun is shining. This time last week, I was shivering inside my own house. I can see the chickens, their clucking carry's to the house. The red birds are foraging on the ground. I saw a hawk today in the sky, now I need to be extra careful when I let them out.
Sow Kindness, Plant Generosity, Till Tenderness, then harvest what you love.

Spring House Cleaning

Its Saturday, and I have been working outside all day. The temperature is 60 degrees and the sun is shining. I have been cleaning out the flower beds and edging the sidewalk. It feels so good to have that glorious  sun shine on me, and watch my chickens scurrying back and forth while I throw them some grass and weeds. Maybe Spring is on its way. At least I hope so in South Central KY.

Chicken Behavior

Yes, sometimes the girls get into a squabble. Sometimes its over a favorite nesting box, other times over tasty morsels discovered on their adventures. Their songs go from sweet chatter to all out mad clucking. Sometimes, so loud, I have to go outside to investigate. Its not possible to remind chickens of their manners, but they sure can be distracted with treats.
Have a great weekend!

What Are You Doing With Your Day?

Today I have been looking out at the snow and planning Spring. I have been writing in a notebook what I am going to do with the landscape, the flowers I am going to plant, and planning our garden. I am very excited about Spring this year after this very hard winter that we have had.

Good news: The Worton and Morton series have sold at the Franklin Gallery. Please check out this Gallery on the square, or send us an email david.susan@twc.com if you would like to purchase a painting, or if you would like my husband to paint something special for you.  

"Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anyone."1 Thes. 4:11

Happy Birthday Jennifer

Last night we celebrated our daughters birthday with cake and dinner of her choice. We have always made birthdays a big deal in our house, because it was when our child was given to us by God to raise in a Christian home. So David and I take this task seriously. Jennifer picked shrimp fried rice with a salad, and an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins. Her favorite, Jamaican almond fudge with chocolate cake. Yum! It was so good. The evening was complete when she heard that the schools were out again today.
Jennifer, we hope that you touch the life of many other people with the same dignity, happiness, care and love that you have touched ours.      

 

Bees Getting Stung Badly By Sickness

Wild bumblebees worldwide are in trouble, likely contracting deadly diseases from their commercialized honey bee cousins. That's a problem even though bumblebees aren't trucked from farm to farm like honeybees. They provide a significant chunk of the world's pollination of flowers and food, especially greenhouse tomatoes. Wild populations of bumblebees appear to be in decline across the US. Study's have shown disease going back and forth between the two kinds of bees. Bumblebees provide $3 billion dollars worth of fruit and flower pollination in the US, while honeybees are closer to $20 billion.

 March 3,2014 dumped snow on South Central KY.

 

The chicken gate is frozen shut!

 

Look at these girls, they are famished as usual.

Home Project

If you have never heard of a self-rotation shelf for canned goods, the easiest way I can think of to explain it is to say that it is a shelving system you put in your home, usually made of wood, that works following the same principle as a pop machine. Picture a pop machine. First, the machine is loaded from the back with cans of soda by the delivery guy. Then, someone comes along with a thirst for, say, root beer button, and hopes for a split second that the machine is in working order. The can of root beer falls into an opening at the front of the machine. With a sigh of relief the satisfied customer, happy that the machine actually worked, picks up the root beer and pulls open the tab. Then, there is a thumping and grinding sound inside the machine while all the other cans of root beer roll down the shoot until one is in the correct position ready for the next thirsty buyer. A food self rotation shelf works like that, minus the coins and push button. And you are both the delivery guy and the happy customer. A  system like this makes the storage principle of FIFO first in, first out a snap. Look on the internet for directions.