New chicken house progress.

We have been working on building a permanent big chicken coop. We are building it extra big to encompass future growth and also those times when we have a batch of meat chickens. Right now we only have 7 chickens so people may think we are kind of crazy. However, i already know it is better to go too big than to try to talk a husband into building on. HA HA! So this weekend it is really coming together. 12 x 12 building, 8 feet tall.

Studs for the walls up and part of the floor down. We are putting the floor down after the walls are up. This is for easy replacement of the floor if it gets really poopy or nasty after a year or two.
The walls are going up!


First coat of Barn Red paint. The weather TOTALLY cooperated with us. It was 70 today! October 30th! I couldn't believe it. So we were painting it as fast as we could get it up. It still needs front human door, chicken doors cut out, windows and roof. But I think we have a stellar start. The human door and roof are getting put on and started tomorrow.


I had a couple helpers. Luca.
Gioia. She painted up about 4 feet. As high as she could reach. So basically she did half of each wall, first coat for me. It really did help!
Dominic!

Halloween Fun!

We attending a Halloween Pumpkin Carving party today at our friends house. My kids are Luca as the dog on the end, Gioia as the hot pink Unicorn in the middle and Dominic as the Fireman on the right.

Here are the Jack O Lanterns we carved.



Here are some fabric pumpkins Gioia and I made tonight. We are going to send this batch to my Grandma who has a birthday Sunday on Halloween. I think she will really like them. She collects all things Halloween. :)

New fireplace!

We finally got a big project done around here. We got our fireplace insert installed and operational. We got this from some friends. We removed the 80's style gold brass trim, spray painted it black and dropped a chimney liner in. Actually, WE didn't do most of it. We hired a chimney guy. It was only a 200 dollar difference than ordering the parts ourselves. It was a hard job. It took professionals 4 hours to do the liner and get the insert to fit. A week before DH had to cut two rows of bricks out to get the insert to fit.

So the other day it was chilly outside but not really cold enough for the furnace. DH decided to fire this baby up. We had it up to 78 in the house (and probably 80 or so in the living room) with just a small fire. NICE! So I really think this can provided the majority of our heat this winter. I am super stoked about it.

In other news: I had a lasik like procedure done on my eyes. It was a rough recovery involving my mom having to come stay with us. Actually she stayed an initial 2 days and then came back to my rescue for 3 more days. THANKS AGAIN MOM! :) Stuff like this is much harder with a house full of little kids. You can't just go lay down and sleep it off all day. Anyway, my vision is continuing to improve and I think I will enjoy it a lot once everything is good.

More Eggs.

Sunday I went out to gather eggs and there on the floor of the coop was the cutest little brown egg. In the box was a large light brown egg belonging to our hen Cinnamon. I was so excited to see the little egg. It was the first of my black sex-linked girls. The black girls looks exactly alike so we call them the twins. Later in the day I got a large brown egg know to be from our hen Ginger. Yesterdays count 3 eggs. WOO HOO!

The great thing about only having 4 female birds is that it is pretty easy to figure out who laid what with little effort. So today I go out in the early afternoon and check. TWO little eggs on the floor. WOO HOO! That means both of The Twins are laying! Later Cinnamon blessed us with her egg. Ginger skipped today but that is fine.

It takes chickens around 25-26 hours to make an egg. So that means most hens will not lay every day. For example Ginger is our best layer. She lays about 5-6 eggs a week. She will lay for about 3 days, each time later in the day by a few hours. Then skip the 4th day and start over in the morning on the 5th day. Chickens also do not lay eggs after dark. So if they haven't laid by evening then they usually wait until morning. Pretty interesting huh? Cinnamon will do the same, but sometimes skip after 2 days. Stress will also interrupt the laying cycle. Things like extreme heat, cold or wet, even moving to a new coop or home can be stress for them. For the most part they are pretty easy to care for an I am excited to be getting more eggs now.

Kids Picnic Table

This week I made the kids a picnic table out of recycled pallets. We picked up lots of pallets for free and they are nice pallets. So I made this picnic table for the kids. The top is a whole pallet about 40x30 (roughly). Then for the benches I cut a same size pallet in half. Each half was enough to make one side of the bench. I did have to buy one 2x4 for the legs. So cost was about 3 dollars. I painted it with our giant 5 gallon bucket of barn red paint. I plan to make a grown up size table some time but its on hold for now.

Weaning.

This last week we had a huge change at our house. I decided it was time to wean Luca. We have nursed for an amazing two years and I have enjoyed all of it. I really feel that we mamas know when it is right for us to wean our babies. Some kids may need to nurse longer than others. Nursing is a two way relationship involving two people. I was really feeling it was time for many reasons.

All that said, it was hard. It was much harder than with my other two. One reason was that Luca was still nursing at night, which was one reason I was ready to do this. I wanted sleep! :) About day 2 and 3 I had a major hormone shift. I was very sad, emotional and feeling really not myself. Of course it took several days for my boobs to get the message as well. Then finally by the fourth day I was feeling much better and so was Luca. He finally slept all night and has every night since. He wakes sometimes early in the morning and I snuggle him back to sleep.

Friday night I went to a Moms Night Out at a friends house. It was much needed after our tough week. My husband was able to put him to bed and he stayed asleep, not waking up and crying for me. I know that makes my husband much more able to help with Luca now.

We had a good run and it is very bittersweet. We are moving on with a new phase in our life.

Cedar Nightstand

We had a Woodworking Moms Night In at my friends house a few weeks ago. I finally got it sanded and finished. I just finished it with a Satin clear coat. I think it looks great. I am excited to make a second one for DH's side of the bed. It will replace the wooden TV trays that I have been using for 10 years. HA HA!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Luca!!

Last week this guy had a birthday! He is so sweet. We celebrated by getting ice cream at Braum's. It was amazing! I had Blackberry Almond, Luca had Rocky Road, D had Pistachio Almond and Gioia had Cookie Dough. Massimo had some of everyone's. HA HA!

Devil's Den Vaca - part 2

So part two of my posts about the vacation are pictures of the cabin. It was a sweet cabin with a spa tub and Dish Network on the TV. We are not a huge tv family but it sure came in handy with all the rain we got. It also had a separate Master bedroom in the next room. Outside was also a picnic table, two wooden lawn chairs and a grill for cooking out.
http://www.arkansasstateparks.com/devilsden/

Cabin living room with futon couch bed.


A/C, dining room, fireplace and kitchen around the corner that I didn't get a picture of.


Spa tub! Amazing how a little bit of shampoo makes LOTS of bubbles in a spa tub.

Devil's Den Vacation

We went to Lake of the Ozarks, then down to Arkansas to Devils Den State Park for our family vacation this year. We stayed in a really sweet cabin and did a lot of hiking. Then the last few days we got the tropical storm rains so we had to do inside stuff. We went to movies, mini golf and out to eat pizza.

Massimo and kids on a cool wooden bridge.

The kids on tree root "stairs".
Giant Bench! Look its me! In a picture!



Kids hiking on Lee Creek Trail.

So on day one it looked like this.


Then 3 days later it looked like this! Water rushing over the dam and filling the creek to the banks. All those rocks in the above picture where covered all the way to the tree line.

Happy 5th Dominic!

My baby boy turned 5 this week! Can you believe it!?? He is such a joy and a challenge all wrapped up in one. It seems like just a few days ago he was my little fat toad all squishy and new. For his birthday we first went to Iowa for the weekend and had a little party there. Then on his actual day we went to my moms where we had more cake, ice cream and presents.

How to build a water table.

My son is always making messes in the bathroom sink. The kid literally goes for the water everyday. I decided it was time for a water table. Both of our boys are having birthdays soon, so we thought it would be a great joint gift. Water tables run anywhere from 30 dollars to 100's of dollars for big fancy ones. I looked online and it seemed I could do it myself. So I did.

Go to your favorite lumber type store. And get the following:
1) All purpose square or rectangle tub with lips around the edges. *
2) 2x4 8feet to 10 feet long
3) 2x6 8feet to 10 feet long

* Word of caution. Make sure your tub is not very deep. This will discourage the kids from climbing in and such. My tub is 6 inches deep with fits perfect with the 2x6 wood. Also never leave kids unattended when playing with water.

The tube should tell you how big it is. For example, mine said 26x20. So i cut the long pieces 26" and then measured for the short side pieces. For the legs, just figure out how tall you want the table. I measured chest high on my smallest kid. It was 21 inches. So that is how tall I made my table. The just screw the legs to the sides of the table. Viola!

There is no bottom to the table. The four sides make a frame and the tub just sits in it. You can easily remove the tub for cleaning. If you really wanted to you could drill through the plastic tub and screw it in place on the table. We are planning to paint this to seal it. You could also use a varnish sealant if you had nice looking natural wood.

Costs: I spent 7.50 on the tub, 3.50 on the wood 2x6 and had free 2x4's from a salvaged pallet.

Jameson Picnic

This past week was the 119th Annual Jameson Picnic. It is a small town festival that my hometown has every year. It is becoming a tradition with my kids as well.

Every year since 3 Gioia has performed in the talent show. This year she sang "In a world of my own" from Alice in Wonderland. The difference this year, was it was the first time she didn't win. This year she was in the 7-12 age group and she is 7. I sang also this year "You were meant for me" by Jewel. There were only two people in my class so I won second, $15 dollars.

Luca was also in the baby show contest and Dominic was in the Little Mister contest. Luca won, Dominic did not. I was super excited though. All my kids have now won the baby show once in there lives there. Gioia won when she was 13 months. Dominic won when he was 11 months. I don't have picture of Luca with his trophy because it was raining. In fact, the rain was pouring so hard they had to postpone the baby show for an hour. Then when it got started again it was under the food tent.

My mom was having some work done on their basement wall. So there was heavy machinery and construction going on. The boys found an awesome pile of gravel to have a great time in.


We took Max with us. He and Jackie (my parents dog) get along great. Jackie keeps him in line and loves to wrestle with him. Max was an awesome traveler in the car. He made no noise other than playing with his toy. He also didn't puke or potty in the car. So we were happy.

New Doghouse!

Every since moving out here to the country, we have needed a doghouse. At our last house we had a dog door in the garage, but this garage is brick and concrete so there is no where to cut a dog door. Besides, we are in the country, they are dogs, GO OUTSIDE!!! HA HA!! Now that my husband has found a free supply of great pallets, (some pine, some even hardwoods) we have a large to-do construction list. First up was the Doghouse.

Basically, it is two solid pallets for the floor. Two for each side and back. Then the front was pallets cut into the appropriate size sections. A couple pallets for the roof (again cut to fit). Then some miscellaneous boards for the trim pieces. Finally tin and a tin roof cap for the roof. Every bit of this was free (pallets and tin). For paint we did purchase paint. We got a 5 gallon bucket of Red Barn paint. The trim paint was also free, leftover from our house trim paint. So total cost around $5-$10 for paint.

We will be doing something similar on a larger scale when we build the chicken coop.

TATTOO!!!!!

Oh yeah. I finally got my tattoo! I have been contemplating and planning this for years. Years, I tell you. How long will it be before my next one? Years, I tell you! That mother hurt! HA HA!!! But really it was not that bad. It has quite a bit of detail and while I was there 1 1/2 hours. It only took about an hour or hour ten minutes of tattooing. So not bad at all.

I got it done by Alli at Irezumi on Wornall. She rocks. My sister helped me draw it. Alli cleaned it up and fixed it a little and then we were on our way. It has Dh and I's initials in the tree trunk. Then it has each of the kids initials worked into the leaves on the branches.

It hurts. I love it. I am super happy. The End.

My baby girl is seven!

I can hardly believe I am the Mom of a seven year old. She is beautiful, smart and a joy to be around. Times like this make me so glad we are homeschooling. It is wonderful to get to spend every day with her. It goes by so quickly and I would be missing a huge chunk of her life if she went to school every day for the next 11 years. :) Which brings me to my next task that this year we will have to start our record keeping for her. That is ok because it actually helps me be more aware of what we are doing and keeps me on task.

For her birthday this year she wanted to have a sleepover. At first she had a big list of girls, but I asked her to narrow it down to 1-2 girls. So she did. We met my friend Jill and her family to swim. It was a blast. Then I took the two girls home for the sleep over. It went really well. Later in the day my kids were grumpy and tired from staying up so late. I told Gioia she was like her Aunt Mel. I remember my sister (who always needed her sleep) being a total crab anytime she went to a sleepover. That same sister is now pregnant, so watch out world when she is a sleep deprived new mom. HA HA!!! (Don't worry sis, I will be MORE than happy to come hold your baby while you nap!)

Nesting Boxes.

We have been working on fixing up the chicken tractor. First we did the tin on top to keep the predators out and provide shade. Then we needed nesting boxes. These weren't in the original designs because meat chickens don't need them. This chicken tractor is already made out of 80% recycled materials, so it is appropriate that the nesting boxes be as well. We screwed two milk crates to the wall. I lined the bottom of the crates with a wire screen cut to fit. Then I screwed a kick board in front of the boxes. Finally, I filled them with fresh bedding.

When I went out to check on the chickens this morning someone had been in the boxes. We don't have any eggs yet today, but I expect some by evening. Yesterday the boxes weren't installed yet so they laid on the floor. As you can see in the picture there is enough clearance for the food bin to be under the boxes. The wire screen in the boxes prevents bedding and poop to fall through and get in the food.

Eggs!

Well the chicken adventure has been quite exciting lately. Let me go back a week or so to tell the whole story.

4th of July weekend - We went to Mom's house. We had a great time at my Uncle Bobs cabin. The cousins took a collection and bought fireworks for a huge fireworks show. It was really great. Then Gioia and Dominic stayed all night for 3 extra days. Massimo and I came home on Sunday and the kids stayed till Wed.The chickens were fine while we were gone.


Then the next weekend of the 10th. MY BIRTHDAY! Happy birthday to me! Massimo's sister and family came to visit. We had a great time with them as well. We went swimming, ate good food, drank some beer and had some laughs.

Then Sunday morning Massimo went out to open the chicken house and a raccoon had gotten in and killed 5 of the 10 meat birds. CRAP!! So Sunday evening we butchered the remaining 5 birds. So meat birds done.

Monday I cleaned and fixed up the coop. Tuesday we put the new birds in there. Wed. morning I went out and all of my "girls" are now crowing! DANG IT!! I also noticed that Otis, my Polish Frizzle was gone. We later found a pile of feathers and a couple tiny bones. A fox (we think) pulled him through a 2-3 inch gap. To fix this problem, we took the wheels off the front of the chicken tractor. So far all seems well now. Darn predators.
We went Thursday night and picked up 4 girls (for sure!!). I will get better pictures when I can. But the first day they did not lay. Today 2 of the girls that are 1 year old laid eggs! WOO HOO!! The two black ones we are calling The Twins should start laying this summer but they are not quite yet. Cinnamon is a Cinnamon Queen and Ginger is an Easter Egger (or Barnyard mix). Ginger may not be a true EE because she laid a brown egg instead of Green but thats ok.

Things I have made.

I have finally gotten some projects finished around here and wanted to show them off. Please be gentle. This is my first major woodworking project. There are several blemishes, but I think it turned out pretty well. The drawer was a major Pain in the ass, so I opted to not do the second drawer and just leave it for large toy storage. See those cute fabric storage bins? I made those too! I plan to fill the whole storage unit with them. So it will look pretty awesome once I get those all done. I have a 4th cubby unit for the second side but it is currently being used for my fabric storage. These are modular and you can rearrange them however you like.
Got the plans from Ana White over at www.knock-offwood.com


Next is this bench. I already had the kids, the bench is the new item. Or should I say old item. The previous house owners left it here. It was a glider but was broken and very weathered. I took the glider part off and left it as a bench. Then I painted it with some left over white enamel in the garage. It was great because I wanted it distressed, and boy is it distressed. HA HA!! I left lots of wood grain and edges showing. It turned out great!!


Here is a side view where you can see the "distressed" parts on the sides and bottom pieces.

Crappy garden soil.

Well I guess I got my answer.

Massimo bought a soil testing kit and we tried it this weekend. The PH came back normal. Everything else is low to very low. Nice. So i went out with the store bought chemical fertilizer and gave all the veggies a dose. For long term we need to treat the whole garden. My parents have cattle so I am going to get lots of fertilizer from them. We are also working on a compost pile that hopefully we can spread all over the garden this fall/winter to mix in.

So this explains why my peppers are struggling for life. It explains why half my seeds never came up and why those that did are growing so slowly.

On a happy garden note, i got 25 lbs of organic tomatoes for $20 last weekend. I was super excited. I canned 7 jars of whole tomatoes. I also had a few left for eating and one jar that I just put in the fridge because my canner only holds 7. :)

Next on my list is to try to make some Fridge pickles. It is a great idea to use those extra cucumbers when you only have 3-4 at a time. When I get a large amount I might can some dill pickles, but for now we are only getting one or two a week.