Growing Chickens

It dawned on me today that I haven't updated on our four girls in a while.  They have been growing daily and about a month ago were big enough to move into their new coop.  We were still being cautious about letting them out in the yard while Duke was around when one day Jordan forgot and left their coop door open.  When he remembered, he found a crazed bulldog and four frightened chickies...one with an obvious injury.  Not being a chicken vet, I can only speculate that she badly bruised her breast.  We separated Petunia and it was touch and go for two weeks.  Jordan was literally ready to "axe" her twice and then, as if she heard of his grim plans, she would take a turn for the better.  This week she is finally back to her old self.

Petunia during her daily "rehab".  Balancing on one leg with her wings down.

What can I say?  You get attached to them:)

So other than our injured reserve chicken, the rest of them have been doing great.  I let them out to free range when I'm home (and the doggy door is closed up).  They are quite peculiar and very friendly.  They will pretty much come right up to you and peck around, though some are more outgoing than others.  At night they jump back in the coop and I shut them up.  So far they haven't been a bother to our garden.

One day while the kids were out looking for worms, Francis got curious too!

Looking for snacks.

It will probably be another six weeks before we see our first eggs, but they are keeping us entertained in the mean time.  Love these chickens!

Family Weekend at the Lake

Last weekend we headed to the lake for our annual family weekend.  It rained the entire way there, but after a good dousing, the clouds cleared and it turned out to be a beautiful weekend.

The moms on Mother's Day

The kids, of course, enjoyed the hot tub and got plenty of swimming time in.

 We sat on the deck most of the weekend and lounged around.

Rich and Jenn went for a jog while the rest of us were lazy...

When the kids got warmed up from the hot tub, they jumped in the lake.

 Even Rylin took a turn on the slide.

The guys played a little baseball before Shelby and I went kayaking.

 As the "activities director" I decided to plan a Murder Mystery dinner for us.  We picked a western theme and Saturday night everyone dressed up and got into character.

The kids really got into it, and everyone had a fun time (laughing a lot) and trying to figure out who was going to meet an unfortunate end and who would be the culprit.

In the end it was Papa, aka Wavy Will Bronchos.  He returned from the bathroom in his ghostly getup and wasn't allowed to speak for the rest of the game!  Shelby, aka Abby Oakley turned out to be his killer.

The weekend always goes by too fast, but that's how we know we're having fun!  We are thankful for our family and grateful for our time together.

Cloth Diapers and Potty Training

So this was supposed to be a cloth diaper update. In fact, its been in the works for probably six months now! Since then however, we have moved to "serious" potty training. I'll give you my diaper update first and then move on to big boy things (I feel like I say that a lot these days).

So the Fuzzibunz were going great. That is until Rylin started having a reaction to them while he wore them overnight. I tried stripping and soaking and every suggestion online, but couldn't quite solve the issue. I purchased some of them used, so I was uncertain about the previous owners care and this led me to decide that I needed to just replace them. Uggghhh. So I started looking at a few other brands that I had considered along with Fuzzibunz just to be sure, and I ended up going with G-Diapers. They are a "hybrid" of sorts with the ability to use a disposable (also flushable and compostable!) insert, or a fancy hemp/cotton cloth insert...both not in a pocket so easily replaceable should you have an issue like we did (for a much lower price). Because you only change out the liner and insert, you don't need as many diaper covers and therefore don't wash as much either. The one downfall is that they aren't one size, so if I follow through with the next kiddos, I might have to buy different sizes for different ages.

They are SUPER cute on our little man, though.

I also found this cool fandagled contraption at IKEA that works perfect for hanging them to dry!

So we've been enjoying our G Diapers but I started getting the sense that Rylin was ready to potty train. I had already made up my mind that I wasn't going to rush him...until maybe we started shopping for Kindergarten supplies(kidding), but the last couple of weeks he started telling me whenever he went. Yeah, yeah..."it's one thing to acknowledge when you've already gone but another to anticipate going"...so I didn't make a big deal about it. Then one day I decided to try the naked route and see what would happen. Sure enough he gave me a "pee pee" warning and then proceed to follow through on the kitchen floor. I read all about the One Day Training method and decided to wing it. After ten trips to the potty and back to the scene of the crime yelling "no pee pee in the floor, pee pee in the potty" we were both winded and crying from laughter. No way this is gonna work. Then, wouldn't you know, it did. He started running to the potty any time he needed to go. Not even telling me! I was pumped. This is until I realized he was still naked. Every time I put underwear on him, he either sat on the toilet without pulling them down or just treated them like a diaper. Naked...100% trained. Clothed...not even close. Dang! I knew we had to leave the house at some point. How could this naked method backfire on me?! After researching online (aka..reassuring myself I wasn't the only one with this problem) I got a few pointers, some looser boxer briefs and began again on Monday. We practiced pulling the undies down and up again, I made him recite what he was to do if he had to potty, and we spent the day perfecting. He did great! After an entire day he only had one accident, and that was on the toilet at the very beginning when he hadn't quite got pulling the undies down yet. The rest of the week has gone better than I could have expected.  We've even ventured out on several errands and to dinner twice with no problems.  I'm not calling training over, but I see the end in sight!

Dirt and other things I dream about these days

This past week while Rylin was at Mother's Day out, I made a quick trip to one of my favorite places...the public library. Our local library is just a few streets away and there are so many things I love about it. #1....peace and quiet! Something I don't get a lot of these days. I like the smell of the old books and I like how it makes me feel like I'm back in my 20's in the college library. Enough rambling on about my happy place...I was there for some books!

You can see I ended up with quite the bounty. I couldn't wait to get home and start reading. The compost book was the first I picked up since I've been wanting to get ours started for a while now. We had a very basic compost pile growing up that I don't remember having much interest in. (Really, what kid does) But now, the idea of minimizing waste and turning trash into garden goodness sounds way more appealing than the younger me appreciated.

The previous home owner left us this handy little thing when we moved in our house, and until a year ago we didn't even realize what it was!

This weekend I cleaned out the left over bags of manure, fertilizer, and cobwebs (I hate spiders) and prepped it for composting. Seems that they used it more for storage bug collecting. I dumped in some left over material from our garden, some chicken poo and shavings, and Rylin helped me collect dead leaves from the yard that missed the raking we did a month ago.

After last nights dinner, I made a small bag of food waste. Never have I been so excited over potato peelings and coffee grounds!

With a few stirs of the shovel and some time we'll be producing rich compost for the garden! Speaking of which, do you know what greeted me a couple days ago when I went out to water? Two tomatoes!

Can't wait till we're picking them off the vine and eating them!

Easter Weekend

We look forward to Easter every year. As I've mentioned in the past, it is the biggest holiday for my family. This year Rylin and I went to my parents a little early and got to spend some time with MiMi and Papa to ourselves. This is what greeted us as we came up the drive...

The bluebonnets were as thick as I've ever seen them and everything was so green because of all the rain we've been getting. My Dad is proud of his windmill and it was quite picturesque with the horses and sea of blue flowers.

We prepared food for Sunday lunch and Rylin helped Mimi fill eggs for our Easter hunt.

The main attraction for the weekend was Papa's new mare and week old colt, though. Since my Dad was young, he has always wanted a mare and colt and this past year, bred their horse Scout who was to foal just a few weeks before Easter. In an emotional delivery, the filly did not make it and our whole family was grief stricken. Then, just a few days later, after seeing an ad on Facebook from the Houston SPCA, my sister-in-law convinced my Dad to apply for a Mare that had been rescued who foaled a colt just a few days after ours. As fate would have it, the people at the SPCA chose my Dad's application and he was home with two new horses the next day!

Roxie and Buck

My nieces and nephews took turns riding the other horses and Rylin had to get on himself. He is much better about holding on now and was really enjoying his ride.

On Saturday Papa took him out into the pasture to spread some dirt. And man does this boy ever love his Papa. And dirt.

I helped the big kids dye Easter eggs, a tradition that I've been doing since I was their age. We were having a big group on Sunday and we counted 130 eggs that we dyed! We had quite the assembly line.

Rylin had to get in another ride...this time without pants! Won't be able to do that much longer:)

We were also excited that Rylin's buddy Atticus (and his parents) got to join us Saturday afternoon. These boys entertained each other and had no problem finding ways to get in trouble.

I tried for some cliche bluebonnet pictures but Rylin was not willing to cooperate. Instead I snapped this funny moment right before he free fell into the soft bed of flowers!

He definitely caught on to hunting eggs quickly. Although he still wanted to open and eat each one before moving on to the next!

It was a fun weekend, and in the end, we weren't quite ready to go home. (Though I think Mimi and Papa were ready to have a quite house again!)

Meet the Chicks

This week we finially decided on baby chicks instead of grown hens and I found a lady who raised all of the breeds I wanted. So on Saturday, the three of us headed to the country to pick up our four 3 1/2 week old chicks. After getting them home and into their temporary lodging, we introduced them to Duke. He was unimpressed for the most part, but curious of their foreign aroma.

And the girls are...left to right, Gerty (Speckeled Sussex), Sissy (Golden Laced Wyandotte), Petunia (New Hampshire Red), and Francis (Barred Rock).

Petunia (or P-toot as Jordan is calling her) is the most curious of the bunch. She will stick her head up to your hand and is quite the social one of the group. Francis is shy but always active. Jordan says she is his favorite but he can never remember her name.

I can already tell Sissy is going to be the boss. She pecks at the others if they get in her way and when I bring them the occasional bug, she always manages to get it! Gerty on the other hand is always sleeping and easy to catch. She is the most docile and quiet.

I love how you can already tell so much about their personalities. Jordan and I like to sit and watch them, and I'm sure they will only get more amusing as they grow up into hens.

Rylin loves the chicks too and likes to tell each one "hello" and "goodbye" by name. I'm not sure he's figured out they are laying hens though, because he keeps saying "momma, eat shickens!"

They will stay under the heat lamp for another two weeks and then move to their fancy coop. Hopefully, in a few more months we'll have some eggs!