More chickn fun

 

and an awesome rainbow.

Who's a chicken head?

 Annie's having her friend Emily stay for her first sleep over tonight, and being the insane family that we are we made it a chicken party.  We played outside with the new chicks, had chicken for dinner (this one might have been a little weird), and then we brought the chickens up to dance and play in the living room.  Tonight the girls get to sleep with the chickens.

Texas, covered in chicks.

Busy

 This is our crazy busy time of year.  Plants are going out, new ones need to be started and little chicks are constantly chirping their little song (I happen to love the chirping, but it kinda drives Texas crazy when he's trying to get to sleep at night).  So many projects have to be completed before summer hits, and the list needed to be done before summer ends is mounting.  Getting our little home settled is going to take a while.

On the list for spring completetion:
Basement stairs
Bedroom for me and Texas
Tearing out the giant (7' diameter) tree stump in the middle of our garden
New fence for around the garden, with footings for hoop house to be added in the fall
Worm box set up in chicken run
Temporary separate housing for chicks

The list is slightly daunting when you realize all that has to be done. It helps to look at what has been done and whats currently growing.

 Inside we have:

1st round of tomatoes are ready to go. 

 The second round is growing fast.

 Bell peppers, Egg plant, and ground cherries are coming up.

 The chicks are chirping.

 and making a mess of their little home.

 Onion sets are looking good.

 Garlic is growing strong.

Mix of parsley, chard and chives, left over from last years crops.

Meals around here have been heavily focused on salads and the remaining winter squash.   I'm looking forward to berries and asparagus soon. 

Cheese, clean, sleep

On Monday, I made Mozzarella!!!  

This week I decided to get back into cheese making.  During the spring I stop drinking un-fermented dairy due to my allergies.  What to do with all that glorious raw milk?  Make cheese!  

I completely messed up with the order of operations, but surprisingly it all worked out.  Thank goodness I don't give up easy, I almost threw it all out to the chickens. 

On Tuesday,

Annie gave her sister a bath in the sink.  Elsie is a sticky dirt magnet and I'm beginning to think all this bathing is futile.  She just gets dirty again.

Today,

The dog threw up all over Annie's room.  I put her in my bed while I cleaned hers. 

 Came back to two sleeping babies.  Texas and I have lost our bed for the night.  (and no I do not own a set of matching sheets.  Texas does, but I don't want to ruin them with baby spit up, breast milk and the incredibly sticky/dirty baby.)

The babies!

Texas and I decided we needed to get more chickens this year.  The girls are getting old and not laying as much, so we went this weekend to get new babies!  Our incredibly awesome neighbors introduced us to the amazing world of Bucheits, and after spending way to much time wandering the isles we picked our new baby birds and piled into the bus to drive home.  Yes, I said bus.  Our neighbors are quite possibly the coolest people I have met, and they have a bus.  Which fits us all plus room for many more, and it is so much fun riding out in the bus together.  The girls jumped at the chance to ride in the back of the bus with the chicks on the way home.

 Each little chick got lots of attention from Annie and Emily.

 Elsie sat playing with a beer can.

 And kisses were smothered onto each baby.

 Names were assigned based on personality.  So far we have Wanderer, Snuggle, Trouble, Fluffy, Tiny and Gertrude (to replace my Gertrude who we lost last year).

 The temporary nest assembled by the girls.

 Alex and snuggle.

And what does Elsie think?

 She was very confused why her toy kept moving.

 And finally embraced the little birdie.

Yes, she approves!

 My evangelical child praying over her baby chick.

 And yes, Elsie wants more.

Please!

Progress

 Texas and I have been spending our weekends working on the basement stairs/kitchen reconfiguration.  Texas took out a good 16" of the kitchen wall this last weekend. 

 16" inches didn't seem like much, but everything feels a lot more open now. 

 Only problem is,  he disconnected the light switch to the kitchen and hasn't put it back in.  It's been a week.  My kitchen is dark.  Fortunately Texas has been too busy with work to fix it, so I cook in the dark and thank God for work.

Dear Texas, thank you for all your hard work.

Wow, where have we been...

 Outside! in the sweltering heat of March?? Confusing weather we're having here, but we're not ones to let a sunny day go to waste.

 My little Gypsy is creatively keeping her toys off the ground.

 Elsie is discovering the playset.

 Every bit of it.

 In the kitchen we've been experimenting with different "healthy" treats.  Today we made Mardi Gras bars, Annie picked the name not me.  Basicaly it's dried dates with nuts and coconut pressed into a bar.  We added a little organic Chocolate sweetened with honey and some sprinkles to the top. 

With the kids outside I started the corned beef for St. Patrick's day (freaking my husband out with raw meat curing on the counter), made a huge batch of liver sausage (which Texas taught Elsie how to feed to Banjo), and made various snacks for the week. 

 In the garden things are starting to look so pretty.

 Parsley has gone wild.

Kale is growing like crazy.

And spinach is finely coming in.