Thinking of getting chickens?

Now is the season where your local feed stores will start carrying baby chicks! They are so adorable and hard to resist! If you are thinking of getting some and are new to chickens, here are some books I recommend:

Planted my first batch of peas!!!

I'm so proud of myself! I've never gotten my peas in so early before. My Mother-in-law and many others in this neck of the woods, have always said February is the time to get the peas planted, and I was determined to get it done this weekend. Hubby even tilled the garden bed for me after I cleaned it up. It's been in the 50's and sunny for the last week, but rain is supposed to come and stay tonight or tomorrow. So yeah for me!!

We have new baby chicks in the house!

I had to share what has been keeping us busy these last 2 weeks. We got new baby chicks! 13 in all, including 3 Buff Rock, 1 Barred Rock, 2 Speckled Sussex, 2 Ameraucana (aka: Easter Eggers), 2 Silver Polish, 2 Rhode Island Red and one mystery chick that we know is a feather footed bantam of some type who is yellow in color right now. Here's the pic's!







We actually went in on an order with a couple people my husband works with, so you may see some other breeds in the photo's like the cornish. We babysat theirs for a week or two. Now we have to get busy building another coop, as our current one is not quite big enough for those we currently have and these, so that will be our spring project.

I've also been browsing at www.backyardchickens.com for coop ideas. Members there have posted lots of ideas and it's a great place to get inspired. Also been browsing on Craigslist.org to see if I can find a previously used coop or shed at a good price. We are also thinking of maybe using pallets to construct the new shed. You can usually pick them up for free on Craigslist quite often, and it a great way to recycle them. If you have a cool, cheap coop design, please share! I'd love to see them!

Spring Fever!!!

Well, guess what? I got soooo busy in the garden's last year, I didn't post here! Sooo sad! Well now it's that time of year again, I'm just itching to get out there, and it's still too cold and wet to do much.

So let me fill you in on things around here. The gardens were a HUGE success! It is February, and we are still eating our own potatoes, carrots, leeks, parnsips, turnips and winter squashes.........LOTS and LOTS of winter squashes! In the freezer we still have corn, beans, diced green peppers and raspberries.

This year I need to make a few changes. LESS SQUASH!!! Both summer squash and winter squash! Here is just one wagon load of summer squash we had, and trust me, we had many more!



I did waaaaay too much of both last year! This year, I want to do a lot more peas, enough to put a ton away in the freezer. We did a lot of green beans last year, and the kids are not so hot on them frozen. They prefer them fresh. They prefer the peas fresh too, and last year they ate most of them before I could get any in the freezer, so need to plant at least 2 or 3 times as much! Also would like to do a little more variety of things this year to take up the room the squashes took up. Maybe some try some celery, kale and beets and plant a little more cabbage and broccoli and spinach.