Month of Thanks

So someone I know is writing one thing each day they are thankful for...though i dont want to put that as my status on FB, i would like to try and do this...so here we go and forgive me that i have to catch up here....soooo,

Nov 1st...so thankful for LIFE

Nov 2nd....thankful that God is Gracious and that He is the best HEALER around

Nov 3rd...thankful for my parents and all that they do for us

Nov 4th...thankful that Bill likes to cook

and now hopefully i will remember to do this every day and that in the process i will remember that i am blessed beyond anything i could ask for...

put in your orders....

well, i thought i would blog a lot more when i wrote in march, but i obviously havent had the chance. but i am going to try again.

i am excited to announce that the baby chickes are on their way. bill ordered 20 some odd new chickens the other day and we are just waiting for them to arrive at the post office. i dont know how i got suckered into 20, but it happened. so, we are going to have to make some additions to the coop, like more roosting space and also a bigger fenced in area. i am really looking forward to the new chickens as we are going to have several different breeds this time. this means hopefully i can tell them apart this time and also a variety of egg colors. by my calculations we should be getting eggs in november, so if you want to buy some local eggs, please just ask as we will be getting around a dozen and a half eggs a day. needless to say i dont eat that many eggs in a day.

my little babe is doing well, but he obviously keeps me busy. he just turned 6 mos. old the other day. here is a recent picture:
i hope to be putting up new pics of the chickens when we get them. i also hope to post some pictures of the improved coop. besides that the adventures in the backyard include cutting down some trees for more light and open area. we also have several raised beds of tomato plants and a few beans and peppers. i envision adding a bed or two each year, but for right now this is plenty. if we ever get tomatos (the cool weather isnt helping nor is day after day of rain), then we will be busy canning for quite some time.

until another day...

here is the reason...

Here is the reason that I haven't blogged in what seems like forever. He is adorable, isnt he?! Well, I should probably change the title of the blog from adventures in our backyard to adventures in life because the focus has certainly left the backyard and is more in the crib inside the house. However, as much as we are enjoying being parents, we still talk about what we want to do in the backyard this spring and summer.

First off, we need to get a few more chickens. I say a few, Bill says many. We actually have "lost" two chickens over the course of the winter. One was a month or so ago and once was just recently. There were chicken feathers all over our yard the other morning and we haven't had 5 chickens since then.

Bill would also like to add ducks and geese to the collection in the back. I, however, am completely against this. It just seems like more work than we need right now. We have a hard enough time keeping up with the chickens lately that I would feel bad adding more the plate. If you ask Bill as to why he wants ducks and geese please be prepared for a long conversation, though interesting, it will be long...

Also, we are talking about the garden again. Our garden failed miserably, mostly due to the fact that I couldnt do a thing last summer with my morning sickness. This summer I plan it to be a lot different. I hope Liam likes hanging out in the dirt with his mom. We decided we need to do some raised beds and move the garden to a different area of the yard in order to get enough sun light. Hopefully this will solve some of the issues we had last summer. I cant wait to grow my yellow pear tomatoes. We coudnt get the seeds last year as every place we checked was out of them. Bill surprised me a few weeks ago with that glorious little yellow packet containing my favorite kind of tomato. I really hope it all turns out!

That is all for now! lots of love and many blessings!

Apologies...

Well, I have to start with an apology for not blogging in forever. I know many people were curious about the chickens, the laying of eggs and how the garden turned out this summer. Unfortunately I never got the chance to blog about any of it because I was extremely sick with "morning sickness" starting on Memorial Day. From that day on it was a struggle to even get from my bed to the couch due to feeling so horrible all day long. That also meant a lot didn't get done this summer in the backyard. I was planning on doing a good portion of the gardening because I have the summers off and was really looking forward to seeing how green my thumb was. Well, as previously mentioned that did not happen. My only job consisted of trying to remind Bill every few days to feed/water the chickens. I am happy to report that the girls give us about a dozen eggs every other day. So we are well stocked with brown eggs and are usually looking for people to sell or give them away too. So if you want eggs and are in the area, please let us know! My plan is to get a few pictures up in the near future of the girls and also the digging of the new dry well. The dry well broke over the winter and therefore turned into this summer's main project.

So I think our blog from now on will not only have to be about the adventures in our backyard but also the adventures in life with a new baby on the way.

Blessings,
Amy

They make their way outdoors

Though this happened around two weeks ago, I still wanted to share with you the pictures of the girls and their first steps into the outside world. It was actually quite funny because the board that is their ramp in and out is actually quite slippery. So I watched one chicken after another step out onto the ramp, start sliding, and then somehow manage to half slide, half fly out into the wild. It gave me a few good laughs. I called Bill and said we had to fix this that evening otherwise I wasn't sure they were going to make it back into the coop. Here are the pictures of the girls finding their way out of the coop.


The ramp leading to the outside world....



One interested chicken....



Two interested chickens....



Several interested chickens....



One chicken successfully making the leap to the outside world....



Watch out, that first step is slippery....



All the girls are happy, enjoying the outdoors....

Tulip Time

In honor of Tulip Time, the world famous festival in Holland, Michigan I mention that I miss seeing the thousands of tulips each spring that grow around town. Now, thanks to family, I had some tulips growing in my yard this year and they were gorgeous. Also, recently when my parents and aunt were in town we were able to check out some pretty cool tulips growing across the street from Zingermans. It really made me want to check out for next year some really cool varieties of tulips to plant. I love tulips, I think they are my third favorite flower. They follow closely behind gerbera daisies and pansies. Anyhoo, mine are past their prime now, but I had some beauties growing. but I had to make a shout out to good ol' tulip time (and all the elephant ears I will never eat again!) Its amazing what creativity God put even into flowers. Its truly amazing when you start to think about it all!!

Gotta Love Family

Well, I know this post is seriously belated, but I wanted to write it anyway. A few weeks ago Dad and Mom Vincent came for the weekend and put in some serious hard work in the yard. Dad and Mom Marshall also joined in the fun. It was a lot of hard work and caused a lot of sore muscles but the following happened: chicken coop painted, nesting boxes in place, weeding and mulching of one side of our house, mowing, chicken coop fence put up, laying out of the garden area, and planting tons of transplants of flowers from Holland (and many other things I have probably already forgotten). Here are some pictures from the weekend. I must say I think our yard and planting areas look 100 times better than they did before we started. Thanks families!!!



This area used to be entirely full of weeds...












































Work on the coop!! Bill sweeping in order to put in the flooring next, dads painting, mom using her sewing skills to weave the two part of the fence together, and the nesting boxes before they were taken inside the coop