ADDING MORE ANIMALS ON THE HOMESTEAD!!

The other day I was talking with our good friends Aaron and Megan. We are usually swapping something or helping each other in one way or another. 

They have some Lavender Orpington chickens.
Back at our other house we had hatched out 3. I really like the gentleness of them. They unfortunately didn't make it very long on the homestead before a fox got them.

But talking with them (Aaron and Megan), they have agreed to housing theirs here so we can collect some fertile eggs and hatch out more. BONUS!!

Tim and I have such great friends!

So the other day, the girls and I loaded several cages in our truck.
WHY? you ask.............

We picked up the Lavender Orpington Chickens.

One meatie!

It's only one because their whole flock but this little one got wiped out by a raccoon. 

When I picked this little guy up, Aaron borrowed two DP traps.

We will be praying this will help. They hatched out lots of baby chicks and the raccoon wiped out over half of their flock and all but one meat bird.

And Kaitlin got another rabbit.

Yes she is the baby and yes she is spoiled rotten.

But, with all of that she takes responsibility.

All her animals are well cared for.

The chickens are doing good.

We will need to switch out roosters. There are 3 of them to 1 hen.

This is Raven! She is a checkered giant rex cross.
She is huge!

The meat bird was added with the rest of our meat birds and we can't even tell the difference. All are doing good!

GARDEN UPDATE!

We all have been working to keep on the garden.
We need rain so bad. I heard it's coming.

One corner of the Vineyard Garden.

The other corner of the Vineyard Garden.

Left side of picture shows cucumbers and beans starting up the panels.

Grapes look like they are gonna produce alot.

The Big Garden area.

Having the tomatoes grow up on the string is working well.

Moved the raspberries last year and it looks like it really helped.

Kaitlin has been bringing in handfuls daily.

A GORGEOUS EVENING!

After the rain we so badly needed, the weather has finally cooled off. I say that but we aren't hitting 98+ degrees. It's more like 85ish degrees with evening temps being 72-73. And to believe June 21st is the official start of SUMMER!

A great night to go kayaking.

Kaitlin thought it would be a great idea to take her dog Scout on the kayak. She didn't get far before Scout wanted out. She would rather swim next to her instead of being in it with her.

Willow didn't help either.

Kaitlin took this one out on the pond.
Just a gorgeous evening out with my girls.

A NEW RABBIT!

We added another new rabbit on the homestead.

We just can't seem to tell Kaitlin no!

Lol!

She does a awesome job of caring for them, and the knowledge she has learned about rabbits is just phenomenal.

 This is Greycelyn. She's a New Zealand with Chinchilla coloring. She's about 7 weeks old. I put her in a cage with Amber's (my female Rex) baby who is about 10 weeks old. A friend of ours and I traded rabbits I gave her a Rex baby and got Greycelyn in exchange. The two babies are doing well together, I didn't know how they would do but they both had siblings so I put them together so they wouldn't be lonely. Greycelyn is Greyson's baby so I went with the 'Grey' theme.

~Kaitlin

PROJECTS GETTING DONE/STARTED!

Anyone have one of those weeks that things just couldn't get any worse?

Well for me it's been for the past two weeks. It all started with our trucks a/c. That's plural, it's two trucks. One doesn't have a/c and the other one started blowing out hot air. Let me give you the temperatures here, it's 90+ degrees and only dropping to 85 degrees at night. We took our trucks in and got it fixed.

I was happy until a week or so in and it just stopped working. On to the next truck. It's got a/c, we drove this until it started blowing out hot air in the rear a/c. 

 Then, not mentioning names, my oven broke. Skylar was trying to cook something in the oven and it wouldn't come up to temp. (Skylar didn't really break it.)

Our main bathroom tub faucet started to drip more than a drip. Of course Tim was at work and I tried to tighten it but I am not a plumber by no means.

Then, Tim comes home and is SICK!

Let me tell you; Tim has never ever been this sick before.

It took him almost a week to get over it and get back to being himself. That was a rough couple of days with him down.

It was enough on the rest of us keeping up on the daily chores.

Tim got better and the girls home from living at Mrs. L house for almost 2 weeks. (not really but quilting all day everyday is basically living there)

 Our to do list was long and one person couldn't do the job alone.

We all sat down and made individual lists to help get the lists done.

Tim got the part in and fixed one of the trucks. I still need to take the other one in. I really like having a/c!!

 

Check out the hole in the wall that Tim put in.

This hole leads to the shower wall so he can put in a new faucet.

Don't judge on the amount of shoes.

There is 3 girls in this house.

Tim is putting in new pex lines too.

 This tub faucet has been broke since we have moved in. The girls will be happy with the new one we picked up.

Much nicer and easier to use.

Tim looked at the oven and the actual burner broke in half.
The part is being shipped.

Needed to get the 4 new blueberry bushes planted.

Got them in and Kaitlin already started eating what little fruit this little plant was producing.

Skylar planting pumpkin.

I know we are late getting things in this year. It went from snow to the heat of summer.

Cucumbers are filling in nicely.

We did get the cattle panels in.

With everything else we still had to stop and go get 5 roosters from a friends house. We ended up giving her our Buff rooster.

We decided to keep this Light Brahma Rooster. (white one on the right)

He is still a young one but so big. I think I will call him Baby because he acts like one. So sweet!

And this Buff Brahma Rooster.

Zucchini is in!

Spaghetti Squash is in!

Also planted the watermelon, melon and corn.

We need RAIN!

Tim got the dead tree cut down.

Herb/Veggie garden is filling in.

I really like how bright the tarragon flowers are.

Tim split some more wood and getting it stacked.

Good thing I moved my herb bed from there.

He has another trailer full but ran out of time and daylight to stack the rest. It will wait for another day.

Snow's babies got weaned and are doing great.

Hope and Alex

ASL RECITAL!!!!

AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE RECITAL

(ASL Recital)

The Girls (Skylar, Sarah and Kaitlin) preformed a recital at a park with their friends and whoever wanted to watch. We enjoyed watching their hard work learning to sign the words to all the songs they sung for us.

They preformed the following songs:

National Anthem (Skylar, Sarah and Kaitlin)

American Spirit (Skylar, Sarah and Kaitlin)

Perfect (Sarah)

Light 'Em Up (Skylar, Sarah and Kaitlin)

Sad Song (Skylar)

Bohemian Rhapsody (Skylar, Sarah and Kaitlin)

Boys Like You (Kaitlin)

How Far I'll Go (Skylar, Sarah and Kaitlin)

Check out the video all three girls did:

Skylar, Sarah and Kaitlin signing Light 'Em Up 

by Fall Out Boy

Kaitlin signing Boys Like You

by Anna Clendening