Eva

I just spent the last hour and a half reading the blog of a Canadian girl named Eva. She was a 26 year old living with cystic fibrosis and for 4 years wrote on her blog, 65redroses, about her life with the disease. She was so beautiful and so full of love ...
Such a neat blog if you have time to read....

Look Alikes

Do you think my girls look like me??

I think Isabella may look more like Chris...

Baby Ducks

I may have mentioned this before, I can't remember really. But about 4 or 5 weeks ago a female mallard duck started laying her eggs next to our pond..as she does every year. Normally the turtles or coons get them but this year, my father-in-law saved them. Over the next several days we collected 10 eggs all together. He placed them all in a 'still air' foam incubator, purchased at Tractor Supply (my new favorite store..odd I know). Over the next 5 weeks my mother-in-law turned the eggs, faithfully, every 4 hours. (Which I guess the momma duck would have done anyway). We waited patiently for the day to come and as my F-I-L predicted they started hatching today! The first one at 06:35 this morning and the second at 8:47. They called us excitedly at 7:30 this morning to come watch as the second slowly pecked his way around the egg. Did you know that they peck away at the egg shell, in a full circle, until they finally push themselves out? It's pretty neat to watch. Slow yes. The second took a full hour almost to come out. Here's some videos of the first hatching. The second hatching. And more of the second...

When I left for work at 13:00 there was a third working his way out..and a few others slowly pecking their way out. I bet by Thursday we will have all ten! Their new home is being prepared in the garage, safe from predators. The kids love it..its such a neat learning experience.

Only Isabella asked me today why all eggs don't have baby chicks in them. I carefully explained that you have to have a rooster to get baby chicks otherwise you can just go ahead and eat the eggs. Luckily for now the conversation stopped there!

Ellie 18 months

Today was Ellie's 18m checkup...almost 2 months late as she is nearing 20 months now. Gosh I can't believe she's that old already. And her sister is nearly 6, I'm feeling really old!

We have to do these 'evalulation sheets' everytime we go in for a checkup. Basically to check her progress....its the type where they ask you sets of questions about stuff she can do and they say once you get to 3 no's stop answering. Well up until now we've done that. She's progressed in some areas but not all..not like she's behind..but, just not there yet. For instance at her 12m appt they were asking if she was talking yet...or running and obviously not all 12m olds were there yet. So I disappointedly circled no. BUT, at this appt I went all the way to the end of the page! She has done it all ladies and gentlemen! She can run, speak more than 8 words, point when she wants something, try to ask for what she wants!, etc. She has progressed in so many ways since our last appt. Just in the last week or to she has changed so much. She's talking up a storm! She shakes her head yes or no when she does want or doesn't want something. She says juice!! and jump!

It's been a joy getting to know her the last few months as she is getting older. Her personality is showing more and more. She's definately going to be the entertainer. Yes Isabella entertains also (she's the dancer and singer) but Ellie is the jokester...

She measured at 34 1/4'' tall and 24.4lbs. She wears a size 5 shoe and is almost in 24m clothing. Shes inbetween 18-24m. OH and she got 2 shots neither of which she cried for! It's like she's been poked with a needle before and it was no big deal! She's a tough girl... (EFG watch out!)

After the visit though she slept for an hour and a half...those shots did wear her out...

Gardening

Gardening season has begun at our house! This past Tuesday the garden was tilled and Wednesday we sectioned off all the plots for our beds. The whole garden is roughly 100ft long and 78ft wide. We have about 20-4ft wide, 50ft long beds. Each bed has 5ft of space inbetween so that we can fit the gator in...will make it handy for weeding/harvesting/watering the plants and beds.

When initially thinking about spacing of the beds then doing all the work to create the beds, I was stessing out! At first I wanted all RAISED (not yet wood framed) beds! Chris calls me an HGTV dreamer, and he's probably right. I dream of gardens like this: perfectly organized and beautiful..

I set out towards the field Wednesday morning with my shovel and started digging and raising my first bed..I got about 3-4ft in and looked at the length I still had to go and though "There is no way!" I'm going to brake my back! My sweet husband came out to see what I was up to and said 'Dear what are you doing! You don't want raised beds for the whole garden do you!?' I said 'Yes, I do! But, it's not going to happen, so what do I do now! What I wanted initially isn't going to work'. So he thought for a bit and then we divided the whole garden in half width wise, so that we would have a 5ft path thru the middle of it. Handy for the tractor or gator to get in. As we started doing this and moving onto separating the rest of the space length wise, we started creating 4ft beds with 5ft of space inbetween-again for the gator. How easy would this be to! After marking all our beds and paths with string and markers we drove the gator up and down each path, patting all the paths down. SO much easier than what I had planned. It was all done in about an hour.

Maybe some day I can have the garden of my dreams like above! With raised wood framed beds and stone paved paths. Even fencing all the way around. Fencing for our garden now will cost quite a bit and after forking out a lot of money for our chickens condo, we'll have to wait until the future for it. Slowly but surely I'll create this dream garden. I have to remember I can't always get what I want with the snap of my fingers. I'm sure the gardens above took quite a bit of time to make, things like that don't happen overnight. It's just so pretty isn't it!?

So Wednesday afternoon we started planting spinach, garlic, okra, peppers, strawberries and Isabella planted some flowers in her bed. Just planting these few things, it took quite a bit of time! Digging the small trenches, dropping the seeds carefully into each one and covering it back up, and then watering each row. So far we only have a tiny small portion of the garden taken up. Mind you, we have a lot of planting still to do. Theres corn to be planted, tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, peas, string beens, and onion. I already can't wait until things start coming in..to see the fruits of our labor will be a pretty sight.

You will eat the fruit of your labor;
blessings and prosperity will be yours.
Psalm 128:2

chICKens!

Everyday we go outside to let the chickens out of their coop and everyday I'm some what amazed at how quickly they grow! The little one in the picture isn't the same type of bird as the rest of them (the larger ones) so they are growing a bit slower. It will be interesting to see what they are..and what color eggs they lay. But, the others are Cornish Rocks, 'broilers' and white egg layers. Supposedly they will be at nearly 5lbs by 8 weeks.

Here's some pictures of the chicks at 5 weeks.

Every morning when we let them out of the coop they
all charge the door. Eager to see what awaits outside.
Eventually they will be 'free range', meaning
they will get to roam the property
not fenced in. We are a bit
nervous about this as we don't want
another animal to find dinner, so even though
they are bigger now, we are waiting a bit longer to let them roam
without us. I also feel a bit protective of them, a bit motherly
if you will...they are almost like pets! I guess in a sense they are pet..we just plan on
eating them at some point :D.

Ellie loves to greet the chicks, she walks right up to them saying
''Hiiii!" ''Hi!" And she's not afraid to try and pick them up
either. She walks right up to them poking their backs
or heads..

This is the one I mentioned above as being my favorite.
I'm questioning it's gender a bit. I think it may be a
rooster..I'm not quite ready to 'sex' the chickens yet. Maybe
there's another way to tell. And these little birds are a lot faster
than the other larger ones. They're hard to catch. Isn't it pretty though?
It's fiesty though..it's funny, people have asked if we can
see their personalities yet..and up till now I've
said no. What a silly question right? But this one
I can see thinks it's boss. He chest buts the large chickens. Runs right
up to them flapping its feathers real fast to gain momentum, and
then throws himself into the big birds. Which in return just stand
there like 'what are you doing??" I find it amusing.
It also runs like a mad man when you enter the coop..I always
yell at it and try to scare it.

Little Homestead in the City

Little Homestead in the City....journal of a self-sufficient

urban life. They are 'eco-pioneers living a homegrown

revolution on a sustainable,

real-life original

urban homestead in Pasadena, California.'

I love this website I happened to stumble upon today...UrbanHomestead.org

How great is this garden!? So well put together..I dream of gardens

like this...

On 1/10th an acre they have over 350 different vegetables,

herbs, fruits, and berries. Goats, chickens, ducks, cats and bunnies.

Easter 2010

On Saturday we went to Crittenden, Ky for an
Easter celebration with my husband's side of the family.

Here's some pics of the girls enjoying the

egg hunt..

Easter with the Clark side..

Mollie holding Avry (7 weeks)