Filed under: Sustainable living
In addition to broiler chickens we also have egg laying hens. We currently have four different breeds of laying hens; Barred Rock, Red Star, Ameraucana, and Black Star. All of them are brown egg laying breeds except for the Ameraucana, which lays pastel colored eggs, ours lay a light blue egg. The birds usually put out 5-7 eggs a week per bird. We end up eating a lot of eggs and give some to the neighbors. Normally we let the birds have free range of the yard but with the garden and flowers coming in we need to keep them penned up. We still let them out to get some fresh grass and bugs but only when we can be outside to keep them out of the garden. As well as grass and bugs we feed them an all grain layer mix with cracked corn added to it. The layer mix is 16% protein which gives them what the bugs and grass doesn’t. The cracked corn is really just a filler but also keeps the yokes very bright and orange. We love going out in the morning and collecting our hen fruit!
We all need some therapy in some way. I’m not saying you need to sit down with someone and vent to some professional though I will admit I’ve done that before too. No I’m just saying I’ve found a therapy that recharges me routinely. We all need it. I know I’m a better spouse and mommy when I’ve been charged. I really enjoy doing a devotional to spend some time with God… A MAJOR RECHARGE for me. Though with my child’s unroutine nap schedule I tend to have this time right before bed and some nights I’m too tired to keep my eyes open so it does fall out practice but I’m constantly reminded to start it back up and it’s always a pick me up to be close to my God.
Now when I get closer to God I also get inspired to CREATE! I love to do something with my brain and hands. So I may paint or sew or make some crafty something or when I’m just in a bad mood I run, that’s a topic for another day! So I just wanted to share some of my recent creations I of course like the rest of the mommy world am a pinterest fan. So I came across an idea for a calendar with using paint color chips as the date squares, a piece of glass to make it dry erase, & a thrift store frame rehabed. Here is the original. http://theaestheticwriter.blogspot.com/2011/10/diy-dry-erase-calendar.html
I did my own spin by using some BIG paint sample rectangles to be memo pads and used a canvas as the background and just used paint sample squares on every other to make a checkered board pattern.
I also recently painted a growth chart for our daughters room… well it’ll be for all our kids. When I was growing up we would measure our heights in the doorway of the kitchen at my grandma & grandpa’s house. When they got divorced and moved out of the house no one took the doorway and I remember thinking they should have. I was REALLY young and I wonder if my younger brother and sister even remember that…hmmm? Anywho with that being said I made up my mind that when I had kids I was going to have it in a doorway and when we moved we’d take that piece of the doorway… but I didn’t anticipate becoming a military spouse so I painted up a growth chart that we could take all the places we’ll be moving and one day I hope to have all my kids and grandkids measured heights on there :). Yes, I’m a big sap I know!
Well all I did was dig out a nice looking piece of wood from our garage gave it a nice sanding and then started painting up my pin wheel design with good ‘ol cheap acrylic paint it look me a few days just doing it when I had some me time :). Then I did the dashes and numbers, of course had to measure those out and mark it with pencil but other than that I did it all free hand… I’m a terrible planner with art stuff I always change it up and there are marks everywhere and it drives me nuts. So after all was said and done my husband suggested I polyurethane the project to make it last. I did probably about 7 coats. I would allow it to dry then sand it with some steel wool with the final coat unsanded & man was he right it’s all shiny and pretty and I just love the natural wood as the background.
I don’t know what you need today as far as therapy but find something to do cause a hobby is such a morale booster!
Filed under: Sustainable living
Finished the chicken plucker today. Will be testing it out tomorrow on the loud mouth rooster who keeps escaping the coop and eating the garden. The broilers are also three weeks old this week and have gone out to the pasture for the remainder of their stay with us. They’ve reached that stage where they are getting their feathers and are pretty ugly. The garden has recovered from the chickens and is growing quite well. It won’t be long until we’re BBQ’n backyard chicken and corn.
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