Showing posts with label chickens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chickens. Show all posts

Monday, May 18, 2015

Veggie gardens, new chickens, and a baby on the way, oh my!


Oh May, Oh My! 
May has been such a busy month already. We ordered new hens, put in our veggie garden, and made final preparations for Baby Baker #2. Elena has been all about baby brother but I have a feeling that may change when he gets here. 😉 


This year we planted strawberry plants, zucchini, sugar snap peas, onions, carrots, three varieties of tomatoes, basil, and potatoes. We so love harvesting our own food, the taste is more than worth the effort. This year my three year old planted all of the onion sets and pea seeds. She also picked out zinnia seeds which we will sow later this week. 

During our spring trip to the hatchery, we placed an order for 6 road island red started pullets. Those are young chickens that have already begun to lay eggs. Many people enjoy raising chicks but with a baby on the way, we were not prepared to take that on this year. Sadly, our current hens will be processed and frozen this fall. It is all part of responsibile animal ownership, it's just not my favorite part. 


Dirty hands make for yummy gardens!
What kind of gardening do you do at your home?

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Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Raised Bed Gardening in Northern Ohio

Well I have been mostly MIA since the weather here in NE Ohio turned beautiful. We have been playing with the chickens, planning for our cow, and creating our garden. 
The garden began with my husband building three large beds. Then the chickens worked on scratching up the grass. Little by little our fruit & veggie garden began to take shape.
We tilled in some peat moss to make the soil nice and light for our plants. We are very fortunate to have extremely fertile soil, we have hundreds of earthworms as proof, ;)
[A hard at work hubby]
We had to install fencing around the garden since we have all kinds of critters living near by. Our wildlife (pesky a-holes) include: rabbits, geese, ducks, wild turkeys, raccoons, a fox, cats, deer (otherwise known as overgrown rats), ground hogs, squirrels, and mice. All of those are just what I've seen. The fence won't keep them all out but hopefully it'll deter them from trying to hard!
We are using straw in the beds as our mulch and also on the ground to keep the grass down (we need more still).

This first bed has carrots, onions, potatoes, brussel sprouts, and beefy tomatoes. The second has watermelons, eggplants, acron & spaghetti squashes. The third has green & red peppers, cherry & Roma tomatoes, and brussel sprouts. Once I get the spacing figured out, I'll plant my basil and cilantro seeds.

We are so excited to see what works and how well everything does and I'll keep you updated as the summer progresses.

What are your gardens looking like this summer?

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Saturday, December 28, 2013

Working outside and enjoying the warm day

It's a beautiful day here in Northeast Ohio. 54F on December 28th to be exact! We are out and enjoying the weather with a bike ride, chicken coop clean out, and yard work! My poor chickens are molting and so they are looking awfully ratty!
Soon enough spring will be here and their feathers will be back in. Having animals has been a fun experience. It's great knowing where our food comes from and the organic eggs are delicious!
I don't even mind cleaning the coop and the girls are happy to have fresh bedding. 

Update!
The finger paint was a huge hit and didn't leave any stain on her hands or body. She really enjoyed it!
Well time to get back outside! The car isn't going to wash itself ;)

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Thursday, December 12, 2013

A Long Week

Oh Christmas tree, I love thee! ;)
My it has been a long week so far in the Baker home. My daughter came down with a bad rash that was difficult to diagnose, a cold bug made its rounds through our family, the hubby had crazy long days (nights) at work, the Christmas decor went up, and it's only Thursday. 
Some of our chickens started molting. Poor girls decided to lose feathers in the dead of winter. At least it's only temporary but I may add a little heat lamp to their house. This picture was from a week ago when it was 54F and now it's 18F but only 4F with the windchill. 

Despite the cold, I really love this time of year. Tonight, Elena and I cuddled up and watched part of Saving Santa. I love my little cuddle bug. I will confess that I have only bought her a couple of things for Christmas this year so far. Usually I am done the week after thanksgiving but this time I won't really be starting for another week. Ugh! I need a personal shopper, any volunteers? I'll even let you use your own money, ha!

On a side note; if someone gave you a handcrafted gift for Christmas, what would you like to receive?
There's a poll on the right hand side of the screen. If you are viewing from your mobile device, there should be a link for "view web version" at the bottom.

My response would likely be, "all of the above" but that's me. How about you?

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Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Stay At Home Mom - Going Green

When did you start? What does it mean? Sustainable living? How do the Bakers do it? 

My husband and I have slowly been heading down a greener path. To be perfectly honest, the idea began as a joke. My husband Eric likes to think & talk about a zombie apocalypse or end of the world as we know it. It's a guy thing I think. He thinks up different scenarios and comes up with ways to overcome the end of the world situations. I laugh it off and go about my day. Then he started getting interested in square footage gardening. He looked into all the ways to grow a ton of food in a small space. Again, I tend to laugh these wild ideas off and go about my day. The funny thing is, some of his wild ideas must have stuck because we revisited these ideas and have been slowly making them a reality. It all started with buying our home on an acre in the suburbs.

Going green for us has meant eating as organically as we can and managing to create our own food source through raising animals and gardening. We are water conscious as well and Eric has drawn up plans to use a rainwater catchment system to not only water the garden but also to flush the basement toilet. 

Our garden this year was the test drive and next year will be a big job with hopefully an equally big return. We have 4 laying hens (Cinnamon, Mrs. Weasley, Alice, and Nugget) and next spring we will be expanding our flock. Caring for the hens and eating our organic free-range eggs has been extremely gratifying. Believe it or not, caring for the hens has been my favorite job around the house. They are even starting to like me. ;)

We have room to pasture one small dairy cow (BettyLou, yes our future cow has a name) but we don't have the funds to fence the pasture yet or sow the pasture grass.

I bake my family's bread, churn our butter, can soups and stews, make jam, make cheese, and make soap. We have a lot to learn still but we have come a long way! I have talked about it before but not having cable has been vital to our more sustainable life. TV sucked up so much of our time and we are happy to be rid of it. 

What steps have you taken to go green or live more simply?

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Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Building Our Chicken Coop

So the chickens are finally home and our coop is almost completed. The only thing that needs to be finished is the paint and a bit of trim work. Eric and I built the coop as my birthday gift :) Days 1-4 were completed during nap times. (Usually 2 hrs)
On day one, we bought the lumber and built the frame. I made all the cuts and drove every screw in. I wanted to be involved.
On day two, we put up a wall, laid the floor, and added framing to the run. Again I made all the cuts and drove all the nails&screws.
Elena woke up early so she came out to "help".
On day 3, Eric stood 2 more walls and built a window while I began painting.
Day 4 the roof went on, rear wall installed, and I painted some more.
I love the heart shaped ventilation hole.
Day 5 was super hectic!!!
Eric woke up and worked on finishing the at 6am. We went to pick our hens up at 9am. They finally made it into their coop at 3pm that day! 
They must be happy ladies because they have laid 3-4 eggs a day since arriving. We couldn't be more thrilled to have them. Only one has a name do far, her name is cinnamon, she's the big meanie ;) So the coop won't be finished for another week or two but our girls don't mind. I'll post the completed coop when we get it done.

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Saturday, October 26, 2013

Chickens!

I'll post more on this later but my chickens are finally home!

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Saturday, September 28, 2013

Suburban Chicken Raising

All of my friends know that I have wanted chickens since seeing my sister in law get them down in Alabama. We have done the research, visited the local hatchery, and gotten advice on chicken raising. Last night I stumbled upon my husband looking at coop designs. Since it's the fall (and not the spring as we had planned) it could only mean one thing! I'm getting a chicken coop and chickens for my birthday!!! My birthday is only a month away and I don't think I can stand the wait!! Bless his heart, it's impossible to surprise me. 
We are calling the hatchery on Monday to order three Golden Buff pullets. It's all very exciting. Start saving those egg cartons for me :)


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