Homestead Progress...

Here are our two Barred Rock chicks ~ Spots on the right and Princess Leia on the right. These chicks came two weeks later than the leghorns and Rhode Island Reds so they're smaller.

Lemony is our flighty bird. She's constantly spreading her wings and taking off. Brownie, one of the Rhode Islands, is constantly trying to fly. I think she's envious of Lemony. But since Brownie is bigger, she never really gets off the ground. Poor thing!

Look up at the deck. Poor Molly really wants to get down and see the chicks. She LOVES the birds. I think it stems from her sitting on the back of the couch all winter watching the doves at the feeder!

Maddie was obsessed with the little chicks. In fact, I couldn't really take my eyes off of her because I wasn't sure why she was so interested in them. However, I have a feeling that they looked yummy to her.

Brad's been working on the chicken coop. Finished up the shingles this past weekend.

Oh, and we got ducks. My brother-in-law incubated a bunch of eggs from their two ducks, and ours hatched last week.

Oh my gosh, are these things cute. I mean cute to the point where I want to snuggle with them. They're so soft and warm and cuddly!

I put them in our utility sink last night for a little swim. They had so much fun and were so fun to watch! We all ended up a little wet from all of their splashing!

 

My raised beds are coming along. My dad used the backhoe to fill them with dirt from the back of our field. I spent several hours cleaning the dirt out, pulling out all of the sod and vines, mixing in some peat moss and making a nice fine soil for the plants that will soon go in.

Three or four hours later, patches of poison ivy rash began to appear on my face. Today I sit here quite itchy with poison ivy on my face, my ears, my arms, and my belly. Apparently there were some poison ivy vines in the dirt. I told my dad and Brad that if my garden beds grow poison ivy there will be great weeping and gnashing of teeth!

I ended up going out on Saturday and spent several more hours combing the beds clean of anything that resembled a vine or a root. I'm hoping all the beds are now poison ivy free!

Now, we just need to make it our friends' farm to get some composted manure to mix in and the beds will be ready for planting.

I'm having fun with all of these homesteading projects. Unfortunately, I think my zeal is causing some stress on my poor hubby. But he's such a wonderful husband and is doing all of these projects out of love for me. But I still wish I was mechanically inclined so I could do it all myself and take the load off of him.

Well, have a blessed day!