Beautiful Day

Two of the eggs in our birdhouse hatched today.   The little babies are so cute.   I hope I can get a decent pic soon!

April is Beautiful!

I LOVE this time of year.  It's not too hot and not too cold.   Everything is turning green again.   I can see the light at the end of the tunnel as far as school is concerned.   We're having to make ourselves come in at bed time...we just want to stay out and enjoy the extra daylight.  

I am finally seeing progress in the garden.  Last year we watched the Back to Eden film and started doing it Paul's way.   So far, it's been great!   I'm pretty happy with my first seed starting experience.   I don't know the percentage or anything...but, the majority of what I started actually  made it.  I have been able to give away several plants and still have more than enough for us.   I'll probably start putting my tomatoes in the ground later this week.  My sweet potatoes are sprouting and the peppers are getting  bigger everyday.  I can't wait until we can start eating the healthy food we have worked really hard for!

My children....well, I'm not worried about them getting dirty or being properly dressed around the house. :)

My zucchini, cucumbers, and yellow squash plants that I started from seed, are growing but they don't look too healthy.  I'm thinking they're probably better off just starting in the ground.

I tried winter sowing and those veggies are doing great...kale, lettuce, broccoli, etc.  

Green Beans

Snap Peas

Chinese Red Noodle Beans

More Broccoli

Ok...so I had this awesome idea.   We had this old swingset that had been given to us just sitting there.   It wasn't sturdy enough for our kids.   I was looking for something to make a trellis out of because I've run out of room in my garden.   I thought the swingset frame would be perfect!   Chad wasn't convinced until I searched and searched and finally found someone else who had done it!   We we've put it in the garden and I just have to add the netting in the next few days.  I plan to try melons and cucumbers on it.   We'll see how it goes :)

Ethan has been wanting to start some little businesses lately.  He bought some chicks to raise and re-sell.   Now, he wants to start an earthworm farm.   He found some old tires around our property and, with the help of his brother and sister, rolled them to our garden.   They stacked them up and he plans to fill them with dirt and worms!   Now...why isn't he motivated to brush his teeth????

Our apple and pear trees are looking pretty good.  Something has been eating their leaves so I'm trying some homemade spray on them.

Bee Stings

So...we've been having so much fun with our new bees!   The other night some family members came over just to see them.  Well, the temp dropped and they came over later than our original plan.   So, all of the bees were inside the hive, which is when you are really not supposed to mess with them.   However, we've done it before..no problem.   Well, there is one area we're really trying to help Christy with lately.  SHe grew up having to perform and fight for attention anytime there were visitors around her in the orphanage.   That instinct is still there...you can see it click in her as soon as someone new is around or we're in a new place.   Even if it's negative attention...she has to try to get it.   So, in front of our guests, in attempt to steal the show, she runs and bangs on the hive.   Apparently the bees didn't like that and went into attack mode.   Thankfully no one is allergic (we needed to know anyways) and they look a lot worse than they feel.   Chad and I got stung but barely had a reaction at all.  It felt like a mosquito bite for a couple of days. 

The next day Luke was right back down there watching the bees.  I'm thankful it didn't make him scared of them.  Hopefully, we'll all just be a little smarter and more careful from now on.

Family Time

This week Chad started a new work schedule and it was awesome!   He had been working 7 days a week and sometimes up to 12 or 13 hours a day.  Now he'll be working 12 hour days but have several days off in between.   So, this week he had 4 days off in a row.   We had some beautiful weather so we headed to the zoo one day.  

Luke has an obsession with birds lately.  We've checked out dozens of books on different kinds of birds and tried to identify all the birds we see.   Well, somehow we've always missed the condors at the zoo up until this visit!   Luke was in awe!  

Another day we went to visit Chad's mamaw how lives about an hour and a half away.   She has a little pond so we caught a bunch of catfish.   She showed the kids how to clean a fish and then we took them home and cooked them and ate them.  Yum!

She has a farmer friend who sells chicks for a good price so she took us to his farm.  Ethan used his money to buy several and we bought some as well.  We're hoping to raise them until their egg laying age and then sell them.   Ethan's going to do the same with his.  It's his first little business venture. :)

This farmer had so many cool birds!  The coolest was this ostrich.   There is a funny video of him at he end of this post.

This was a newly hatched quail.

Emu