Look how big the birdies are!

The birdies have gotten to almost their full size, which is about 7 pounds. Their feet are very strong and sharp. They are less tame now, but still come for their food. Whenever we open the top of the tractor to fill their feeder and water, they fly up and perch on the cross bars. We've been moving the tractor about every 3rd day, and the first places we had them have beautiful new grass. I even saw an article on Yahoo about how Kansas farmers are trucking in chicken "litter" from Oklahoma for their fields because nitogen fertilizer is really expensive and the litter is extremely high in nitrogen! It will be great for the compost heap!
"Here, Buffy!"


Our pretty girls! The dogs like to play with them too! And actually the birds run to the tractor when the dogs come out. Kristl puts her nose up to the wire and gets pecked at least once a week. It's quite a show because then she gets in the play pounce stance and "talks" (which is a funny howl actually)

Ye Olde Mill Fieldtrip.

About 6 families from our homeschooling group (which equalled about 25 kids) went to the Velvel Ice Cream factory in Utica, Ohio. It's in an old 1918 Water mill.



We had a picnic lunch before hand...
Then we were able to watch them actually making ice cream that would end up in grocery stores all over.


Here is Boy with one of his best buddies!


Then off to the kids' museum for lots of hands on activities.

Afterwards we were treated to ice cream cups with chocolate or strawberry!
YUM!


I'll post the article the Zachary wrote for the homeschooling newspaper when I get back to my home computer.

Bandit!

This is the culprit that has eaten the broccoli and squash plants in the garden. Grrr...if she wasn't soo cute!

A hurricane in OHIO?????

Yep...hurricane force winds from Hurricane Ike hit our house on September 14th.

We lost only one tree, but have a million and 47 sticks in the yard. The birdies did really well, didn't even seem fazed! We lost power about 3 pm on Sunday, got our power back on Thursday evening. Only lost the food in the refridgerator, and had to eat all three of the "frozen" pizzas as soon as the power came back on. So therein lies my reason for not blogging for two weeks!

Fun at the OX Roast

Boy, Man, Nana and I walked down to the Grandview Ox Roast. Everyone ate roast beef and rode rides!
Boy on the swings! I went with him, but look decidedly GREEN in all the pictures.
Nana rode the ferris wheel.
Boy did the slides on his own.
And Boy and Man rode this box thing that you throw your weight around to try to get it to go up and over.



They got very close but didn't quite make it.

Could it be?

That this is the endangered "Painted Oscar Meyer Moth" larvae?
I've seen it up close and believe me the picture looks better than the real thing. It's ok until it moves and then it's just plain disgusting! Let's skip grilling out for a while. I think I'll just have Chicken Noodle Soup...

-The Man

UGGGGH!! What kind of caterpillar (or cutworm) is this?!?!!

Apples-Apples-Apples!!

I'm missing a few of the first pictures from this adventure and will add them tomorrow. (I didn't bring the picture card with me that has them on it!)

Scott found someone on Freecycle that had little sour-not pretty apples that they were giving away in Mt.Sterling (quite a ways away from us) I responded, but they had already been spoken for. The next morning, I saw another ad for apples on Freecycle, this time in Reynoldsburg--come to find out...same apples! She went and got them for her juicer and then decided she didn't want them. So we have been in appleland! Sorry for the blurry picture...yes, very artsy, but it wasn't intended that way.


Apples boiling, and another pan of boiling water to sterilize the jars and lids.


Apple Butter cooking in the crockpot.



10 jellyjars of Apple Butter, 4 of Apple Pepper Jelly. I still have the actual apple jelly to do. I have 2 gallons of juice to use. I also made applesauce, and apple dumplings. (Not all shown!)

Then tonight on freecycle there was a lady offering pears.....

Update to the Strawberry Post....

So back in June I put up Strawberry Jam...I did both traditional canning and freezer jam. Well, when I made the traditional, I was told to put the jars upside down to help with the vaccum seal. I did so...not realizing that it needs to be turned right side up within about an hour....or this happens.....yeah, gravity has NOTHING on me!

Putting in the fall garden.

(Pictures will be posted soon-on other card)

I know I've mentioned my deep appreciation for Craigslist before *ahem* I found a wonderful lady that grows veggies and sells the plants at dirt cheap prices. So even though I didn't get my garden in this past spring, I have put in a fall garden. I did some research on http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/ and found that in my area I still had time to really get some good things grown. SO I spent $20 from the garden lady and got 5 HUGE, and I mean huge (As tall and 1 taller than me at 5'10") tomato plants, 2 bell peppers (sorry, N) 1 Sweet Pepper, 1 Japanese Eggplant for the Boy-he wanted to see the purple veggies, 2 cucumber plants, 2 zucchini, 2 summer squash, and 20 broccoli plants. Oh, and oregano, cilantro, basil and chives. Pretty good for $20, eh?!?!

Then we have the strawberries that I planted in the spring that have started to bear again, and the pathetic raspberries and blackberries. I do have ONE red raspberry on the bush.

So the Boy and I worked on putting in the garden today. I had the coop open and we only have 1 birdie that comes out to see us and that's only on the rare occasion. They are pretty content in their home. Well, today as we are working the wonderful planting boxes that the Man built (5ftx5ft) here Buffy comes right into the box. She walked across the yard to see us. Then along comes Muffy and Dumpling. All helped to "cultivate" the garden. And Muffy took a dirt bath. They wandered around looking for good bugs and even went out into the woods. I was amazed that they would come when I called them. And when I picked up the feed, well, it's a RIOT to see chickens run! Muffy even flew, but ended up landing in the firepit (thank goodness, it wasn't lit) but she got all ash-y.















I can't convince the Boy that his sweatband should actually be on his forehead. Ah, well, whatever cools him off!


Here he has his Buffy.

The "State of the Garden" address is schduled for August 25th.

Feeding the Birdies

So, when the Boy was a baby, we didn't have a "playpen" How fun was it for me to put him in the Tractor, and tell him I'd be back in a few hours....nah, not really, just long enough to grab the camera. That's the "New" Buffy sitting in his lap and Muffy& Stuffy (AKA Dumpling) eating from his hands.

"This is my bird! Meet Buffy!" They have lost 98% of their baby down and are getting bigger by the day. They are loving the weeds and leaves we put into the tractor. And the corn on the cob and watermelon too! The really loved the worms I pulled out of the raspberry patch while I was weeding it!
Now isn't this the best picture! This is my grown up boy. He lost 2 teeth this week. One on the 6th and the other on the 7th. He looks so different! Where'd my baby go? Love you, Boy!

One day Vacation!

For My Man's Birthday, we took a one day vacation to The Creation Museum http://www.creationmuseum.org/ just outside of Cincinnati. What a wonderful, faith affirming place. My man volunteered there about 4 years ago, just as they were breaking ground on the museum. It's over 60,000 square feet, and took us the whole 6-7 hours to go through it (and still didn't get to see it all.) If you are anywhere near Cincinnati....YOU...MUST...GO!

UtahRaptor





My Man and Boy talking about the stratus of the Grand Canyon and Mount St.Helens. Mt St. Helen shows how you can get the same layering as you have in the Grand Canyon in a short amount of time. It didn't take BILLIONS of years to make Grand Canyon, It would only take a World Flood (Read:Noah's) and the settling out that would happen afterwards...just like what happened in the weeks after Mt. St. Helens.







Adam in the Garden of Eden. Dinosaurs in the Garden of Eden.
Adam and Eve in the falls with the Serpent watching God's Good Creation.




The Boy with a Dino before the Fall....it was a vegan before the Fall as there was no death before Adam sinned.





Our little Family under the Tree of Life.
Dinosaurs after the Fall. Some (most) of the dinos became meat-eaters. Here the Boy is talking to the Dino. He wanted to know why he closed his eyes when he growled. Hmmm....good question. Maybe for the same reason we can't sneeze with our eyes open....have you ever tried to sneeze with your eyes open??
These are some amazing models of Noah's Ark. They also have a full size part of the ark that you can walk through...of course it's only 1% of the total size, but it is AMAZING!

Right above the Boy is a replica of the inside of the ark, by where they kept...
..guess...
..the chickens!!



The camera's batteries gave out before our trip was over so I don't have any pictures of the gardens. They were very fun as well, with a big long suspension bridge that made your legs feel all wobbly afterwards.

After a long day, and a long drive home, My Man, Daddy, opened his gifts.

They are definitely HENS!

On Saturday, the Boy and I took the birdies back out to Canal Winchester to see the "Chicken Lady" to make sure we had all girls. The good news was that we did! The bad news was, The Boy's Chicken ended up being a special banded one that was a slightly different breed that we were not meant to get...so Buffy had to go back. He was so disappointed! But he was able to chase down and pick another bird of his choice.

They have already grown so much in the one week that we have had them. I think most of the baby down is now gone and the adult feathers are in. They are filling out and also gotten about an inch taller....it's like watching the Boy grow...you look away for one minute and pow another phase is gone!