Our First Egg!!!

So it was Sunday August 15th we got our first Egg from Ellen a brown sex-link chicken.!! Yahoo

To our surprise it was also a double yolker!!! What a good little chicken. Now if the rest would follow suit.

We ate it Monday morning and it tasted delicious. Much Much better than store eggs. I bet if we eat store bought eggs now,we won't like them now for sure.

The kids were super excited!!! As are Joe and I.

guess what

http://www.weather.com/weather/alerts/localalerts/54115?phenomena=FF&significance=A&areaid=WIZ039&office=KGRB&etn=0004

MORE RAIN!!!!

Rain! Rain! Go AWAY!!!

Been a busy SUMMER! Hubby and I just got back from our Alaskan Cruise!!! It was awesome... We made some great friends and a lifetime of memories. I will post picts soon....

Chicken update!!! 3 of the ladies are ROOSTERS!!!Ahhh.... "Big Momma" is a HE! Now she is Big Daddy. He is the ruler...Spike and Patty are also Roosters... "Big Daddy" is officially crowing this week. After our vacation no less.. Look like they will be in the soup pot soon.

We are also impatiently waiting for eggs!!! They are almost 16 weeks and hopefully between 18 & 20 weeks we should see something. Although, Ellen one of our brown sex link chickens looks like she is ready. She does the squat like she is and is very docile. (that is unlike Ellen)

Garden update:

So, my garden is suffering from too much water!!! I have processed and froze 7 quarts of Green Beans as of late. I probably only got around 18 quarts total this year. :o( looks like I could probably pull out the plants.

1/2 of our potato mounds we lost due to rot from too much water.

Corn didn't get as high as we wanted due to to much water, and some probably won't even be feasible to harvest.

I am currently waiting to get enough tomatoes to can salsa! Since I only have 1 jar left from last year.

We did try 2 cantaloupes that were mighty tasty but small.

The garden has had standing water in it for days on end this year. Enough water for algae to form. YUCK.

It really is depressing doing all that work to have it rot. I feel for our local farmers and fellow backyard gardeners that this is happening too. Many of our neighbors have just pulled everything out. :0(

Scrapping update:

I did make some shirts for our cruise. Adding a little extra fun!

Cruisin' for a Boozin' is the back

This is the front.

Tootles!

Chick update

The finished Run/Coop

oops, photo of my recent harvest of Sugar Snap Peas.

Aren't they getting big? This one is "Big Momma"

This is a Buff Orpington

We haven't named them yet.

The white Delaware is Patty

This one is Spike, because when she/he (we aren't sure if it is a Roo) got its feathers in later than the others and it was all spikey.

Another shot of Big Momma.

This a Barred Rock or Plymouth Rock Chicken.

Just filled the feeder. Eat up Ladies.

Flowers in Bloom

Shasta Daisy

Tiger Lilies on side hill

Sunflower before bloom

Daylilies

rudbeckia

Coneflower and rudbeckia mix

Oriental Lilly

Cactus

Can't remember, but butterflies like it.

day Lilly

Lavender

asiatic Lilly

Coneflower

Coneflower

It's been awhile!!! Whew...

So it has been awhile and the gardener has been busy!

The garden seems to be doing well. But the lots and lots of rain we received was good and bad. It did flood the left back side of the garden and the Sweet Corn suffered and the Sugar Snap Peas suffered a bit too. It is hot and humid to welcome in July along with more rain. Seems like the jungle rather than WI!

Here are a few photos:

Zucchini

Sugar Snap Peas

Lettuce mix

Red Onions & Candy Onions

Acorn Squash

Beans

Potatoes

Cantaloupe

Sweet Corn

Jalapeno Peppers

Broccoli

Early Girl Tomatoes

Banana Peppers

Where does the time go?

It's been awhile needless to say. I have lots to share. We as a family have decided to raise Chickens!! Going with the theme of trying to grow/gather our own food we thought chickens would be a good step. We are on an ongoing effort to try to go as completely organic as possible. There is so much bad stuff in eggs that we don't know about. Watch the movie Food Inc. and you'll feel the same.... We have also purchased some grass fed free range beef from a local farmer up the road no less. Joe hunts so we do have all of our own venison as well. We eat lots of veggies out of our freezer from last gardening season (which is here soon). So it all begins.....

Here is a picture of the chicks. If you have a slight urge to do it, do it raise your own. You'll be surprised. A good online source is http://www.backyardchickens.com/. It has an overwhelming amount of knowledge. Chickens were also on my latest issue of Organic Gardening. Who knew I was so vogue.

Next subject: Garden season is upon us! YeeaH! (said in a Lil Jon voice) I have been busy fixing my garden signs from last year. I made my Mom and MIL some for Mothers Day. I also had to make new ones for the additional stuff I am growing this year.

Here are those:

I made them using my Cricut Lyrical Letters Cart, mostly. Aren't they Cute!! My gardens is going to be so sheik.

So far I have planted:

Lettuce

Sugar Snap Peas

Kohlrabi Purple variety

Rainbow Carrots

Carrots

Red Potatoes

Yukon Gold Potatoes

Red Hamburger Onions

Candy Onions

Cantaloupe

Zucchini

All seeds of course. Too cold yet for plants. I am hoping by next week.....

Well hopefully I will post more often. Been so busy between going to Walt Disney World, Lucas making his First Communion, Baseball and Softball seasons starting, Girl Scouts ending, Gardening season starting; I've been NUTS.

Hope all is well. And watch Food Inc. You won't be sorry.

:o)