About a month or so before our trip (when the weather was still cooperating), my hubby started on his newest outdoor project: painting the house. He got about 1/4 of it done, and then fall weather began to kick in full force. Along came the nor'easter and other random storms (one which included a tree falling on our shedding and demolishing it), and then our big trip to Phx... Sooooooo, the weather hasn't gotten any better (another nor'easter and two weeks of storms and wind later), the days have gotten shorter, DH is surprisingly busy @ work for this time of year, and thus, the house painting has been put on hold. And as I sit here and take a peek at the calendar, next week is the first day of winter.
I know that he started this project thinking that work would be painstakingly slow as it usually is in Nov/Dec, and I'm EXTREMELY grateful that he still has work, (let alone an overflow of it!). But, I got a feeling that I'm gonna be stuck w/a half painted (well, umm 1/4 painted, lol) house until spring. And even that is iffy, considering our spring weather is about the equivalent of this fall: rain, and rainier. Oh well, at least he got the whole front of the house done, so when you're standing directly in front you can't tell, lol. But the sides and back...a whole different story
Here's some pics of the project, so far...
Can you even tell the difference?
Well, I'm sending prayers up for a couple of decent weather days... If not, I'll show you how it turns out next spring/summer !
Soooooooooo, one of our biggest fears became a reality this past Friday, and put a damper on our weekend. My suspicions were confirmed after many weeks of wondering and waiting (for eggs!), when we found out that my hubby's beloved little "hen", Nugget, is a rooster!!! So the clock is ticking as we scramble to find a place for that little guy, that is as FAR away from our home as possible. If there is any steadfast rules we Suburban Homesteaders agree on its NO ROOSTERS!! He has not gotten his manly voice completely, yet, so they are just half-hearted "wannabe" crows (hey, maybe he does belong here w/the wannabe, lol), but believe me it is just a matter of days before it becomes the real thing. An anyone that really knows about chickens know that roosters do not just crow at the break of day, and that's it. Oh no! They crow ALL DAY LONG!!! And that's what he spends all day doing now, practicing for his big crowing debut.
Oh, man. I don't think the State Trooper next door, will be too happy on that day.....
On our Friday trip to the bookstore, I stumbled upon a new publication from the makers of Hobby Farms magazine. I thought it was awesome, (there was even a story on a family in Williamsburg, VA, not far from us that are raising chicken on their small suburban lot) and wanted to share it with my other city dwellers that are searching for a simpler life, right where they are in the city. If you get a chance, stop by your local bookstore and check it out. Tons of usable info, that you don't have to be on 100 acres (or even 1 acre) to put into practice right away. There's also more info on the website and you can take a peek at the pages inside the mag
Wow! I can't believe it's been a week since my last post. Well, we did get our "girls" all settled in their new home. And though they were kinda crazy the first couple of days, they settled in nicely. Here's a few pics:
This is "Margaret" (named before we got her, all others AJ named) our mother hen and the big mouth of the bunch. If anything would ruin this experience for us and get us and our city chickens tossed outta here it would be this lovely hen
Here she is with her baby "Nugget":
"Chick-fil-a" and her baby "Omelet"
"Fro-y"
Here's a pic of all of 'em (AJ's inside the run) the two brown ones are "Scrambled" and "Over-hard"
We originally had them all in the run, temporarily
Until my hubby and son built them a pen to have more space to roam
He was able to get all the material for the pen fencing for $10, since they were remnant pieces. So he'll have to replace that board with the hole in it. But it seemed to do the job, and they were lovin the extra room....
Until yesterday. Yesterday afternoon, the hens started going CRAZY, so AJ and I ran to the window (which looks straight down into the pen) to see what the fuss was about. The girls were nowhere to be seen, although we heard them VERY clearly! Then we looked again, and perched right on the fence, staring us in the face was a hawk! It turned away from us and then back down to the pen, preparing to swoop down. Panicked as much as the hens, we started yelling at it, and banging the window (as you can see the window is right next to the top of the fence) but it wouldn't budge. It was carefully examining it's prey, and we began to worry. So I let the dog out to see if she could scare it away, while AJ ran around back and began to throw sticks at it. This hawk was bold, and was not prepared to leave without what it came for. The hens were EXTREMELY loud at this point, but still very much in hiding, so AJ ran and got his bb gun to try to scare it away (since hawks are a protected species, you can't kill them). It finally left, but the hens didn't calm down for hours, and they wouldn't even come out of their house this morning. We are luckier than most, because I just read on a "chicken forum" a couple days ago where a hawk swooped down and took this lady's hen while she was standing right there, letting them free range for a while! I'm just glad ours were able to hide in time. The poor things just sqwak all day out of fear, now. I don't know if the neighbors will put up w/us much longer, sigh...
On another note, we did get our first egg on the very first day!
Wow, what a blessing! I stated in the last post that we found out that my MIL's next door neighbor was raising chickens and gave us info on where to get them. Well we'd been praying on getting chickens for a while, but have been waiting for God to lead us if it was truly His will. Well, after getting this info we thought we felt a little nudge that the time was finally coming close. Nevertheless, we came home, and prayed together as a family, and decided to maybe go and check things out this weekend. That night my DH also got on Craigslist and did his nightly search for hens, although he'd just checked earlier that day. As I ignored his search, and read my book (during this time he usually shouts out random places that are hours away that have hens for like $1-2 ) he shouted out something that actually got my attention. "Honey, someone just posted this a few minutes a go, 'Chickens and Goats, free to a good home' , and they're local." Still, the skeptic that I am, I said "email them, but I'm sure someone has gotten them already." And went to bed. The next morning an hour after DH left for work, he called me and said that the lady called him back and said that we were the first to contact her, and that we could come look when he got off work. So, even though he was starting to get excited, I still didn't, lol. I still wondered if it would really happen, I mean those "free" things on Craigslist don't last long, and it'd be 10-12 hours before we could go see them - surely by then they'd be gone. I didn't even tell AJ about it, I just prayed that if it was meant to be, He'd let us know. Well, it's funny because later that afternoon, one of AJ's homeschool friends from around the corner came over w/his brothers to play w/AJ. They were outside playing for a few minutes, then all of a sudden ALL 4 of the kids came running into the house shouting random things at me while I was cooking dinner. After I calmed them down and asked what was going on, one of the boys told me, "AJ was just telling us that ya'll are about to get some chickens." As I glared at AJ for blurting such a thing out to someone about out hopes of city chicken, I allowed the boy to continue, he said, "We have chickens in our backyard, too!".... OMG, I was floored! Are you kidding me?! How did that one get past us? He said they'd had 'em since like Dec of last year! Man, I'm telling you it is a MOVEMENT! We are not the first or the last to feel called back to the land...
Anyway, after an enlightening talk w/the boys, and then ushering them back out to play, my hubby called and said that he was on his way home and to be ready. I began to question whether she still had the hens or not, and he said that she did, so we went. When we got there and walked around the back, she had about 25 chickens, 2 goats, 2 ducks, a turken (half turkey half chicken ) 4 dogs, and a bunch of reptiles. She said that she'd had about 10+ people call after we did, but she told them all that we had first pick, and then she'd call them about any leftover. We took 7 hens (at least we hope so, 2 were babies that we pray are pullets, her son helped us to sex them). Oh, I wish we had room for the goats, they were adorable (nubians)! Even DH thought so, and he'd been kinda lookin at me sideways whenever I discussed goats on the suburban homestead in the past. But we had to pry ourselves away, being thankful for what we have, knowing that God will again provide (the space and the goats) if He wills.
We got home with them late last night, and it was storming (and still raining this morning)! So, I couldn't get a pic of them yet. However I'll show you some pics of the chicken coop that my hubby and son have been building in anticipation of the little ladies coming to stay with us.
Added the window
AJ putting the shingles on
Added siding
And a door
Pup wanted to see what all the fuss was about, the ONLY time she'll see the inside of the coop
We went yesterday to pick up some fruit/veggies from my MIL's (aka "Nanna") house. She has a huge garden (tons of veggies, fruit trees the whole nine - she even has a banana tree!), but she hurt her arm recently and can't tend to her garden right now. She has been going to physical therapy to rehabilitate her arm, but, until then, her hubby/friends/family will try to keep things going for her. We try to keep things picked so that she still gets a continual harvest. But since there's only 2 of them there, and him doing a lot of the cooking, we end up taking most of the veggies home w/us, lol.
While we were over there, my hubby mentioned that we were wanting to get chickens, and our in-laws informed us that their next door neighbors just got some in their backyard (that they seemed to be trying to hide, lol, but nothing gets past Nanna). Well, my hubby grew up w/ the kids of those neighbors, so he marched right over and asked them. The man was a little weary at first ("wwwhhoo told you such a thing ??" LOL), but eventually spilled the beans. He told my hubby that his wife didn't even know he had them! What kinda nonsense....???!!! Anyway, he took my hubby around back, and hidden in a tucked away corner behind a maze of junk, were 7 Rhode Island Reds! Those poor things were all caged in a super small cage (don't worry, DH set him straight on that fact), and about to peck each other to death. But, it did once again prove to us what we already know, this back to the land movement is touching almost everyone! Regardless of where you live, or how much land you have (their yard is smaller than ours, and so is Nanna's), people are trying to figure out ways to make it happen. Talk about a backyard homestead...
So he was able to give us the info on where he got his chickens (he offered to give us one of his, but those hens are not in good shape) at a local feed and seed in Jamestown. He also told us of someone that he knows who has quite a few Leghorns that he's selling for $1 each. So last night when we got home, DH looked up the feed and seed online, and got more info, and wants to go look on Friday, or Sunday. We were actually going to wait, because we were trying to go on an anniversary trip in a couple of weeks while AJ goes to his Student Spiritual Convocation, and we didn't want to leave right after we got the chickens and have to worry about finding someone to feed and water them... Aw well, I guess we'll have to pray on it. So I'll keep you posted on that.....
So, please say a prayer for "Nanna", and for our hopeful new addiditons to the Suburban Homestead!
I'm a wannabe in every sense of the word. I wanna be good enough to make it to heaven, but Jesus died because I will never be. I wanna be a mom of ten living on a farm in the middle of nowhere, training my girls to honor God & their husbands, by being content, happy homemakers...yet God has seen fit to bless us with the opportunity to help rear for Him two boys (22 and 12), in the middle of suburbia ;) I wanna be a helpmate to my husband in every way possible, yet more often than not, I'm in his way, lol. I wanna be the perfect parent, that raises perfect children, yet I am constantly humbled by the fact that only He is perfect, and I must allow him to lead. I wanna be the ultimate caretaker of my temple, and the pinnacle of health to all around me, yet no amount of healthy eating/exercise keeps me from dropping to my knees often, in need of healing from the Great Physician. I could go on and on about the the things that I am trying to be, but I invite you instead to come and join me as I travel on my path toward virtue... ~Proverbs 31:10-31~
), the days have gotten shorter, DH is surprisingly busy @ work for this time of year, and thus, the house painting has been put on hold. And as I sit here and take a peek at the calendar, next week is the first day of winter. 
So the clock is ticking as we scramble to find a place for that little guy, that is as FAR away from our home as possible. If there is any steadfast rules we Suburban Homesteaders agree on its NO ROOSTERS!! He has not gotten his manly voice completely, yet, so they are just half-hearted "wannabe" crows (hey, maybe he does belong here w/the wannabe, lol), but believe me it is just a matter of days before it becomes the real thing. An anyone that really knows about chickens know that roosters do not just crow at the break of day, and that's it. Oh no! They crow ALL DAY LONG!!! And that's what he spends all day doing now, practicing for his big crowing debut. 
On our Friday trip to the bookstore, I stumbled upon a new publication from the makers of Hobby Farms magazine. I thought it was awesome, (there was even a story on a family in Williamsburg, VA, not far from us that are raising chicken on their small suburban lot) and wanted to share it with my other city dwellers that are searching for a simpler life, right where they are in the city. If you get a chance, stop by your local bookstore and check it out. Tons of usable info, that you don't have to be on 100 acres (or even 1 acre) to put into practice right away. There's also more info on the 
He was able to get all the material for the pen fencing for $10, since they were remnant pieces. So he'll have to replace that board with the hole in it. But it seemed to do the job, and they were lovin the extra room....
) 4 dogs, and a bunch of reptiles. She said that she'd had about 10+ people call after we did, but she told them all that we had first pick, and then she'd call them about any leftover. We took 7 hens (at least we hope so, 2 were babies that we pray are pullets, her son helped us to sex them). Oh, I wish we had room for the goats, they were adorable (nubians)! Even DH thought so, and he'd been kinda lookin at me sideways whenever I discussed goats on the suburban homestead in the past. But we had to pry ourselves away, being thankful for what we have, knowing that God will again provide (the space and the goats) if He wills. 
Added the window 
AJ putting the shingles on
Added siding
And a door
The Wannabe
). Well, my hubby grew up w/ the kids of those neighbors, so he marched right over and asked them. The man was a little weary at first ("wwwhhoo told you such a thing 
) at a local feed and seed in Jamestown. He also told us of someone that he knows who has quite a few Leghorns that he's selling for $1 each. So last night when we got home, DH looked up the feed and seed online, and got more info, and wants to go look on Friday, or Sunday. We were actually going to wait, because we were trying to go on an anniversary trip in a couple of weeks while AJ goes to his Student Spiritual Convocation, and we didn't want to leave right after we got the chickens and have to worry about finding someone to feed and water them... Aw well, I guess we'll have to pray on it. So I'll keep you posted on that.....
