Sailing the Hudson

Big Changes

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:38:00 +0000

I have know this was coming for a little while now, the hubby enjoyed becoming best friends with denial. The house we are currently living in is being foreclosed on. So we are moving on and yes for those of you who remember it was just this Spring we moved in, 5 months ago. I knew it was going to happen, someone had come to the house and had asked us if we were renters and did we have a lease. There were also two drive by's of a car who paused briefly enough for a picture of the front of the house. That combined by the fact that we live in a town hard hit by the economy I knew it was just around the corner.

So what did I do, start looking and altering plans. I looked for a new home for our chickens and a new home for us. I also didn't put in a fall garden, scared that all my hard work would go to waste. Well the front yard looks bare and sad with no garden and the backyard is quite. We found a great couple that took Marge and Ruby even though they turned out to be Mark and Robert. That's right roosters, I had no idea. They didn't fight, got along great with Whiskey, didn't crow and let me pet them and pick them up. I guessed we would have figured it out. It turns out the couple who came to get them knew exactly where we had gotten them, a farmer now known for selling all roosters as sex link hens. He had actually sold them their first birds, 23 of them in total to bad 22 were roosters!!!! They were so kind to take them one for them and one for a neighbor. We found a great family who needed a coop, I told the hubby he should start a side business as a chicken coop builder, he said he was going to pass.

We were so lucky to find a house that had just been put up for rent that is exactly what we need. We will now be living down in Oak Island where the hubby works. I will miss this little town of Southport and our amazing neighbors. We loved being able to walk around everyday. On the other hand we will now be a LOT closer to the beach, as in walking distance so that will be nice. The hubby signs the new lease today and we move in soon, two weeks.

I know there are a lot of families going through something very similar and it is just so sad. You end up loosing so much, there are programs out there. Cash for Keys is one of them, unfortunately you have to wait until you are forced out by the bank to really get any help. For us that wasn't an option, we weren't going to wait until the bank said get out and then rush to see if we could find a place to live just so we could get reimbursed for some of our losses.

I'm BACK.

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:02:00 +0000

For those of you check in, sorry for the long absence. This pregnancy has been a bit more challenging than my other two. I am usually one of those lucky pregnant women who hit the second trimester and feel amazing. By now I am usually driving the hubby crazy with all my cleaning, organizing and project lists. But this time around I am lucky if I get some food on the table for everyone twice a day. The good news is each day I seem to feel a little better than the last.

We are managing to get our homeschool/unschooling life organized. We got a bunch of new art supplies, we have been good about making frequent trips to the library and following Sailor's request we are holding school at home. We have been following the Oak Meadow Kindergarten program. She also loves to do show and tell and have recess but I will be back with more on all of that later this week.

For now thank you for being patient as our Summer here ran a little long.

Lack of Blogging

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 14:32:00 +0000

I am sorry I have been so absent lately. I had promised myself I would be here at least twice a week and lately I have been lucky to get one post in every couple of weeks. But I must say I have two really good reasons for not blogging lately.

The first:

I just LOVE this and found it through Kelly over at Our Lincoln Log, I am truly a prisoner of summer in all aspects of my life right now which you would know if you came to my house. I am on a sort of mommy strike at the moment. Leaving my wonderful husband to pick up the pieces or at least the laundry. You can click on the button to come and take the POS pledge.

Reason #2:

This one is even better though. I or I guess I should say We are expecting baby #3!!!! That's right I am pregnant again and we are sooo excited. We had decided to leave it up to the fertility gods to see if we would have baby #3. Truth be told I was really worried it wouldn't happen with Hudson still nursing during the day and night. But Artemis must have been looking down on us because I am 8 weeks and due around March 18, 2010. We have already met with the local homebirth midwife. Their is only one in our area, thank goodness she is amazing and we fell in love with her when we met her for the first time. North Carolina has horrible laws regarding midwifery and we are lucky to have anyone willing to practice here. Hopefully though the Big Push and NC Friends of Midwives will be able to change all that. As for me this has been my easiest first trimester as of yet but I am lacking all motivation and I mean to do ANYTHING. My poor kids, lucky for all of us the grandparents will be in town on Wednesday to help out for a week. In the mean time I will be hiding in my air conditioned house most likely in my PJ's allowing the kids to watch as much TV as they want and praying the hubby will cook diner, clean up this mess, put the kids to bed and tell me how beautiful I look even though I don't have the energy to even take a shower. I love him so much. I promise by fall and the arrival of my second trimester I will be here on a much more regular schedule. Until then enjoy the dog days of Summer.

Wordless Wednesday: The Garden

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 00:32:00 +0000

***all photos are unedited and were taken by Sailor, age 4.

July Garden Update

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:22:00 +0000

Last time I did a garden update we had harvested 5.25 pounds of food, we are now up to 43.9 pounds!!! Thanks to some big juicy watermelons, some delicious cantaloupes and the amazing corn we ate for 3 days straight. We are still getting handfuls of tomato's and more cucumbers than we can keep up with.

Every time a sunflowers blooms it seems to be bigger than the last. They are about the size of Sailor's head as you can see.

The bees seem to enjoy them more than any of us. They are always there covered in pollen.

Our second planting of corn seems to be doing well. We will definitely be doing three Garden Patch Grow boxes of corn next year if this planting goes as well as our first one.

We have a few more watermelons on the vine almost ready to be picked, we also have 1 cantaloupe left. The best part is when I went out to weed and clean up the garden the other day I noticed 4 new baby watermelons starting to grow on new vines growing off the main stems. So it looks like we will get more watermelons come August, the kids could not be happier. Which surprises me seeing as they may turn into watermelons any day now but I guess you can't ever get tired of eating watermelons.

Here is our harvest from yesterday. The peppers have already been grilled and eaten and most of the tomato's went into a salad for lunch. I just love those pear tomato's. This was the only watermelon that grew in a kinda funky shape, all our others where pretty perfectly shaped, it looks like a gourd to me but still tasted delicious. The cucumber has to be sent to a neighbors house before I start seeing cucumbers in my dreams.

The only sad gardening news to report is the pumpkins, which were doing so well just a week or so ago. Well now they have some sort of blight or mildew that seems to be killing them off. I am still going to be hopeful though, I will just be so sad if we don't get any pumpkins. I also pulled our all our bush bean plants, I was sick of watching them suck up water with no beans in sight.

Sunflowers & Pumkins

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:39:00 +0000

Well the sunflowers did make a grand appearance like fireworks for the 4Th of July. We even have a new raised bed of them to make sure that we are in sunflowers through the fall.

Here is my favorite, it is also currently our tallest. We have yet to measure it but it is taller than me and I am pretty tall.

The pumpkins vines are growing like crazy, I am glad that I separated them from the rest of the garden. With any luck and some good pumpkin weather we will be picking our own from the front yard this year. Hopefully with enough to spare for friends and neighbors.

As far as the rest of the garden; we are still swimming in tomato's and cucumbers. We got some decent peppers though a little on the small size. We are also being overrun by herbs, so if you are local will you please come pick some. We have 3 more watermelons ready to be picked and a few cantaloupes a few days away from perfection. My dad is in town and we are hopping to smuggle a cantaloupe to my mom via his plane ride back next week. The best news; a second planting of corn is starting to grow like crazy, so we should get in one more good harvest.

4th of July

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 14:58:00 +0000

We had a great 4th here in Southport. There was a parade, an arts and crafts sale, music, car show, food and fireworks. We got to have a nice little BBQ with friends and eat lots of good food. Though I seemed to only remember the camera for the parade.

Chicken Tricks

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:34:00 +0000

Marge and Ruby and much bigger now and are really enjoying their free range status. Maybe a little too much as far as my husband is concerned. They were suppose to stay in the back yard but have now let themselves into the side entry where they enjoy our porch steps, both on and under. This is usually where Whiskey, our 85lb American Bulldog, hangs out and I think they like her company.

Our porch is screened in but the door screen is broken and whiskey has turned this into her "dogie door". There is a dog bed up on the porch so she can enjoy some shade and a breeze. All the while keeping an eye on the comings and goings of our street.

Well I think the chickens were a tad jealous and who wouldn't be. So one day the kids and I were heading out the door and there they were, all 3 of them enjoying the porch! I ran inside for the camera but by the time I got back they had all gone their separate ways.

I did however a few days later catch Ruby using the now "dogie/chicken door"

Chris insists that this chicken madness has to end. To think I had been worried about how the dog and chickens would get along, I had never considered the husband chicken relationship!

Corn, Watermelon, Cantaloupe Ohh My!

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:15:00 +0000

This week was a huge one for the garden...we were able to get our first harvest of corn, watermelon and cantaloupes. Their simply isn't anything better than sitting down to a dinner of corn on the cob and grilled steak and waking up to cantaloupe for breakfast.

The kids and the hubby both agreed it was the best corn they have ever tasted. We lost two ears to caterpillars. Next year I will put mineral oil on the tops of the ears as they appear.

The melons; what can I say other than, delicious.

Now I just have to tackle the growing pile of tomato's and cucumbers piling up on our kitchen counter.

June Garden Update

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 01:02:00 +0000

We have been really enjoying the garden. So far we have harvested 5.25 pounds of food, not included in that are a few handfuls of cherry tomato's that seem to have a hard time making it into the house. At least I know who the culprit is and I am guilty as charged.

The watermelons are just unbelievable, this is our first time growing any sort of melon and it has just been so much fun to watch them grow.

Our corn will be harvested this weekend. We may have to have a BBQ to celebrate the occasion. The only disappointment is I should have done another planting or two, spaced two weeks apart to keep us in corn all summer. Oh well there is always next year.

Sailors flower cutting garden is looking so beautiful and it just makes you smile when you walk through the house and see flowers everywhere. Our neighbors across the street were so happy to see the first sunflower before heading back to their full time home. I think by 4Th of July we will have many sunflowers.

We have been getting a ton of cucumbers and I am hoping to make our first batch of pickles weekend. We have never canned before so this will be a new adventure for us.

The big excitement as of late was the pumpkin patch which got set up last week and is already in a pumpkin race. Hopefully we will have enough for us and some friends as well.

We have had one main problem and it is the squash and the stem burrowers who are inhabiting them. You can try to save your plants by cutting a slit in the stem and removing the worm and then covering with soil, one of the first signs is yellow wilting leaves. I have tossed a few squash plants that were to for gone to save. I am hopping to get one more planted this weekend to make up for it.

We do have one slow producer, our summer beans. They are growing very small beans that seem to not want to grow any bigger. I keep trying to remind myself it is only June. Last week I called my mom, also know as the master gardener, worried about my watermelons. They had slowed down in growth. She gently reminded me it is JUNE and some people have barely gotten seedlings in.

I think my neighbors worry my garden will die of stage fright. I can just stand out there and stare all day. So I am making a resolution to sit back, relax and enjoy a little.

Tutorial Tuesday: Going Green

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:41:00 +0000

So this is not so much a tutorial as it is a list of the small easy changes our family has made in the last year to help make a smaller impact on our earth. This has become a big topic these days and nothing could make me happier. The truth is I don't care if people are making changes to help the planet and insure a healthy future for our kids or because it is currently the cool thing to do. Either way, in the end, every small effort we make does make a difference.

For Our Family:

Cloth Diaper - We started to cloth diaper with the arrival of Hudson. We had many friends that cloth diapered when we had Sailor but I just couldn't believe them, I mean how on earth could you LOVE cloth diapering. I was convinced they were just not telling the real truth, I couldn't believe it could be easy. I was wrong, we love cloth diapering. It is sooo easy and Hudson seems to love it and even more important my husband who was adamant we not cloth diaper in the beginning is a true convert and can't stand to see him in a disposable. If you want the details on how cloth diapering works and how to choose from all those beautiful diapers out there Kelly at Our Lincoln Log did a great post on it a while ago.
***"DISPOSABLES: The 18 to 23 million disposable diapers sold in the U.S. all end up in the landfill once soiled. That’s 3.5 million tons of poop and plastic going into the ground each year. They are the third largest users of landfill space in the U.S. And the diapers, because of the plastic content, take approximately 500 years to breakdown. It is illegal in most states to dump human waste in landfills but that law is unenforced when it comes to diapers—though the packages of many disposable diapers say to scrape the poop into the toilet before disposing of it, almost no one does—and that human feces can leach and cause contamination or spread communicable diseases when disposed of in the landfill."-From the Green Mama

Diva Cup - I switched from using tampons and cloth pads to the Diva Cup. The Diva Cup is simply a non absorbing cup that catches your menstrual flow. It is worn internally and is made of silicone. Simply empty it every 12 hours. This means no sanitary pads and tampons in land fills. Between 1989 and 1999 more than 170,000 tampon applicators were collected along US coastal areas.

Homebirth - When we chose to have Hudson born at home we did it for personal reasons, it wasn't until later that I thought about how much "Greener" having an out of hospital birth is. We were so lucky to have Adrienne at our birth. She is a midwife assistant and recently wrote a post about how Homebirth benefits the planet on her blog Abundant B'earth.

Toys - This is also a personal choice of ours that has turned into a green one. We have some rules about toys in our home. The biggest one is that we are battery free. This was an easy one for us, we just don't like the noise of them. We also think kids simply miss out on something when the truck makes it's own noise and therefore the child doesn't need to do the sound effects. We also try to limit the amount of toys that pile up. I try to buy from companies that are filled with great natural, imaginative toys. Often this can mean more cost upfront thought we have found these toys have a much longer "shelf life". They last longer and our kids play with them longer. I also don't mind spending some money on a great toy verses a lot of money on a lot of toys. We also love to purchase hand made items for both the kids and us, there are so many amazing and talented crafter's out there. We also love a good yard sale, we have a bag of Lego's collected from many garage sales. Here are some of our favorite places.

*Nova Natural
*Stubby Pencil
*Sprig Toys
*Dream Child Studio
*Green Mountain Wee Woolies
*Syrendell

For Our Home:

Cloth Napkins & Non Paper Towels - We made the switch to cloth napkins 8 months ago and it has been great. I bought them on Etsy, I did not buy napkin style ones but instead smaller sized ones sometimes called picnic napkins. We like that they are about the size of a regular paper napkin. I bought them in a pattern so stains would not show as much. These would be super easy to make yourself. We still have paper towels in the house but we rarely use them. Instead we use rags, old towels and the Sham Wow(thanks to our friend Sara).

Rain Barrel - The hubby recently installed a rain barrel and so far so good. It cost about $40 for the barrel and parts and he had it put together in about 20 minutes. I still use our hose for my morning watering of the garden but use the water from the rain barrel for my afternoon watering. Here in the south watering once a day or not at all isn't really an option. We placed it under a piece of gutter that had no downspout. It seems to catch a lot of rain water this way, it got almost completely filled in one thunderstorm.

Keeping a Garden & Shopping Locally - We have a good size garden so we can produce some of our own food. We are also blessed with a weekly farmer's market that is within walking distance. This year is the first year I am undertaking canning, we will see how it goes. We also freeze extra veggies from the garden. This is especially great for overproducing squash plants. Simply slice them up and put them in a freezer safe container or bag and throw them in the freezer for an easy side dish come winter.

Cloth Bags or Bagless - We have cloth bags for our groceries. We even made our own produce bags thanks to Kelly, here is her tutorial on produce bags. When we are in the store for one or two items we simply say, No Thank You to the bag and carry it out or throw it in the diaper bag.

The 3 R's - Reduce, Reuse & Recycle
We also try to remember to use the basics. We try to keep the lights off unless we really need them, turning off the water while we brush our teeth, doing laundry on nice days so it can be hung out to dry, separating out all the recyclable, re-purposing old items and reducing our overall waste. Nina at Painted Rainbows and Chamomile Tea gave us a glimpse of her trash. I only hope ours can look that good sometime soon.

Happy Father's Day

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 13:09:00 +0000

We were daddyless this Father's Day but did get to speak to him on the phone. This is one of the major down sides to being a military family; not always being a family together. In the words of Hudson, "Daddy missy me". When Chris left this week for a month long dry dock he hugged and kissed the kids and then headed out to the truck. As we heard his engine turn on Sailor burst into tears and said; "see mom I miss him already". Now nothing can brake my heart more than my kids upset because once again they have to spend a good amount of time with out their dad. An amazing daddy he is. So here is to Chris; we miss you much and you are the most amazing father to our children, we LOVE you.

We would like to say Thank You to all the military dads out there that are away from their families right now. We are forever grateful for your service. We hope and pray you will be home with them soon.

For the Love of Trucks

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:06:00 +0000

When we were pregnant with our second and found out we were having a boy we got the usual lines; "life will be so different", "welcome to the world of monsters and trucks" and I thought no they can't be that different they are still both my children. I was wrong. Hudson was different from the start but now that he is two he is soo different, he is one of the boys.

I mean the other night he sanded a table that Chris and him were working on. Yes it was a power sander and yes my husband lets him operate power tools as long he is supervising. But then it started to rain and as Chris packed everything up. I could hear Hudson screaming, he was so devastated. That is until daddy gave him permission to go outside in the pouring rain to play in the mud.

Here is the table that they built together.

*I am painting it to match a pair of chairs we got, but you will hear more about that later.

During all this building Sailor was collecting wildflowers. She than used some masking tape so she could arrange some small bouquets for her dolls.

But nothing compares to last week when Hudson held us hostage outside for hours at a time to watch the house across the street get demolished by a back hoe. Sailor and I tried to be patient sitting with him reading together and otherwise keeping ourselves busy and he sat in amazement. It was like he was sitting in a movie theater watching the best movie he has ever seen.

All I could think about were the doors, windows, sinks, toilets and others items that were never taken out before the crushing began. We are lucky and have a Habitat for Humanity Re-Store just down the road. That entire house now lies in our local land fill. It would have been nice to know that at least some of it found it's way to someone. That a mom like me could have been looking out one of those windows watching her children play and that the money she paid for that donated window could have gone toward a home for someone who needs one.

I just wonder, I mean I have met the owners of that now gone home and they seem like nice people. Did they not know that was an option, did they not care, did they think it was just inconvenient, what??? An entire house now just rubble I just hope with all my heart that the small little cottage that sat on the big corner lot surrounded by grass and trees is not replaced by some giant home. That would make me sad beyond words.

Wordless Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:44:00 +0000

Tutorial Tuesdy: Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 02:11:00 +0000

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking by Jeff Hertzberg MD (Author), Zoe Francois (Author)

I have been making this bread since it was featured in an article in Mother Earth News, that was six months ago and I am still obsessed.

Now the book has more recipes than I think I will ever dream to make but their are a few that we make all the time. The classic artisan bread and the bagels are our, all the time breads. I believe Sailor asks me to make bagels at least twice a week, don't worry I don't. Though I will admit to sitting with my wine and polishing of the rest of the loaf of the artisan bread while the hubby does dishes at least twice a week.

***Now before we continue I must warn you that once you begin to make this bread you could be come so consumed that the need to buy a second refrigerator may seem mandatory to store all your homemade dough.

The Master recipe:

3 Cups warm water
1 1/2 tbs granulated yeast (1 1/2 packets)
1 1/2 tbs coarse kosher salt or sea salt
6 1/2 cups unsifted, unbleached, all purpose white flour
cornmeal

You will also need:

Large plastic storage container with a lid. (It will need to be about 5 quarts for the full recipe)
1/2 inch thick baking stone
Pizza peel or edgeless cookie sheet
Broiler tray

Making the Dough:

Mix the warm water, kosher salt and yeast together, don't worry if it doesn't all dissolve. Mix in the flour with a wooden spoon, a high-capacity food processor with dough attachment, or a heavy-duty stand mixer with dough hook, until uniformly moist. DO NOT KNEAD. Cover loosely and set out at room temperature for two hours after that refrigerate for at least 3 hours in a covered but not airtight container. The dough may be kept in the fridge for up to two weeks.

*This recipe may be halved our doubled depending on your need.

On Baking day:

Sprinkle a pizza peel or cookie sheet with corn meal, sprinkle the dough with flour and cut of a 1 pound piece(grapefruit sized), flour the dough lightly to prevent from sticking to your hands, gently stretch the surface of the dough around to the bottom on four sides, rotating the ball a quarter turn as you go, until the bottom is a collection of four bunched ends.

*This dough ball is slightly smaller than I would normally make but it was just me and the kids for dinner.

Place the ball on the pizza peel or cookie sheet. Let it rest for 40 minutes. 20 minutes before baking preheat the oven to 450* with pizza stone on middle rack and a broiler tray underneath.

Just before placing in the oven dust the top of the loaf liberally with flour and using a serrated knife slash a 1/4 deep tic tack toe pattern into the top.

With a forward jerking motion of the wrist, slide the loaf off the pizza peel and onto the baking stone. Quickly pour about a cup of hot water into the broiler tray and quickly shut the oven door to keep in the steam. Bake for about 30 minutes or until the crust is browned.

Remove and allow to cool.

Refrigerate the rest of the dough in a lidded but not airtight container.

Bread your friends will never believe you made and in just a few minutes, how can you beat that.

This same dough also makes great pizza, just bump up the oven temp to 475 or 500 and skip the broiler tray. Roll it out thin with some sauce and fresh mozzarella for great authentic Italian pizza.

Garden Update

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:36:00 +0000

It has been about a month since the garden went in and it is taking over. In reality I couldn't be happier, everything is doing so well as you can see.

This is my largest garden to date and the very first time growing; corn, cantaloupe and watermelon. Until now I have stuck with the old stand by's; tomato's, cucumbers, squash, peppers and the other usual suspects.

I have never done a traditional garden, I have always used pots, raised beds and this year the big new addition; 3 Garden Patch grow boxes. These are self watering containers large enough to grow just about anything. I had seen a review of them in an article in Mother Earth News and had to have them. So far I LOVE them, they seemed a tad pricey at the time but now seeing how well they work would probably pay double if I had to. They have a 4 gallon reserve in the bottom that you fill and then only refill when close to empty. This allows the plant to have a never ending supply of water. I chose to plant cantaloupes and watermelon in two of the grow boxes, seeing as the main reason they are so hard to grow is the endless amount of water they need to grow those water filled melons.

***This is two Garden Patch Grow Boxes placed in a line next to each other. To the left is one with 6 watermelon plants and to the right 5 cantaloupes and 1 extra watermelon.

Here you can see some cantaloupe blossoms and you can also see the watering hole for the Grow Boxes. I simply stick my watering wand in there and fill. The melons are drinking almost 4 gallons a day!
*sorry blogger keeps turning this photo on it's side and I can not for the life of me figure out why:(

In the third went the corn, I have discovered that kids love to grow corn and why not you plant a seed, one that is actually big enough for them to handle, and off they go like they are in a race. Sailor will look out the window several times a day and say something along the line of "WOW mom look at our corn!!!".

So to date we have:

3 Zucchini's (a few days away from harvesting)

4 Peppers (that need to grow bigger before we eat them)

4 Pear tomato's (that need to turn red)

A hand full of tiny cherry tomato's (just starting out)

And a lot of itty bitty little melons that the kids and I like to play find the melons when we check in on them (though that is very hard to do in the wild jungle that is our melon patch)

I plan on weighing all of our harvest as it comes in so we can have a grand total of how much food we were able to grow. Here is a family really using their yard to grow their food.

Little Homestead in the City

Turtorial Tuesday: Keeping Backyard Chickens

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:51:00 +0000

I know this seems out of the question for many of you but in reality keeping back yard chickens is supper easy and very rewarding. Some of the main reasons people keep a back yard flock are:

* Easy and inexpensive to maintain
* Eggs that are fresh, great tasting & nutritious
* Chemical free pest control
* Free fertilizer
* Bug and Weed Control
* Fun & friendly pets with personality (yes, you read that right)

So here are the basics, Chicken's 101 if you will.

The Chickens-
Their are so many breeds to choose from I can't begin to even preview them. You want to figure out what you will be wanting from these chickens; eggs, meat, companionship or all of the above. You also want to decide what age you want your chickens to be when you get them. You can get eggs to hatch on your own, have day old chicks shipped to you or get older already laying hens (Hens start laying around 18 weeks). Keep in mind though hens will greatly decrease their laying between 2 and 3 years of age. You can order online through hatcheries like, McMurray's. Search craigslist or visit your local feed store which often have day old chicks.

Here are our girls at 10 weeks old.

How To Care Of A Chick - First 60 Days:

* Young Chick Brooder - Can be as simple as a sturdy cardboard box or a small animal cage like one you'd use for rabbits.
* Flooring - Pine shavings work best
* Temperature - 90 to 100 deg. for the first week, decrease 5 deg. per week. A 100 watt bulb pointing in one corner (not the whole brooder) works well.
* Food & water - chick crumbles / starter & a chick waterer
* Play time - Play with your chicks when young to get the use to being around people.
* Outside time - Section off an area in your yard where the chicks can explore, scratch, etc. Make sure you can catch them when it's time to come in.
* More details: Raising Chicks

Chicken Care After First 60 Days, General Chicken Care:

* Chicken Coops - Once feathered out you'll want to move your chickens into a chicken coop! Rule of thumb is about 2-3 square feet per chicken inside the hen house and 4-5 sq/ft per chicken in an outside run. Keep local predators in mind and make a safe home for your flock!
* Flooring - Pine shavings work best. You can even try the deep litter method for even less maintenance.
* Food & water - Most people go with chicken layer feed / pellets. You can even make a homemade chicken feeder / waterer
* Treats - Vegetables, bread, bugs, chicken scratch (cracked corn, milo, wheat)

The Coop:

The hubby built our coop, isn't it beautiful.

But their are many coops in endless shapes and sizes available, these ones are such a great idea... Eglu

They will need a safe place to go in bad weather and at night, they will also need nesting boxes in which to lay their eggs. Many coops have some sort of attached run that the chickens can come in and out of freely.

Here is their run with a ramp so they can go up and down as they please...
*That's Ruby free ranging for bugs behind the coop.

We used sand for the floor of the run and the girls seem to love rolling around in it. It is also makes it super easy for clean up we just use a cat litter scoop.

This is the door that leads from the coop to the run. It slides open and closed. We leave it open all the time now but will close it at night when it gets cold here.
Open:

Part way closed:

Here is their nesting box, the Hubby simply made a small box inside the coop. You can buy nesting boxes and I have head of people using milk crates or other things turned on their sides for them.

*The floor of the coop is covered in a laminate and then pine shavings. The laminate makes for easy clean up.

Perches, chickens like many birds like to perch. The hubby thought this would be an okay step to skip until the girls started to try and perch on their feeder and were spilling food everywhere. So he added them in:

*Many people simply attach a large stick to the coop.

Landscaping, those of you who know me know this is a mandatory step for me. I think it came out nice. I even laid the bricks, well some of them:)

Their is tons of info out there on keeping back yard chickens, here are some good places to start:

BackYard Chickens

Youtube

***As many of you know we have a large dog, Whiskey. She is doing very well with the chickens. She has yet to bark at them or really pay them much attention. She will go up and sniff at them every once and a while but that is about all. So far so good.

Their HERE!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 12:57:00 +0000

Well it was an exciting week here at the Groom camp. The grandparents were in from Boston and we added a few members to the family. All in on week, we managed to get our worms for our worm bin and picked up two nine week old red sex link chickens.

We Will Start With The Worms...

I made my poor husband stop by the bait shop on his way home from work and pick up the worms with strict instructions to get a LOT of Red Worms. I was thinking about a half pound of worms. Well the bait store it turns out only sells them in small little cups packed with worms.

He picked up about 12 containers. So in the worms went. I tried to shake of any big clumps of the other stuff in the cup, which looked like coffee grinds but smelled like dirt. I saved it for the garden! So I pulled back the bedding and in they went.

I then covered them back over with bedding and gave it a good spray of water.

****This all happened a few days ago and since then we have hit a bump in the road...FRUIT FLIES!!!!! Now this is a very common problem with worm bins and one of the main causes is not enough top bedding. Something we are defiantly guilty of. So more cardboard was added and a good old fashioned fruit fly trap was also added. We now seem to have a happy healthy worm bin.

Now For The Chickens...

We picked up our two nine week old chickens from a family I found on Craigslist, oh what you can find on Craigslist but that is a whole other post. So Ruby and Marge joined the family.

Sex link chickens are cross-bred chickens whose color at hatching is differentiated by sex, thus making chick sexing an easier process. This helps if you know you don't want a rooster.

Red sex-links are a cross between a Rhode Island Red or New Hampshire rooster and a White Rock, Silver Laced Wyandotte, Rhode Island White or Delaware hen. They are often very good layers, don't mind confinement and typically very friendly. Their are many different breeds to choose from, here is a good place to get basic breed info; Henderson's Chicken Breed Chart.

This is Ruby.

and here is Marge

Both are doing well and seem to love their new coop. We are putting up netting around the fence so they can free range for plants and hopefully lots of bugs. I will be back later this week with a full chicken and coop post, until then you can get tons of info from my favorite chicken site; Backyard Chickens.

Setting Up A Worm Composting Bin

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Tue, 26 May 2009 20:43:00 +0000

I have been wanting to do this for a while and have finally got around to it. Many people can find composting overwhelming, as there is a lot that can go wrong. It can also take a lot of time and work before you actually see any compost. Which is why I choose to do worm composting. Worm composting is great for many reasons; it is super cheap to set up, takes up very little space and will provide you with amazing compost in very little time.

Here is what you will need:

*2-Plastic stackable storage containers
(I like the Rubbermaid Roughneck Tubs)
what ever you choose to use it must be something that will block direct light

*Drill with 1/8" drill bit

*Cardboard

*Spray bottle- for water

*2-cardboard milk or juice cartons

*Food scraps
-BEST:Fruit and vegetable waste, coffee grounds & tea bags
-IN MODERATION: Citrus, onions, starchy foods,spicy foods
-KEEP OUT OF BIN: Meats, oily foods, dairy

Building The Bin:

Step 1
Drill holes in the lid, about 10-20 holes will be good for air circulation.

Step 2
Drill a total of 10-20 holes around the sides of the worm bin. These holes should be located around the top half of the bin since it will be resting inside the drainage bin. We did seven on either side and two in each end.

Step 3
Drill holes in the bottom of the worm bin. There should be Between 4 & 8 holes. These holes are for air circulation and drainage.

Step 4
Set up your supports. We used the bottom 3/4 of a milk and juice carton. This allows the worm bin to rest in the drainage bin and allows good air circulation. We simply cut off the tops and then placed them in the bottom of the drainage bin. We then placed our worm bin in the drainage bin resting on the supports.

Step 5
Shred your cardboard. Many people use news paper and peat moss though in my extensive reading it sounds like cardboard works best so it is what we chose. I am sure either or a mixture would work fine. You can then add most of your bedding in to the worm bin.

Step 6
Add your food scraps. On hand the day we built our bin we had some; carrot, apple, kiwi, celery, blackberries, tomato, egg shells and coffee grinds that we had saved up over the past 48 hours.

Step 7
You will need a little dirt in your worm compost bin but just a little. Worms like chickens have gizzards. They will use the sand and small stones to grind up the food. The soil will also add in some microorganisms.

Step 8
Cover food scraps with remainder of bedding pieces and spray down the bedding with water until damp. Worms breathe through their skin when it is wet, so it is important to keep your worm bin moist. Some people repeat steps 6 & 7 a couple times. We stopped with two layer's of bedding sandwiching a layer of food.

Step 9
Place the lid on your worm bin and find a place for it that will not be to hot or cold. A garage or basement would be a good spot. I know what you are all thinking we forgot the worms but we didn't. In all my reading I have found that waiting 1 to 2 weeks before introducing the worms is the best way to go. This allows for microorganisms to build up in the bin.

So we will be back in a few day's to update you on adding our Red Wiggler Worms.

Here is a good place to read up on worm composting;
Red Worm Composting.

You can also find some other great projects through Tutorial Tuesday...

Monkey's on the Bed

Our Lincoln Log

The Homebirth of Hudson

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Sat, 23 May 2009 02:58:00 +0000

Our son Hudson Ellis Groom was born May 23, 2007 at home. That was two years ago tonight and yet when I close my eyes I can still feel the warm water, hear the gentle voices and smell the flowers.

The choice to have a home water birth was not an easy one for me and yet I knew for me their was no other choice. I had my daughter in a hospital and though it was a great birth I always knew I would never do it again like that. After her birth I felt unfulfilled and at the same time lucky. And by lucky I mean I had escaped the hospital without a C-Section and still breastfeeding her. It wasn't easy and I don't mean the labor part. We had to fight and I still got the epidural, she still got a pacifier shoved in her mouth and our every action was critiqued by nurses. We also were handed a huge bag full of formula as a gift.

We were living in South Carolina when we started thinking about adding to our family and I was blessed to meet some amazing moms. They were honest, caring, supportive and nurturing. Hearing their birth stories I knew their was no other way, I was having our next baby at home.

We got pregnant, found an amazing midwife and then sat back and enjoyed a great pregnancy.

The big due date came and we had my 40 week prenatal in our home with our midwife, her apprentice and my mom, now in town for the birth. We were asked if we had any concerns or fears and I did, I was nervous that I had none. I mean here I was about to give birth at any moment and I felt so relaxed, that can't be normal. I believe they smiled and reassured me. I told them to go home and not worry about me this baby wasn't coming any time soon. I was a week overdue, was 4 cm dilated and lost my mucous plug 4 days before giving birth to my daughter and I had not so much as a cramp with this one. Less than 12 hours later I had them on the phone, he was coming!

Back from a late diner out and after trying to put our 2 1/2 year old down to bed for what seemed like hours, I felt a cramp. I knew this was it, why I knew I don't know because it was just a small cramp. So I did want any very pregnant women would do; I got myself a big glass of wine and filled the bath tub. It was 10pm and I was going to do anything to make sure I got a good night sleep before things really got going. Well that cramp turned into small contractions and somewhere between 11pm & 12am, we decided to call the midwife to let her know. We didn't want to shock her with a call at 4 am, after all we had just seen her earlier in the day and I said I had days to go if not weeks.

This is where things get hazy, I remember trying to sleep, wasn't going to happen. I remember telling Chris I wasn't going to let him sleep. I walked the bedroom and sat on the toilet. I know that doesn't make a pretty picture but let me tell you when you are in labor the toilet is as about as comfortable as it gets. That is unless you have an amazing husband filling a large birth pool up with warm water in your bedroom. Though he had to drag me off the potty to get me in it. At this point we had already called Cynthia and Adrienne our amazing birthing team and they were on their way. Mind you this is about 2am, two hours after all this started. I had been having a really hard time controlling my breath up until now, something I found very frustrating seeing as I practice yoga daily. I am however also a swimmer and once in the pool it all became easier. I actually put my whole face in and exhaled into the water turning my head to take a breath. This really helped me to slow my breathing. It must have also helped things move along because not long after getting into the pool I told Chris to get on the phone with Cynthia and tell her to get here NOW! She was just pulling into the driveway with Adrienne right behind her. I had just told Chris that their was no way I was going to be able to do this much longer. That if she came in and told me I was 5 cm I was done and they could take me to the hospital. Welcome to transition, Cynthia and Adrienne came in, I was 10 cm. They were able to enter the room set up with out ever disturbing me. By the way my daughter, my mom and our two dogs have slept through everything. Cynthia came bearing flowers and Adrienne sat by the pool quietly offering me water between contractions. Adrienne goes to wake up my mom so she can bring in Sailor as Hudson is being born. Within about a half hour of them being there and after many encouraging words in a matter of a few pushes Hudson is born. Cynthia guided him through the water and on to my chest and I fell in love. We sat in that pool and I was overwhelmed with love. Love for him, my husband, my daughter, my parents but most of all for those women in the room.

I may have birthed a 9lb boy, that's right 9 POUNDS. But they gave me soo much more, it was like I had been born all over again.

"It's not just the making of babies, but the making of mothers that midwives see as the miracle of birth."

-- Barbara Katz Rothman

So please go out and support your local midwives and doulas. Need more info on choosing a midwife, doula or homebirth, here are some good place to start:

The Homebirth Choice.

Trust Birth

Ina May Gaskin

Mothering

DONA

Wordless Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Tue, 12 May 2009 23:32:00 +0000

Oh How I LOVE Amazon

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Tue, 12 May 2009 18:41:00 +0000

Okay I know there are a LOT of great small bookstores out there that my money would benefit better but I have two kids and limited time so Amazon it is. I will admit here that I am one of those people with a huge Amazon wish list. Now I hate the feeling of needing something but books don't count and for that matter plants and seeds don't either. So my Mother's Day present came two days late but it was well worth the wait. Here are the contents of the box...

The Unschooling Unmanual looks to be just what I was looking for; a book I can turn to flip open and get inspired to let my kids live and learn as they would like. A reminder of sorts for me to put down and step away from the workbooks, they are only 4 & 2 and I am sure there is much more to learn outside.

I have gotten to flip through The Backyard Homestead and it really does have it all, gardening, canning, small livestock and much more. I think it will be perfect for someone like me who is looking to create a homestead in their own yard even if it is in the middle of a subdivision.

The Garden Primer is one I have been wanting for a while as it is considered by many to be the gardening Bible. It is said to be full of info and yet very down to basics at the same time.

You can find the links to these and others on my; Book's I've Pulled of the Bookshelf List to the right.

The LIST

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Thu, 07 May 2009 14:03:00 +0000

So before we even left Texas I sat down with the hubby to discuss the LIST. It was my dream list; everything I wanted in our new home to be. This would be the first time in 4 years that we wouldn't be living in a subdivision and under the constant watch of the Home Owners Association which can make it hard when you are trying to live a more self sustainable life. I mean how do you teach your kids that hanging your clothes out to dry can make the earth a more beautiful place if your HOA rules don't want clothes lines because they are ugly and could bring down home values. I have personally never seen an ugly clothesline.

So here it is:

1) Large Garden

2) Clothes Line

3) Chicken Coop & Chickens

It is pretty short but does involve a good amount of manual labor by the hubby but he agreed. I don't know if we were drinking or it was just the overwhelming guilt trip my friends had put him on for taking me and the kids off to a far away place. Either way he said yes and the amazing hubby that he is we have been in our new home 19 days and he has done a lot.

Garden-Raised Beds Built and veggies and flowers planted

Clothes Line- Up and Drying Clothes...Though ten minutes after this picture was taken I had to run outside and rescue the clothes from a thunderstorm!

Chicken Coop- Still in Progress

*I must add he also did a ton of much needed work on the house, painted, unpacked most of the boxes and took the kids to the park (I think everyday). I know what you are thinking but he is not for sale, he's a keeper.

The Big Move

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 03:21:00 +0000

As many of you know we just moved to North Carolina from Texas. Moving is apart of our life, the hubby is in the Coast Guard, and to be honest we really enjoy it. I am sure to most people the idea of packing up and saying goodbye every 2-3 years would be too much. Don't get me wrong it is hard, especially this last move where we had to bid farewell to way to many amazing friends. But we have found their are many perks to always being on the move.

1) We tend not to accumulate to much "stuff", though books don't count. It is impossible to accumulate too many books.

2) We have seen places we would never have seen if we had just stayed put. I think I cried for hours when Chris told me we were transferring to Texas but I cried even more 2 years later when it was time to say goodbye to Texas.

3) The people. I am just so thankful for all our friends now spread across the US.

4) The chance of a new beginning. A new year resolution of sorts. The opportunity to leave things behind and begin afresh.

5) A sense of home within ourselves. We have really learned that home truly is where the heart is.

So here it is; our new home...

***On the map we are just south of Wilmington. The Cape Fear river is just down the street!