Chicks Are Out And I Am NOT IMPRESSED!!!

All the kids gathered around to see the first meat chicks out of the barn!

Papa came home for lunch today to help me and the kids put the chicks out on grass.. the more I look at them the madder I am! ARG!! The last two years we've gone through a different hatchery because of the store hassle with our old hatchery and they kept sending us the wrong turkeys which we finally just stopped doing! I think we may just have to deal with the store next year! This year we ordered Cornish giant cockerels and got A LOT OF HENS!!! I mean come on people a few hens I can understand could slip by BUT OVER HALF OF OUR "COCKERELS" ARE HENS!!! And this momma is ticked right off!! 

It's not the feed.. it's the same feed we've been using for 6 of the last 7 years. It's not the temps as the weather was better then normal and they've been in a barn with a heat lamp since we got them.. until today at 6 weeks old when we put them outside. Normally we try and put them out at about 4 weeks but these chicks just would not have made it. They are healthy, we've only lost 10 of the 300 we ordered and one of them arrived dead! They are just small!! We've done everything, and more, then we normally do and these birds just don't seem to be growing. Some of them don't seem to be growing at all.. 

Baby G loves them! No matter what size they are! 

Two medium sized hens taking a look at the grass.. 

Group shot.. Some HUGE ones, right on track for their age, some TEENY TINY ones, and lots of medium sized birds. And LOTS AND LOTS OF HENS!!! 

They seem to be attached to the cardboard that was in the barn to keep them out of the corners so we left one in the pen for them. The white stuff in the dish is milk which we normally mix into the feed but now that they are outside they can start getting it in a dish. 

A close up for the hatchery.. Yes I've complained and emailed them.. I'm linking them to the blog in hopes that they'll do something about this..And to think we paid $20 extra for cockerels per 100 chicks..

and prices keep rising. I did mention this momma is MAD!!!

You want to hear the best part??

 Because of where we live we only have, that I know of, two hatcheries to choose from. 

At this rate we'll have 3lb birds and be happy they got that big 

by butchering time, at 12 weeks! and be out of chicken by January!! 

Time to spend some time on google I think.. and then on the phone.. 

Seriously hatcheries.. get it together!!! 

Look What I Can Do~ Baby G

6 1/2 months old and army crawling and now sitting alone!

Planting :)

The kids by our raised beds! We planted peas, carrots, strawberry starts, spinach, lettuce, potatoes and radishes. 

They were so excited to plant the potatoes all by themselves!! 

Great job!! 

Project 4x4!

Project 4X4 is pretty easy.. I actually did about half of it alone as Papa wasn't feeling too hot and he had a few other things that needed doing. So we did the outside ring of 4x4's together and then he set me up and I did the last inside row pretty much alone.. I guess now that I'm able to 'properly use a drill' I'm more helpful :) 

These 4x4 pieces of wood are 17 inches from outside edge to outside edge. The straw bales will sit on these 4x4's and become our outside and hallway walls. They are glued and screwed on and by the end of the day my back was informing me LOUDLY that the Tylenol bottle MUST BE OPENED!! 

We didn't get all the 4x4's done but before we can finish them we have to figure out where we want doors in the hallway. We did borrow Mr and Mrs. B's program to plan out the house and we now just have to figure out where the doors go! 

~The Chicken Leg~ Science

I found this cool experiment on Pintrest :) 

You take a chicken bone, soak it in vinegar for several days and see what happens..

It was VERY COOL!!!

The vinegar takes the calcium out of the bone and the results are cool and kinda fun to play with..

Try it.. it's easy!! 

I talked to the kids when we put the bone in the vinegar, told them what the vinegar should do to the bone and asked them what they thought would happen to the bone. We also had quite a nice chat on calcium and it's sources. 

J thought it would get softer.

L thought it would go skinnier.

E thought it would go fatter.

R thought it would get smaller.

Try it and see what did happen :) 

Great BIG FUN!!

This picture was taken May 17th 2012. Yes that is snow. 

This is our Before picture :) 

We started our GREAT BIG FUN project on 

 Saturday May 19th. 

A little mind boggling with all the pieces.. took us about 30 minutes working together to get it organized so we could find stuff! 

By the 21st we realized a tree or 4 would need to come out! 

Papa grabbed up his chain saw and started cutting.

Before too long the trees were down 

and a bunch of junk wood, trees down etc 

on the hill was all chopped up

 and the kids were piling it on the large burn pile on the other side of the driveway! 

On the 24th J got his knee stuck in between two of the boards and I had to rescue him with a power drill.

Of course I was a great mom and took a picture first. :) 

By the way I guess I'm getting better with a power drill... Papa complemented  me on it!!

And I used the same drill bits the whole project through! 

And the next day the swings were finished and in use.. 

They spent HOURS outside on the swings those first few days..

OH WAIT... they still do!! 

R fell out of the door way and cut a tiny cut right on her eyelid! It healed fast but sure looked terrible!

By the 29th it looked done!! But wasn't quite.. the slide was not tightened and the star bursts above the windows were not finished! I think it looks lonely in the picture, normally there are kids crawling all over it :) 

On the 30th Papa got all those pesty bolts tightened on the slide and found some wood to support the bottom and R was the very first one down the slide!! YAY!!! It's FINISHED!!! I'd put up the star bursts that afternoon :) 

Neat picture of E and R!! I love the fluid look of E and R's face!! 

Then it was a never ending flow of kids coming down the slide!

 They went so fast I almost got dizzy.

Macho Man here decided to put the 6x6's around the 'playground' while the kids went around and around and around enjoying their new slide! When the road bans are lifted we are getting a couple loads of sand to fill in the playground area and the 6x6's will hold it all together. 

Fun for the whole family!!

Baby G~ Jolly Jumper Take Two :)

Yes, she is asleep! 

J3's New BED!!

Mrs K from Our Peculiar Lives had an extra crib mattress hanging around and she asked if we wanted it. 

We did :) J3 needs a new bed :) 

I decided to cover it with black plastic bags to protect it. Two bags did the job nicely. 

Duct tape sealed it off nicely and with style :) 

Then the kids put a couple of sheets on it.. one on both sides, 

and I used some sheet clips and a couple of baby diaper pins with a length of elastic

 to hold the sheets on. 

I'm not sure why but ALL of the kids have loved to take the sheet off their mattress at this age.

So now I just prepare for it. 

5 Little Monkeys laying on the bed! 

J3 is so far only napping on this mattress.. we drag it out to the living room every nap time and he sleeps happily to his hymns. He's learning the important lesson that he must stay ON the bed. Even if your awake, even if the house is quiet, until Mommy says you can get off.. you stay ON! 

So far he is doing very well. Though I do believe he sleep walks which will likely make things very interesting when he starts to sleep on the mattress at night and probably explains his terrible sleep habits. 

Yesterday I left the mattress in the kids room for naps and he fell asleep quickly and stayed ON the mattress!! YAY!! Soon we will move him on to the mattress for nights 

and 

as R says...

We'll hear the thump thump thump of J3 RUNNING to our bedroom several times a night 

until he realizes that you have to stay ON your bed at night too. 

But until he figures that out at least I'll get some sweet little boy cuddles :) 

Good thing Baby G has started sleeping at night again... 

I thought for a bit there I might actually be getting enough sleep! 

Baby G and the Jolly Jumper.

She loves it :)

~~~ More Worms~~~ An Experiment :)

Night crawlers!! This one was average size of the 3 J got! See how it's lifting it's head? 

J said it was trying to escape! This worm was about 8 inches long stretched out! 

J got these HUGE worms called night crawlers from Grandpa F Sunday night while we were visiting. We decided to do his last science experiment by the book with them :) We did a large unit study on worms and learned way more then we were suppose too for his science but the experiment is cool so we're going to do it too ;) 

First you put sand and dirt in layers in a jar, pop bottle with the top cut off or some other see through container. It says to add onion leaves or leaves or something like that to the top but we just added some worm food from the bin instead as I thought onion was on the no no list for worms.. and it is :) 

See how you can see the layers of sand and dirt? 

The experiment is to put your worms in the container and put them in a cool dark place for 3 days and then your should be able to see that they have been turning the earth in the jar. The sand and the dirt should be mixed up! 

Now J put 3 LARGE night crawlers and 2 larger worms he found outside in the jar and now 3 days later you can see that they have mixed the earth around a bit but not enough to really see it well.

A few things we would do differently is to add water.. worms don't like to be dry. I did add some water the 1st day and again today as the bottom half of the jar was still very dry. I think they will mix it better now that the earth is wet. I would also leave it a bit longer and I think next time we will mash up a banana for them instead of using the worm food we had from the bin. They haven't, and I just realized probably will not, touched the carrot unless they are in there for a LOT longer then 3 days. 

Now I'm just wondering what we're going to do with them after the experiment is done?

I'm not sure I want them in the house.. they are practically snakes at that size! 

***SHUDDER***

I seriously DISLIKE SNAKES!!! 

I think they may have to find a new home in the dirt pile at the end of the driveway.. 

J wants to keep them, cut their tails off to go fishing with and watch them regrow their tails! 

And keep them forever and ever...

um..

Maybe not 

but 

Maybe??