Grateful Sunday

A Sunday ritual where you post a picture with a brief description of something that you are grateful for. Then the next week add another picture and description. In a year you will have 52 fabulous things in your life that you are grateful for!
If you want to join in then leave a link with your grateful moment.

Week 3

 

 

I just love hanging clothes out on the clothesline.  There is something so simple and historic about a clothesline.  I'm grateful for the opportunity to connect with my ancestors through a clothesline.

 

Week 2

This week I am grateful for all the beautiful eggs that my laying hens are providing for us. It is wonderful to have farm fresh eggs, plus it provides a tiny income for me while doing something I love.

Week 1

I am grateful this week for all the wonderful open space we have in the country. There is always places for the kids to explore and find all sorts of treasures.

Grateful Sunday

A Sunday ritual where you post a picture with a brief description of something that you are grateful for. Then the next week add another picture and description. In a year you will have 52 fabulous things in your life that you are grateful for!
If you want to join in then leave a link with your grateful moment.

Week 2

This week I am grateful for all the beautiful eggs that my laying hens are providing for us.  It is wonderful to have farm fresh eggs, plus it provides a tiny income for me while doing something I love. 

Week 1

I am grateful this week for all the wonderful open space we have in the country. There is always places for the kids to explore and find all sorts of treasures.

Sugar Season Ends

Well another year has come and gone for the Maple Syrup.  It was an unusual year for it here in Eastern Ontario with the weather being so unpredictable.  One day it would be hot enough to wear shorts and a t-shirt and the next you would be in your winter jacket. 
If it was that confusing for us, I'm sure it was just as confusing for the trees trying to figure out when to run their sap and when to stop.  I was really busy trying to boil the sap down to syrup but also it was right when we were (and still are) trying to build a chicken coop.  I did however remember to bring my camera on one of the last days.  Here are some pictures from the syrup season.

this moment:: Too Much Play

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. One photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savour and remember.

Stop by Soulemama's blog to visit more moments.

Weekend Work

I know it is Wednesday and I am just getting to what went on on the homestead this past weekend but at least it's not what we did at Christmas, right?!

We were BUSY this past weekend.  There was a princess birthday party to attend too, an auction sale to check out and of course lots of work.  The princess party was a success but the auction was  a big fail.  I was looking at a tiller for the back of the tractor but the opening bid was higher than my final price.  Needless to say there is still no tiller on the back of my tractor.

My partner has been busy in the bush this past winter cutting the fallen trees, either for firewood or logs.  This past weekend we spent all Sat and Sun helping out the neighbour that has a sawmill cut up our logs. 

The guy has a portable push mill which means he brings it too you but he has to hand-push the saw blade as it cuts through the log.  Sometimes it can be pretty slow moving.  Now we have a half wagon load of wood to use for our many projects, all of which came off our own property.

When Spring is here that also means calving season is here too.  On Sat night there was a cow that looked like it was going to calve so we decided to keep an eye on it and sure enough around 9pm her water broke.  We decided to check on her about an hour later.  We were in the barnyard trying to find her when we heard a mother's labour grunt coming from the other side of the barnyard.  We quickly went over to find the calf halfway out but with the mothers sack still over his head.  We quickly ripped it off just as the mother gave her last push.  If we hadn't of got there when we did the calf would have suffocated. 

Here he is a couple days later healthy and happy.  It amazes me every time I see an animal being born.  What a miracle.

Media Monday

Today I need to tell you about a musical group that I have been a fan of since last summer.  I got their CD for Christmas and still love it! 

The group is The Civil Wars and I can only describe their music as folk/country. I have a toss up between 2 songs for which would be my favourite. The song Poison and Wine IMHO is about a relationship that is bordering on breaking up or recommitting to each other. 

The song Barton Hallow is a little different feel to it.  It is a more get up off your feet and get dancing type of song.  The only problem is that it has a pretty grimm story behind the song but if you don't pay too much attention to the story behind it you will have a blast dancing to it.

 

The two members of the group were song writers before taking the plunge into singing and what a great decision.  The chemistry between these two is amazing and comes out in all of there songs.

Please take a moment and listen to their songs and see if you love them as much as I do.

Grateful Sunday

A Sunday ritual where you post a picture with a brief description of something that you are grateful for.  Then the next week add another picture and description.  In a year you will have 52 fabulous things in your life that you are grateful for!
If you want to join in then leave a link with your grateful moment.

Week 1

I am grateful this week for all the wonderful open space we have in the country.  There is always places for the kids to explore and find all sorts of treasures.

this moment:: NEW BOOTS!!!

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savour and remember.

 

 

Stop by Soulemama's blog to visit more moments!

Recording Eggs

I am torn with this part of my job as a chicken farmer.  In order to record who was laying eggs still I had to place each chicken in their own cage.  I really hate having them in cages and not letting them outside.  To me it seems cruel only leaving them in a small cage.  I can't imagine what it is like in one of those larger chicken barns where there are hundreds of chickens, all in rows, lined up on top of the other, never seeing outside the barn. 

On the other hand I love going in and 'finding' the eggs in certain cages.  I like keeping track of what chicken has laid eggs and how many. 

I feed and water them in margarine containers a couple times each day.  They are eating more in the cages then what they were free range, which tells me they were eating a lot of what our land has to offer. 

I started off with them on the straw on the floor but found that they were standing/sitting in a poopy mess on the bottom of their cage.  So I raised their cages on cement blocks and now their poop falls through. 

I also was feeding them on the top of the margarine container but with chickens being scratchers they kept scratching the tops to the back of the cage and then pooping on it. 

So far, 12 of the 24 are still laying eggs.  We will be moving those chickens into the new coop with our 50 new birds we will be getting on Wednesday.  Yes, THIS Wednesday!!!!  Can't wait.