Tools Today

Today in Pre-school Emma learned about construction workers (this week is on community jobs: Dentist, Police and Post officers etc). She came home with a 'tool belt'. We went around the house 'fixing' things for 30 minutes!

Parker just watched in awe. He wanted to play with those paper tools so badly. Emma was kind enough to remind him of the plastic tools we have in the play room.

You Know You're a Redneck When...

…you pick up your dry cleaning and baby chicks on the same trip into town!

The post office called and said the chickens we ordered arrived. We went in with a friend so shipping was free and we are stocking up on fresh white meat (we also are planning on slaughtering a cow later this week…more on that later)

Chickens have a lot of needs when they first arrive! We got a refrigerator box, heat lamp, water at the right temperature, and food. Some food needed to be placed on paper so they could figure out it's food (chickens are not known for being extra intelligent). We had to teach them how to get water too.

Wish us luck as we continue on the path of being Self/Christ-reliant and learning the ways of homesteading.

Here's to 'Using it up, wearing it out, making it do, or doing without'!

What is that mysterious chirping noise?!

Aww, come on guys. I promise I won't eat one I just want a little taste!

Turkey Lurkey

I was given my two weeks notice, I've been laid off from my job. It has inspired us to push harder towards homesteading (providing for ourselves most temporal needs). We bought some turkeys. One Male and Four Females. We hope they will breed and provide a lot of white meat! 

 You'll hear me gobble at the Tom to get them started and one of his ladies starting to call back but then the battery quit. I'll get more footage later (I love these turkeys)

We haven't' finished the turkey coop yet (we're calling it the Poultry Palace) due to the snow but we are close. Right now the chickens and turkeys are sharing the Egg layer portion of the Palace. The chickens kept starting fights so they got put on 'time out' inside the coop. This gave the turkeys the run of the place.

Surprisingly we are still getting a remarkable amount of eggs even though they are locked in a dark building.

Mr Big Stuff, Who do you think you are?

This boy thinks he's ready for a big boy carseat. We often use this booster seat for Emma in Shane's car. Whenever Shane goes out to work we bring it inside. Parker decided it was his new jungle gym!

Meet Oliver Twist

We adopted another fur baby. His name is Oliver. Trouble follows him wherever he goes, he's always eating food and begging for more. He is sweet and we love him. No, we don't have three cats... we had to put Olivia down due to health reasons.

Home Improvements

We had a flooring problem, we knew about it when we first moved. The carpet was original, cheap, and very warn out. Subfloor was showing through holes in both linoleum and carpet. The smell was outrageous and if we let people come in we often asked them to leave their shoes on.  However, we found a great Black Friday deal and did much of the work ourselves to get new flooring for Christmas 2013!

 Here's my little man helping Daddy install the dishwasher. I specifically asked for an outlet and plug. News to me, dishwashers don't usually come with plugs, they just get wired in! So Mr. Shane himself just whipped up a little outlet and wired on a plug and now it's just the way I like it!

So Christmas Happened...

We had a great Christmas with some grandparents over, new carpet and laminate flooring throughout the house, and Shane didn't get called out!


It was so fun to be with the kids. Christmas is really for children, and Emma was all in this year. Parker was a little confused but enjoyed ripping paper and watching what Sister got.