Meow and cheek, cheeck chicks!

Uncle Eric has hatched us a bunch of chicks!! The kids absolutely love playing with them. I love watching them. This past weekend we set up our coop to have the chicks in it, instead of in the house. It was becoming very tiring for me to have 10 cats inside plus 15 baby chicks. Now that the chicks are outside we have lost a few but we still have 13 and the first batch have doubled in size since these pics. We are having a blast with all these new critters!






You will notice in some pics my boys are shirtless.. They all like their shirts off. Sometimes I don't even fight it and they run around shirtless.



My niece Riley is currently hatching 48 chicks on her own she plans on selling them. She has taught me more about the chickens then most books! I love this sweet face of hers, she is a doll!
These are Poker # 1 baby chicks so we are hoping one is a rooster!

Mama cat Nibbles had 5 Kitties on May 1st! There is a girl kitty that is all white and we possibly think she is an Albino kitty. Yesterday Ayden named her Lily. I asked him why Lily and he said, "I just think it's a pretty name". I thought it was neat because Lillie's(flower) are white :)
Mama cat Twix had 4 babies and one that we named Stripes didn't make it. Twix is Nibbles Mom and these are the two of the cats that have survived after we brought home 4 cats originally. Twix had Nibbles, Thunder and Freckles. After letting Thunder and Freckles outside Nibbles is the only kitten that survived from Twix's first litter.

RIp Poker, Stripes, Thunder, Freckles ect.

It is always hard to deal with the loss of things which bring us joy in this life. As much work goes into our recent animals we have lost a few and I know we will continue to lose more. It is the circle of life and it is teaching us alot of new feelings and ways to handle those emotions.

I never thought chickens could bring so much fun and joy but they have! I have always been a cat lover and now currently we have 2 Mama cats and 8 babies. The pics of the boys here were taken right after we found our rooster dead. I feel it is important to let the boys get sad and cry and deal with the loss in their own way. Thayne is very sensitive and cried most of the day. We comforted him and said it is ok to be sad. After he let all his emotions out he went back to playing. I also tell the kids the animals are in a safe place where their is no pain. Where they can never experience death again and hopefully we will see them again someday. I also tell them to not dwell on the pain of the loss but to put that energy into the animals we still have. It has been hard at times and even I have to cry to let the emotions heal. We miss our animals but we are still currently joyful of the animals we still have :)

Our Garden and the first steps to self reliance!

We have been a busy bunch getting this garden started. This is officially the third time that I have planted my own garden. It has been a gradual process getting everything accomplished. I have not measured precisely but our garden area is at least a 250 square foot area.

We started with the land and finding what place would be good with enough sunshine. We have alot of tree's on our property and we had to factor that in. We finally got the area picked up and our neighbors borrowed a tractor so we could plow and till the land. In trade we will be giving them food this summer for the help with the tractor. Having the tractor saved us days of work and also saved our bodies/backs from all the hard labor. I can tell you moving dirt will get you strong. I have lost a total of 60 lbs here in Tx. I am doing a lite exercise routine but I can tell you I have lost most of the weight by working outside doing hard labor all day. I now know why there was never a problem with obesity in pioneer days.

The garden has been an enjoyable process for me. I have always loved doing it which makes it so much easier. I studied on the clay soil and it has been mostly my pet project. When we lived in California I never had to worry to much about the soil. The area in Nipomo had great soil even in our apartment patio. Here in Texas it is clay soil and you have to make sure your water will drain from the root. I decided to use the Dr. Mittleider Methods for treating the soil. I also invested in heirloom (non-hyprbrid GMO) seeds. http://foodforeveryone.org/index.php

Since I had been using all my time to learn about the soil. I decided to put starter plants in the first 3 raised garden beds. In one bed I have Zuchini and yellow Squashes. I planted different types so we can find out which ones that we like more. Most likely we will enjoy all of them because we love fresh veggies! In the other bed I have Tomato plants(8) which I plan on canning a lot of sauces, salsa and soup. in the other beds I have all my cooking and medicinal herbs. I love these because they are perennials, which means they will die in the winter but come back on their own in the Spring. I also planted egg plant, Okra, cucumbers and 10 different types of Peppers from starter plants.

This week I planted some of the heirloom seeds. This is officially my first time planting from seeds. I planted enough to eat and also enough to harvest the seeds for next years crop. I will have some updated pics of my recent progress but this a start to a life long project of going back to basics. Living and relying on ourselves for food. People ask me what my future goals are with this garden. I plan on helping my neighbors and my friends. I plan on teaching and educating people that we can not rely on stores and super markets to take care of us. We must learn what God intended for us. Adam and Eve were first placed in a garden and we must delve into the hidden meaning behind that. I know everyone can not have a full fledged garden but you can start small and do your best with what you have available. You can buy from local farmers instead of buying imported unhealthy goods from the super markets. You can plant some plants and give it try.

I plan on donating some food to food shelters and churches. We must serve one another and what better way to do so. In the future I plan on gathering heirloom seeds from my crop for friends, family and neighbors. In the future I will not have to buy seeds. I also plan on buying a Dairy Cow, a Horse to work my land and the list goes on. I'm starting small but we will continue to have big hopes and dreams for the future! I feel truly blessed and will continue to share our progress!