Solution For My Hysterics!!

Ever have one of THOSE weeks??

Well, this past week was one of THOSE weeks for me!  We had to suddenly build another chicken coop to bring in four new chickens (one of whom ended up being an unexpected rooster!), aCOWntant Willie was sick, DD#3 had a severe case of poison ivy, DD#1 was sick, we had plumbing problems, electrical problems, car problems, and when aCOWntant Willie wasn't sick and went to work, he was working 12 hour days.  Yuppers, it was a week!

This week it just seemed to be one thing after another until I felt overwhelmed by it all and burst into a fit of alternating hysterical crying and laughing!!  And, oh yes, it was the ugly cry!! :)

So after regaining my composure, I tried to figure out where I went wrong.  I mean, we have had weeks like this one continuously ever since we moved almost a month ago.  What caused me to break on that particular day?

Then it occurred to me that for two days in a row I had let my time alone with the Lord slip by unused.

When I get caught up in trying to rely on my own strength, this is where it gets me...throwing my head on the counter-top and bursting into tears!!  I mean, how in the world can I deal with all of these little problems that keep coming and coming without having any idea of how to solve them or even knowing which to solve first!!!  And if I were to have what we consider to be a "big" problem, I would be completely lost.

Praise God that He is here to help!

There are so many scripture that remind us that we have a source of never-ending strength!

Isaiah 41:10 - So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Philippians 4:13 - I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

And one of my personal favorites...

Isaiah 40: 28 - 31 - Do you not know?

Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.

He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

So as I go throughout the crazy days to come, I am going to be more diligent with making sure that every morning begins with alone time with my Savior. 

In my next post, I thought we could talk about what that looks like for me and what it might look like for you!!

See ya then!!

Chicken Run....For Real, Not The Movie!!

Okey Dokey Artichokey, let's get on with the chicken story!!

So, as I told you yesterday, we finished the chicken coop and surprised aCOWntant Willie with it! He was very surprised and we were all pleased because when it rained that night, the inside stayed dry!! I think DD#1 and I might become pro chicken coop builders!! :)

Next step was a chicken run because we need a safe place for them to play out in the fresh air when we can't watch them. There are a gazillion ideas for building chicken runs, but due to the rain we needed something quick because we were just hours away from getting our four girls!!

The decision was made to go with a portable pvc pipe run, so we all set to work!!

We got the frame together!!

Once the frame was done, we wrapped it with chicken wire and used zip-ties to connect it.

It was then that we ran into a bit of a problem.  How in the world could we safely connect it to the hen house so they can go in and out during the day?

Well, at this point aCOWntant Willie was starting to feel sick so DD #1 and I crawled into the run and went to work trying to figure it out.  We came up with a few ideas that DID NOT WORK and finally came up with something that will work for now.  We used a staple gun and stapled the wire to the hen house.  It is not the most secure thing and we will need to revise it in the near future, but it works for now!!

Then we needed to get nesting boxes and roosting bars in the coop.  I had read a quick and easy nesting box idea where you just use dishpans, so we went to work on that!!

And tah-dah!!!  We have nesting boxes!!

So every night around sunset, we go and call them into the hen house (coop) and lock all of the doors up for the night.  Apparently chickens go almost comatose at night!  Who knew??!!

When we went out to check on them yesterday morning, they were all four snuggled up in one nesting box.  Sooooo cute!!

DD #3 has become our chicken queen!  All four chickens are in love with her.  As soon as they hear her voice they come running to her.  She will sit down with them and they all climb up in her lap and go to sleep! Total cuteness!!

Yesterday afternoon we were presented with a great opportunity to go in with a neighbor and acquire 4 more chickens, 3 of them are already laying eggs!  So...DD #1 and I headed back to Lowe's so get the supplies to build another coop!  We almost finished it yesterday so I will post pictures tomorrow of our new hen house and our 4 new additions!

I believe that we have decided to try and sell any excess eggs as a fundraiser for our family mission trip this summer!!  It was aCOWntant Willie's idea and I must say that it is a great one!!

See ya tomorrow!!

Chicken Craze!!

Guess what?


Yup, you guessed it, we are now the proud owner of 4 Buff Orpington Chickens!! And may I just say, they are beauties!!!

Are they not just the prettiest little things??!!!

We plan on getting more soon, but we at least now have our feet wet!!

We started building the coop a couple of weeks ago.  We did not really have a plan, besides wanting a portable coop, we just set out using some of the items we had around the shed to see what we could come up with.

After building most of the frame with items we found, we headed off to Lowe's and to buy the rest of it.  There we run into our first problem.....It is hard to load a bunch of wood and roofing material into a minivan full of six people!!!  (We all had to go cuz you know we all wanted to help!!)  Problem Fix:  I drove the 20 minute drive back to the house and dropped off three of the girls and one seat from the van and headed back!!  Problem Solved!!

Farmer Willie was waiting for us when we got back and we were able to load everything into the van, head home and get building!

Problem #2 hits...The sun is setting and the coop is not done.  Farmer Willie is in the midst of his busy tax season at work and does not have extra time during the week to work on it.  Another problem is that rain is coming later in the week and they are predicting it to be a soaker!!  Problem Fix:  DD's and I decide WE will finish building it on Monday and surprise him!!

So on Monday, after we get aCOWntant Willie off to work, DD#1 and I head into town to finish buying supplies from Lowe's.  What a crazy duo we were!!  First, we really have no earthly idea what we are doing!!  We tried to pull down some plywood sheets and nearly knock the entire pile down on our heads!

Then, when we are pulling down the siding we need, a friendly employee comes to our rescue!  They point out that the piece of siding we want is damaged in the corner.  I let her know that is NO PROBLEM!!  We just need it to keep our chickens safe from being eaten by mice.

We walk away and DD#1 is looking at me in serious disbelief!  She says "Mom, have you ever seen a mouse?"  Well of course I have!!!  Then she asks "Mom, have you ever seen a chicken?"  Well, again, OF COURSE!!!  To tie her little cutesy comments together, she then asks how in the world a mouse would eat a chicken!! Well...One bite at a time!!  Duh!

Okay, I thought about that one a while and I just knew I remembered reading that mice are a danger to chickens.  After a little discussion between the two of us, I now realize it is the eggs that are in mortal danger, not the chickens.  I knew it all along....I was just testing her :)

So, we get all of the stuff we need and head to the van.  the boards may look light, but they are NOT!!  We had a time loading all of the stuff, but we got it in!  The only casualty was that a piece of wood went into my hand and came out about 3 inches lower.  No big deal, I am a farmer now!  I just toughed it up and yanked that puppy out!!

After arriving home and unloading, we went to work!!  Took us all day, but we got the main part of the coop finished and ready to withstand the rain!

Here is the front!!  The door can open with just the top panel or the bottom panel, or both!!

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention, we realized that we made a mistake in putting down a plywood floor being that it would absorb the chicken tee-tee and all, so we decided to pick out some beautiful stick-down tile for their enjoyment!!

DD #1 is putting in the tile squares.

And this is the back of the coop.  You might notice the yellow foam stuff!
It is an expanding foam and I had some serious fun with that stuff!!
It is the new duck tape!

After building the coop, we needed a run for them to play outside in.  They will be allowed to spend some days playing in the garden (helping get the soil ready for planting) and some days just running around with the girls, but on days that we can't pay close attention and keep them safe from predators, we needed a secure run.  So we worked on that this weekend.

I will show you that adventure tomorrow!!  See ya!!

Bloody Mess!!!

Okay, I know that I told you I would write about the chicken coop today, but we are still lacking a bit of interior work and I just HAVE to tell you about last night!!

We had gotten a lot of rain over the past couple of days.  It has rained and rained and RAINED!!!  I know that we need it, but it has frustrated me because I want to be outside sooooo bad!!

Anyways, last night we went out to get in the car and go pick the older girls up from church and guess what we saw????  Red stuff everywhere!!!

At first we thought it was a SERIOUS oil leak from one of the cars.  We checked the oil, drove the cars a bit and they were fine.  Then the detective work began!  DD#2 was the first to point out that it could not be oil because it was not separated from the water (being that water and oil don't mix!!).  Duhhhh....I don't know why I did not think of that one!

Then (now you must picture all six of us outside with flashlights looking all over for the source of the "red!!"  We were a sight!) we looked around the general vicinity and found more red puddles!!  These were on the other side of the house, so that ruled out anything leaking from the cars.

Now we began to wonder....just what is under the house!  Could it be a body??  Oh yes, we had a serious mystery!!

DD#1 was the first to introduce the idea that maybe the ground had a really high iron content and the excessive rain brought it to the surface.  I dismissed her idea as I was still thinking there was a buried body somewhere and we were all in mortal danger!!

Well, after taking samples which we planned on having tested (because we just knew there was either a crime committed, or we were getting acid rain!!), Farmer Willie had the brilliant idea to call the previous owners and ask them about it!!

Lo and behold, they had the answer for us!!  Several years ago they had dairy dirt brought in and dumped to make the front "yard" area.  Dairy dirt is apparently very high in iron and can cause a rain runoff to take on a reddish tint.  Mystery solved!!

After the drama of the bloody mess, we came inside and saw a news article about someone living under the house of this lady!  That did NOTHING to help my overactive imagination!!!!!  :)  One of these days I will get up the nerve to go under there and check it out!!  Now though, I am content to know that the cat lives under the house and is watching things for me!!

More About The Move

Ahh.....I finally figured out that my problem with pictures has to do with my browser, so I was able to add a picture to yesterdays post and some for today!  Hooray!!

Our move ended up being a bit on the crazy side.  One issue came up after another and they kept moving our closing date further back.  We were about to hit a certain date where we would have to pay additional money to keep our interest rate lock and we had decided that we were not going to do that.  Mostly because the mortgage company we worked with was not so great and Farmer Willie said there was no way he would give them any more money!

We knew that the Lord wanted us to move into this house, so we had to just keep praying that He would work it out. Then, on the day before we would lose the lock, they called and said to come in and close!  Good thing we had been packing all along!!

So we finally closed and that afternoon moved everything to the new house.  DD#2, #3 and I arrived before everyone else and boy am I glad we did!  The house was a mess! There was trash and stuff everywhere!!  It has taken us all of two weeks, but I think we finally have cleared out most of their stuff and are beginning to work on ours.

Final packing push!!

Sorting through the things that were left at the new house along with drying out brown material for the compost pile!

I told you yesterday about all of the animals that have decided this must be their home, now let me tell you about the people!

First day we were here, even before our stuff arrived, some of the neighbors stopped by to meet us and bring us a yummy snack!  Next day more neighbors!  I have been shocked at the number of people that have come by, especially since we don't live close to that many people.  They have all been very friendly and readily willing to help!

So let me share with you some of my observations thus far....

1. I depend on Internet wayyyyy more than I thought!  I was lost for two weeks without my recipes and being able to check the weather and news online!!
2. It is more fun to exercise/walk when you can hike through the woods!
3. Most of us go through at least two outfits a day out here.  With all of the work we are doing outside, we are a dirty, dirty bunch!!    
4. Everyone LOVES the little Baptist church down the street!  Even people that don't go there talk about what a great church it is.  I think we will try it out on Sunday to see what the buzz is about!  The older girls are going to visit their youth group tomorrow :)
5. I never knew I could work soooo hard!!  But boy howdy am I sore!
6. It is difficult to get a compost pile working when it is so cold outside!
7. You CAN chainsaw a huge hot tub and fit it into two loads in the minivan!!  Who knew??!!
8. Well water is yummy!
9. It is nice to wake up early each day because you are so excited about the day.
10. It is fun to go on walks around our property and find new things that you did not know were there!!

Thing that I have enjoyed the most is the slower pace and shift of focus.  It is crazy to say we have a slower pace being that we are working like crazy, but we are able to focus on one task and follow it through and there is a lot of satisfaction in that!!

Today we finish up the hen house!!  Can't wait to show you that tomorrow!!!

Finally Moved In!!

I'm Back!!!!!

I am so sorry about the huge gap in my postings!!  Once we got all moved, it took two weeks to get our Internet turned on!    Anyways, I am here now :)

Where to start???!!!!

We have been here a little over a week and boy howdy is it an adjustment!  I have learned several lessons right out of the gate!!

• The biggest thing is that there is NO way to keep it clean.  With our 12 feet going in and out all of the time, the breeze way stays muddy, dirty, leafy, etc.  all of the time.  To help, I have put down a couple of runners and a rug, along with some boxes under the seating to catch shoes. 

• Next lesson, there are a ton of animals running around here and they ALL want in my house!!  In particular, there is a dog named Diesel and a cat named Percy that wait at the doors for us to come out so they can try and sneak in!!
• Dog poo!!!  No matter how many times we clean up the yard, someone tracks in dog poo!  YUCK!
• If you ever want to cure a sleep problem, work on a farm!!  I have never slept better!  We are all so tuckered out at night that we just crash and crash early.  Come 8pm, we are all sound asleep. 
• We are capable of much more than we thought we were!  From cutting down trees to hauling trash and building chicken coops.  We have learned how to do so much over the past two weeks!!

I am having trouble adding pictures through Blogger today, so I will add more tomorrow!!  See ya then!

Moved In!!

Just a quick note to let you know that we have FINALLY moved in and have internet!!  We went without it for 2 weeks, but we are now up and running!

I hope to begin posting again on Monday and I can't wait to share the adventure with you!