A Sneak Peep

I am sure that you have heard... we are getting chickens. They will arrive at the local feed store on April 19th and I am getting so excited!!!

It was hard to pick what kinds of chickens to order. We knew some of the traits we wanted... Good at foraging (so they can run around the yard and find food), A docile temperament (so they don't attack the kids playing in the yard), Cold hardy (we don't want any frozen chickens) and a breed that is both good egg and meat bird. Yes, the boys are going to be eaten (Sorry Tiffany they aren't going to be sent to a chicken farm to live happily ever after).

After seeing what was available at the feed store we narrowed it down to three breeds. Australorp, Buff Orpington and Barred Rock (or Plymouth Rock). Here are some pictures of what our little babies will grow up to look like.

Australorp Hen

(this is the best picture I could find to put on here)

Buff Orpington

Barred Rock

We went to Tractor Supply today to get everything we needed to get ready for the babies to arrive. I couldn't help but set up their house when we got home. Gabriel helped me make a little baby chicken house and now he keeps asking where the babies are. (Maybe I should have waited a couple of weeks to set up the brooder.)

And I couldn't help but get the peeps to test out the brooder for me.

It's Here...

Garden Time!!! And I have a few pictures to prove it.

Look at all that spinach!!

I started to thin the spinach and pulled the weeds on the other side to plant radishes

Our first spinach harvest of the season. I wilted it and added cream, pepper and nutmeg!

Here is the real proof of garden season... dirty jeans.

Updates are coming... no, really.

I think Mike has been gone more than home this month! Me trying to do that photo class thing with him so busy at work when he IS home and out of town more than not I haven't had a lot of time to take pictures of him. I am hoping to spend a lot of time with him for my BIRTHDAY WEEK (That is coming soon!!!) and getting the rest of the pictures taken and blogged about then.

Now I am wondering... Hold on... I have to look at a calendar and do some math.

Yup I was right, as of today he has been home 10 days in March and out of town 14. BUT out of that 10 days 6 of them were "crazy office days" (that's what I call it when they have any of their out of town Commerce Guys at the office) and that means working late and sometimes having a house guest or two. Don't get me wrong, I love entertaining and having people stay at our house, it is just not good quality Mike time.

14: wedding band/jewelry

As maybe you can tell by my post about vinegar... I would rather be given food than jewelry so for this assignment I chose to work with Mike's wedding band (while he worked with his computer). I got to practice my tight crops, good exposure and interesting camera angles. The "good exposure" didn't work out too well, we have really bad lighting for taking pictures in.

13: routines

Only 5 days behind... Ohhh well, this way I will have "regular" blog posts well into March.

Day 13's assignment was routines. Capturing your loved one going through their daily routine. Of course the day that I get to this assignment would not be a typical day. Mia has no school so the "getting ready for school" routine was out. BUT we can always count on Mike and his morning tea.

12: the eyes

Lesson 12 was all about how to take a great picture of eyes. Where to place your subject, in what direction they should look, what light works best and to turn off the flash.

Even with the wiggly subjects I chose today I got some great pictures of their eyes. Even Mia has a hard time holding still if I need anything other than a quick snapshot.

11: dreams

"What does your loved one dream of accomplishing or doing?" was the prompt for this assignment. We have a lot of goals for the near future. I think having a new house comes with a big list of things to do. One of the biggest dreams Mike has is being more self-sufficient. Growing lots of our own food, hooking up the windmill to something so it can produce some kind of energy we can use and getting a few animals. (Chickens, (maybe)a pig or two and (maybe) a miniature cow... we are still in the discussion phase of some of the animals I just listed.) A little bit of that dream was delivered by UPS today... my big seed order! I am so excited for spring!