Branching out this year.....

So, I am so ready for spring.  I love my seasons, but I am so done with this cold weather.  Plus, I have a million projects that I want to get started outside.  It helps that today was around 70 degrees and beautiful.

This year we are "doing" chickens.  This is definitely a step outside my comfort zone.  I have been known to say that "I would never keep chickens, they are so dirty."  But, you know I am really excited about it and now I have made a complete 180 and think it is silly we've not had them before (maybe I'll feel differently once we actually have them).  There are numerous reasons we want them, but they all pretty much circle around the desire to be a little more self sufficient and to teach our children a little more than "eggs come from the store."  Getting hormone free meat and eggs is just an extra bonus.  Actually, the hormone thing is more than just a bonus.  Ryan and I have been moving more and more toward eating more healthy and really watching what we feed the kids.  At home we are pretty strict with what the kids eat. Getting chickens just really allows us to control a pretty big protein aspect of the kids' diet and I love that.  I also love that we are teaching the kids a skill (I guess we are teaching ourselves a skill also, especially me) that they can carry with them. 

So the chicks are getting delivered early next week.  We got 20 hens for eggs and 20 chickens for meat.  Right now we are pulling together all the stuff we need, like feed, a brooder box, etc. We will keep them in the garage until it warms up and they get bigger.  Then they will go our to our chicken coop.  Our chicken coop is totally not ready for chicks yet.  It is a great coop, nice and big, but it is in SERIOUS need of repair, which we are working on.  It should be ready when the chicks are.  We are also going to fence in an area off the back for them.  We would like for them to be able to be "free range" during the day some, but we will see how that goes.

In addition to doing the chicks we are thinking we are going to grow our own seeds this year for our garden.  I have been looking on line for some good prices on some heirloom quality seeds, but I haven't found what I want yet.  I think we are going to check out a couple nurseries this weekend to see what they have also!

Julie