We've Got Eggs!

 hooray!  our very first egg!

a store bought container, but our very own eggs! 

look how orange and bright the yolks are! 

 there is not any cheese or anything else added to these eggs

 Our chickens were considerate enough to wait until we returned from our trip back east and laid their first egg on the day we returned.  I was the one who found the first egg, and I must admit that I was at least as excited as any of the kids.  I felt like a kid myself on Christmas morning.  It was a very exciting event and we haven't gotten bored with it yet!  

It was our adventurous (aka troublesome) chicken Alice who first began laying.  No surprise there.  She is the one who first learned to roost, who first started trying to escape from her box as a little chick, the first one to get into our garden, and the one who always seems to be off on her own little adventure or causing trouble in some way.

It has now been 3 weeks since we got our very first egg.  We now have 3 chickens laying, and I'm sure the other 3 won't be far behind.  

These eggs are yummy!  We're really loving these new pets of ours!

 

heartbreaking news

We were devastated to hear this news last night.  We do not know this family, but our hearts are still hurting as we imagine the shock and heartbreak they are now experiencing over such a senseless act.  All day long I have been wishing that I could help these people in some way.  Not knowing them personally and living far away has left us with two options: Praying for them and donating here.  I truly believe in the power of prayer to help sustain people and carry them through tragedies such as this.  I hope you'll take a moment to offer one in their behalf.

(And if you are interested, the fundraiser mentioned was started by a friend of ours, Connor, and we can vouch for his honesty and integrity.)

lost & FOUND!

I lost my camera. 

At first, I wasn't too worried.  We knew exactly when we had it last, and I was sure it was just somewhere hidden in the car or in one of the bags we hadn't looked through yet after our busy 4th of July weekend.  Then, after searching the car and unpacking all our bags, I became a little more nervous.  A few days later, after I had pretty much torn apart our house and car and made Andrew talk through the events of the night we lost it for the 100th time, I began to panic.  Where was it?  Did someone else take it?  What pictures and video were left on there?  Would we ever get it back? 

I realize that in the big picture of life, a lost camera is no big deal.  But still, at the time, it felt like a really big deal to me!  After it was missing for a week, I was up most of the night trying desperately to remember anything that would help me find it and praying hard for a solution...or at least that I would be able to just get over it and move on with my life!  By the next morning, I was feeling more calm and felt like it would turn up somehow.  We were busy getting ready for church when I heard Andrew call my name.  As soon as I heard him, I knew he had found it.  I was thrilled! 

It was in our church bag.  We had gone to our friends' baby blessing the week before, and put it in there so we could take a picture with them...although we must have been REALLY tired when we did so, because by the time we got to the baby blessing, we already didn't remember where the camera was and thought we must have left it at home.  (I guess we're getting too old for busy holiday weekends.  Getting up for a 7 am church breakfast on Saturday, then heading to a family gathering, and then staying up for fireworks that night, plus needing to leave the house by 8 am for church the next day, led to us being a little loopy!) 

I'm not really sure that this story is very blog-worthy, but for me, although I would really rather not need to buy a new camera, I have always had a camera that is easily replaceable, so it has always been about THE PICTURES (and video) that I might have lost.  So, I am sharing this experience so that you will STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING right now, go and get your camera, and make sure that you have saved EVERYTHING on there...just in case.    

And now, for the two other people in the world besides me who are still not on facebook, and to keep this post from being picture-less, here are some of our most recent family pictures.  My friend Jen told me about a contest her sister Carrie was having, and I entered, and I WON a great deal on a photography session!  Since Luke is nearing his first birthday, and he still does not have one picture on the wall, I decided it was about time.  Carrie was great...we were not at our best that morning in more ways than one, but she was patient and cheerful and easygoing and accommodating.  Thanks Carrie, we really appreciate it!      

 

Love this boy!

Seriously love this baby of mine!
I can't believe he's almost 10 months old.

Meet our Chickens:

(Here you go Liz...)
 
See our chicks: 

See our chicks eat:

See our chicks get named Glint, Sunshine, 
Snow White, Molly, Alice, and Belle:

See our chicks learn to roost:

See our chicks play outside:

See our chicks sleep:

See our chicks attempt escape:

See our chicks grow:

See our chicks move to the garage in their fancy two room brooder:

See our chicks segregate (and squish...they did have two roosting sticks at their disposal!):

See the beginnings of our chicken coop:

See our (almost completed) stylin' coop:

See our fence being dismantled to allow our chicken coop through:

See the men who made it all happen:

See how sturdy this thing is:

See how happy these wives are to have their husbands back after hours and hours and hours of late night building:

See how happy I am to have my coop in place:

See the fence getting put back together:

See how happy the chickens make Luke:

See how happy it makes our free-range chickens to be out pecking around in our backyard:

The End.


some footnotes for those who care:

"What the heck, you got chickens?!"  Yes, I know.  Most things I do seem a little crazy to me too.  I kind of became obsessed after our visit with Hunts; spent about a month reading every single thing I could about raising chickens, and then we just decided to go for it.

"Why?"  Well, the attempt to become just a little bit more self-sustainable was a big part of it.  The cost of keeping chickens will pretty much equal the cost of buying eggs for our family.  Plus, they eat all our table scraps, eat the bugs in our yard, fertilize our yard, not to mention give us delicious eggs (just a couple more months!!).  Also, the kids have been begging for a pet for many years, and for some odd reason, I could finally agree to a pet that was giving me something in return, and that stayed outside!  We also eat a lot of eggs.  And after watching Food Inc. and tasting what fresh eggs taste like, I don't have much interest in store bought eggs anymore.  They recently passed some legislation in our area to make it easier for city dwellers to have backyard chickens.  There are even a couple of other families in our neighborhood who have some.  Plus, Andrew and I decided that 'We just weren't weird enough!'. (I know some of you may disagree!)

"What kind do you have?"  The yellow ones are Buff Orpingtons, the black with white wing tip (chicks)/black & white chickens are Barred Rocks, and the all black ones are Australorps.

"Don't you need a rooster?" and other egg questions:  Chickens naturally lay about 1 egg every day or two.  A rooster is needed if you want a fertilized egg, and only fertilized eggs can grow into chicks, but a rooster is not needed for a chicken to lay an egg.  The chickens will start laying eggs at around 5 months, which means early fall for us.