Baby Chicks

How time passes us by….I was just looking at the date of my last post, and thought has it really been a whole month nearly!? We’ve been busy, well not as busy around the house as we’d like. We took a week and headed out of town for Thanksgiving and are about to head out of town again for Christmas. Our Christmas trip should prove interesting…not only are we traveling with a dog and 2 children but now 9 chicks, yes chicks. No babysitters available, so they are coming with us! 

What an adventure these chicks have already been…

The trip to get them- driving an hour and a half, this lady had chickens galore, chicks galore, even peacocks and other types of exotic birds, a horse, a dog, a cat; it was a zoo to say the least. Picked out ten 2 day old chicks and brought them home…another hour and a half drive of peeping…

Over that weekend, one chick appeared sick- stumbling, not eating or drinking as well as the others, diarrhea, and the other chicks started picking on him. After reading vet websites and chicken forums, we separated him, but he passed a day later. In researching we found a common bacterial disease chicks can get, so we got meds, a new cage and the chicks appear to be doing good…here’s crossing our fingers we don’t lose any more.

We’ve had chicks before and never had sickness problems, so I have to wonder if they were sick when we got them, but as long as they are on their way to recovery now, I’m happy. Yes, our dog LOVES the chicks and is so good with them- he just watches quietly!

After our trip for Christmas we plan on getting to build a coop right away, so that will be the next immediate project to take care of.

And some progress is made….

Such a big to do list! Seems like there is just about everything on it too, but that’s okay- and its actually FUN!

Our recent projects:

My husband fixed our front gate, our dog unfortunately figured out he could escape so something had to be done. Now the dog can’t get out, and it’s easy to swing open and shut and well, it just looks better too! The pic is hard to tell, but instead of the ugly orange, there's some green wire mesh so the dog can't escape!
Before Pic

After Pic


Too bad I didn’t get a good picture of the front before we cleared it out, but let’s just say you couldn’t walk through it with so many weeds. Our decision for the front of the house- some nice gardenia plants- they are so great and green, mixed in with 3 artichoke plants and the kids picked out flowers as well. Although we’ll see if the flowers make it through winter, the kids said they didn’t care, they just wanted something pretty for right now, and so we let them! Oh and we planted a Lime Tree in the back yard too!



Funny thing about the front is that the dog really likes the dirt and the mulch- not only does he dig in it, roll in it, run in it, he likes to eat it- so we are going to be trying to 'train' him to stay out of the fenced area to let him know it’s off limits otherwise our plants will never make it!

Welcome Bread

We have already noticed the friendliness of our new neighbors, how they have made us feel welcome in our new home and new town. Our next door neighbor brought us homemade pumpkin bread the other day.  It’s funny that we were at our other house for 4 months and never really knew anyone and within the first few days know everyone in our neighborhood here.  I love this community.

Now for the good stuff…the bread! My son and I loved it, raisins, cranberries, pumpkin and spice flavor and some walnuts- YUMMY in our TUMMYs. 

Then my son remembered baking with Grandpa and wanted to try his hand at his own bread…so later we made banana bread together.

He’s asked for it for breakfast, in his lunchbox and for snacks….needless to say there’s not much left!

Halloween & Pumpkin Time

Our first Halloween here- neighbors came to our door to drop of personally made goodie bags for the kids. The kids and I had made cupcakes earlier so in turn we handed them a homemade goodie. I have to say the general feeling in this area is “home” and very welcoming.  We drove into a bigger city to trick or treat while passing a church carnival in our own town down the road. It will be nice to check it out next year or have families and friends to our house for a get together! Even in the next town over wonderful to see such a huge turnout of kids of every age trick or treating, families walking the streets together, it’s been forever since we’ve seen so many children and families out enjoying the evening.

It begins with this…

And turned out like this…

Moving In and Simple Joys

We started moving in over this past weekend and have run into quite a few challenges! No electricity and no heat. We were able to get the electricity to the kitchen and to the master bath as well as my daughter’s closet but nowhere else…hubbie handyman attempted to trouble shoot but it looks like it’s up to an electrician at this point! One night of working in the dark, holding a flashlight to change out an outlet then running extension cords to power a light and sleeping with no heat (wasn’t too bad it’s not quite winter!). 

It’s funny, just when you think things are going all wrong….I completely felt so happy and blessed. Day 1 of our move, we spot two neighbor kids on horseback 3 dogs running alongside and 2 other kids walking with them. I’ve never seen my two children run so fast getting on their socks and shoes and racing down the street to say hi and meet new friends. They immediately got acquainted and trotted off around the dirt block with the kids, horses and dogs.  And that’s when I smiled and really thought; things are going to be great! Just wish I had my camera to take a picture of them all prancing down the street, such a happy sight.

Another simple joy, when I awoke the first morning, hearing the rooster crow, I caught a glimpse of the sun coming up.

The house may be old and tiny, the land may be dirt right now, but my family is happy and all together and that’s what really counts.

Count your blessings each and every day.

I’d love to keep this blog as a diary of many pictures, thoughts and stories, chronicling our challenges, goals, triumphs, failures and hard work to make our dreams a reality –one step at a time.  So, follow our family of four as we embark on life unchartered!

The What, Why, How, When, Where, and everything else…

This is about our family moving out of the big city to a smaller town and then yet taking it a step farther to moving from a small town to a rural one and wanting to pursue the simple life of living off the land, providing as much for ourselves as we can- growing our fruits and vegetables, livestock, building our own home, using solar energy, learning about homesteading and pioneering life and incorporating it in these modern times.  We want to teach our children the value of life, love, god, family and hard work. 

We will make this happen through trial and error, lots of reading and research and enlisting help and advice of others.

Our journey begins soon as we will be moving in a few weeks and making a to-do list and taking it one step at a time! It’s not going to happen overnight and it’s going to take a lot of hard work and perseverance.

Where is this going to happen!?  On our 1 ½ acre of land, and our old tiny, 3 bedroom 1,050 square foot fixer upper house we will make these dreams come true.

We are ready to see where this adventure takes us… Here’s a few pics of our land..

Take a look at part of our backyard…not much but in time it will be something amazing!

View of the dirt road and our front gate and fence that needs work…

We do have neighbors but we’re pretty far spread out. And yes, I’m going to attempt in the warm months to use that clothes line!