Get ready for a garden

We got a start on our "starts" today with a little help from the kids. Planted broccoli, 2 tomato varieties, eggplant, hot peppers, and onions.

Eric also took down an arbor-vitae tree that was taking up all the sun from the sun room. We also think this tree was how the racoon got access to the roof and, more importantly, access to the house last summer. The amount of sunlight our kitchen gets now is dramatically different. The plastic insulation around the windows came off today too! We finished the day off with spring cleaning in the garage and a family trip in the truck to the rock quarry. A great day!

Free Range Kids

Winter is slowly winding down here in Iowa. As you can see, much of the snow is gone now and we have even been able to enjoy a few sunny afternoons outdoors. Check out the videos of the kids free ranging with the hens! We enjoyed a quiet week of spring break together including a visit to Madison to see some friends, a trip to Fort Atkinson to see Grandpa Dean and Grandma Mary. Later in the week, we had a nice Easter Sunday at my Mom's new house here in Clinton. She hosted 13 of us including Aunt Linda all the way from Maine.

Hope you all had a nice Easter and are enjoying spring wherever you may be!

Still Snowing

We've had two snow days, a late arrival and an early release from school this week. We are 20 inches above the average winter snowfall here and still snowing.


All this hasn't kept the hens from laying. Here is a picture of today's eggs, (notice the freakishly long one on the left) and a video of our snow day fun.

Eggs!

This week brought our first eggs from our layers. We haven't eaten any yet, however. The first blue egg (from Aracana's) was weak and cracked. Ben spent the morning showing off the first brown egg to all the folks at the retirement home where Grandpa Mack lives. It lasted about 45 minutes before it met its fate on the floor. We placed the others in the nest boxes to try to train the chickens to lay in there.

Christmas Break 2007

Lots of fun this Christmas Break! Here are some highlights...

Another Ice Storm

Snow Day!This storm brought more ice than the last round. Fortunately, we did not lose power or any more trees. School was cancelled due to the road conditions and we enjoyed a nice, quiet day together. I took Ben to the machine shed with me to get the doors de-iced. After working a little while I turned around to see him wearing some safety goggles. He was ready for sledding. Kristin brought us a cookie sheet and he took a few trips down the ice covered driveway.

Winter Storm

The first day of December brought a pretty serious ice storm. Ice/snow/sleet began to fly around noon. A sheet of ice on everything and a strong wind took its toll on many of our trees.
We lost power around 4:00 pm and it wasn't restored until 6:30
Sunday morning. We set up camp in the living room for sleeping last night and stayed warm by the fire. No problem waking up to stoke the fire, Nora made sure we woke up once every hour.