This was my whine to my husband a few weeks ago after a hard day's homesteading. I had mowed the yard by myself, thus ruining my shoes. What a perfect excuse to buy more shoes! My hubby had also promised me more shoes if I went out and mowed, figuring I probably wouldn't. For the record, I. Don't. Mow. I haven't mowed but a handful of times ever since I was a pre-teen. This is because of the horrid memory I have of running over a piece of metal when I was around 11 or 12, the metal shooting out of the mower at me, striking a hole in my leg straight down to the bone, filling my high-top shoe (then in style) with blood, and making necessary a painful trip to the emergency room. (One of many in my childhood~remember, I'm clumsy.)
On that same day, I'm proud to say, I cleaned chicken poop out of the coop. Something I never, EVER thought I would be doing. We've never had any interest in chickens. Or turkeys. Or ducks. Yet now we have ALL THREE roaming our yard when the dog is put away. Our Great Dane likes chicken a little too much. That's why we have the giant thing in the first place. Because he kept killing his former owner's chickens. I find that surprising because he hasn't shown any interest in ours, even when a couple of them have managed to get loose. Our flock now consists of the following:
Chickens: 2 Black Barred Rock, 2 Black Wyandotte, 6 Cornish Cross, 7 New Hampshire Reds, and 8 Buff Orpingtons. Ducks: 5 Khaki Campbells (all who appear to be female, which means 1500 duck eggs a year!!!!) and 2 Mallards (these belong to the girls). Turkeys: 2 Bronze Breasted (1 Tom and 1 Hen, they don't go anywhere without one another!) and 1 Bourbon Red.
Whew!
So mowing and poultry-raising. Yep, that's my version of homesteading. Oh, it will get better. Soon it will be time to kill off the Broilers of our flock and that is going to be an interesting day all around.
If we had our own and more land we would probably take this homesteading thing to a new level. Goats, a few pigs.....we've talked about it, but until we buy our own house and have more land it just isn't possible. We've started buying our meat from a local butcher instead of from the store. Seriously, no more pink slime meat. I'm not game. Once I start working I'm hoping to go all organic, but right now it's far too expensive.
*Disclaimer: If you are not a homeschooler feel free to let your mind wander during this portion of the blog. You can check back in later on. ;-)
In other news, we started homeschooling again today. We took the month of April off because I had so much unexpected stuff to get done for graduation this month and trying to get accepted to Liberty for the summer term. We are doing Bible, Lit. and Math and Spelling this month. We should be able to finish up Lit and Math and then next month we will be doing Bible, Science, Social Studies and Spelling. If all goes well we will be done at the end of June and the girls can have July and August off before we start up again in September. I'm excited because we are going to do away with the LifePacs this next year. I've been looking and we are going to try the Weaver Curriculum. We are also going to do Monarch for a couple of subjects annnnnddddd, "E" is going to get some Pre-school stuff! He likes to join us at the table and sit and color while the girls are doing their work, so I figure he will enjoy it. Not only that, but he will be almost three in September and more than capable of starting pre-school work. There is a Horizon Pre-school pack that I think he will like and it will keep him busy. Right now he just GETS INTO STUFF while we are homeschooling, with "I" in tow!
So, May is busy already and it just began. Homeschooling. Daily animal care now. Just offered to volunteer at the church. Graduation on the 18th, a BBQ on the 19th, and my Graduate classes start on the 14th. Not to mention I'm still working hard at losing weight and getting my running amped up for the Color Run in June. Can't wait for that! If you've never heard of the Color Run you should check it out at www.thecolorrun.com. Proceeds benefit a local charity in each town they visit. In KC it is the KC Ronald McDonald House.
So, I know I slouched during April, but I have some GREAT blogs coming up for you! Food blogs, weight loss blogs, chicken care and slaughtering blogs. My next adventure will be documenting the effects of Jillian Micheals' 14 day cleanse and burn. I'm doing fine loosing weight on my own; 2.5 to 3 lbs. a week sticking to 1200 calories a day through my MyFitnessPal app and running 4-6 times a week. However, I thought the cleanse and burn might be a good way to clean out my system and I hear it gives you more energy. I looked up some reviews and I was shocked to see that most people had good things to say about it. Especially those who were actually dieting and exercising along with it. I figure I'll try it out and if it goes well I'll do it again when I hit my plateau. But, no matter if it goes well or not, you'll get to hear about THAT mess that I get myself into, as well!
Love and Smiles,
Chala
A pic of the smallest members of our flock.
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