Oof.

Last week was a doozy.

Somehow, one of our chickens ended up trapped under a plastic tub on one of the hottest days. When I found him, he was barely alive. I did everything I could to nurse him back to health, but he died anyway. I’m going to be honest. I cried. I cried while forcing him to drink an electrolyte mix. I cried when Scott found him dead. Ugh. It was so sad.

Just a couple days later, a hawk got one of our hens. She was the sweetest hen.. always letting Harper carry her around. We let our chickens free-range during the day. They eat the bugs around the yard, and we get the pleasure of seeing them so happy. Scott spent the rest of the time covering the open portion of the run. I went on the hunt for an owl decoy to help scare the hawk away.

Our garden has been growing really well, other than the greens. Birds or pests keep eating the swiss chard, so we are giving up on it this year. Tomato hornworms have been attacking the plants. One day I picked off ten of those nasty things. Over the weekend, I pulled off at least 15. If you know of an organic product or concoction that I can make to deter them, please let me know!

It was just one of those weeks that felt so discouraging. It felt like everything was fighting against us. We have been working so hard to live a more sustainable life.. less reliant on grocery stores for our food.. and the hits kept coming. Plants got blown over in storms. Other things came out of nowhere and hit us hard.

But, it’s a new week. We are picking ourselves up by the bootstraps and dusting ourselves off. The run is completely covered. We kept the chickens put away for a few days, got our creepy owl set up, and haven’t seen the hawk for three days. I haven’t seen anymore hornworms, though our tomatoes do look pretty sad. I’ve trimmed off the eaten parts and am praying that it grows some more.

Our pickling cucumbers are growing! Our melon is growing! It even looks like we have a few pumpkins from our seeds that planted themselves!! I pulled some of our carrots that were growing too close to others, and they are growing really well. Scott and the girls planted more rows of carrots and some radishes last night.

This homesteading gig is not for the faint of heart. I’ll probably cry every time we lose a chicken. That’s just who I am. But, we are going to do our best to protect them and keep them happy. Just a month or so longer and we should start getting some eggs!

We have learned a lot in the short time that we’ve been doing this, and I know there is so much more to learn! This land is a gift. This view is a gift. I am so grateful.

Hi, friends! How is everyone doing? I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that everyone is ready for 2020 to be over. Let me know in the comments how I can pray for you today.

It’s been a while since I shared whats been going on around the farm. Scott finished building the chicken coop door/wall. We expanded the run, and the big chickens are happy outside. We let them free range during the day, and it’s so fun to see. They all stay together and eat the annoying bugs for us.

We had a bad storm blow through that took out a tree branch. Thankfully, everything else was safe. We’ve had a couple of days reprieve from the heat waves that keep blasting through. We spend a lot of time outdoors playing and working.

We have also added to the family. We got four barred rock females, and two easter eggers that will probably end up being roosters. haha! We have 18 chickens now! We really only have space in the run for two more– and I’m saving that space for silkies! I just think they are so funny.

We all love having chickens around so much more than we ever thought we would. The big ones are about 10 weeks from laying. We have named at least half of the chickens– I get asked that a lot. We are trying to make sure we can tell them apart.. and have honestly been trying to get individual pictures so that we can keep them straight. It’s not easy.

Bees arrived at the farm this week also. There must have been a swarm somewhere because the buzzing was SO loud. I was glad to hear them, and see some, because our pumpkins needed fertilized. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous being outside with it. But, I know they are good and won’t hurt me if I leave them alone.

The garden is growing more and more each day. We have BIRDS that keep eating all of our greens as soon as they sprout. I’m not really sure how to prevent that, so I’m going to fill in the empty space with some more carrots. Our melon vines are getting really big and we are finally seeing some fruit growing. I’m disappointed that we lost so many of our jalapeno plants this year. We have one left that had to be rescued from tomato hornworms. I pulled TWELVE off of my plants in a 24 hour period. Jerks.

I know that I say this all the time, but I am just so thankful for this place. The Lord opened the door for us just in time for the world to fall apart. We have plenty of space for the kids to play, and plenty of space to grow our own food. We are able to have family over outside, and most of them enjoy sitting outside with us. We are still being cautious and have good reasons to do so. The farm makes it easy to unplug and get away from the nastiness of social media.

We feel like we can finally say that we live on a homestead. Having that dream realized is such a nice feeling.

The garden has been planted. The chicken coop is clean and repaired. We just have to put some more wire around the outer edge to prevent predators from digging their way in.

This time is nice. Most of the hardest work is done. Now, we continue to pull weeds, faithfully water, and watch as our seeds sprout and slowly grow. We discovered that seeds from a pumpkin we tossed had sprouted. That may be the most exciting thing for us! We tossed a white pumpkin with the others, so we are curious to see which color grows.

This has all been a lot of work. But, work that we love. With the tiny baby chicks, you have to clean their bums or they get an intestinal blockage and can die. The stock tank needs cleaned often. Their water is constantly full of wood shavings. In the garden, you can’t just throw seeds in some soil and expect positive results. There is a lot of planning that goes into a garden.

I got to pick the first tomato from my spaghetti and salsa garden yesterday! Thanks, Mom! I love seeing the fruits of our labor. Our garden is growing. Our chickens are growing and healthy. Our children are growing and healthy.. aside from one of them getting an ear infection from floating in the pool, but even that is on the mend.

It can be scary when you see a dream start to come to life. What if the reality isn’t what you thought it would be? What if we end up being terrible at homesteading? We are still in the early phases, so those questions still feel unanswered for the most part. So far, the reality has been even better than the dream and we are so thankful.

I hope that next year I have much more information to share– more than just my thoughts. Scott and I are still learning and growing through it all. We are reading books and blogs; watching youtube videos and listening to podcasts. I’m so thankful to live in a time when so much valuable information is available at the tip of my fingers.

I’m officially a chicken tender. A crazy chicken lady. Obsessed with these fluffy babies and their cheeps.

Scott and I finally decided to take the plunge. There is only so much research that can be done. We landed on a few breeds that we really wanted, and got what was available. Right now, we have Lavender Orpington chicks, and Red and Blue Wyandotte chicks. We still want to add some Barred Rock chicks to our flock, but they sell so quickly.

The girls are over-the-moon excited, and we are going to need more soap from all of the hand washing that is happening.

They are so cute, and so fluffy. Hopefully down the road we will have lots of eggs.

Here’s what we made sure to have to set up our brooder:
2X2X4 stock tank
Pine shavings
chick feeder
chick waterer
chick feed
heat lamp