Getting Ready for Baby

With only a few days to go before my due date, we're officially on baby watch around here.  I'm trying to finish up some little things I want to get done (grocery shopping, etc.), but for the most part I've made it through my long, nesting to-do list.  My garden has been planted, I got the windows and curtains washed, the tub scrubbed, and a couple of rooms painted.  I have food in the freezer, ready to go.  The Moses basket is in place and little newborn clothes are in the drawer.


There has been a theme around here of starting projects and almost finishing them, but not quite, so a big portion of my list was working through those things.  Our bathroom trim, which has been unfinished for over two years because we weren't quite sure what to do with it, is finally done, which makes me so happy!  We had to do a bit of toilet fixing, for the third time, and we're hoping this time's the charm.

I also finally finished painting the trim in the living room.  I was hoping to also finish the trim around the front door we put in a year ago, but we weren't able to get to that one.  I still have hopes of finishing it before winter, but we'll see!  :)

Seth built a new front porch last summer, and it was done except for one final coat of paint that we didn't get to before the weather got rainy, so I finished that up.

The last big project were working on is a play set for the kids.  We've talked about doing this for a long time, but we were never sure if we wanted to do it because we also keep talking about moving.  But since we haven't moved, and since we don't have anything on the horizon, this seemed like a good time to do it.  With a brand new baby, we're planning a quiet, stay-home summer, so having something new and exciting in the backyard will be a good thing for everyone.  We're hoping Seth will be able to finish it up in the next few days.

So, we're ready to meet this new little person, and we can't wait to see who it is!  :)

The Bedroom Switch-a-Roo

Seth and I have the bigger bedroom in our house, so we had planned to switch bedrooms with the kids at some point this summer, since I had figured out that I could fit two bunk beds in there, but then it kind of happened at the last minute when the big kids ended up being gone for most of the week.  They went to VBS with Seth's mom, who picked them up and dropped them off most days, and kept them overnight a couple of times.  So I decided to take advantage of the opportunity, and do the switch.  First I painted our bedroom, one of the few rooms that hadn't been painted when we moved in.  After a lot of deliberation, I painted it all white; walls, trim, and ceiling.  The paneling was a bit of a pain to paint, but it turned out awesome!  It looked so fresh and clean, and kind of beach cabin-like.  I loved it so much I started having second thoughts about giving it to the kids!  =)  But I made the sacrifice, and on Seth's weekend we moved all the furniture around.  The house was a mess, and it took several days to get it all done.  It felt (and looked!) like moving, which it pretty much was, without the boxes.  We took a last-minute late evening trip to Ikea to get a new bunk bed after we realized we couldn't use the second set that we had (it had been water-damaged, which was a bummer, but I love the Ikea set!).  We tried several different arrangements before we found the one that we liked best, and we ended up moving some of the furniture around in the rest of the house, too.  I had planned to keep Simon in our room longer, but he needed to move into his bigger bed, which didn't end up fitting in our room, so he was moved to the kids' room.

We moved our toy bookshelf from the living room into the kids' new closet, to better organize their toy storage.  Now the only things that are out all the time for them are a few toys for Simon, books, and LEGOs.  That is really all they use on a daily basis, anyway, and other toys are brought out only if they are asked for.  This is huge for us in keeping the mess to a minimum!

I was pleasantly surprised with how everything fit in our new bedroom; I was a little worried that the bed would just barely fit, but there was more room than I had thought there would be.  Our room is now a bit of a "family closet", with everyone's clothes in there.  Seth and I have our clothes in the closet, and the kids have theirs in the dresser.  So far that's working really well for us.  Seth and I are really loving having all of our clothes in one spot rather than spread out between the closet and dresser!

I also painted our dresser/nightstand set.  They were a light green, which matched our room, but they were quite chipped, and I had originally planned for the dresser to be in the kids room, and it wouldn't have matched the colors in there.  I used leftover bathroom paint, so they are now light grey, and I couldn't be happier with how they turned out!  Even though the dresser ended up in our room anyway, it is fresh and looks really good in there, too!

We put our second dresser in the office, and it holds miscellaneous things, like games, gift wrapping supplies, and fabric.  The tall bookshelf that was in there was moved into our room to keep the office from being too full, and it's working perfectly for storage in our room!

Since we had to move so much stuff around, we did quite a bit of purging as well, and I'm really happy with the results.  The whole house feels cleaner and less cluttered, and the closets are much less crowded, which makes me happy!

This turned out to be a HUGE project, especially with all the painting, unexpected trip to Ikea and decluttering, but I am so happy with how everything turned out!  The whole house feels fresh and clean and new, and I think the new arrangements are going to work really well for us right now.  =)   

Thoughts on Chicken Keeping, Six Months In

Wow - I can't believe we've had our chickens for six months now!  Crazy!

Painting the lattice fence Seth built on one side of run.
If I never have to paint lattice again I will be happy.

Anyway, here are some thoughts on our experience so far:

1. A Chicken in Every Yard by Robert and Hannah Litt has been my go-to guide to keeping chickens.  I read another book that, while it did have a few helpful tips, mostly just seemed to talk about all the things that could go wrong, and how you have to know what you're doing to keep chickens.  That is NOT the kind of book you want to read!  A Chicken in Every Yard is easy to read, practical, and encouraging.  It makes chicken-keeping actually feel doable, and I appreciate that!  The authors of the book own a urban farm store, and I actually called the store when we had a question about our run, and that was helpful, too!
2. This blog post was very helpful as well - so nice to get information from a regular person who has chickens.
3. It was very fun and convenient to have our chicks in the house for the first several weeks, but next time we get chicks I'll be keeping them in the garage.  There was so much dust!  They are constantly scratching and digging in their litter, and dust flies everywhere.  After realizing this, we used sheets to cover stuff up, but I still spent a whole day cleaning the office once we got the chickens moved outside.

4.  Chicken keeping, like most things, can sound complicated and daunting when reading about it.  But once you do it, you discover that it's much simpler than it sounds.  I was a bit nervous about getting chickens, but really they just require the same care as any other living thing: food, water, and to be kept warm and dry.
5.  Gathering your own fresh eggs is the best!  Seriously, the best!  I love going outside and bringing in eggs from my backyard.  And I love knowing exactly everything that has gone into them!

6.  I am very happy with our coop design.  We designed it ourselves based on different ones we had seen, and it has proved to be a good decision.  My favorite design elements are the large door on the back, which makes cleaning out the coop a breeze, and the smaller built-in enclosed run.  The chickens are free to use their large run most of the time, but the smaller, more secure run has been great for the few times we went camping this summer.  We simply locked them in the small run, and left the coop door open, and then they were free to put themselves to bed and come out in the morning, and we didn't have to worry about something getting to them while we were gone.
7.  Chicken care is, really, very minimal.  I probably spend 10 minutes a day, tops, taking care of them.  I bring them their food and let them out of the coop in the morning.  Once a week or so, I also have to refill their water bucket.  Then in the evening, I close up their coop and gather eggs, if I didn't already gather them sometime earlier in the day, which I often do, just because it's fun!  A couple of weeks ago I spent half an hour or so cleaning out their coop, which was the first time I had done so since they moved out there a few months ago.  Once every couple of weeks I spend ten minutes spreading out some new pine shavings and hay to their coop and run.  That's it.  I'm sure there will be times now that a cold and rainy winter is coming up, when I really won't feel like having to go outside and take care of them.  So it's nice to know that I will be done in just a couple of minutes.

8.  Getting started was expensive.  We estimate we spent $500 - $600 all total, and that was even with building everything ourselves and using a few things we already had.  We could have saved some if we had skipped the the smaller run element, as the hardwire cloth we used is pricy, but as I've said, we have found that to be helpful, so it was worth it.  Some people get creative and reuse dog houses, or get things off of Craigslist.  Aesthetics was important to me, so overall I'm happy with what we did.  Still, I didn't realize we would have to spend quite so much money getting going.
9.  As much as I would love them to be more free-range, it really isn't practical.  Although we have let them out in the backyard a few times and it's fun to watch them wander around, the mess and destruction they leave behind means it won't happen a lot.  With a baby crawling around in the grass, I don't really want chicken poop everywhere, and since chickens eat everything and scratch everywhere, I pretty much have to keep them out of the yard when I have flowers and a garden growing.  Because of all that, I am thankful that we have a fairly large area that we have been able to dedicate to the chickens.

10.  The thought of clipping their wings makes me really nervous, even though I've heard over and over that it's no big deal.  So far we've avoided it, though.  When one of the chickens almost escaped, we bought some bird netting and strung it over the run, and that seems to be doing the trick, plus it helps keep them safe from any hawks or eagles that might be flying around (rare around here, but it happens occasionally, apparently).
11.  Chickens are fun.  The kids love to pet them and visit them.  Toby always wants to look out the window at them, and when we're outside, he'll crawl over to their run and sit nearby, just watching them.  Whenever we're near their fence, they run over to see us.  They really are fun to watch and they make great pets.

So, overall, my opinion is that it is so worth it to get chickens!  We absolutely love having them!

Our First Egg!

We now officially have laying hens (or, one, as the case may be)!  We are so excited to be getting eggs!  Madeline (the tan buff orpington) has now laid five eggs in the past week, which is a typical amount for her breed.

Thankfully, Seth had just gotten the nesting boxes made a few days before the big day!

The other two hens have not started laying yet, but that should happen any day now!

On the Urban Homestead

Everything's growing around here!

The chickens are huge!  I'm guessing they're probably full-grown by now, although they won't be laying eggs for a couple more months.  Finishing up their run is on the list for the next couple of weeks; hopefully that will happen!

The garden is growing and we've started harvesting rhubarb, peas and lettuce.

Our blueberry bushes are doing well, and there are a fair amount of blueberries on the plants this year.  We can't wait until they're ripe!

And new this year - raspberries!  I found some inexpensive bushes at a plant sale, so I got them and then had to come home and find a place for them.  Then I received another bush for a gift, so we have a nice row now.  The plants have already grown bigger, and we'll even get a few berries this year!

The Chicken Coop

We've dedicated one of our side yards to the chickens.  It's not really very usable for us, and it's not a huge area, only about six feet wide at the widest point, but it's plenty big enough to be a great run for a few chickens.  My original plan was to just fence this area off, and build a small coop for the birds for night, and I think that plan would have been totally fine.  But after thinking about it, I decided that it would be a good idea to have a "run within the run".  I decided that I wanted something with a bit more security for them should we ever be gone all day, or for the times when we get home late at night and aren't there to close the coop.  I don't think our suburban neighborhood has too many threatening chicken predators, but I did want to make sure they were safe.  So we designed and built a coop with an attached enclosed run.  It was definitely more expensive to build (and more than I had anticipated, as building projects always are), but I think the benefits are worth it.  We haven't finished fencing off the side yard, so they are in here full time right now, but even when we finish the bigger run, this will still provide a dry area when it is raining, as well as a dry place to keep their food, and as I said, it will provide more protection for the times we're not around, particularly at night.

We designed this based off some pictures we had seen, and then Seth and I (mostly Seth) built it.  I am so thankful Seth was willing to do this for me -  it was quite a big project, especially when you're not really into that sort of thing, and he really did a great job.  I am so happy with how it turned out.  We still have a few little things to finish up, like hanging the main door and burying the bottom of the fencing, but it's usable and the chickens are in there, which is the important part!  =)

On the Urban Homestead...

...we have chickens!

Let me introduce you to:

L-R: Sally (Ameraucana), Emily (Rhode Island Red),
and Madeline (Buff Orpington)

The older kids each named one of them.  =)

The food and water dishes use mason jars!
Just my style!  =)

Having chickens is so exciting to me!  I have wanted to get some for a long time, and we are having lots of fun with them!  We got our chicks at about two weeks old, and they are absolutely adorable!  In just a week, they have grown a lot.  They really all do have their own personalities, which is so fun!  Sally is the bossy one, and also the most aloof, while Emily is really friendly and doesn't mind being held, unlike the other two.  They really like doing everything together.  If one of them starts eating food, the rest of them do, too.  Cleaning and refilling their water dish just takes a couple of minutes, but when I put it back, they all rush over and start drinking like they haven't had any water all day.  It's so cute!

So far the work has been very minimal.  The most time consuming job was cleaning out their water dish, which I was having to do quite a few times a day because they kept filling it up with pine shavings when they would scratch in the litter.  But then I got smart and raised the dish up a bit on a brick, and now it stays clean for most of the day.

The chickens love to sit on top of the jars.
Sometimes they fight over the spot!

We'll have to keep them inside for about five more weeks, during which time we need to build a coop and run outside.  Then, hopefully sometime this fall, we'll have eggs!  I can't wait!