Chickens

As this is for posterity, and not just for entertainment, those who might be offended by some "good old fashioned" farm life, might want to just skip this entire post. If you choose to keep reading, please don't comment on the "cruelty" of what we did -- the fact of the matter is, we have or will use these chickens for meat. The chickens were bred specifically for meat, and if you think less of us, don't tell me here -- k? Thanks.

Can you tell, we have had opinions given? Good.

So, back in November, we got 50 meat chickens. Some died, but only maybe 5. We took the corn that we grew in our back quarter acre, and dekerneled the cobs, ground the kernels, mixed the ground corn with a supplement (don't know what that was), and fed these 50 chicks, plus our 14 laying chicks for the past few months. It has been a lot of work for Jake and some work for the boys. Not so much for the boys. The effort for them was put in and we did have some luck. So, here we are now. The baby chicks are about 8 pounds now. So, it is now time for them to go to our freezer.

Last Saturday, Jake started killing them. He killed about 14. It took a long time. We had some "helpers" come over. They were grossed out, but fascinated. They/I learned about how much work it is to defeather chickens, and that it is nice Jake can degut them. I'm not too impressed with that -- glad Jake is around.

 

The boys worked hard. Some harder than others. Something about a fire, that will distract any boy, but I think the ones that came learned a thing or two. Hopefully, it was a good experience.

 

I didn't take pictures the next time we had boys over, but we had twelve Deacons/boy scouts over on Wednesday. The thing that was impressive about Wednesday was Jacob wasn't afraid of the chickens.

 

I'm looking forward to not having all of those stinky chickens in my back quarter acre, but I hope my boys have learned something in the meantime.

 

The 6 pound chickens we have been roasting and eating have been pretty nice too. Not quite sure what I will do with 30 more! Aaaagh!

 

Planting Potatoes

 

 

 

 

We have some really great friends that live two streets south of us, and we love javing them over. This past weekend, they were over hot tubbing and Jake decided "Today is the day to plant the potatoes". So, he got to work, and they helped us plant. We got done in record time, the three older boys against me, and the three younger kids. Amazingly, we finished in a tie. After we were done, Lilly, and Spencer decided to plant some of the extra seeds right next to the ones we just planted -- hopefully, we will have some plants grow and some yummy potatoes to share!

Friday night in January

 

What do you do in January on a Friday night when you want to have a few friends over? Have everyone wear their swim trunks, or find them for the ones that didn't know, and go hot tubbing! And, for the brave, or a little crazy, go jump in the cold pool! Wish I had taken pictures of that! It was one for the records! The nine boys that were over this weekend sure had fun!

Hurricane Booth

 

For Ryan's birthday, he wanted to go to "the mall". Why?! "Because all of the kids like to go to the mall." Which mall? "To the one that is inside. Not the outside one." So, off we went to the mall. We looked around, he found "several things" that we could buy for him, but we didn't buy any of them. I settled for letting them "experience" hurricane force wind in the simulator. It cost $2.00 and they were happy. Hopefully, "the mall" wasn't a real highlight and we don't have to go more often! :)

Happy Birthday Ryan!

Ryan is two handfuls TODAY!!!! I can't believe it! It seems like it was just yesterday he was born, and in other ways it amazes me that he is only TEN! I can't get over it is ten. . .

A few things about Ryan. He is either hot or cold. Never is he just warm, always one or the other. He is either crazy or very quiet. He is noisy or quiet. He is almost always a peacemaker -- except when he isn't. . .see a trend?

 

Here are ten facts about Ryan --
Ryan is a reader, but hates to AR test. He is always reading something, he will read anything that Jacob has read, and has read many of the classic children's stories that are around our house. He enjoys them more if he doesn't have to test.

 

He is Spencer's best friend, he is Jacob's best friend. He almost always tries hard to make everyone happy and has a natural draw for younger kids.
Ryan still isn't a morning kid -- every teacher he has had notices that.

 

Ryan loves to play baseball. he loves it almost as much as reading (his parents are nerds, they taught him the joy of reading)
Ryan is a friend kid. Almost everyone that meets Ryan loves him and wants to spend time with him.
Ryan has a testimony, and really tries to do what is right.

 

Ryan figures out how to make things happen. If he wants something he figures out how to get what he wants.
Ryan is a hardworker.
Ryan loves his mom. Still. He has always loved his mom. I am glad he still loves me.

 

Ryan has the best imagination. He really should be a writer.

We love our Ry-Ry and we are so glad that he is a member of our family!

My Crazy Kids

I am experiencing a learning curve on our Mac, but my kids are making themselves at home in photo booth. Here are some of the fun pictures I have found on our new computer!

The camera is amazing -- when you define an effect, it really zeros in on the thing that you want --if the top of your head isn't visible, no birds would be seen flying overhead, if no cheeks, no chubby cheeks. It truly amazes me!

Christmas 2011

Christmas was crazy this year -- church, company and gifts! We loved it, but unfortunately, didn't get very many pictures of the day.

 

 

 

 

I got these before the boys got started opening gifts, stockings are a big deal at our house, and it seems like we could just have Santa bring stocking gifts and the boys would be happy. They do like the other things though. Spencer was thrilled with his remote control truck. Ryan was disappointed but not surprised that he didn't get the laptop that he asked for -- somehow there was a "family" laptop that he seems to like, though. And Jacob. He is in HEAVEN -- the LOVES the GPS unit that he got, he has been marking things on the unit and seems to be enjoying. We gave these things as well as a few other things and went to church with the boys happy. At church they were being a bit unruly, and I told theme they had better be careful or they wouldn't get their last gift. They were so surprised and excited to get bikes!! We have been working ever since on Spencer learning to ride -- sink or swim hill has become a swimming hill for him! Jake's jawhorse has come in handy and the boys have taught themselves how to change bike tires themselves.