joyful-homemaker

organizing round-up - playroom

This is my first month participating in org junkies organization round up.  This months theme was the playroom which was a good thing cause ours was getting pretty ugly.  As embarassing as they are here are the befores:

and  here are the afters:

much better!

joyful homemaker

We have a baby! - pic

We have our first baby chick. 

 I was just going to leave the hen out in the coup with her but, Im too nervouse.  We tried to move the rest of the hens from her coup to the big coup but the older hens were really fighting them.  We are going to move mama, her chick, and her two remaining eggs to a brooder in the garage.  I think that will be less stressful to everyone.  Mama is a very tiny timid hen and the others are pecking at her and sitting on her.  I think she will be more relaxed in her own pen.  Also if something happens and she tries to abandon them, I can just turn on the heat lamp and put her back out in the pen with the others. 

This is so fun, I am considering buying some fertilized eggs from the hatchery to put under my other broody hen.

joyful homemaker

hatching my first chick - pics!

One little chick is on its way out of the shell.  Here is a pic of mama setting

and here is a pic of the egg hatching

I was just told not to take the egg out from under the hen anymore or it could hurt the chick.  I had no clue, I was just so excited.  This is my first hatch.  I will resist the urge to peek anymore and leave them alone till this evening.  I will try to get more pics when they are hatched.

joyful homemaker

I have a chick hatching

One of the eggs my broody hen is setting on is starting to hatch.  I pulled the eggs out from under the hen this morning to check them and one is moving, one nothing and one has a little hole on one end that wasnt there last nite. I removed all the other hens from the coup. If all goes well, I will take pics and post.

joyful homemaker

question about hatching chicks

I have a broody hen who is setting on eggs we got on vacation memorial day weekend.  I dont know what day she started setting and thought the eggs were rotten.  The other day one egg broke and to our suprise there was a fully developed chick with the yolk attached by a tube to its stomach.  It didn't make it but made me think maybe the others have a chance.  One of the eggs actually moves.  This started yesterday.  How long should it be till we have chicks?  She is up in a nest box about two and a half feet off the ground, should I move her before they hatch or after?

thanks

joyful homemaker

the gardens are in!

I have planted two gardens this year.  I normally only plant one, but this year I got a little more adventurous.

Dh and I planted the front garden two weeks ago.  We planted:  tomatoes - yellow and cherry, yellow and white onions, jalepenos, chives, raddishes, lettuce, cilantro, dill, cantelope, summer squash, marigolds, wild flowers and pansies.

This afternoon I planted the the garden in our backyard.  I planted:  pumkins, watermellons, sphagetti squash, patty pan squash, zucchini, cucumber, green beans, onions, lettuce, dill, cilantro, banana peppers, yellow peppers, sunflowers and wildflowers and tomorrow I will add two rows of sweet corn.

joyful homemaker

my day today

This morning I tried to get caught up on the housework.  I was behind from having such a busy weekend.  I got done about half of what I wanted to.  Ali had kindergarten camp this afternoon.  She goes each afternoon this week.  On the way to pick her up, I saw a box turtle in the middle of the road.  I put him into a containter on my front seat and we set him free when we got home.The school had a table set up with some freebies on it.  It was leftover classroom stuff.  We got some markers, colored pencils, books, etc.  One thing the kids really enjoyed was a box of tanograms and books with patterns for them.For dinner I made pizza.  this is the first time I made my own crust from scratch.  It turned out very well.  I topped the pizza with some sauce I canned last summer, motzerella, sliced mushrooms, onions, banana pepper rings I canned last year and parmasean cheese.  YUM!

joyful homemaker

busy weekend -pictures!

We had such a busy weekend!  It was fun, but I am ready for things to slow down a bit now. 

Friday the kids played outside and I helped DH load two truckloads of metal scrap to haul.  Afterward we went to the lake to cool off and swim.  The lake was still too cold so we went to the pool instead.

Saturday was family fun day at the park.  DH helps run a casting kids booth for his bass fishing club.  The kids entered the casting contest, did archery and took a canoe ride.

 Sunday afternoon we planted the smaller front garden.  We also went to my cousins graduation party.

Today I have to catch up on the housework I completely neglected over the weekend!)

joyful homemaker

what I did with a carton of whipping cream - pics!

The other day my grandmother sent down a basket of strawberries from her garden.  Normally when she does this I run to the store and buy shortcakes and cool whip.  Lately though due to the rising grocery and gas prices I have been trying to just be more creative and use up what I have at home.  I went online and looked up  this recipe for whipped cream and made it with my kitchen aid mixer.  It turned our really good!  I also made some shortcakes from bisquick.  They were kind of gross though, way too salty.  I wont make them from that recipe again!

I had half a carton of whipping cream left so I decided to make butter.  I have made it before by putting the cream into a mason jar and shaking it forever until it became butter.  I didn't want to do it this way again so I put it into my kitchen aid and it really went very fast!  It made perfect butter and I saved the buttermilk for pancakes and biscuts. 

joyful homemaker

great bloggy giveaway!

Susan is having a great giveaway over at her blog .   Make sure you check it out!  I love the prize for the 1st give away.  I would love to win it because then my apron would match my soap bottle's apron :)

joyful homemaker

first time using my Nutramill - pictures!

I got my nutramill at lehmans hardware on memorial day weekend.  I was so excited to try it when we got home, but didn't get around to it till yesterday (2yo took an unexpected long afternoon nap:))  Here is my mill

I ground up 8 cups of wheat berries into flour, it made alot more than I thought it would!

 I tried a recipe that said it makes 50 rolls, for some reason it took alot more flour than it called for.  Apparently there is a difference in how much to use of fresh milled flour compared to store bought.  It made 54 rolls and I still had dough left over so I put it in to a loaf pan for bread.  The rolls came out great, but the bread came out all hollow in the middle so it will become apple cinamon bread pudding tonite!

I am going to grind more flour today and try to make whole wheat tortillas for tonites soft taco dinner.  I will try to remember to take pictures and post if it turns out.

joyful homemaker   

Our weekend trip to Amish Country - Pictures!

On memorial day weekend we took a trip to Berlin Ohio.  It is only about an hour away from our home.  We stayed in a very nice little hotel called the Berlin village inn friday and saturday night.  The first night we picked our oldest dd up from school and checked into our hotel. 

We drove around and got an idea of where we wanted to go the next day and we shopped a little.  Saturday morning we went to Lehmans and bought this

I also picked up a new 7quart canner and a yogurt maker and some other odds and ends.  We then went to Heinis cheese to see how cheese is made, but they werent giving tours that day.  We did sample alot of cheese though.  We stopped at a bulk food store and picked up some wheat berries, lentils and other miscelanious things.  After lunch we went to tour the Yoders Amish farm.  It was a great tour, you start out in the gift shop

Then you move on to an older 1800's style house and garden

Then we moved on to the next part of the tour which was a modern style Amish home

When we left the second house we went to see the animals in the barn.  We got sidetracked by the chickens and got to talking with the gentleman who takes care of them.  He gave us 6 eggs for our hens to set on from these chickens

We finished up the tour of the barn and the school house and then took a buggy ride.  I did not take pictures out of respect to the Amish ladies and gentlemen running these parts of the tour.

Sunday we left our hotel and went to roscoe village for the day.  I didn't take too many pictures there because we just went there in september and I took a ton of pictures then.  I did get a few though

We had a great time and plan to go back in the fall!

joyful homemaker

anyone ever start garden plants indoors - need advice

I only have a moment to post, but I am thinking about starting my garden plants from seeds indoors this winter instead of buying them at the greenhouse.  I have never done this before, so if anyone else has please give me some advice on how and when to get started.

joyful homemaker

working on my new years resolutions

I have been working on some of my new years resolutions.  I had a major coffee/caffine addiction.  10 to 12 cups a day.  I am now down to one cup or two a day.  I got a new coffee pot for christmas.  It is one of those senseo pots that uses the pods.  One pod = one cup of coffee.  This helps because it is too easy to make way too much in a regular coffee pot.

I have also been trying to lose weight.  I am using slimfast peanut butter bars for breakfast and slimfast shakes for lunch (strawberry is my favorite).  I am also serving salad each nite with dinner.  So far I am down 6 lbs.  The next step will be adding in excersize.  I want to alternate between the excersize bike and yoga and the firm and taebo tapes.  I have been having a small medical issue right now so I havnt been able to start the exersize yet, but that should be resolved soon.

Off to do dishes and vaccume and fold laundry and .............

joyful homemaker

a great contest

There is a great contest going on over at the simply susan blog.  She has been with out internet for a while, but is now back online.  She is giving away a great selection of her ebooks.  Please click here to visit her and welcome her back.

have a great day!

joyful homemaker

menu plan monday (a little late)

Here is my menu for this week:

Monday - sirloin burgers w/melted swiss, sauteed veggies and foccacia

Tuesday - breakfast for dinner - french toast caserole and omlets

Wednesday - Crock pot swiss steak, salad and candied yams

Thursday - Chicken broccoli caserole, salad

Friday - pizza

Saturday - Hamloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy and green beans

Sunday - eat out - girls baton competition in columbus and class at church in the evening - no time to cook.

to see other menu plan monday entries click here.

joyful homemaker

tackle it tuesday

Todays tackle it tuesday is the girls bedrooms.  They are really quite messy and Liv is having a housefull of little girls over for her birthday party this weekend so I want to get them done today.  I would also like to borrow grandmas carpet shampooer and clean the carpet while I am in there.  I need to hang livs new curtains too.  I wish I had a camera so I could do before and after pics, but it is still in the shoppe.  I will update this evening about how much I get done.  To read more tackle it tuesday posts click here.

joyful homemaker

sad sunday

The day started out well.  Suprisingly even though claire was up til almost 5am, we were able to be out the door and on time for early church service.  Church was great and we had good conversation on the way home.  When we got home DH and I were enjoying making lunch together.  I noticed out the glass door something white all over the ground (the kitchen counter faces the glass door).  I went to investigate assuming it was a stray cat or rabbit killed by the neighbors dogs or a coon. 

When I got closer to the door I realized it was white feathers like some of my hens have.  I told dh something was wrong and he said just go out and check it out.  I went around to the front door to go out and saw my chickens were dead all over the yard!  I had just let them out when we got home.  I told the kids to go upstairs and play and told dh to get the shotgun and go out.  By the time I got outside he said he couldnt find what did it but he saw 7 dead ones.  suddenly I realized our back fence was open and the dogs were gone.  I realized at that moment that my dogs killed my chickens.

The dogs were waiting at the end of the driveway and came right back.  The children had left the gate open and dh forgot to check it when he let the dogs out.  When I opened the coup I left the door open so that they could free range and enjoy the afternoon before the snow came again.  Dh and I walked the fields and gathered the dead birds.  We lost 12, that was 1/3rd of our birds.  Fortunatly none of the rest of the birds got hurt (except the rooster who bloodied his head and broke his food and water dishes trying to get out of his pen to defend his ladies).

Dh felt so bad for me he burried all of my birds, scooped and cleaned the pens and put out new straw and offered to buy me a dozen new 17 week pullets in the spring.  Isnt he the greatest!

joyful homemaker