And then there was one.

Unfortunately, Lace did not make it. She passed sometime last night/this morning in the nest box. We buried her not too far from Goldie. I guess that's going to be my pet cemetary/memorial site...

This really sucks because she was doing better yesterday. She was standing up all the way and walking a bit more. Ruby is being quite skittish and vocal today. Poor girl.

In a few weeks, I am going to pick up three chicks. Most likely a Barred Rock and two Easter Eggers. Hopefully Ruby does ok on her own until then...

Sicky Chicky and New Grazing Pen

My Lace Brahma, Lace, is sick. No clue what the problem is. It's been going on for the last 3-4 days. She is still eating and drinking. No sign of mites or lice, I wormed 2 days ago. She lays down most of the time. She isn't flying out of the coop anymore, now she uses the ladder. I've been giving them scrambled eggs and plain yogurt and she's eating that. I started Poly-Vi-Sol today. It's actually an infant liquid vitamin that can be given to chickens. If nothing else, it won't hurt her. Ruby stuck her beak into the mix and got some too.

Completed pen. I only purchased the chicken wire. We used 2x3s that we already had and 2 2x4s. This is NOT a predator proof pen and isn't meant to be. I plan on using it only when they can be supervised. It's 70 inches long, 36 inches wide high and 40 inches wide.

Ruby sticking her beak in.

This is how Lace lays most of the time now. When she does move, it's very slow.

Strawberries....

I bought two bags of strawberries from Walmart yesterday. I didn't notice it until I got home, but the one bag has two labels. Under the AC Wendy label is one that says Earliglow. It came out of the AC Wendy box (must have been delivery day, I opened the box, so know it wasn't mixed), and both are June bearing, no big deal if it's not truly an AC Wendy.

I'm going to put these in the old horse pasture behind the chicken coop. I tried to use the garden hoe to loosen the area (mostly weeds and clover) and I think I'm going to have to rent a tiller. I really didn't want to, but the ground is really hard. I plan on planting quite a bit more and don't want to hoe for 50+ hours... I also want to mix in the contents of the compost bin and horse manure pile.

Don't forget to check out the new Sunwood Farms 365 photo blog!



eta: 4/26/12 - These strawberries did not make it. The roots were rotten.

It's Spring!

Even though it feels more like summer. We've had record breaking temperatures for the last 8 days, like 80's in the middle of March. That is NOT normal for this time of year. While I LOVE it, I'm scared of what the summer is going to bring.

Crocus in bloom, already gone.

Red Haven peach tree is budding, nothing on the Bing cherry tree yet.

Yellow tulips that I got on clearance at Menard's three years ago.

Broken tree in the woods.

Daffodils around the unidentified nut tree. It had nuts the first year we were here (2006) and hasn't since.

Hmm...

Me: What do our chickens give us?

Connor: Um... food.

Me: Ok, what kind of food do our chickens give us?

Connor: ...... Nuggets and sauce.

Me: Alright... what do Ruby and Lace give us?

Connor: ...... Nuggets and sauce!

Me: ... and?

Connor: Oh, eggs!

Me: What kind of noise do they make?

Connor: EGGS!!

We may need to work on this.

Basement Pictures

Hopefully these will end up being "before" pictures! I really, really, really want to redo this whole floor in the next year or so. It's going to take some time.

This is the walkout side. There is a desk behind me, and the door to the outside. The doorway you see goes to the bathroom. The bed is going to be moved to the second floor, where the other guest bed is. It doesn't make sense to have guest beds on two different floors. Don't mind Miss Cocoa's mess, she had a fit right before I took the picture and threw out some litter. You can't tell, but the floor paint is peeling over here. This is the space I'd like to make into a "family area" with a tv, couch, rug, and vcr/dvd player. Cocoa will stay, but will be moved up some after the grey metal cabinet is disposed of. The desk area will stay as it's Jon's work from home space.

Laundry area. Now I have a folding table. I used some leftover self-stick vinyl tile floor pieces I found in the utility room for the top. I was short 5 pieces. I know there is another box somewhere, just haven't found it. I want to add a hanging rack and a white laundry basket for white laundry. I have two other baskets, I figure one will be for darks, and the other for folded, ready to go upstairs and put away. I want to add some cutesy laundry artwork. See how the wall is orange? That whole wall is orange... it makes everything look kinda sickly. I'd love to make the orange areas a light blue (maybe?). Something lighter anyway. I spend a fair amount of time in this area and it just needs to be "happier"!

This area is to the left of the laundry area. I want to use that dresser (it was Jon's grandma's, and his as a kid) for a tv stand on the walk-out side. This wall can stay white, it just needs a new coat of paint. I'd like this area to be a play area. See Connor playing with cloud dough? It's the perfect spot. I can do laundry, he can play in sight. I want to check out garage sales this summer and find a kid's height table in addition to the small card table I'm going to move down. I want to move his ABC poster to this space and get a numbers one too. Maybe do a small area with chalkboard paint? I saw the cutest idea on Pinterest where they took a bookcase from Ikea, turned it on it's side and made storage with a seat on top. That would work here. See the floor here... it's a funky yellow/brown garage floor paint. The hard epoxy stuff. The basement was waterproofed and there are parts that are peeled off, and parts where cement is over it. I just don't know what to do for the floor here. It's easy to clean now, but a hideous color...



Under the stair storage area and shelves on the wall. The shelves only go to the base of the stairs. Right now, they just hold miscellaneous things. The wall behind the shelves is a softer orange, but still orange and needs to go... You can see part of the bathroom here as well.

 Inside the pantry. The pantry really doesn't need to be changed, besides increasing the contents. Maybe adding more storage under the shelves. Both sides have shelves like this, and another on top that goes on the sides and length of the pantry.

This is what you see when you come down the stairs. More orange. The walkout is to the right, the pantry/laundry area to the left. The freezer will stay here. You can really see the mess of the floor here. Removing epoxy would probably require heavy chemicals and/or a floor sander. I don't know that we want to mess with all that. No clue what I want to do with this area yet. Maybe move the Tupperware storage and build heavy duty shelves for canning jars? See that horse rug? That was in my room when I was a kid. I love it.

Black Cherry Jelly!

A few weeks ago, I spotted 100% juice at the grocery store and thought "that might make a nice jelly". Then, my son and I came down with pretty bad colds and it got put off. I finally made it yesterday.

I bought Knudsen 100% Black Cherry juice and followed the directions for lower sugar (classic pectin) sweet cherry jelly on the Ball Site's pectin calculator. I made 4 half pints. It was quick and easy. The black cherry jelly tastes like crushed Bing cherries. I used it on toast this morning and in thumbprint cookies this afternoon. Yummy!

The cookies were made with a Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie mix I found in the pantry. They spread quite a bit more than I expected...

I did a few with marshmallows and chocolate chips, a few with caramel apple jam and then black cherry jelly with chocolate chips.