Kleine Schätze

Just wanted to show off my little ladybugs--we're having a great summer! The days have been pretty warm now in June, so we try to stay indoors for most of the afternoon hours. That means playing and projects! Here's Zoey practicing writing her name and the alphabet for Kindergarten! She is doing such a great job! Camryn loves to play with Mommy's guitar--maybe she'll want to learn with me soon! I took a video of her a couple of days ago strumming the guitar on the floor and belting out 'want to be a rockstar...want to be a rockstar!' Just too funny!

Chicken Business

Our little chickies continue to grow and make us laugh every day--they are 5 weeks old now! We have now moved them from our brooder (dog crate) in the kitchen, to a small A frame chicken run in the backyard. For about a week I was bringing the dog crate outside during the day and taking the bottom out so that the chicks could scratch and forage through the grass. Teaching my chickens to be chickens...HA! They are so entertaining and the girls absolutely love them. Our cat, Biggs, checking out the day old chicks. He would spend hours just watching, probably dreaming of a little, fluffy snack! He doesn't bother now, they would probably gang up on him now!

This was one of their first adventures outside! Look how much they've grown!

In the evenings when we can be out in the backyard with them, we let the chicks out to wander. They always stay in their little pack, moving from tree to tree. The above pic is of the chicken tractor tilted up on its side, until it's time for bedtime!

Canning Day

The garden is growing and producing! In past years I've used our freezer in preserving what we harvest, but this year I have been doing more research on canning. Truly, canning seems kind of like a lost art. Earlier this week was my first canning experience and I had a blast! My Great Grandma Ann canned all the time, and one thing in particular I remember was her watermelon rind pickles. Sweet, sour, crunchy, and soft all in one bite. For my family reading this--you remember, I know! So drawing from that, I found a recipe online (I love recipezaar.com) for watermelon rind pickles. I couldn't get ahold of my mom at the time for the family recipe, but these turned out great as well. Can't wait to try new things as more things are ready for harvest in the garden!
Above are the watermelon rinds softening up a bit and sterilizing my lids.

Giving the first batch a nice hot water bath! This giant enamel pot was used by my Grandma and Grandpa back in the day!

Filling my jars--do you see all of my zucchini and Delicata squash in the background?

My project finished! On the left I canned some zucchini pickles and the right are the watermelon rind pickles. They both tasted great and I'm sure it will only get better after curing for a few weeks!

Busy Weekend!

This last weekend we were surprised (a fantastic surprise!) by our Tio, Tia and cousins coming for a visit to Hartland! We always have such a great time when we're together--the combo'ed menagerie of all our kiddos always makes me smile! We had quite an adventure at the big air show in town with jets, snow cones and air pirates...And of course I forgot my camera! It did get pretty warm (I'm still trying to recover from a toasty sunburn on the back of my calves!)

Afterwards we all needed a cool down so the slip-n-slide and kiddie pool were hauled out to relax and rejuvenate! Here are some pics of the mischief makers! Oh how I love them all :) Above is Alexis taking a break from the slip-n-slide.

Here's Justin taking the scooter for a cruise!

Alissa hanging out with her Daddy (Our Tio)

The kids have fun...I get my grass watered!

My little Cams giving a big cheese for the camera!

Success!

Success! After a short search for some local fertile eggs here in Hartland, we decided to give incubating eggs another try. I posted an add on craigslist that I was looking for some eggs and a great lady responded who lived just a couple of miles south from us! We hatched 4 of the 7 eggs that she gave to us (better than 50%, I'm ecstatic about that!) and they are just the cutest little balls of fluff ever! Our egg donor told me she had a pretty wide variety of chickens, so I'm not quite sure what we'll end up with. 2 of them are bright yellow and the other 2 are a cinnamon sort of color. It was quite a bit of work consistently monitoring the incubator temperature, turning the eggs and making sure there was enough humidity, but I'm happy with our results.

We have a 'nursery' brooder now set up for our chickies in the kitchen. It's made from a dog kennel with lots of shredded paper bedding and a sheet to keep the heat in from our heat lamp. The girls are having so much fun with our new babies!

The video below is of our first hatch! Tom called me as I was on my way home from work on Thursday and told me that one of my eggs was chirping! Those sneaky little chicks weren't supposed to start hatching until the next day--it was a fun surprise! Oh and in case you're wondering, the names of the chicks are Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Cookie and Cupcake.

Veggies

More picture updates of the garden in this last week of May! The past three days we've blessed with a good amount of rain in Hartland and the plants are soaking it up! Ahhhh, nothing beats the smell of rain in the desert... I swear that everything has doubled in size because of it!

One of the first of the zucchini with a million more to follow it! Zoey helped me plant seeds this year and I think she got ahold of the zucchini packet...I couldn't stand to pull out too many of the zucchini seedlings that came up, so we're going to have zukes morning, noon and night in a week or two!

Most of the tomatoes we started this year were paste varieties, but I couldn't help but a few of our cherry tomatoes! I also had a couple of volunteer cherry tomato plants come up from last year. Hopefully there will be a bumper crop this year so I can make a lot of salsa and spaghetti sauce!

I think that in a previous post I hadn't planted any cucumbers yet, but I gave in and as you can see they are climbing away! We also put together another small raised bed to add to our collection and I planted more cucumbers and tromboncino squash. The bed is just a make-shift one made from concrete block and it's next to our dog run. Hopefully the squash and cukes will climb the fence with a little training.

Here we have a little mingling of beets, okra and carrots. Hopefully some yummy veggies soon!

Then and Now

This is our amazing Zoey Ash when she was just over 2 years old (younger than Cams is now!) I can't believe how fast that she's grown. She has always been such a sweet natured, smiley girl! We had planted the Catalpa tree behind her not too many days before this picture was taken. And I'm proud to say that that is one of the trees that I started from seed!

Here is our same pose today! Catalpa's are really fast growing trees and since the almost 3 years that the first picture was taken, it has grown probably 3+ feet! Not to mention the little beauty who has also seemed like she's grown 3 feet! I'm going to have a Kindergartner soon!