Do you see something wrong here?

On the 4th of July I went to lock up the chickens and was happy to see that none of them were on the ground or trying to sit on the nest boxes.  But there's definitely something wrong in this picture.

Cash and Paisley still run this place

No words needed.

A project that came too soon

Three of the bedrooms have carpet, and after a little peek at the corner I knew there were original hardwood floors underneath.  My goal is to one day pull them up and finish them myself.  I thought that project might happen next year.  

And then we had a bad house guest that ruined the carpet in our main guest room.  I had no choices but to take on the project now.

 So I started here.  Thinking I'd tear up this section first to see what was underneath.

And I lucked out, big time!

Chickens are finally free range

They got their first taste of freedom!

16 birds, 2 are males.  

And we finally have nest boxes

We still have another two months before our birds start to lay, but I'm about a month late getting nest boxes installed in the coop. I decided to go with the bucket idea this time.  They are right above the chicken door so if I ever install an automatic opener, I hope these aren't in the way.

Where have we been

Two years ago we decided that we wanted to move to Iowa. I had done a lot of research on cost of living and teacher salaries and came up for a weekend visit.

We had to downsize everything. Our chicken flock had gotten really small due to predators and we sold the rest. We sold nearly all possessions that weren't family memories and heirlooms. Then we listed the house for sale.

The house sold and in June of 2017 we drove to Iowa with a uhaul.  We planned to rent for a year while we found a town and house that we loved but it was only 5 months later that we found my dream home.

We have a lot of things to do in our new home but we've started on some.

We have 16 chickies they are set up in a new chicken coop. We have fruit trees that are ready to be planted when the weather gets a little warmer. And we are in the planning stages of a small garden with the plans of having a huge one next year.

So weve been quiet for awhile, but the adventure continues.

The Dog was where?!?!

I've known that Cash was getting up on the table to eat scraps or pull things down to destroy.  But today I learned that he's also getting up on the table, without the use of any chairs, to look out the front windows.

Feel free to click below to watch the video.

Garden 2016

I decided that we will try a garden again this year, on a much smaller scale.  At this point I'm only sure that we will grow tomatoes, however I'm also leaning towards lettuce and squash as well.  I guess it will depend on what organic and non-gmo seeds and plants I can find.

I'm moving everything over to the half of the garden that we didn't use as much 2 years ago in the hopes of preventing blight by re-planting in the same area.

Playing Possum

This morning the oldest was helping me in the garden and he dragged a trash can over for us to load with dead weeds and grass.  He quickly freaked out saying there was something in the trash can.  I was a safe distance away, so I told him to figure out what it was.  He knocked it down and there laid the possum.

While he did look fierce with those teeth, he wasn't moving at all and the longer I stood there staring into his face, the more pity I took on him.  I told the oldest that he couldn't kill him, as I thought for sure it would go running away as soon as the coast was clear and our chickens would be fine since we were around.

An hour later we had to leave, but I still thought the thing would run away when our noise was gone.

Chickens in a Car

Apparently if you leave the back of the car open too long, Dolly and one of her friends will decide to check things out.

She was in the middle row before I got my camera out.  Luckily no one left us any surprises.