so much.
so much to say after this two week hiatus – not sure where to begin.
There’s pics to display, stories of success and failure to share, news to report.
These weeks have included:
- lots of wrestling with the same ol’ life lessons we are too hard headed to “get”
- Ethan turned 5 years old.
- I realized he is a “spirited extrovert” as described in the book “Raising a Spirited Child”. With a sigh of relief I felt more equipped to handle our differences and celebrate who is he is.
- A sweet visit from my sister and her fam
- A heat wave
- Lots of bugs on my vegetable beds that have brought me much frustration. Gardening is supposed to be fun, isn’t it??? I have a nice huge bowl of cayenne/garlic tea I plan to spray all over them tomorrow, so we’ll see if that helps.
- The decision that we want to leave AR when we “get our ducks in a row” to do so. Either back to OR, our “soul home”, and then eventually a village in Burgundy France 
- A new show we enjoy together in the after hours of parenting : DEXTER!
- A wee-hours-of-the-morning, spontaneous prayer combustion, awesome girls night with the “Radical Homemaking” group
- Three days of fatigue to recover from the wee-hours-of-the-morning girl night.
- Two of my chickens were killed, leaving a lone Daffodil.
- We trapped the likely culprit, a raccoon, only to accidentally kill it by leaving the cage in the sun during a heat wave for a few hours. Also, it left behind some family members in the attic, which has Ethan terrified and a very light sleeper – a bummer.
- Laughter, tears, prayers, meals, talks, books… life.
I guess that about wraps it up. Until next time…
3 comments
So sorry for the death of your chickens.. especially that you’re left with just 1.. will you buy more chicks? Have been tossing the idea around in my head but it’s surely a commitment.. and also I can’t gauge the level of protection they’d need… not as many predators as many parent’s country chickens face but still possibly hawks, coons & cats.
Please do tell if your anti-pest tea works.. I know you mentioned DE powder & was curious if you ever tried it & how it worked? I have a hard time getting motivated when the bugs are eating more out of my garden than we are : /
Glad to read your post – missed reading while you were away!
Hi Stacey!
I think I will be getting more – not chicks because the adult will peck them – but laying hens in their first year. They are more costly to buy than chicks but I think in the long run the FREE free range organic eggs will pay off. We can eat about 6 eggs a day around here, and more if doing any baking!
There are great resources out there like backyardchicken.com – forum after forum of advice on building a coop and making it predator proof. The problem with ours is that it was never finished. We relied on some friends for help since we didn’t have tools, and a proper door was never put on it, just some chicken wire which raccoons can just pull right up. So we are going to finish the coop this weekend (that’s the plan anyhow!) and try to get 3 new chickens next week.
I will keep you posted on the bug tea – (I’m secretly glad I’m not the only one they are attacking! I feel like such a gardening loser with all these crazy bugs!)
no! your poor chickens. i hate those raccoons… i hope you can get them out of your attic. i know all about that. also, i cannot wait to go back to fayetteville & catch up with you. you better not leave for france before we get a chance to go back
natalie´s last blog ..one year
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