Pregnancy or Birth Announcement Idea

My son Daniel and his girlfriend Jennica have been living together for a couple of years and although they have talked about when they want to get married my son decided to make it official this year.
He is a hopeless romantic like his mother (me) so planned a dreamy romantic weekend by renting a lodge in a beautiful secluded area here in Ohio called Hocking Hills.  The weekend went wonderful and Jennica came home in a princess-dreamy-state all full of smiles, butterflies and happiness. 

The wedding is set for March 2017, a date they have had set all along because St. Patrick’s Day 5 years ago was the date of their first date.

Fast forward to April and Jennica sets me down in a teary-eyed state letting me know she thinks she is expecting! 

After a visit to the doctor’s, it was confirmed they got pregnant on St. Patrick’s Day.  How fitting.

Chicken or the Egg

Eggs, Eggs and More Eggs:
As some of you know one of my dreams was raising chickens. That dream I have fulfilled with beautiful fat happy chickens I raised from babies.

The excitement to find the first egg, well unless you have raised chickens you have no idea the anticipation that goes into each visit to the coop, wondering if today is the day I will find our first egg. Being the goof that I am, I cried over that first egg.

There is a kinship formed with the chickens when you raise them, and all of a sudden I was sadden by the thought of eating those perfect eggs my chickens had created. So I decided I would be the one to eat those first few eggs myself. It was something I felt I needed to do since I was the one to nurture the chicks into adulthood. Doing so completed a very beautiful cycle, as I see it.

Building a Chicken Coop

Shed turned into coop & scratch yard built (near my garden)

We decided when we purchased our small farm last August that we were going to raise chickens and have our own fresh eggs. We purchased 2 day old baby chicks in February from a local Amish farmer.

I had planned to use an old shed we call the “mail pouch” barn for the chicken coop, but after further inspection I realized it just needed too much work to keep the hens safe from predators.

Restoring this barn will have to wait.  Maybe I'll turn it into a camping cabin, smoke house or use it as a sugaring shack for making maple syrup.
Instead, I decided to divide my gardening shed in half by building an interior wall. One side would be for my gardening supplies, and the other a chicken coop.
We had electric installed (thanks to my nephew Sammie) then started construction.

Starting a Chicken Flock

Saturday February 18, 2012

Chickens!

The Day I Finally Got Chickens

The big day had arrived. Today was the day to go to a farm in Johnstown, Ohio to pick out chicks to start our flock!

I was up by 6am, but I had barely slept the night before. I woke up thinking I should use the old sink base cabinet left over from our bath remodel to keep the new baby chicks in, instead of the small cage my husband Bill and I worked on all evening, converting it into a brooder.
Brooders are used to confine chicks with their feed and water and keep them warm, until they are 6 - 8 weeks old and ready to go outside

I decided I would use the cabinet because it is larger, and I could use old storm windows to cover the top. The old storm windows would not only help keep heat in and keep the cat out, but would also allow me to have a clear view of my chicks.
Bill helped carry the cabinet into the mudroom where I planned to keep the chicks, then we set the storm windows in place and hung the heat lamp.