MerryHeartCrafts.comMountain Momma… Country Living

Yesterday evening the girls and I planted 6 fruit trees.  Grace dug every hole.  She was very excited about getting fruit trees.  As you can see, she has  good helpers- the cats and the chickens.

And, of course, our ever faithful Shadow.

We planted an asian pear, bartlett pear, plum tree, golden delicious apple tree, golden transparent apple tree, and a nectarine tree.  We hope to get 2 cherry trees in April.  While we were working on the trees, Hubby was busy trimming the blackberries.

It was a nice, productive evening.   After we finished planting, we went to get the clothes off the line and a huge flock of geese flew directly over our heads to land in the field.  Of course, we had already put the camera up so I couldn’t get a picture.  It would have made a beautiful picture though. 

Today will be school as usual.  Hopefully, with more outside work afterward.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

The girls and I have been busy today getting Mr. Rooster’s coop converted to a chick house.  We have been planning on getting new chicks this spring.  Jess and David are going in with us to get them.  The girls and I went over to Tractor Supply the other day to get a new wheelbarrow tire.  The breed of chicks we wanted to get were already there.  We are getting Buff Orpingtons (not sure I spelled that right).  We also are getting  a few black chickens which I have forgotten the name of.  I thought they would give the chicken house a little different color.  We plan on putting them in Mr. Rooster’s coop for temporary.

The inside of the coop. 

This is the area the chickens from last year are in.  They will soon be moving into another house and lot area. (As soon as we get it ready.)  Then the new chicks will move into this house and lot.  When they get old enough we will combine them all together.

The day was absolutely beautiful here.  Lots of sunshine and temperatures in the low 60′s.  While we worked, as you could see from the previous pictures, we had lots of help from the chickens.  Sometimes even jumping up into the new coop.  Our ladies are very curious.  We also had these  visitors.  They did not come very close though.  We hope they decide to nest on the island again.  The mallard ducks have also been checking the island out.  Spring-I think- is definitely on its way.

We hope to get the new chicks tomorrow!!  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Every evening we turn the chickens loose to scratch and play.  They love it!!  They stand right at the fence when we go out to turn them loose.  Each one wanting to be the first one out the gate. 

As of right now we have 13 of these lovely ladies, 4 red and 9 white.  We want to expand the chicken house and lot this spring and get more-maybe about 20. 

They are extremely curious ladies. They follow us around wanting to be petted. If any of us step outside they will come running up to us to see what we are doing. They are definitely a lot of fun to have around. Today has been warm but the wind is a little strong. Jess and David and the kids are coming up tomorrow. I hope to get some new pictures to show you all. Enjoy your day and God bless.

We had a great visit with the Horn’s yesterday.  We were celebrating Mckenzie’s birthday.  They had the table decorated so pretty and cheerful.

Best of friends! 

Mrs. Vicki’s goats and chickens.

While the kids played, Vicki showed me how to make a blue jean skirt out of old blue jeans.  I think it turned out really nice.

I hope you all have a great evening.  Supper tonight is pork tenderloin roast, fried potatoes, corn and fresh baked rolls.  God bless.

Today has been chilly here in Floyd.  Wind gusts of 30-40 mph with temperatures in the mid 20′s.  We let our chickens out every evening so they can scratch and peck.  Well, this evening they just wanted to come up on the back porch and hide from the wind.  We all laughed and said soon they would be wanting to come in the house. 

Other than cold, today has been a nice day.  We started school back today.  After a 3 week break, I thought it would be difficult to get going again but it went well.  We had a nice visit with Jess and the kids yesterday.  David needed to work on his book and so Jess brought the kids up to play at MawMaw’s house for a while.  We were sitting around talking and Daniel looks at me and says “MawMaw, we need to go cook something”.  He dearly loves to help cook so we decided we needed to make chocolate chips cookies. 

Well, I guess that’s about it.  I need to go put more wood on the fire.  Enjoy your evening and God bless.

We have been blessed to have quite a few pears given to us.  Do any of you all have any pear recipes you would like to share?  I usually just can them like apples but I am always looking for new things to try.  One thing I want to do is make juice this year.  Anyway, the girls and I will be working up pears tomorrow.  Today, I helped Hubby.   We textured the ceilings on the job he has been working on.  They looked really nice. 

I have a question for you ladies who have chickens.  Last week we were getting 8-10 eggs a day.  Yesterday and today, we got one each day.  What do you think is going on?  We did have a couple of days that we didn’t feed them the layer crumbles.  We had all kinds of scraps from the corn.  Do you think that would affect their laying?  I’m just not sure what would have happened. 

Well, I’m tired and it is my turn for the shower.  Enjoy your evening and God bless.

Beautiful grapes!  Last night a friend of ours called and said they had some grapes that we could have if we wanted them.  They had already used all they wanted so we loaded up and went over to pick.  We picked about 3 bushels.  The girls and I have been busy all day, processing them.    We are using the steam juicer.  I think we will end up with about 20 qts, maybe more.    What a blessing.  God is so good!

Guess what?  We have a broody hen!  Well, where I come from we call them setting hens but here most folks call them broody.  Anyway, she is only 4 months old.  I don’t think I have ever known one to set that young.  We have kept Mr. Rooster separate from the hens so her eggs would not hatch but she doesn’t seem to know that.  The girls and I wanted to put her back in the coup with Mr. Rooster so we could let her set but Hubby said no.  No more chickens-(this year).  Anyway, we moved her out into her own little coup for a few days.  The other hens were glad as she was hogging the only nest they will use.  They have two other nests but for some reason they all prefer to use just this one. 

I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless.

Saturday we got the chickens more space in their lot.  They really seem to enjoy having more room.  We put the additional 5 hens in with our hens.  It will take them a while to get used to being in there.  You see the coup at the far side of the lot.  That is what they have been in since they were bought by the man who gave them to us.  They don’t really understand the concept of being able to run about.  When we turn them all out in the evening, those 5 don’t really know to go outside.  I’m sure they will figure it out pretty soon though.  The small coup you see in the front is just for emergency use.  In case we need to separate a hen from the rest of them for a short time. 

Yesterday, we made salsa.  We ended up with 16 pts.  The Horn’s came over for a while in the evening.  We ate supper, talked, picked a few blackberries and talked some more.  It seemed like it had been a long time since they had come over.  We had a really nice evening and even got a little rain.  God is good!  Our temperatures have definitely been cooler this week.  This morning it was 60 degrees when we got up.  There is a slight feel of fall in the air.  Humidity is not near as bad.  That always makes it seem cooler. 

I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

Here is a picture of our hens hard at work.  For some reason, they all want to use the same nest.  Yes, they do have other nests.  At least, these are big enough for two at one time.  Our rooster is still under consideration.  We have not put the new chickens in with the old ones yet.  We plan on increasing the size of our lot this Saturday.   Anyway, I have a few questions to ask.  My experience with roosters is not too pleasant so I think I might be prejudice.  When I think of roosters, I think of flogging and aggressiveness.  What do you all think?  Have you all had good experiences with roosters.  The girls have made such big pets of our hens.  They will sit out there in the lot and pet them and the hens love it.  Do you think a rooster would go along with that or would he try to run the girls out of the lot?  As I said, I have not had good experiences with roosters and I do not want this to happen to the girls.  We so enjoy hearing him crow but I’m just not sure.  Please share your opinion on this.  Here are a few pictures of flowers that are blooming around the house.

A rose of sharon bush my mother-in-law gave me when we first moved here.

A white hibiscus.  Or as my aunt used to call them “a high biscuit”.    We had a great time with the boys yesterday.  We played outside, saw the chickens LOTS of times, picked blackberries and drank homemade apple juice.  God is good!

Today, the girls and I will spend some time cleaning our poor, neglected home.  Canning takes priority and the housecleaning gets behind. Enjoy your day and God bless.

Meet one of our new ladies.  We have been blessed to receive 5 new hens and 1 rooster for free.  A family that lives across the Parkway from us purchased these chickens on Easter weekend.  That makes them about 1 month younger than ours.  They decided chickens were not for them.  They gave them to us with the coup.  We brought them to their new home today.  Julie will have to work on petting them up but I don’t think it will take her long.  We are going to increase the size of our fenced in area and then put them all together.  We think our older ladies like having a rooster around.  We received 6 eggs today and one of them was a double yoke.   We do not really want the rooster though.  We are thinking of giving him away.

It is HOT here.  Temperature is 95 degrees.  I’m not sure what the heat index is but it is definitely hot.  Enjoy your day, stay cool and God bless.