Summer Highlights

The kids have been spending a lot of time playing outside in the mud. I don't have a lot of pictures to share of that because they always end up naked during that activity.

We met up with family at the Living History Farms in Des Moines and we loved it. Tyler and I want to go back sometime without the kids so we can ask lots of questions.

Lots of newbies on the farm this summer.. Tom and Sasha hatched one turkey baby. Every night the turkeys sleep outside in their run and the baby sleeps beneath Tom. If you talk enough, you peak the baby's curiosity and he pokes his head out through Tom's wing. It is seriously cute.

We had a raccoon break in up in our old coop and lost a couple young chickens. We also had an opposum living under the turkey house and probably assaulting Tom each night. The creature has been moved to another location, although we are suspecting another now...

If only we were ready to be bee keepers, we've got a hive inside the wall of our new chicken coop.

We took a vacation to the other side of the state to visit friends. It was fun, but long enough. We cut it short because everyone was tired and cranky.

Our niece spend a little over a week with us. She is so great with the kids and it was nice having her company. Wish she could visit more often! She also managed to get Tyler and I hooked on the show Grimm, something we would have never watched.

I successfully grew lots of rainbow chard, peas, and kohlrabi. The jury is still out on the rutabagas and I may get at least one pumpkin. The rabbits ate the five types of beans I planted since we didn't get the garden fence done. I was also unsuccessful at growing a few other things, guess there's always next year.

I butchered my first chicken! We had a young cockerel hurt himself and Tyler had to work that night so I took on the task myself. My parents decided to come watch, which was handy a few times during the process. It went so much better than I thought it would and the flavor of the meat was good. Tyler and I just did a second rooster (a Rhode Island Red that started attacking Tyler) last night and it did not go as well as the first one, but we learned some things that work and don't work with a full grown bird.

The kids all ran a high-ish fever for a day and then the girls broke out in weird spots. I was hoping chicken pox or measles to get those out of the way, but I'm still not sure what they had. I'm thinking hand foot and mouth. Whatever it was, it was thankfully a quick and easy virus!

We are getting plenty of eggs these days. The hens are getting better about laying in places we want them to. Our Pekin ducks and some of our pullets have started laying so the daily egg count keeps going up!