Spring Cleaning-----in the Fall

Not much going on right now.  Haven't had a lot to report but I did get to see my pony perform at the fair this week with his 10 year old 4-Her.  They did SUCH a ncie job!  Here is a picture of the little guy....

Two 1st place trophies, three 3rd place ribbons, and one 9th place ribbon.  Not bad considering he is just a hillbilly pony against huge hunt seat horses!
Also, I am pretty proud of my husband as I continue to dig through our closets to get rid of unwanted clothing.  We have a garage sale coming up and we can donate them to charity too.  Honestly, 75% of our clothing has been tucked away, never unpacked from when we moved here almost a year ago!  It is about time!  I then organized each piece of clothing into different closets for now....I mean really...we have at least 5 closets!  So, one closet is for dresses and work apparel for me, one closet is for Jordan's polo shirts, button up shirts, and suits, one closet is for long sleeve tshirts and short sleeve tshirts, and another closet will be for frequently worn clothing---as it is most accessible.  As long as we remember to rotate that clothing from the other closets we will be in good shape!  I still need to organize my clothing, but it is a good start.  I needed to get through Jordan's clothing just to make room to organize mine!
Another thing I am not ADDICTED to is pinterest.  With all of these tshirts and other junk we are going to go through to finish unpacking and organizing the rooms....I am sure we will have plenty of "upcycling" to do!  Pretty excited about it!

Giant Egg!

Really loving this fresh egg thing.  The yolks are big and bright and I still love going out to check and see if there are any new eggs.  So, last night I went out to grab the afternoon eggs and I found this....

It was huuuuge!  That poor chickie!  Well this morning we got to see what was inside that big egg and it looked like this....

Even though it was a double, the yolks were both still bigger than a regular egg I opened next to it.  They were good too.  A little difficult to flip but mmmmmm.  They are sooo bright colored too!


Need to update some pictures of the sheep soon.  We did loose one hog the other night.  He seemed like everything was fine.  I guess we are still below the average when it comes to losses so we should be in good shape yet. 

Rainy Days

The weather sure has made a turn around this week.  We went from 106 degrees to 58 degrees! Brrrr....too cold for my blood.  Last night as we snuggled up to watch the GOP debate (yes...we're nerds) my ice cold foot accidently brushed Jordans leg as he exclaimed "NO!!!! Not now...its too early for that now!  How can you be that cold?  Noooooo!"  Then we went to get our slippers.
Today is the last day of fair.  The 4-H'ers are getting ready for the sale and the livestock are headed to market.  Important lessons are being taught today.  Hard work and determination, and having your work pay off.  Not only that, they are learning about how quality meat is raised, treated, and produced in our local markets.  We had a pretty good turn out with our lambs between the lambs from our farm, and the kids in our 4-H club.  Always room for improvement though, but we are pretty proud of them.
On another note, the chickens are still learning to lay in the nesting boxes...and making me angry.  We are hoping to get rid of a few roosters this weekend, thinking this may help our odds.  We are still only getting about a half dozen eggs per day.  And----with all of this rain...the roof is leaking.  Yes, the infamous chicken coop.  Although we "finished it", we did not complete the product.  The roof is still not shingled.  If the weather holds out, maybe we can get that done too.  We also need siding but I guess we can wait a little bit for that yet. 
From the kitchen side of things, the cooler weather has definitely put me in the mood to cook.  Last weekend I made 5 loaves of bread for the freezer, and shortly after that I made this beautiful french toast casserole as well.  Thank you chickies for the eggs!

My next project: Pumpkin Spice Latte!  Get ready fall...here I come!

What are Saturdays for anyway?

Hogs, chickens, and hunting.  Jordan left shortly after chores today to go hunting with a friend.  Hopefully he brings us back some goods!  While he was gone, I took advantage of the quiet house and did some laundry, cleaned the house, and made BREAD!

I had to make the picture bigger because I was so proud of the texture!  Could have had a better knife to cut it with but 2 loaves down, plus a batch of biscuits made.  The biscuits did not turn out so well so I will spare anyone the opportunity to poke fun of them and just not post them :)

Going to the fair later with friends.  Although, this chickie is ready to kick her feet up!  I am beat!

Date Night & Our First Eggs!

Yesterday, Jordan and I also got the barn ready at the fair since it was weigh-in day.  We ran over there on our lunch breaks and then scurried back to work.  The decorations are pretty simple but better than nothing.  I cheated and used some of my old wedding decorations that were in the garage and could probably be pitched.

We are really trying to stay within our September Grocery Challenge.  Last night we made a trip to town for a free dinner at Applebees (via Gift Card).  It was really great to get away from the craziness (at home) and relax for a few hours...AND not even feel guilty about going out to eat when we have food to eat at home.  It was about this time of year when we first met eachother 8 or 9 years ago now so passing through the town that we went on our first date on was so great. 

You know it is true love when there is one chip left and your husband splits it in half to share with you :) 

After dinner we went to the grocery store to pick up a few necessities---milk and bread.  I used to say eggs in that sentence but we did get 4 eggs yesterday!  Not as many as I thought we would get but enough nonetheless.  We also picked up a splurge item for Jordan since he has worked so hard to get this chicken thing up and running---coke.  Total September Groceries so far: $10.83.  Had it not been for the coke it only woud have been $4!  Aurrgh...but he totally deserves it!  He worked so hard, got pecked by a chicken and still continues to be the best husband in the world! 



Our First Eggs!



So what did I do before 6:00 am today?  2 loads of laundry, fed the hogs, attemped to collect eggs, made homemade spaghetti sauce, and made breakfast---Okay it was cereal, but who do you think I am, Superwife?

Chicken Update

Ahhh...they are here!  Here is an updated picture of the chicken coop---but before I get to that...let's talk about the arrival of these creatures!
Frantically, Jordan and I hustle and bustle to get this coop finished.  We still have to put the roosts up but man we were running out of time.  While Jordan put the final touches on it, I went to go pick up the chickens.  We requested 12.  We knew that we would have to get some roosters with it because the people we got them from told us to...but we didn't realize how MANY roosters we would get.  By the time I got to the place to pick up the chickens, they were already in crates and ready to go.  They packed up ALL of the chickens they had!  Somewhere between 20-25!  Sooo...we get them home.  We tried to sort them because we didn't want to keep all of the roosters and we were giving some to my sister-in law...but it was difficult.  We ended up keeping 12 hens and 4 roosters (for now). 
Ahhhhh they look like dinosaurs when they take off our of the crate!  We didn't know if they would get in the coop or not when it came time to pen them up so we tried to herd them in there (experienced chicken people already know this, I guess) which is very difficult to do.  Everyone but 2.  One hen, and one rooster. 
The rooster takes off for the neighbors yard.  We HAD to get him so they wouldn't hate us for getting these chickens!  The hen gave us the run around for sure.  Under the coop, in a corner, to the back lot, to the front lot, pecked Jordan, and after many close calls of capture, she took off for the cornfield and was never seen again.  Poor girl...
But, here we are with PLENTY of chickens, despite.  Woke up this morning and........no eggs.  COME ON!  Later today, I found 2 eggs but they were in the yard and not in the nesting box....UGH!  Come on Girls!