Spring is here. Well, it is the second day of spring. After an extra cold winter this year we are ecstatic for the sun and warmth we've had for a few days.
It's so much easier for me to get up in the morning with the sun shining and warmth outside to greet us. We've been doing some fun things this spring that I wanted to post about. These 3 goobers are keeping us busy. They are all going through some fun stages. In no particular order....
Smiles. All. The. Time. From this guy.
Yoseph is potty training. And very independent about it. He told me this morning while going potty, "Mommy can you just leave me alone". Haha, okay. He's making progress though which is fantastic. I'd LOVE to have one less kiddo in diapers!
He loves to have fun all day and will follow his big brother's EVERY move.
Yes, she has rice on her face. My beauty Lydia is walking now. Walking everywhere. And, she must have shoes on. She loves shoes. For only knowing 3-5 real words she let's us know exactly what she wants. And, no shortage of food for her. She's a great eater.... not that you can tell.
Elijah Roo, as I have called him since he was a baby. He's doing great. He's almost done with his Kindergarten homeschooling. He can read short, simple words. Add and subtract single digits. Such a smarty pants and I can't wait to get started on his 1st grade work. He's been doing CrossFit Kids and loves exercising like Daddy.
He's definitely in charge of the little ones. They follow him everywhere.
We've also been making some ambitious plans for this spring. Maybe it's the extra cold winter. Making us dream all these months about the warmth of getting outside. We're planning for a big vegetable garden. Our little seedlings are sprouting. Ignore those little leaves on the left, that's where Lydia got a hold of a few.
AND, these guys! We've been thinking about getting chickens for years. Like literally 5 years. We've finally gotten ambitious enough to do it. I am loving it! Steve is building us a coop. We picked up these 8 girls this week. We have 3 Barred Rock girls, 3 Red Comets, and 2 Brown Leghorns. We think they're all hens, but won't know for sure if a rooster snuck in until they are old enough to get their combs and feathers. And no, you do not need a rooster to get eggs. We keep them in this pen in our guest bedroom. They are too young to keep themselves warm. When evening temperatures can stay above freezing and they have all their feathers, probably in another week we'll put them outside in their coop. Then next year when they're full grown they'll stay out all winter. The boys love just watching them. We fill their water and food twice a day and clean their coop out; so far once a day, but now that we've got a good system of paper towels and pine shavings we might go to cleaning it out every other day. I really am enjoying these little guys. They are one of the only pets who will pay back your kindness to them,,, in yummy eggs. But they won't start laying until they're like 6 months old. They are already 2 months old.
Okay, because I'm a nerd I wanted to share the cost of having chickens so far. We know, it's probably not saving us much money compared to buying plain eggs in the store. Maybe, if you compare free range organic egg prices it's comparable, which these girls eggs would classify as free range, organic. We mainly wanted to do this for fun and to get a little closer to the food chain in what we eat.
Coop costs- the frame was scrap lumber we had access to, the wire cost $45
The Brooder (the pen they stay in until they can go outside)- we already owned the dog kennel, the sides are scrap wood, the roosts are sticks from outside. Only costs were the feeder and waterer totaling $9 and the pine shavings- a huge bag for $9.
The Chickens- we paid a little more than usual for them because they are 6-8 weeks old and raised in someone's home. We paid $60 for the 8 of them. If we had bought day old chicks, which were hard to find if you didn't want to order them online, would have been about 1/2 that cost.
Food- $31 for a fifty pound bag of organic feed that should last 2-3 months
Now, for an adoption update, which has so far been the theme of my blog. We have been on the waiting list since mid-January. Not much has changed. Literally. In those 2 months adoptions as a whole in Ethiopia have almost halted. There has been some new legislation in Ethiopia and some confusion regarding it. Hence no progress for really anyone at any stage in the process. We are holding on. We believe this will pass, but have no idea when. Just this week there have been some signs of progress. So overall, we are just waiting, holding on and waiting some more. As you can see we have a lot to keep us busy for now. We did receive several blessings in the form of grants and gifts in the past 2 months. This has made the funding aspect a little less stressful. We still need a lot for travel costs.
