Shock and Excitement!

These were the emotions I felt when I looked out our back window and saw this in the bushes just three feet away.

14 EGGS!

Our silver laced Wyandotte named "Night" started laying eggs but instead of putting them in the nesting box decided that this would be the perfect place. So after 14 days of laying eggs I finally noticed the pile. We had been making comments for two weeks now about her making "egg laying" noises but could never find any eggs. We took 12 of them inside for us to use and moved the remaining two into her nesting box.


After placing her in the box the next day she had taken to it. Just this evening I went out there and the two eggs had become three. Including a blue/green one from a different hen!

It's exciting to start getting the fresh eggs from our own chickens. I'm sure the other two will start laying in about 1-2 weeks. Oh all the excitement at our house!

Farming for the Future

Check out the great photo of my dad with the girls. If you would like to support farm aid by voting for our photo (votes are made by donations) feel free to do so. Just wanted to share the photo with everyone.

Farming for the Future

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Family Update

As you can see from the roofing project we have been very busy at our house lately. I've uploaded a ton of photos from June and July to our flickr account. Feel free to browse them to see how the girls are growing and changing.

Some of the happenings... Addie finished Kindergarten and we celebrated by going taking pizza to the beach one night for dinner. She went to a couple summer camps and is enjoying a lot of time with friends. Both the girls enjoy our Wednesday routine of going to story hour and then the brown bag concert at the local band shell. We have made it to the beach a couple times as well.


Michael finished the chicken coop and it looks great! The chickens love it too. He has started working on the fence to go around the garden but that project will be on hold until his thumb heals (he got it with the saw a week ago).

I'm busy in the garden and preserving all the local fruits and veggies we can get. Margaret is growing up to fast for me! She is changing every day.


It's hard to believe that it is already mid July here because we have only hit the low 80's a couple days this year. For the most part we have been wearing long pants! I'm not complaining about the weather, but it just doesn't feel like summer when we are still having spring weather. That is all that is new that I can think of. Maybe now that the roof is done things will slow down a tad and I can keep the blog updated more often!

New Roof

Thanks to the help of many family and friends we have a new roof! It was NOT the easiest home improvement project that we have tackled to date, but it made doable by lots of help. We had several people help with the actual construction/ deconstruction of the roof, watch kids, make food, and take care of other odd end jobs that needed done.


As you can see we had to remove the two layers of shingles that were already on the roof. It was a full day's job.

Along with the normal roofing we also had to jack up sags in the roof line over the garage were the tresses were spaced a little to far apart of our heavy Michigan snows. We also had to demo the flat roof where it was completely rotted and build a new one.


Putting the paper and shingles on was mainly a two or three person job on the roof. The rest of us did what we could from the ground while the guys rotated turns on the roof.

As you can see roofing is not an easy job. Even watching the work going on can tire a guy out! Working from sunrise to sunset for 4+ days is not a job for the faint of heart.

Here is an upclose shot of the finished roof. The shingles are so beautiful and classic looking. The project turned out just perfect thanks to everyone's help and Derek Vanderwall's expertise. To see more photos of the project check out our flickr site.

The Month of May in Photos

Addie is turning into quite the soccer star. She finished up the spring season with some nice weather (for a change), and we got her signed up for the fall.

Emily has talked about wanting to raise chickens for quite some time. We finally took the plunge. With the garden getting in shape, we'll have a good place for the coup and pen. The girls (all three) are positively giddy about the chickens, who are camping out in the back yard until the coup is done.

The hens are about 2 months old. In a coule more, they'll start producing.

I started their pen this weekend. The 'shelf' on the right is the roost, and the nesting box will go below it. We used scraps and samples from the bathroom floor to cover the floor of the coup.

As, I mentioned, the garden is shaping up. 8 of the 9 beds are in, and we're holding off on the last one since it was already planted.

Last, but not least, we have grass in the front yard! What was quickly becoming a dust bowl, is looking more and more like lawn every day.

A very good month.

Family Update

Again, it's been far too long since we've posted. Trust me, it's not that there is nothing to talk about. Quite the opposite. So much going on, so little time to post. But what's new?

I'll tell you what's new. Most recently, the dogs treed a groundhog. Yes, thats right, and that's him below. Trouble is, we (and the dogs) had no idea what to do with it.


He was about 15-20 feet up and trying to keep his grip. The neighbor had a BB gun, but as soon as he walked over with the rifle, that groundhog made a break for it. At least I have a better idea of where his den is.

Next up is our superstar soccer player, Addie. Saturday was her first game of the season. The girls did well, and several of her teammates had made quite the improvement over the winter. It took Addie a bit to warm up, but once she did, the other girls couldn't stop her.


(That's her with the yellow ponytail holder) She ended up with 3 goals, and very nearly had two others. Once, she had the opening kick. With that, and a second kick she nearly had another goal - the ball missed by about foot.

After the game, Margaret and I went to run some errands and Addie and Emily went to an estate sale. Little did I know they'd come back with a surprise.... haircuts! Addie had been wanting to get it cut short, and we knew it would be easier on all of us.


Here she was reading a book in the living room. Did I mention how great she is doing with reading. She loves it, and it is so fun to catch her reading by herself.

The previous weekend was Easter. It was so nice to be able to spend so much time with both sides of the family.

Emily and I have been busy Sunday nights teaching Financial Peace University at our church. This weekend was class 5 of 13. So far, our class has shredded 138 credit cards, and as of Sunday, two had payed off a car loan. That's a half-gallon Ball jar full of shredded cards.

We've also been busy with home repairs, though slightly less hands on as normal. This weekend, we ordered the shingles for our roof. We are planning to replace it in June or July this summer. A couple of weekends ago we replaced our boiler, and while we had the new one installed prefessionally, we did remove the old one ourselves. The old 'Majestic' incinerator left as well.

After an afternoon of hard labor, Ben and Tom and I agreed, were earned that $1600 that they knocked off the bill for doing this part ourselves. It was neither fun, nor easy, but nothing that the three of us couldn't handle. The new system is below.


Last, and certainly not least is Margaret. She's a busy little bee these days - talking terrorizing and getting into everything. The fun part is that she wants to interact with others more. She loves playing peek-a-boo (usually starting it herself), and she loves to raise her arm at dinner, hoping to get us to do the same.

The Universe and Other Stuff

After weeks of preperation and practice, Addie had her first school play - The Universe and Other Stuff. It was a very funny and entertaining play about science and history.

She had three roles in the play - Asteroid, Woodpecker, and a member of the Stripe Army. She loved every minute of it and did a great job. We were both so proud of her. She knew her lines and did a great job with each role.

After wards, we went out for lunch with family and friends. We had a great time, but discovered that Addie was broken out in hives. Apparently she has some allergies, maybe food allergies. We're waiting to hear back on the latest round of tests.

What is interesting, is that since being in the play, she now has several older friends. It's neat to see girls 3 or 4 years older than Addie wanting to talk to her and telling her how good she did.