My Favorite Way to Spend a Saturday

This past Saturday was spent my favorite way.
We didn't go out of town.
We didn't host a party.
And no, we didn't spend the day thrifting.

The entire day was spent with our little family,
working together
to complete projects and chores around our home
and our little wanna-be farm.
I am a very goal-oriented, accomplishment-driven,
completion-fulfilled person.
It's my strength.
It's my weakness.
But little else thrills me as much as a day spent with all of us working together, harmoniously, 
getting stuff done.


I spent the day inside, cleaning out our sunroom.
The sunroom was built several years ago as an addition on to the house.
It was a gift to my mom from my dad (he's a carpenter/builder).
It was my mom's favorite room in the house...
in fact, she went to Heaven from this room.
When my dad built the room, they intended it to be used as a three-season room; therefore, no duct-work was extended into this room.
We are usually able to use it from April through most of December, having to close it down for the coldest of the winter months--the months when the nighttime temperatures dip the lowest.
During the months that it's closed up, it becomes a sort of catch-all...
the family "dump" so to speak.
It was piled high with my shipping/packaging supplies, 
winter coats/boots/gloves/scarves/hats/etc, boxes of Goodwill donations, forgotten toys,
 stacks upon stacks of afghans (to sell),
and a forest of house plants, now dead (I had forgotten to move them inside when we closed the sunroom up for the winter).

I didn't take a "before" picture--
I actually forgot to, but you probably think I just didn't want you to see my mess.
Well, maybe.
Be that as it may, this is the "after"...
Right.
Pretty awesome, huh?
Now you see why it was Mom's favorite room.
And it's my favorite, too.


Paul spent the day outside, working on our chicken coop.
We have twenty-two grown chickens (one rooster, twenty-one hens) in the coop right now.
We're raising twelve chicks (inside, in my laundry room, in a large Rubbermaid tub, yes, they'll be moving outside VERY soon, thank you, Jesus!) that will be joining them shortly.
We plan to cull out some of the older hens this fall, keeping next winter's nesting number pretty consistent with this past winter.
The twenty-two chickens that spent much of the cold winter inside their coop created quite a large quantity of....um...shall we say, "compost".
Everything we've read tells you to not clean out your coop during the winter months, no matter how great the temptation may be.
And trust me, though the task appears daunting and distasteful, 
it is tempting to clean it out.  That's how awful it gets.
We set this past Saturday aside as Chicken Coop Clean-Out Day.
Paul pulled the coop (it's built on an old trailer frame) to the back of our property to unload it.  We now have a nice large pile of chicken compost back there, waiting to go in our raised garden boxes (a project for another upcoming Saturday).

We weren't content with our current nesting box configuration, 
so while he had the coop all cleaned out, Paul built a gorgeous new row of nesting boxes...with a little help, of course...
This lady (one of our Barred Rocks) must have been very ready to lay her daily egg.
She clucked and squawked and basically scolded him the entire time he was working in there.

Addison, our five-year-old, who is a total "Daddy's girl",
spent the day outside "helping Daddy".

{{I think my favorite thing about this picture is the way Paul is smiling at her.}}





And this, this just makes my heart smile so hard.
I don't know if there's anything that makes a momma happier than to see her children being loved-on by their daddy.

You know you've had a good day when you get into the tub with feet looking like this.


On Saturday evening, it started raining quite miserably.
The chickens had been in and out of the coop all day long, amidst the moving (we also relocated the coop to a different spot, albeit only fifty yards from the former location), cleaning out, and building.
Naturally, we assumed that they would nest just fine come dark.
Oh no.  Not so.
The phrase "bird brain" didn't come by accident, folks.
Those crazy fowl were all huddled together, in the rain, right where their coop used to be!!!
Paul and Colton had to go out and one-by-one carry them and put them into the coop.

We were a bit concerned on Sunday to see if the ladies would lay for us.
New nesting boxes, new coop location...
any amount of "stress" can spell out disaster for egg production for a day or two.
Thankfully, we thrilled to see that the girls (quite literally) laid their blessing on the new nesting boxes.

{{This is Betsy--we call her our Peregrine Chicken, because of her markings that are uncannily similar to the falcon.}}

Paul and I spent a great deal of time this past weekend chatting, plotting, 
dreaming about our little future-farm.
Right now we have a dog, a cat, and some chickens.
But we'd like to add more.
Bees, goats, turkey, ducks, pigs, sheep--
we've talked about them all.
It's going to have to be God's timing, not ours.
But it's all so exciting...the bits we're able to accomplish little-by-little.
And, for us, dreaming is half the fun anyway.
{{photo of a nearby sheep farm--taken last Friday}}










4 comments:

  1. i think that sounds like a perfect Saturday! my girl is the same way with her daddy and it makes me smile, nothing else like it.
    ps- love the sun room, i'd be in there all the time!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Chicken keeping is the most incredible thing! I never knew it could be so fun. Your pictures are precious. I stayed up LATE looking at your Instagram :)
    I am pcovi.
    I cannot wait to read your entire blog!

    ReplyDelete
  3. i'm so in love with everything you just wrote. my dream is to someday own a tiny farm, and love on some animals, and help them, so that they help others. :) and, i ADORE the sunroom. definitely a favorite!

    ReplyDelete
  4. So sweet! I love pictures I have of Clay with the kids...more precious than gold!

    ReplyDelete

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