Painting the Treehouse

A few days ago, Nathaniel and I added walls to the treehouse.  Today, the boys started painting it:

The treehouse has been a big hit with the kids.  They are looking forward to showing it off to their friends.  

Nathaniel and I also started working on the floors in our room, but we're on break right now due to Lydia's nap.  So hopefully, we'll make some more progress in a while.

Chicks and Carrots

Well, we've moved the chicks to the coop.  They were starting to get out of the box, so it was time.

Lydia loves it because it's much easier for her to catch them.  (She couldn't reach them in the box and had to have help.)

As you can see, they now have tons of space but are mainly hanging out in the far corner.

As for the hens, they are in the small yard with a new shelter.  This picture was taken before Nathaniel killed the rooster.  The hens are freaked out about not being allowed in the coop, but this yard is secure and it will only be for a couple of weeks.  

Today I was very busy sewing doll purses.  I set up my machine at the kitchen table since my room is torn apart right now.  We plan on working on the wood floors in the morning.

And lastly, I took a picture of some of our rainbow carrots.  Last year, I bought seeds for red, purple, yellow, and orange carrots.  We've been able to eat some of the orange and purple, and Elijah got the only yellow one that was ripe enough.  The purple are good, but the orange are super sweet.  

Spring

Spring is finally in evidence full force.  The hyacinths and daffodils are blooming.  Our trees are starting to bud out.  The durn squirrels ate all the tulip bulbs, so there were no tulips this year, but it is getting prettier here all the time.

All this lovely weather has me thinking about the garden.  Those broccoli plants I planted outside look great. If the squirrels haven't bothered them by this weekend, I'm going to plant some more there.  I'll have some in the garden, too, but I may as well use what space I have, since I tend to stuff the garden with tomato and pepper plants.

My seedlings in the sunroom look great.  They are growing.  I planted some basil seeds, too.  I need to plant some more seeds in pots this week, so I can get more things ready to transplant outside.  Nathaniel plans on tilling up the garden this weekend (weather depending), but I won't be planting tomatoes or peppers out just yet.  The broccoli and brussel sprouts can go on into the garden, though, and maybe a few peas or beans can be planted from seed outside.

I'm very sad to note that the large willow tree in our backyard is not turning green like all the other willows around are.  I'm afraid we've lost another one.  There were so many willows here when we bought the house, but we've lost all of the big ones now.  There are still some by the pond, and they look healthy, so I hope to still have willows.  I do really like them.

Just beautiful

The weather this weekend has been just beautiful!  We've been getting some things done while still enjoying the warm sunshine.  Yesterday, we were at a historic site, where we enjoyed walking the gardens:

Do you know how hard it is to get these three to take a decent picture together?

Nathaniel started work on a tree house for the kids.  They are so excited.

And in gardening news, I've had great success with broccoli and brussel sprout seedlings, but I didn't have any tomatoes popping up.  I was seriously considering starting over, when a few days ago:

And more have sprouted since this one.  I've got a few seedlings for Better Boy, Brandywine, and Kellogg's breakfast tomatoes.  I've also got a few cherry tomatoes.   I'm so very happy!  I still will probably buy some plants at the farmer's market in May, but at least I've got some tomatoes already growing, and since I used seeds leftover from last year, they are free!

Since the squirrels attacked the strawberry plants, I transplanted a few of the broccoli seedlings into the empty strawberry beds:

I'll monitor those and see if squirrels also like broccoli plants before I decide if I'll plant more there.  I've still got most of the seedlings in the playroom.

Zoo day

We're really enjoying spring break.  Today we went to the zoo, and the kids were really disgusted with me when they realized that I didn't bring the camera.  Oh, well.  It was cool this morning, and it was nearly empty for the first half of the zoo.  It didn't start to get crowded until we were almost done.  The kids (and I) got to touch an elephant tusk and snow leopard fur.  That was pretty neat.  Also, we got to see an elephant tooth up close.  It's about as big as Lydia's head.

When we got home, I did take a picture of Malachi's outfit for the day.  He came in wearing the Irish soccer outfit, and I pointed out that it's too cold for shorts, so he added the red pants.  He says he should have worn this outfit for April Fool's day, because it looks like Christmas.  Add the skeleton jacket and orange sandals (with socks!) that he wore to the zoo, and he had quite a look going.

Egg dyeing

I realize that it is after Easter, but we didn't dye eggs beforehand because we decided to go visit family out of town at the last minute, so today we dyed eggs.  

It's a really fun activity, even if you do it the week after rather than the week before!  I boiled a dozen for each kid, so they had tons of fun dyeing a whole 12 eggs a piece.

Do you notice how wild Malachi's hair has gotten?  I can't get it to lie down at all.  I think it's time for a haircut!

Chicks!

 Well, we went to Tractor Supply today, and now we have chicks:

We bought 20 barred rock chicks, which are straight run (boys & girls), and 10 red sex link pullets (all girls).  This should set us up for great egg production come November or December, and we'll have some roosters for meat, too.  Our current three chickens are in the coop.  The two hens lay eggs nearly every day.  The chicks are in a cardboard box in the garage, and they'll stay there for at least a couple of weeks.  They need the warmth and protection since they don't have a mama hen.  Oh, and the guy at Tractor Supply taught me 3 ways to sex chicks, in case we want to know.  He said he's really not supposed to show people, but it was interesting.  Maybe I could even figure it out myself.  I don't think it would do you much good if you were buying from a place like Tractor Supply, where you don't get to physically pick out your own chicks, but it would come in handy elsewhere, including just for us to know about our own chicks.

And I hope everyone had a happy Easter.  We sure did.  

He is risen!