March 2015 - Life on the Pharm

March = Springtime = sunshine = watching 7,534 one on one basketball games, Ben v. Des.

March = Springtime = sunshine = family walks through the woods = sometimes holding hands = mama's heart melting

March = Springtime = sunshine = buying way too many baby chicks (because how can you resist baby chicks...even though they have to live in your house and do nothing but make your whole life smell like poop, but my gosh they are cute.)

March = Springtime = sunshine = taking said baby chicks on their very first outing to the grass and protecting them like crazy from hawks and dogs and honestly, kids.

March = Springtime = sunshine = much more fun on the farm!

July - Grandma Mary here!

The day our Schatzel family left, we hustled and bustled to clean up and get ready for Grandma Mary to arrive that evening! Grandma arrived from Oregon bringing loads of gifts and fun projects and we spent the next 5 days playing and showing her some of the wilder sides of farm livin'. :)

She brought lots of cute outfits for the kids including this precious dress for GG. Grandma loved her in it so much she took tons of pics of her in it. Here are just a few:

 

 

Everyday we would check the garden and the hens and the steer. We would visit with Gaga and play outside. Grandma would play and read with the kids and do lots of art projects. But then sure enough some crazy stuff happened too. Our steer got out which led to 2 days where we had to search and search and search and eventually hire out cowboys to find him. They did and stampeded him back to his pen in awesome fashion. We had a chick get stuck in a tree. We had a raccoon in the henhouse in broad daylight that Brad had to shoot. There was just plain craziness every single day. :)

 

We balanced all of that with a nice lunch at Grandma's favorite restaurant, Cracker Barrel where we relaxed in the rockers out front.

 

GG wore that cute dress again:

 

We made plenty of time for hanging out and resting:

 

And for fun crafts. Grandma brought these rocks from her house and we painted them. She took some home for her garden and we have some here. So sweet. The kids also decorated their initial that I have on my back porch now to remind us of Grandma.

And even with all that fun we still found time to sew! Grandma brought tons of fun fabric and patterns with a plan to sew a few dresses for GG. We picked out our favorite to start and made not one but TWO dresses in a day. She had planned perfectly and got plenty of fabric so that we could make an extra matching dress for Breckin. :) She is an expert at this stuff and has taught me so much. This was a pretty easy pattern to follow (easy meaning she had to sit right by me and walk me through it and I didn't cry one time!) and we were so excited with how they turned out. We even made matching headbands! EEEK!

 

 

We had such a nice time together. It was a relaxing week (with the exception of those 3 crazy farm animal events) and we loved having her here. A week with Grandma is never enough but it sure was fun!!!

Grandma captured this cute video on her camera but I die laughing every time I watch it because of Brad and Des trying to do handstands in the background! So funny!

Time with the Hens...

The farm family grows...

On February 5th we welcomed 13 new little members to the farm family. We drove to the Country Hatchery in Wewoka and picked up the cutest little chicks you ever did see. All of them had hatched THAT morning and were so tiny and so adorable. We picked 4 Austrolorps, 4 Americaunas and 4 Leghorns. The hatchery guy threw in an extra Leghorn for good measure and gave us a tour of the place. He was super helpful, kind and informative. Just he and his son run the place, hatching over 9,000 chicks a week and shipping them world wide!!!

As soon as we got them home we started cuddling them right away. All three kids were really excited, even g. Ben was so sweet and gentle with them and decided he liked the white ones the best. He took time holding each and every one and talking to them telling them that we would take good care of them. He instructed Des how to hold them and would hold them up close to his sister so she could see them. They were so tiny and so cute.

The very next day Katie and Liv came down for a visit. They helped us pick out names and we decided to call all of the white ones Blanche, all of the black ones Roxie, and all of the brown ones Cinnamon. They are too hard to distinguish just yet but eventually their feathers and personalities with come in. 

By day two the girls were already starting to get wing and tail feathers and had almost doubled in size. Before we left for yoga, Ben and I were in there holding them and I thought one was particularly sleepy. Welp, as soon as we got back, Ben went back in to check on them and he came out holding Blanche 1 with huge tears rolling down his face. "Mommy? I think this one died." Once I confirmed it you can't even imagine the things this sweet little boy began saying. First he was convinced if we just could blow on it it might come back to life (visions of CPR???). Then he was wailing asking the chick to take him with it to heaven...that he didn't want to stay here but instead wanted to go to heaven to be with his favorite chick. He wanted to know if the chick would be able to open it's eyes in heaven or if it would be dark. He wanted to know who would be there with it... It was so bad I called Brad to see if he could somehow come home and help me with all the grief. After about an hour and lots of counseling on the after life, he perked up a bit. 

The next day we lost another Blanche. I wasn't there this time around. Ben found her too but apparently just told Brad, "Well. They can be together and now when I get to go to Heaven I'll get to have my two favorite chicks with me. And, can we get another one?"

The other 11 have survived and thrived. They are well into their awkward teenage stage with bald patches and scrawny necks. They grow so fast, it's crazy. We've already had to separate them into two brooders because they ran out of room, but they are still inside until the weather is a bit warmer.

Brad researched and researched and got three that we'd never had, were good for the type of coop we have, and are excellent layers. Then, once we got them, we thought...why do we need 11 hens that are EXCELLENT layers? We are gonna have almost a dozen eggs a day! Whoops! So, if you ever need any eggs...

Welcome to the farm family Blanches, Roxies, and Cinnamons!