We have Chicks!

On my quest to a healthy lifestyle over the past years, I have also found a desire to become more self-sufficient. There are the obvious things…such as growing a garden, ect. But for me, it turned into more. The thought of being able to provide for my family without going to the store became exciting. (I sometimes get ideas in my head that are…silly, but I plan and think about them in detail.) Well, I thought about it and decided that we would turn half of our back yard into a garden… (our garden right now is pretty pathetic), that would provide us with vegetables, and we would plant 3 trees, (we already have an orange tree), and maybe a peach tree…that takes care of our fruit, and then a nut tree, perhaps pecan…that would be for our protein. We would be set! Well, not really, but I thought it was a good idea. Well, it’s a few years later and we still just have our little area for our garden (but it has produced a lot of veggies for us) and we still just have our one orange tree. (I am hoping that it gives us more than 2 oranges, like it did last season.) Around that same time that I was having my epiphany of growing as much food as I could on our little ¼ of an acre lot, my friend mentioned getting chickens. I fell in love with the idea! (Okay, I know, I am a little weird.) I have always wanted to live in the country on a farm, and the thought of bringing some farm-ness to my little urban neighborhood was exciting. So, once again, that was a few years ago…BUT it has finally happened. Thanks to Kevin for giving me love and support and for also building the chicken coop! It is taking some time, but it is almost complete. We have had the chicks for a few weeks now, and I know they will be excited to be in their new home instead of crammed in a little box.

Teagan, Maylee, and Livia were so excited to get the chicks. We let them each pick out one that they wanted to take home. There were luckily many to choose from. (We went the week before and the chicks were all sold…it was Easter weekend.)

We let them choose names for their new…pets??? Teagan and Maylee took no time to name theirs. Livia took a little longer. Every name anyone of us suggested, she said “no.” Finally I apparently said a good one, because all the kids said “yeah!”
And the results are…
Teagan- Chirp-ie (“because it chirps a lot”)

Maylee- Beak-ie (“because it has a beak”)

Livia- Brown-ie (me- “because it is a brown color”)

(Oh, that's not Livia holding the chick by the way :) She wasn't too fond of actually touching them for the first day.)

The chicken coop is being built a little bit at a time. Kevin and I looked at pictures of coops online and I liked the ones with a pitched roof, and I told Kevin if it wasn't too hard I would like him to build one. Well, it was for sure a lot harder, but he still did it that way even though I told him he didn't have too. (What a sweet guy.)

Here I am painting away. Maylee and Teagan loved helping with this part. Livia wanted too but, ahh...I made her be in charge of stirring the paint. That seemed to be enough for her so I was glad. I am hoping that by this weekend it will be COMPLETELY done. I might have to post a picture of it then...