Pigeon Party! Second Birthday

I'm in the mood for a hot dog party!

Have you met the sassy pigeon from the pages of Mo Willems books? If you haven't, you are seriously missing out. Whether he is trying to drive the bus, stay up late or just eat HIS hot dog he never fails to entertain. But be warned: it may be hard not to give into the pigeon because, "What's five minutes in the grand scheme of things?"

When we began reading books to Amelia she quickly became attached to the pigeon and requested we read the books to her all the time. We too loved the pigeon and his antics so it was an easy pick as the theme for her second birthday.

I used my cutting and pasting skills to put together some handmade invitations to invite our friends and family.

Mulberry Crumb Cake

When I think of mulberries I think of the summer after fourth grade. We lived in a house with a mulberry tree in the back yard and my sisters and I assembled a 'mulberry factory' out of pieces of an old swing set. We climbed up into the tree and sent fat, ripe berries tumbling down a shoot and into a bowl resting at the bottom. We were so proud of our creation and our lovely harvest! No one seemed as excited about it as we were though. My mom was displeased with the berry stains and no one was certain if we should actually eat them. We did what any other school age child would do and smashed the berries into the driveway, spelling out our names.

Many years later I of course learned that you can in fact eat mulberries. After finding a mulberry tree at the back of our property I looked into it a little more and learned just how good those little berries are for you. High in many vitamins and minerals such as vitamin C, iron, potassium, and vitamin K, all of which hold great health benefits, it's a no-brainer adding these into our diets. (You can read more of the heath benefits I learned about here and here.)

We picked until our hands were purple and I even stuck my sister up on the ladder to relive our childhood. We picked about 10 cups of berries over the course of a week or so, picking only the ripe berries each time. It was the sweetest thing watching my girls work together to pick only the purple berries and try to fill their bowl! Most of the berries went into the freezer for later use but I couldn't resist whipping something up with a few of them!

Mulberry Crumb Cake

Our First Flock

On a cool April morning we woke early and I loaded the girls into our car with a promise of a surprise they would love. Little eyes lit up with excitement as they tried to guess where we could be going and what we could be doing. (I was surprised at how excited they got at the idea of going through the car wash!) We pulled up outside the post office and into the parking lot. Disappointment washed over Amelia's face as I put the car in park. "Are we running errands!?" she demanded. I smiled in response into the rear view mirror. Marinn was pleased as could be to march into the post office. We haven't done near as many trips to this magical place with her as we had Amelia so she was happy to tag along. I could see Amelia was disappointed with our destination but she didn't miss a beat, instructing little sister in appropriate post office behavior. As she began to explain to Marinn what you do at a post office she began to get excited, maybe we would be getting something mailed to us! We pushed through the double doors that lead to the lobby and Amelia exclaimed, "They're here!" Two steps into the lobby there was the unmistakable sound of chicks peeping. After weeks and weeks of waiting our chicks had finally arrived!

Chickens were high priority this year. Fresh eggs from chickens that we raise and care for is another way of being self sustaining and teaching our girls responsibility. What better way for little ones to be rewarded for hard work than large, brown eggs they retrieve themselves? These chickens will be a source of eggs and meat for us and a way for us to eat healthy, knowing how the animals were fed and cared for. This is our first experience of raising something with the intent of them being a food source. I feel that this first flock especially will be a great learning experience for us and in the end I think we will all have a much greater respect for where our food comes from.

The chicks were sent to us at one day old and from the moment we carried the little puff balls into our home the girls were smitten. They were by my side as we cared for them, feeding, watering, wiping tiny chicken butts (because that is part of chicken parenting), and cleaning their home. They learned to hold them gently and talk softly around them and to check the temperature to make sure they were comfortable. As the chickens began to get bigger they would help me carry them outside to get fresh air and they would dig for worms to feed them as a treat. Now that they have moved out into their coop they help fill the feeder and give them fresh water. There is lots of chasing of chickens and squeals of delight when one is caught. They won't be laying until the fall but I already am excited to see the look on the girls' faces when they collect the first egg!

Two Days Old

One Week Old

One Month Old

Six Weeks Old

A Stroll Through the Garden

I took a stroll through my rain-soaked garden this morning and since the ground is too saturated to weed I decided to bring my camera. I've been snapping shots with my camera and phone to document my first year of gardening. I figure it will be much like my children, I'll forget how far we have come until I look back. (Comparing children to plants? I may have jumped off the deep end- I'm okay with that.)
I have high hopes for a good harvest and despite some set backs due to pests, frost, and 70 mph winds I think we will still have one!

One crop that has succeeded my expectations was our salad bed. Even though the seeds washed together into lower lying areas after a substantial rainfall after planting we have harvested more lettuce than we could eat on our own and we still have a full garden bed full!

What's in the Garden

I had to come inside from planting and weeding the garden to cool off and reapply sunscreen so I thought I would take a minute to share what is in the garden this year. My long term goal is to grow all the vegetables my family eats, but since that is not practical for me to attempt this year the goal is to establish a good garden plot and grow a portion of our food. Since we are starting with a yard full of grass just getting the plot cleared and planted was a task. Many, many hours later we had our 25' x 45' cleared and ready for planting.

After researching where to get non GMO seeds I came across Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, who sells all types of open air pollinated heirloom seeds. They have the best story as to how they got started in seeds and a huge variety of seeds to choose from.  You can find more on them HERE. After deciding I would buy my seeds from them my dilemma became narrowing down my selections to a reasonable amount for our first year of gardening. (If you ever get a chance to browse their catalog you will see why that was so hard to do!) Here is what we planted:

Making Cheese and New Friends

I have a wonderful aunt who has wonderful ideas like taking a cheese making class. It had been on her list of things to do and I was lucky enough to get to tag along earlier this week to join her in the adventure. I'm always interested in learning to make things at home, but cheese seemed a little intimidating to me. My worries were put to ease after meeting our lovely teacher, Christy Harris of Providence Hill Farm. She has been making cheese for a long while now and after hearing how she learned from working in her kitchen with farm fresh milk (traded to her on a barter no less), using a couple books and trial and error, I knew she was the perfect person to show me how it's done. It was a much easier process than I imagined it would be and we took home delicious fresh cheese at the end that could convince most that we were pros!

The Orchard

Top priority after purchasing our home was to plant trees in our orchard. Fruit doesn't start growing for a few years so there could be no delay in getting them in the ground! We took breaks from home remodeling to dig holes and stand out in the back and water them faithfully. It was well worth it, as they are all doing great! Even though they are still pretty small almost all of them had blooms on them this spring and it makes me anxious for the day they will start to produce.

Our orchards consists of: 2 Kieffer pear trees, Bruce plum tree, Granny Smith apple, Fuji Apple, Elberta peach, Reliance peach, Van cherry and Royal Ann cherry tree. This year we will add a second variety plum to complete the orchard.

Lynch Homestead Orchard Year 2

The Orchard