I took this picture a year ago. It has very little to do with homemaking and everything to do with how I feel right now. This time of year, I crave color. Change! I’m done with winter and so ready for spring. Good thing that all of these things are right around the corner.
Here’s what’s happening at our home this month:
- My husband and I are planning to raise chickens, both for the eggs and the education. Our kids are super pumped about it, and I think it’ll be a fun family project. Right now, Backyard Chickens is our favorite resource. It is packed with great information. Anyone have advice for raising chickens? Throw it our way!
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We are trying to narrow down a coop design that we’ll start working on in the next couple of weeks. Right now we are leaning toward the NW Garden Coop. It will look exactly like this, minus all the coordinating lumber, hardware, paint, and decorations. My husband has been collecting scrap lumber and pallets for months, of course. And I’m sure he has enough random hardware, collected from other projects, to hold it all together. Chickens don’t care about Pinterest, and our coop is going to be awesome. Stay tuned!
– - Most of you gather eggs from your local grocery store instead of a backyard coop. For more information on the eggs you buy, read our post All About Eggs: How to decode egg carton labels.
– - At our home, we set DIY goals each month, split into big and small projects. Typically we complete 50% of each list in any given month. But hey, it’s nice to have a goal, and we’re still crossing off 100% more items than if we didn’t have a to-do list at all. This month we are also focusing on the interior of our home, hanging window blinds (must. save. energy!), replacing trim (which we bought 2 years ago), and finishing up a few pesky projects. Even though some of these tasks take forever (we live with 4 small monkeys disguised as children), we still love the savings and satisfaction of doing the work ourselves.
– - Like clockwork, every March I make a lot of Asian and Mexican-inspired dishes (how’s that for an overgeneralization? but you get the idea). Along with color, I crave flavor. So, our menu plans will include dishes using Crockpot Pinto Beans and Black Beans as a base for burritos, tacos, tostados, or Huevos Rancheros.
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I also love Rice Bowls piled high with fresh ingredients and a flavorful sauce. Yum. What are your go-to dishes to bust out of the winter doldrums?
Catch up on previous months:
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What is going on around your home this month?
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My sister has three hens and gets about a dozen eggs per week from them. They are very cute, full of personality, and stay in the yard even though she leaves the front gate open all the time. They have been great at keeping the bug and pest populations down, too. Big drawback: they poop EVERYWHERE. I can’t walk from my car to her front door without getting poop all over my shoes. And I hesitate to let my kids play in her yard, as they carry salmonella. Here’s some good info from the CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/features/salmonellapoultry/
We are planning to add chickens this year as well! I am trying to figure out how to use our old trampoline as a “yard” that is movable, and somehow side it with predator proof wire, and incorporate a hen house in it. So excited! I’ll definitely be watching your progress and sharing some of our ups and downs as well.
Our family raised chickens for 3 years. It was fun, but alot of work. We would always buy new chicks every spring and then sell off the 1.5 year old’s 6 months later when the chicks started laying. Be sure the keep both flocks separate if you do this, otherwise the older ones will peck the younger ones to death. I rotated them out this way because after a couple of year they have a reduction in egg production. And I couldn’t bring myself to eat them and I couldn’t afford to keep feeding them if they weren’t laying eggs. Plus they’re still sell-able at 1.5, since they’re still laying. I suggest the portable coop if you have the land. This way they could eat fresh grass and bugs everyday. Plus fertilize the ground at the same time. And no clean up.
MAN (to psychiatrist): Doctor, my brother-in-law thinks he’s a chicken.
DOCTOR: Bring him in; I can cure him.
MAN: No, I’d better not; we need the eggs.
We added chickens to our farm last year. We have 7 and they provide enough eggs for our family of four (plus some extras in the warmer months!) We have three Red Star, three Buff Orpington and one Golden Laced Wyandotte. The Red Stars give us the nicest, biggest eggs but the Buffs have a nicer personality (if chickens have personalities?) Have fun…I didn’t think I would enjoy chickens but it was fun to raise them from chicks and we love the eggs!!
If you only plan on getting a few might I suggest getting a variety of breeds. Seeing dark brown, light brown, speckled, white and green eggs let you know who is laying and who is slacking and it’s fun to keep track.
We are working on finishing up our big 2014 project … redoing our 1967 bathroom and it is looking amazing (we started it in February and I have waited 4 1/2 years since we moved in to do it!). It will be nice to have it completed by summer.
Chickens are wonderful. Our first year we had 8 Rhode Island Red day old chicks (and 3 years later we have all of them still) … each year we seem to diversify … now we also have French Black Copper Marans, Easter Eggers and Olive Eggers (which we hatched from our own stock last spring). Not sure what our chicken plans are this year yet … hopefully next month we will be thinking chickens 🙂 Good Luck, I’m sure you and your family will love them!!!
My Parents raised chickens for years, one of my childhood favorites was the Turken breed. The common misconception is that this breed is part turkey and part chicken, the reason for this is that the Turkens have a featherless neck, as a child I thought this was really cool.
The website http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/turkens-chicken-breed-page offers great information. I highly recommend this breed not only for the delicious eggs they lay, but also for the uniqueness they offer to a backyard chicken coop.
I grow up at small European village, so we had chickens. Right know I’m buying organic eggs and only I can say is that they don’t taste as eggs from our farm. Farm eggs are much better, or maybe I love my children hood so much, and because of that I think they taste better:) However if you ask me daughter how give us eggs she’s going to say: ” Fridge”:) Sadly we don’t have back yard to raise chickens.
I do have a lot DIY in plan, first will be to extend our kitchen cabinets, and after that to paint them in white (hate color that we have now:))))
Good luck with your projects:)