Good Morning!

Good morning! I recently realized that I have not been true to this blog... I began it with the hopes of simply keeping in touch with family and friends, and eventually as a way to look back a re-enjoy some of the fun we have, but I haven't been doing much of that lately... so, I am returning it to it's origins... Letters from a young mom... to anyone who cares to read them. I'm am quite sure there will be other entries here and there about things having nothing to do with our life... but that's okay too.

As for today... it is smoky again. I'm not sure which of the fires this smoke is coming from, but it does explain the stuffy noses we all woke up with. (It's not even 7am and already I have put Gage back to sleep for the fourth or fifth time, Laeliana is snoozing on my bed after getting up, ready to start the day at 4:30, and Everest has just come in to show me a beautiful feather he found when he let the chickens out this morning. I've agreed to try and make him a hat band so that he can put it into his hat.

I'm amazed at how much Everest loves those chickens. He gets up early each morning to let them out, feeds them the scraps whenever they are available, and asks each day if he needs to clean out the yard. I'm glad he has a sense of responsibility for those birds... granted, he asked me the day before yesterday when we get to butcher them... but at least he knows they need to be taken care of as well. And he is enjoying God's creation while he works. In a few months we'll add gathering eggs to his chicken duties.

Along the lines of chickens... we are heading out to a friend's house today to help garden. She has allowed us to plant much of our "garden" there, which is a huge blessing because even the few tomatoes and peppers than I planted here are struggling, and we are already having water problems. What does this have to do with chickens? She recently had one of her hens wander back into the yard with 13 chicks in tow! The hen had an unknown clutch of eggs stashed somewhere and managed to hatch out 13 beautiful, healthy chicks! So we get to go see them today as well... and unbeknownst to the kids, if another family at the church doesn't want them, Eric said we could bring them home with us. (Not today though! We need to get a brooder box and everything set back up and build another little chicken hut.) I expect about half will be cockerels... which means food in the freezer when they are big enough, and the others should be good laying hens. Either way, they provide food, and honestly, I really enjoy having chickens.

As far as other news here goes... the badger skin from earlier this week is now triple bagged and in the freezer until Eric gets a chance to work on it. Terran seems to be really interested in the whole process - especially in seeing it's brains (which will be used for tanning) which surprises me. He usually doesn't take much interest in this kind of project, but he sure has this time! It'll be good for him to spend the extra time with his Daddy, and I'm sure they will both learn a lot!

And all that said... it's almost 7:00am. Time to get the remaining kiddos up, dressed and downstairs for breakfast.

~Cora