It is a chilly day here in Mid-Michigan.  We are still remodeling, but are getting closer to the end.  The wood floors go in tomorrow and after that cupboards!  I will be one happy woman when that day comes!  Here is what we are up to today: Weeding (yes there is a neglected garden out back!)  We finally we able to get the landscaping around the house done this weekend!   The girls are out across the road right now picking mulberries.  We are going to try mulberry jam after lunch!  The bridge across the ditch that my son made many years ago...I love that little thing!  Our new rabbits are finally in their new home.  A deluxe rabbit tractor.  They were quite happy this morning!  I have gotten the primer on the walls in the spare room  The walls and ceilings are all painted! It is hard to see the color here, but it is a light yellow/beige.  I love it~  This is what I have looked like the last few days...

I had to post this just for Terri  She had a picture of their Lab on the couch, and I told her our dogs must be sister, separated at birth!!  This is Bailey's favorite spot (when she doesn't get caught!!)

What miserable weather we have had this week!  Although in the midst of it we were able to get a lot done.  The rabbit/goat barn was cleaned and rearrange this week to accommodate new bunnies.  The chicken coop got a good cleaning yesterday with new bedding.  Our new bunnies are doing well and I think are a little more relaxed today.  I will be moving them into the bigger cage today. Our new rooms are drywalled and are being sanded today, so painting can start.  We have a busy weekend planned.  We are meeting with three families tonight who are interested in attending our home church.  Tomorrow I am hoping to start painting.  Our two oldest sons have been gone since Sunday to a two week music tour with a local christian college.  The kick off concert is Sunday night, then our two boys, plus their two roommates will be staying here with us for the night.  They have a big week of travel next week and then close out the tour next Fr...

I was contacted about a month ago by a woman who was given my name through a breeder.  She had two Angoras that she had to get rid of do to her daughters allergies and asked if I would be interested in giving them a good home.  I was happy because this breeder is one of the biggest in Michigan and she is in the process of retiring from angoras.  For her to give this lady my name and say that they would get a good home here made me feel good! We went this morning to pick them up.  She met us half way and I felt so bad!  She was really having a hard time and I assured her they would be well cared for! So introducing Daisy and Jeffery (Daisy is the front one)

The first day of summer is upon us and we have been busy today!  I did some angora fiber dying this morning.  The kids and I were finally able to get into the gardens around the house without getting into any workers way and got those mostly done today.  We finally are seeing our new rooms comes together and actually have walls!!  The drywall is almost done and then I can start painting and then Hubby will be helping get the wood floors in!  I am so excited.  I feel like I have been in "layover" mode the past month.  I haven't had a kitchen to do anything thing in and even room to do some of the stuff I enjoy isn't available right now until we can get everything back into place.  I hope the next pictures I post will actually be almost finished rooms, and soon! Bright blue angora fiber Dinning room  Kitchen  Kitchen...can't you just see the counters, and the new sink under that window?!?!?  The spare room.  Flower bed by h...

I have had a few questions on how we raised our meat birds. First, everyone does things different, so what we do might not work for everyone. We start our birds in our chicken tractors that my very skilled father-in-law designed for us: We can keep them in here for quite a few weeks, depending on how many we are raising.  Each tractor holds about 12 comfortably.  Now, anyone who has raised meat birds know they grow fast, smell, and eat like ravenous pigs!  We usually feed them a little grain in the morning and night when they are in the tractors.  Now, with this year having our pen for our goats, we decided to move them into that area and cut their feed down to just some grain in the morning and let them free range the rest of the day. They did great!  We butchered them last weekend and they ranged in weight from 4 pound to over 7 pounds for some.  We had no issues with birds struggling to move, in fact I had to chase down some of them to get a hold of ...

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgskvRfeoOH-cv2Wy7pRMfJf9cZJUl2zHqfh4MlDNqDlGwuVBlqiJwomO_3iAQMO35fcd4bdj4ZWtEp5Kx6oNWnxacIWnXI7bcnALGdSOvf-N7Id7Q0FlqIEeGoH1rRXaQe8IiP32dEiGmA/s1600/Barn-Hop.jpg Hubby and I with the help of our youngest daughter, spent Saturday morning butchering meat birds.  Scott and a buddy a work designed and made a chicken plucker and we have been anxious to try it out.  It took the three of us (Bek's broken hand and all) about three hours to completely butcher 23 birds.  Hubby has a little tweaking to do on the plucker, but it worked amazingly well!  Our freezer is full of meat that has been free-ranged and well cared for.  We are tempted to do another batch before summer is through. My grandparents raised chickens for butchering, for many years.  I have many childhood memories of butchering chickens at their farm.  My grandma and Mom often talked about how every Sunday was chicken dinner because ...