Back Yard Chickens in the Winter

I love having Back Yard Chickens!  It is one of the best choices I have ever made :-)  We are going into our second winter with our Chickens and if you have taken the plunge at getting  your own back yard chickens and are unsure about how take care of them in the winter,  I thought I would let you know what I have learned over the last two years. 


#1 Chickens are very hardy and do fine in the winter if you follow certain guidelines.

#2 If you want your chickens to continue to lay eggs during the winter you need a light in their coop to simulate the sun.  Naturally chickens want to stop laying eggs in the winter and their bodies tell them to stop when the days get shorter.  I gave my chickens about a month off from laying because it is not good for them to lay constantly, but it was hard on us because there is a huge difference between the taste of the eggs you get at the store and the eggs you get from your own chickens! (the store bought eggs have a sulfur taste) after going off our chicken eggs for a month my 15 year old daughter said she is never eating store bought eggs again!.  If you have a small coop make sure the light is not directly on them because they will get too hot.  I use a infrared light so that it is not so bright on them while they are roosting/sleeping.

#3 Make sure you get Chicken food with a higher protein content in the winter.  In the summer they get plenty of protein from the bugs and things they eat while they are free ranging, but in the winter they don't have that luxury.  I also throw a handful of dog food in with my chickens food each day and they love it!  I like to get the lay mesh Chicken feed from the IFA store.

#4 It might be wise to get a water warmer bowl for the winter so that their water does not freeze.  I have yet to get one because I am too cheap!  So everyday I knock out the frozen left over water and pour in hot water that cools off quickly in the winter air.  Chickens need plenty of water to drink  to lay well.

#5  Keep their coop clean they like to lay eggs in nice fresh straw.  I know it is cold and it is tempting to put it off so you don't freeze your hiny off, but it is worth it for you and for them.

#6 Keep your chickens moving.  It helps them stay warmer.  I like to sprinkle feed outside there coop so that it gets them out and moving on those colder days. 

#7 Keep a heat/light lamp in their coop to keep them warm especially during the really cold winter months.  Like I said Chickens are pretty hardy, but can't handle freezing temperatures without some help.  My neighbor last year had her light go out on her with out her knowing and two of her hens froze to death when tempts went below freezing one night. 

So that is my winter advice for chickens :-)  Let me know if you have any questions.

-Michelle

Make your own vintage calendar!

I found this adorable website "The blue door"  she has Betsy McCall paper doll issues from the 1950's -1990's. 
Starting in 1961 every January issue they would have seasonal calendar pictures that you could cut out and past onto blank calendars that you could find at drugstores back then. Here is an example below.
 I thought it would be fun to make My own cute vintage calendar with the modern tools we have now using these cute pictures :-)  Go to The blue door to get the PDF form.  I then used my "My Memories" digital scrap booking program to crop out each seasonal picture and then I found that Vista Print has a 50% off sale on all their custom printed wall calendars making it $7.99 (the cheapest price I found on wall calendars, but you can uses whichever photo center you would like) I sent all the pics over to Vista print and I dragged them into the blank calendar spaces for each month. Once you drag into the spot vista print lets you edit/ crop the photo so it is a perfect fit.   Yay! It turned out so cute! I can't wait to get it! 



 This would make a great gift for family and relatives for Christmas! Or a fun January gift :-) That way they are ready for the new year with their new calendar with customized important dates :-)

The latest :-)

So if any of you saw my post about Tortas here is what I did with the leftovers! 

For breakfast the next day we made Molletes! (an open faced Mexican pizza.)  (Kind of like a french bread pizza) Like I said before this is a breakfast version so we did the black refried beans, eggs, Chorizo, cheese and salsa. Then I broiled them.  So hearty and so filling! So anyway I just had to share that :-)

So I have been thinking a lot lately about how food prices are going up.  Gas prices etc.  I have been feeling more and more that I don't want to be a slave to stores and be more self sufficient.  OK before you start thinking I am a fanatic I want you to know that I really am just  a regular person like you.  I am just learning more and more as my family has been affected by the bad economy that things I used to think I could only buy at the store I can make easily and it is much more healthy! Like the Chorizo I made the other night.  I would have never guessed I could make my own Chorizo!

And today My daughter and I made our own  Wheat Thins!

I love wheat thins!  and I can't believe how it cost us just pennies to make at home compared to what you pay at the store and they taste so close to the real thing without all of the preservatives!  I found the recipe here

Some other easy to make good snacks to make for your family are granola bars, tortilla chips, graham crackers, I am still discovering others :-)

I don't know if you remember that I have Chickens (only hens).   We got them last spring.  They started laying eggs in August and have layed all winter.  I can't tell you how nice it has been to never be out of eggs!  And they taste so much better! 

Now my latest venture is starting to get ready for my garden this spring.  I have it all planned out and I have been itching to get my hands in the earth.  Winter just go away already! I am already starting some of the cool weather veggies inside. Like lettuce, Leeks, green onions, spinach, etc.  I planted them last Saturday and I already have little starts coming up from my onions and lettuce! You can find supplies at the dollar store to start your seedlings.

                                                                           butter crunch lettuce

                                                      green bunch onions

I have done kiddie pool gardens the last two years because I don't like to deal with weeds, but this year I am going to try Lasagna Gardening.  It is supposed to have minimal weeds by using this gardening technique also.  Check out the link above and There is another good link here.  You may be interested too :-)  This year I want to pretty much grow all the things my family will eat veggie wise. I also want to grow herbs and more Strawberries.  I actually want to grow strawberries on the parking strip in front of my house, but I worry that I may not be ambitious enough to do that, but It is an idea I have been kicking around for a couple of years now.  I have heard lately that due to different natural disasters around the world that there have and will continue to be produce shortages. Prices will go way up or things will not be as available so I have decided as many of the rest of you have that as much as I can grow myself the better all around!

Mothers day gift ideas!

Mothers Day is coming up soon!
It has been a difficult holiday for me ever since my mom passed away from cancer 3 years ago at the age of 72.
 My mom loved flowers and so for Mothers day it was always a no brainer as to what we would get her (besides a card).
I have such fond memories of her proudly wearing her Mothers Day corsage to church that my Dad would buy her every year  ( A Mothers Day practice that is sadly becoming extinct).  She would put other flowers she got  in a vase and have it be our  table center piece as long as they were alive.
It was so hard for me that first Mothers Day without her. Going to the store and seeing all the Mothers Day cards and flowers and  knowing that for the first time in my life I could not get my mom a Mothers day gift :-(
But it was nice to remember that I have sisters, sister in laws a Mother in law and friends who are mothers that I can celebrate.
Do you ever have a difficult time coming up with a new gift ideas each year for mothers day?
 I want to do a better job at getting mothers day gifts for my sisters.  Every year for the last 3 years I have wanted to get them special Mothers Day gifts to help fill the void that I know they are feeling too, but I have failed miserably so far.  Mothers day always sneaks up on me and I am always too late!  This year sadly might be the same,  but hopefully not!
Here are some fun ideas I found.

This is my favorite!  Beaducation has the neatest ideas and here is one  that I thought would make a perfect gift for my sisters. If I did it I would  have just a single photo of my mom (like a black and white younger one of her). Then I would stamp the words " My Mom Forever" or something like that.
The Idea room also has a cute mothers day necklace idea.

I also thought a stitchery would be  a nice thing that you could hang up year round.  I like this one in the pic above from Twin Stitchers Except I would add the word Angel before the word mother. 

How about a cute apron!  They are so popular right now and every mother can  use one. 

 This one pictured about is a Flirty apron you can get a coupon code here.

You can make one if you are feeling ambitious.  Here is one I made for my Sister in law last year. There are tons of cute patterns out there to choose from.

If you have a Tai pan trading near you they are having a great sale on cute aprons with cute fabrics for something like $12.95 each.

Potted plants!  these are a good old stand by that never gets too old.

I  hate the idea of cut flowers.  I aways feel sad when they die!  So I like to give potted flowers as gifts. they can eventually be planted into the ground. 

 I like to get one every year for my mother in law and it is fun to go to her house and see the flowers in her flower garden from Mothers days past :-)

If any of you have some great Mothers day ideas also. post a comment about it.  I would love to hear your thoughts.

Preparing for gardening this Spring!

I have been thinking about the upcoming gardening season and what I want to grow this year.  I planted 3 kiddie pool gardens last year and I was very pleased with my results!  I want to do that again this year and add a forth kiddie pool garden to plant  herbs.   While blogging this morning I saw this post from V and Co. She has started plant starts for her garden already.  I have decided that I want to do that too!  I have seeds I can use from past gardening attempts.  Last year I bought starts from Wal- Mart but I think it would be more rewarding to start my own this time around.

As for flowers I found a neat blog called Meadow brook farm. She has some great advice on how to mix your annuals with your perennials and lots of other great tips.  A warning though!  The pictures on her blog will give you a giant case of spring fever!  I don't where the rest of you live, but here in Utah the weather still thinks it is Winter in April! :-(

Science Fair boards

    I was up very late last night helping kids get their Science Fair boards ready for today.  We were all delirious and moody by the end, but some how we made it through! I am to the point where I dred this time of year and the whole science fair thing. And after it is all over I have a hard time knowing what to do with the board, but today Tip Junkie featured  great idea from Amanda's Blog Raising tomorrows men   She made a homework station out of a science fair board.  I love the idea! 

Awesome blog!

Hey this is Paula, I ran across a really fun blog that I thought I would share with the rest of you. It is http://betterafter.blogspot.com/ It has really inspired me to stop passing up some things at the thrift store or yard sales that I think are too outdated or worn. I'm excited to go find something to redo! Actually, now that I think about it, I have a few things in my house I need to redo already. I'm going to add them to my growing list of crafty things to accomplish! I promise to post pics. Here is a picture of a little cabinet I redid not long ago, but unfortunately I don't have a 'before' picture because, as usual, I forgot to take one! But, just imagine it as a raw wood peice because that's what it was. :) I needed something smallish in my 'powder room' downstairs to store toilet paper and towels, but couldn't find anything for less than $100. I finally found this little cabinet at Michaels one day, used my 40% off coupon, brought it home and got to work! I love it when that happens!

Freshly painted front door and shutters

We bought a fixer upper house 2 1/2 years ago.  It has been a slow work in progress and one of my desires for the longest time was to paint our front door and shutters black instead the worn out faded forest green shutters and the dingey white door.  And finally we did it yesterday!  It looks so much better!  It is not perfect you can see a couple dents in the door still even though I was sure I had filled them all, but it is a huge improvement to what it was!  Part of the reason it took me so long to do this project is because I was not sure how to do it, but with research and help from the lady at home Depot we finally got enough courage to try it. 

1. Take  door off hinges take off hard ware 

2. sand it.  I used my mouse sander by black and decker it made that job much faster.

3. If there are any dents fill them in

4.While that was drying I painted the frame around my door a nice crisp white.

5. Now you can paint the door!  We used an exterior paint with primer already in it by Behr to save an extra step.  first apply with a angled brush you will need 2 or 3 coats.  And then go over it with a  roller to give a more smooth finish.  It is wise to set the door up on a couple of chairs so it is raised up off the ground and also do it in a garage so that dust and bugs don't fly into the paint.

6. put hardware back on and rehang door.

For the shutters we used a heavy duty industrial exterior spray paint.

Family Command center

I want to make a family command center similar to this photo. I have longingly wanted to duplicate something like this for a couple of years now. I also saw some cute ideas on the Tip Junkie blog if you want to visit there. My favorite Idea was a magnet board idea from http://controllingmychaos.blogspot.com/2009/08/another-problem-solved.html

I had it posted on my blog yesterday before I found out that I needed special permission to use photo's from her blog whoops!. Anyway so my goal is to have a house hold command center by the end of this week!

Update:  You can find the command center/ schedule board that I made here :-)

Magic eraser

One of my new favorite things is the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. It has cleaned things that I thought would never be clean again! For instance my kitchen sink is white and there have been these stains that just would not clean. The magic eraser cleaned it off like it was nothing! It also works great on the stove. I also have stainless steal pots and pans that I hang from my Pot holder above my counter that I like to stay looking nice because they are displayed for all to see. The Magic eraser cleans that dark tinge that can build up on the bottoms of the pots and pans. It also works great in the bathroom too (sink/tub)!

I have tried the Wal-Mart knock off brand, but It does not clean as well as the Mr. Clean brand.

Make old fixtures look more modern!

Today I found this great oil rubbed bronze spray paint by "Krylon"at Kmart of all places! I have had plans to spray paint all my gold/brass knobs and fixtures for a long time, but have not been able to find the oil rubbed bronze paint. My 13 year old daughter thought I was weird for acting so excited over finding it, but Yay! I can't help being excited! So here is an example of a light fixture that I painted today when I got home. I can not believe the difference!

Easy kiddie pool garden

So I think a lot of people have had to make changes with the crazy economy right now. One of those changes being growing your own fruits and veggies. I have always wanted to have a garden. I tried one a few years back and I was too ambitious and planted a huge garden that had every plant you could think of. I got over whelmed and eventually it was over run by morning glory and other weeds that I could not keep up with and I gave up. A friend in my neighborhood had some beautiful raised container gardens that she said were much easier to take care of. So this year that was my plan. My biggest obstacle was if my husband would have time to build me some frames before the planting season. Then on one of my many trips to my local Wal-mart I saw the cheap plastic kiddie pools in the garden dept. And I was struck by a revelation that they could be my containers! But knowing if it was even possible I looked it up on the Internet when I got home and learned that others do it and you just have to make sure that you poke drain holes in the bottom so you don't get root rot. I planted only the veggies and fruit that I buy at the store, like zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, green and red bell peppers and watermelon and then I also planted pumpkins so we could have our own for Halloween. It has turned out great and I have not had to pull out one weed because I was able to control what I put in the pools. Steer manure, Miracle grow time release garden soil and peet moss. This is how I am going to plant a garden for now on!