Living the Country Life: first weeks of summer break!

We have had some busy weeks so far for summer break. I could get used to this being home every day thing I think...

We wrapped up our first year of chicken raising. We took them in bright & early one morning & Charlie got a crash course it chicken processing. He didn't seem to be bothered by us getting rid of them but was sure we were taking them to the grocery store. He kept saying he wanted to eat them but didn't understand what all needed to happen between now and then. I was clueless about the process they used, but I am so glad Erik came along. Turns out "it" happens pretty much as you unload them. Not sure I could have handled that. We took in 51 birds and we have 1 runt yet at home. He weighed 1.6 pounds the last time we weighed him. I'm not exactly sure what we will do with him, but for now he is living at the neighbors in her outdoor chicken area.

They ended up averaging 6.7 lbs so they were plenty big. We brought them home & weighed up the ones we were selling. The biggest one I weighed was over 9.5#! Most were right around that 6lb area though. We spent the rest of the evening delivering chickens to people who bought them. I know we didn't MAKE money on this adventure, but considering we have 20 chickens in our freezer that we didn't have to buy at the store, I think we did alright. Next time (...) hopefully we won't have as high of a death loss. Losing them early wasn't so bad but when you've put lots of feed in them and then they fall over....well that's a little harder to deal with.

Erik found a little bike on a FB garage sale site for $5 so we had to buy a helmet & training wheels. Charlie has spent some time practicing in the garage since that's the only remotely flat terrain we have. He's getting pretty good already, especially for just going in circles. He did get a chance to practice in town when we went to the library for story time one day & I think that helped.

They love playing Simon Says, too.

Last week, Erik was in Orlando for work so we went down to the chores farm for the week. Molly & grandma were also out of town so we helped with Haiden in the mornings & at night. Of course, Levi loved every minute with "baby". The weather was pretty rotten and rained a lot but we still had fun. We got together with friends one day, went to Sue's one day to ride the ponies, went swimming with Tyler & went to grandma's one morning to visit. Charlie & Grandma had lots of fun playing games. The rest of the time they spent in the barn helping with chores. Charlie (well both of them) skipped naps completely for a couple of days and it was pretty apparent that Charlie is NOT ready to give up his nap yet. They made it about 2.25 days off of their schedule before it all went south. They were totally fine as long as they were outside. But when they came in, they were a couple of ticking time bombs & it was just a matter of time. We had fun, but were very happy to get back home to our normal schedule & beds.