Skip to main content

The Missing Link {May 2013 Blog Link Up}

We are elbows deep in dirty diapers, dishes, gardening, and meat chickens right now.  


Spring is such a busy time for us!

My husband has been doing most of the work with the meat birds, beginning with setting up their luxurious cardboard box pen while they were still chicks, needing plenty of warmth:






all the way up to the transition to their new, bigger home out at the old farm, where he has installed a watering system and built some large feeders for them.




We plan on butchering our chickens in the next couple weeks.  This was not easy for me to witness last year  (I am woman enough to admit that I cried), yet this year,  I am planning on dispatching at least one myself.  It is very important to me that I do this actually, even though I am dreading it.  I am very aware of where my food comes from, and that a living creature will be giving its life in order to sustain our own, which is what makes it so hard for me.

But, it is part of life, the food chain, and I feel like it is something I need to do.  I will, of course, document and publish my experience in the next couple weeks.  Hopefully there wont be too many pictures of me crying.  :)

Other than chickens, my month of May has mainly centered around taking care of our children.  


Our twins, Lily and Palmer are just about 5 months old now, and consuming much of my time.  They are future bacon lovers though, I can just tell...




We started them on solids recently.  Their first food?  No, not bacon!  Soft-boiled egg yolk.





I think I might like eggs Mom!



Baby Girl, you have a little something on your face...


My two oldest sons are happy that school is about to be let out.  


And so am I!  I could really use the helping hands at home.  I always like to brag about how much my boys help me out with the babies and the housework.  They are turning in to fine young men.


My eight year old is going through his "Napoleon Dynamite" stage.

My eleven year old is a major bookworm!


May really is a great month.  To me, it says, "Spring is here, and Summer is on its way!"  And keeping with this theme,  I have some great blog posts I have found that I'd like to share--

  • For your green thumb:

Learn how to compost in small spaces from Don't Mess With Mama.










A cheap and easy raised bed idea from Five Little Homesteaders.







  • For your body:

Homemade sunscreen lotion bars from Homemade Mommy.










Try making some calendula balm for skin irritations using Shalom Mama's recipe.






  • For your belly:

Another way to eat dandelions:  dandelion fritters from Growing Up Herbal.







Enjoy this great summer drink recipe:  lavender lemonade from They Call Me Oyster Girl.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Why Did My Chicken Lay That Strange Egg? {Decoding 10 Chicken Laying Issues}

What do you got? A huge egg with two yolks in it?  A wrinkly misshapen egg?  An egg with a soft shell?  Or perhaps the all-inclusive just plain weird looking egg? Whatever it is, I hope to help clear up some of the mystery behind: Why Did My Chicken Lay That Strange Egg?

Soapmakers: Why You Shouldn't Use Vinegar if You Come into Contact with Lye

It was one of the first things I learned when I began making my own soap; I read it in books and on the internet: "Always keep a jug of vinegar on hand when you are working with lye.  Vinegar neutralizes lye." Soapers, have you heard this?  Do you practice the habit of keeping vinegar nearby when you make your soaps?  So did I, until recently, when I read an interesting post on a soap forum, and then decided to research the claim myself.

Homemade Tomato Trellises

Since we love homemade ketchup, spaghetti sauce, and salsa (okay, well I love salsa anyway), tomatoes have become one of our favorite garden plants.  It's so nice having some garden tomatoes in the freezer to cook with all winter long--say, for some good Italian or Mexican food. Since we use lots and lots of tomatoes, it means we must also grow lots and lots of tomatoes.  Growing so many tomato plants, we have always been presented with the problem of what to use for cages or trellises.  You see, tomato plants can grow to be quite large and heavy, which means that if you have no support for your plants, the fruits will wind up developing on the ground--leading to rotting, slug infested tomatoes!  There is nothing more disappointing than having to throw away half of your tomato harvest because pests got to them. Tomato plants that are kept up off the ground typically have better yields, less instance of disease and pest infestation, and are easier to harvest, so we definitely wa