Picking Strawberries

A few weeks ago we traveled to Pott's Farm in Wartrace to pick strawberries and blueberries.  When we got there we loaded up on bug spray and grabbed our baskets to start picking.  We read our instructions on which strawberries to pick and headed to the field.  Little did we know we were going to have to walk forever to get to where the strawberries were.  We of course went the wrong way around.  If we would have paid more attention we would have noticed that in the beginning.  But who can pay attention when you are chasing around an 18 month old?  Once we got there we quickly noticed that there wasn't much to choose from.  We obviously came at the wrong time.  They had been picked through and wasn't much there.  We did find a few but we all expected our baskets to fill up a little quicker.  After what seemed like we had been picking forever, there wasn't much in our baskets.  It was hot and the bugs were getting the best of us.  We wanted to pick blueberries too.  After the strawberry ordeal and 2 hot, hungry, unhappy children we opted to buy already picked strawberries in addition to what we had picked, skip the blueberries for another day and grab a snack.  Katy, Alex and Maggie picked strawberry ice cream.  Liam and I chose a strawberry honey popsicle.  We hung out under the carport until we were all done and then headed back to Manchester!

Liam's strawberries.  His job was to carry the basket and leave them in there.  As you can see, we lost a few along the way!

What's a hot day without a meltdown?

Playing with Alex

 Alex is such a sweet boy!

 Liam had to stop for a game break.  That boy loves his technology.  Alex was making sure he was doing it right :)

Summer Day with Alex

I am once again behind in blogging (Sigh!) About a month ago we went to my friend Katy's house to play with her son, Alex.  Katy and I have been friends for a long time and it is nice to have a friend who has someone to play with "baby Liam" as Alex calls him.  Katy called us one day and said they were playing outside in the sprinklers and wanted to know if we wanted to join. So I packed up a lunch, put Liams bathing suit on him and we picked up Aunt Maggie and headed her way!  Liam wasn't so sure about running through the sprinklers by himself.  He would run around them instead.

I had to intervene and run him through the sprinklers....

This was his reaction afterwards ....

"Look at me!!!"

Aunt Maggie ran me through them too! This time it was more fun!...

He would much rather play with the gator ...

We tried playing with water in the little tub...

Then we moved into the big tub! ...

Alex liked to drive him around.  Liam didn't mind a bit! ...

"HIIIIII" as he says.  And sometimes it's "HIDEE" :) ...

Little Gardener

For the past two days Maggie and I have been working on a garden.  Maggie did all of the work getting started on it.  She tilled up the dirt and planted the first two rows of veggies.  I came over late yesterday afternoon and helped some.  This morning I got up early and ran.  After breakfast we met Maggie, Katy and Alex and went to CO-OP to get some more plants.  We made a stop at Wal-Mart to pick up some Liquid-Feed to fertilize the plants once a week.  When we got back to Maggie's house Katy and I put our kiddos down for a nap.  It was about to rain so we figured we needed to hurry up and plant so that we could get it all done today.  We planted all of our favorite things.  We planted jalapeños, cayenne peppers, bell peppers, banana peppers, tomatoes, yellow squash, zucchini squash, okra and cucumbers.  We plan on doing a few more things but thats all we have so far.  After nap time Liam decided he wanted to help water the plants.  Here are some pictures of our little gardener.

This is Liam's poor little (dead) plant.  He accidentally fell on him and broke him in half.  We tried to save him but it doesn't look like his is going to make it.

He liked playing in the mud puddles that Maggie made when she was watering the plants.

They found another plant that was on its last leg.  We think one of Maggie's dogs ran over it.

Washing off our muddy hands.

Aunt Maggie acting like she is going to spray him.  He thought it was hilarious!

Our semi finished garden.

I will be sure to update when they start growing and are ready to pick!!!

The Chicken or the Egg?

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?  For us, it was the chicken.  A day later, the egg came.  We decided that Liam should get to eat the first egg!  I had to work that morning, so I told Ryan that he better take pictures.  This is what I got :)

This boy sure does love his eggs!!!

Chickens

Here recently Ryan and I have been talking about getting some egg laying chickens.  One, it would be be something other than a dog for Liam to play with and two, we could benefit from their eggs.  I called Adam Clark last week to talk about what we needed to do and what to get.  With lots of research and online searching we found a chicken coop in Monteagle.  We picked it up on Wednesday night.  It's a small coop that only holds 4-6 chickens, which is all we need.

 The back door where you can look into the house....

Two nesting boxes .....

A perch where they can hang out.....

Looking into the house where the nesting boxes are .....

That night we looked through "The Exchange" and found a man in Beechgrove that has chickens for sale so Ryan gave him a call.  He said he had lots of chickens but only a few that were already laying eggs.  We decided that we wanted to go and see them and we would be by there the next day.  Thursday morning Ryan got up and started getting stuff together for the coop before we went to go get the chickens.  While I was cleaning out the closet in the kitchen and found a water jug that we used for the cats.  It has a jug that sits upside down and keeps water in the pan at all times.  I figured I would clean it up and see if it would work.  Ryan found some buckets and made a feeder out of them that we hung up inside the coop.  We bought some pine wood shavings and I lined the nests and under the perch with it to keep them comfortable.

Here is Ryan making the feeder ....

Thursday afternoon we stopped by Maggie's house and picked up the dog crate and set it up in the back of the truck.  Ryan wanted to use the pet taxi.  Imagine trying to put two full grown chickens in a pet taxi!  I'm glad we got the dog crate!  We entered the guys address into our GPS and headed to pick them up.  When we got there he only had 2 that were already egg laying, which is what we were looking for.  He had a white leghorn and a blue Jersey Giant.  We took them both.  We loaded them up in the crate.  They proceeded to do their business all in the back of the truck.  During my research I came across a chicken called a Silkie and I really want one.  They look like little fluff balls and are supposed to be really calm and good with children.  Tori Spelling has one and she keeps it in her house.  Not that I want to keep it in the house.  I just think it would be a fun and different pet for Liam and they also lay eggs too.  The man had some but they were only 3 days old and way too little for me to be taking care of right now!!! I told him that I would like to see them when they get older.  Maybe we can get one then. :)

My mom and dad met us at the house when we got back.  Dad helped Ryan get the chickens out of the back of the truck.  I wish I would have video taped what happened!  As they were carrying the cage into the back yard, the blue one got loose.  We chased it around the car and finally chased it into the back yard.  As I tried to catch it, Ryan and dad got the white one into the coop.  I gave up on the blue one and let the guys catch him.  After about 5 minutes of trying to corner it, Ryan finally caught her and got her into the coop with the white one.  No animals were harmed, only a cut on dads forearm. :)  They are now safe and sound and getting used to their new habitat.  We plan to keep them in the coop for 3-4 days to get them used to their environment.  After that we will let them free range during the day.  We were told that the will probably not lay eggs for a while because of the transition.  I am hoping that they love their little house and being part of our little family.  I know nothing about taking care of chickens so this is an adventure for us and I hope that we are able to keep them alive.

The blue "Jersey" giant ....

The white Leghorn ....

Liam's reaction to the chickens.  He loves them!!!

Well, I was finished with the blog Friday and was going to post it Friday night before I went to bed.  It had stormed that day and messed up our internet modem.  I'm glad I didn't post because Friday afternoon after I got home from taking mom to the doctor in Murfreesboro, Liam and I went outside to see the chickens.  I opened up the nesting box hoping something was in there but not expecting it because we were told we wouldn't have eggs for a little while until they are comfortable in their environment.  And low and behold there was a pretty little egg laying in there.  I was so excited!!!!

His first reaction was this ...

Very intrigued! ....

So far we have had two eggs. The white one is the one laying.  He must like it here.  Now we just need to blue one to start laying.  I'm hungry! HAHA!