March 2016

March just marched on by in the blink of an eye.  The end of March was especially full with Spring Break, Easter, and Brian turning 8!  A more appropriate name for this post would be the massive March post.

We hatched 33 chicks you can read more about here

The kids started rec basketball on Saturdays and they practiced with Mark in the backyard.

They played basketball while I practiced being a farmer and attempted to rake up the goat pen thinking I could actually get something done with the "help" of the goats.  Yes that is my rake he is stepping on and hitting himself in the face with in this picture.  And he must have liked it because he kept on doing it and then the other goat and the horses decided to try to help me rake too.  I have an over abundance of farm help.

It wasn't all fun and games on the farm though during March.  The main power line that goes out to the barn and the shed and Mark's shop killed out during March.  So, Mark went ahead and hand dug a huge trench all the way out there and we paid an electrician a goodly amount of money to put a new line in.  We can't go without power to those buildings.  Here is the trench we had to dig right through the beautiful new sod we worked so hard to lay down last spring in the renters yard.  Nothing more fun than ripping up good hard work.

One night Mark and I had to just laugh with each other as we once again found ourselves in the middle of a cold night outside with head lamps on digging through the root filled rocky ground on this beloved place of ours.  It certainly wasn't the first night such as this and it wasn't the first sore back from it either.  We got that trench done late the night before the electrician came.  And you know what?  The blood, pain and sweat that goes into this place makes me love it all the more.  And this man behind it all, too.

When we hatched our chickens we didn't have a chicken coop.  Mark tore out this old bird cage pen thing between the barn and his shop and magically turned it into the coolest most high tech chicken coop you have ever seen.  Pictures of that to come next month probably.  Here he is working on it.

And here is his makeshift fence so the goats didn't try to "help" him while he was working.

We enjoyed the horses and liked to have my mom come see them.  Frankie does this a lot while tied up.

Can you see the boys up there on the shop roof enjoying a beautiful afternoon?

Saturdays they played basketball among the many other things we did.

Like going to friend's fun birthday parties.

One Saturday Brian and Timmy earned Superior ratings at their very first Cello Federation.  They actually really loved the experience.  Brian played May Song and Go Tell Aunt Rhody and Timmy played May Song and French Folk Song.  They played beautifully and were as cute as ever.

After Federation we went up to cute cousin Ellie's 3rd birthday party.

Where Brian climbed trees with his cousins and. . .

Timmy played with the chickens with the other cousins.  It was a fun day!

One nice March day the boys drove the tractor to spread out all the winter manure.  It actually worked really well and they enjoyed driving the tractor.

They also helped me paint the barn doors.

Timmy ended up with paint all over him and his coat and his hair and everything he touched.  Did I tell you I have a lot of helpers here?

Here's a nice Sunday evening in the park.

I was forced to retire my trusty hiking boots during March.  I get very sentimental about shoes for some reason.  The thought of where they have been with me and where they have walked and hiked and climbed just makes me want to wear them forever.  I got these shoes in high school and they have been all over the world and taken me on so many trails and helped me get so much work done.  I was tempted to keep them tucked away in the back of my closet with my high school Chacos that I retired last year, but I decided to settle with taking a picture and then carefully setting them in the garbage can.  Goodbye wonderful hiking boots you have been good to me.

Brian did a research project about the red panda.  We all learned a lot about this animal.  I love his drawing.

One day during Spring Break we went to the zoo.  I loved the baby giraffe!

Brian was happy to ride on the red panda!

Easter weekend arrived and we participated in the neighborhood egg hunt in our backyard park.

Then that afternoon we went up to the ranch for the perfect Easter lunch and egg hunt!

That night Mark spent a long time fixing the next size cello for Timmy.  That kid is growing like crazy!

Easter Sunday was busy.  I played my cello with the choir in Sacrament meeting and Mark had lots of meetings. I snapped a few pictures with the boys after church before we changed and dyed some eggs.

While Mark was at his meetings we dyed eggs and talked more about the Easter story.

Most of March had nice weather, but one day it snowed the biggest snow flakes I have ever seen and we had fun catching them on our tongues and looking at them float down gently from the sky.

The end of March always brings Brian's birthday!  We had some great celebrating to be recorded in another post.  He turned 8 years old!

Baby Chicks

Our first chick hatched on a Friday night after the boys were in bed.  When they woke up they went to the basement to check on the eggs and they found 9 baby chicks and more eggs ready to hatch!  They were so thrilled!

When I arrived downstairs, I got to watch the boys experience the tenth baby hatch.  All day long we saw more and more break out of their shells.  We had lots of friends and family stop by to see.  It was fun to share the experience with others.

On Saturday evening we put the dry fluffy chicks from the incubator into the brooder box.  Because the new babies are so unstable, Mark left the shavings out of the box for a day.  They learned very quickly where the food and water was.

At this time we got to hold the chicks for the first time with our Hsiao cousins.  I was nervous about how the chicks would hold up, but I don't think I had anything to worry about.  They were all fine and we had some happy kids.

 Meanwhile in the incubator there were still more chicks to hatch.  They slowly just kept coming.

On Sunday we had a lot of friends come see the chicks and by the afternoon the 7 eggs still in the incubator were showing no signs of hatching.  Two of them started with pips and then did not make it, and the others never started hatching.  We left them in the incubator for another day to make sure.  In the end we had 33 chicks hatch and I'm happy to say three weeks later we still have those 33.

Then the fluffy chick love began!  Brand new baby chicks are the cutest thing on the planet and we had 33 of them in our basement!  We spent so much time with them.  Because Timmy only goes to school in the mornings, he and I spent our afternoons hanging out with those darling fluffy chickies.

 Mark took extra care to make sure their temperature was just right and that they always had food and water.  One chick we call Little Blacky had a funny crooked toe, so Mark taped it up for a few days and straightened it out.

One of the late hatchers was very small and did not eat or drink for days.  We could not figure out what was wrong with him, but Mark dripped vitamins into his mouth and tried to feed him.  We attempted to show him where to eat and drink to no avail.  Finally we concluded that he was blind because he would not follow the other chicks or do anything they were doing. We started calling him Blindy. One day we kind of gave up hope on him thinking he would be a gonner by the next day and then out of nowhere he just started eating and drinking and following the other chicks.  He is still very small, but after three weeks he is still alive and eating and drinking.  This is a picture of Mark trying to get him to eat something.

We ended up with quite a nice variety of colors.  It will be interesting to see what they look like as adults.  They stayed in our basement in their huge box Mark built for them for a week and a half.  Then they just started getting too stinky for us to stand it any longer.  When we would come home the whole house would smell like chicks, so one night I decided they had to go out to the barn.

 While the chickies waited in smaller boxes, I dragged/pulled/ripped that huge brooder box up the stairs and out to the barn.  Mark helped me set up the box with the lights etc. outside and I covered it with a blanket.  It just happened to be a very cold night and I had a restless sleep that night filled with dreams of waking up to all 33 chicks frozen to death outside, all because I could not stand their smell.  They were all just fine when we saw them in the morning and they've been fine ever since. The best part is that my house no longer smells like chickens.

Last night Mark finished closing in their chicken coop and we moved them in there.  Again none of them froze during the night and they seem very happy to have lot of room to run, peck and flap around.  They seem to be 33 happy chicks and they are growing so fast!  I'm glad I got pictures when they looked like this, because it seriously only lasted a few days!