I am probably way more excited than I need to be about this, but...I have chickens.  Chicks to be precise.  our plan was to start with ten of them.  We now have fifteen.  We haven't lost any either...not yet.  They are sooooo small and fluffy!  Our dog Zoey can barely keep herself contained; chicks are the perfect little squeaky fluff toy to her, so we've got to keep a close eye when they're in the same room. ...

 So we are starting with just about nothing on our half acre dream; directly behind the house are some larger, mature juniper trees and another tree I'm not sure of yet, and then just to the south east of our house is the giant 'bean tree', that is the kids play area.  Against the east side of our house are some Rose of Sharon bushes, and near the driveway are a few shrubs.  We have one small tree, I'm not sure of the species, in...

A few posts back I mentioned how difficult 'special days' seem to be in our home, and how I am trying to make things better; keep the day calm, find some patience, take time for fun things, be more flexible with the kids, be more willing to teach gently, and show my husband some extra kindness. I think I'm failing in some of those areas. And now comes the biggest of all the 'special days'; Christmas. I have so many fond memories of Christmas's...

Gleaning is when you collect excess food or usable items/plants from neighbors, nature, etc.  I have gleaned a bit here and there at various times in my life, got comfortable talking with neighbors and other's when I'm curious to see how flexible they are with their goods.  Now that we have our own home and I can experiment a little more, I think gleaning and trading will come in great use, especially since we live in a semi-rural area...

I made the last minute decision to go on a hike on Saturday, just a quick one close by at Antelope Island, so Tim and I grabbed our Osprey kid backpack for hiking and prepped both kids, some snacks, water, and of course a bowl and water for our puppy Zoey as well.  We had never been to Antelope Island, despite it being about ten minutes down the street from us, and luckily we brought the $15 cash needed to get to the island, (there was a payment...