Look who's standing!

Of course I didn't snap the picture until she was starting to sit back down! But little Emmylou is now standing on her own without any help!

I've almost got my Newsboy hat pattern perfected. It's taking me WAY too long to get this pattern just right. I obsess over it for a day, then give up on it for a few weeks (or months...).







But it's almost there. Just a little more tweaking.

I've also added another hat to my collection. And of course I had to take Emma out and snap some pictures so I could list it in my Etsy shop. Here's a few shots we got:







In other news, my poor little man is sick with the stomach flu:( I'm hoping that nobody else catches it. Wishful thinking, huh?

Food, Inc.

I just finished watching the documentary Food, Inc. It has been on our "que list" for quite a while, and I've been impatiently waiting for it. So you can guess I was extremely excited when I found out that it would be on TV. I set my DVR to record it and eagerly watched it bright and early (Emmylou just loves waking up at the crack of dawn) the next morning.

Wow. What an eye opener. I was almost afraid to watch it because I knew I would never think about food the same again. I really wish we had more money to budget towards groceries each month. If we could afford it we would definitely eat all organic. I mean we buy some things organic, but not nearly as much as I'd like.

I've already done some research into local farms and much to my surprise I found some organic farms pretty close by. I found a cattle farm not too far away that sells range fed beef. They even have a website where you can purchase your meat online and have it shipped to you.

Watching this documentary really showed me how removed we really are from the food we eat. Do you know how it's made? Where it comes from? How it's raised? What it's fed? How the worker's are treated? I didn't.

Food, Inc. has left wanting to know a lot more. I've just purchased the book "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan. I'm hoping it will give me more insight into the food industry.

For any of you who are curious, I really recommend watching this film. I'm going to watch it again tonight, this time with Mike. I'm just dying to hear what he'll think about it ;)

This Moment

A single photo. No words. Capturing a moment from the week. A moment I always want to remember...

Silkies

As promised, here are some photos of our new little Silkies. They are the same age as our Ameracauna's (3 weeks), but half the size!

My favorite so far and the only one named. I'm calling her Charlotte.

Happy Earth Day!

We spent most of this week planting trees and gardening. So I felt really guilty today when we really had nothing"green" to do.

However, every day we try our best to live pretty eco-friendly. How?

* We cloth diaper.

* We recycle just about EVERYTHING that can be recycled. And yes, I am that crazy person who goes through the trash and says, "Why was this thrown away? It can be recycled!"

* Instead of paper towels we use cloth napkins and washcloths to clean up. At least I do. Mike's still catching on...

* I make just about all of our cleaning products. Even laundry detergent. Yes laundry detergent. And no, it isn't hard.

* We do not buy bottled water. Here's why: The Story Behind Bottled Water

* We use reusable grocery bags.

* We garden.

* We bathe the kids every other night (unless they need it) to conserve water.

* We try to remember to unplug electronics when not in use.

Now we still have a lot of things we can change and we are not 100% perfect on all of these all of the time but we try our best. And we're getting better each year.

Hopefully if my birthday wish comes true I'll get a composte tumbler. Kind of a weird thing to ask for a birthday gift but that's me. I would also love a rain barrel. I'm just throwing that out there.... :)

Today at work Mike also got two more sapling trees to add to the 10 other ones we got from the Arbor Foundation. So that's 12 new trees that we will be planting in our yard this year!

I guess in a way the kids and I did do something a little on the enviormentally friendly side. We added two more chicks to our flock. And we will probably be adding two more in the next few weeks. I blame this obsessive behavior on my dad. (You would agree it came from you, right Dad? Just incase I need to remind you-- I think you had a little obsession going on with some fish just a couple of months ago!)

I should have some pictures of these little guys soon. They're called Silkies. They're a pretty goofy looking chicken if you ask me. They're more of an ornamental bird as they are not very good egg layers. But they are small, good with children, and very friendly.

Did I mention that I think two of my chicks are roosters? Yep, I'm afraid it might be so. We got the Silkies staight run too (not sexed), so hopefully those are hens. We're most likely going to get two Buff Orpingtons (these are known to be very friendly and good with children also-- and on the plus side they lay a good amount of eggs!). They will be about 12 weeks old when we get them and will be pullets (female) for sure.

Hummingbird Garden

Our hummingbird garden is finally complete! Well, sort of. The seeds just need to grow. But the flower bed is finished and filled with fresh soil.

I wanted to plant our hummingbird garden under the tree where the little guys like to hang out. So I got to work collecting and digging up rocks all throughout our yard. Once they were all gathered I stacked them in a rectangular shape under the tree.



Once my bed was made I started the task of pulling up the weeds. This is when I found out that there was maybe 1/2 inch of dirt before hitting a HUGE piece of rock. A piece of rock that stretched throughout the whole bed and then some. Uhhhhh! I read the seed packages and it said that the flowers needed 3" of soil. So I made sure the rocks were stacked high enough to dump enough dirt in there in order for the plants to take root.

Our hummingbird feeders.

We also finished our small herb/vegetable/fruit garden. We already have two strawberries! We had three, but Jacob couldn't help himself.

"I got a flower for you, Mom!"

New sapling trees waiting to be planted in our yard.

And here are a few recent pictures of the chicks:

Backyard findings

While digging up rock in our yard for our hummingbird garden flower bed (more on this tomorrow), I came across these 3 eggs...





So at first I think they might be snake eggs..? I took a picture of them and e-mailed the photo to Mike. Turns out they're Sandpiper eggs. Sandpiper birds lay eggs in nests they make on the ground. Mama bird wasn't anywhere to be found. Not sure if she abandoned these little guys or what. I left a marker near where I found them so I'll be able to find and check on them again tomorrow.

This Moment

A single photo. No words. Capturing a moment from the week. A moment I always want to remember...

Say hello to our little friends

Meet the new members of the Verhoeven Clan. Three new baby chicks have made it to our home. Right now they're living in the kid's bathroom in a Rubbermaid storage bin under a heating lamp. We have two Ameraucana chicks (less than a week old) and one Rhode Island Red (two weeks old). They are too young to know the sex, but we're keeping our fingers crossed for hens. I really wouldn't mind a rooster later, but for now I'd like to start with just hens.

One Ameraucana.

Our other Ameraucana.

Rhode Island Red

The Ameraucana's lay a greenish-blue egg. They're also known as an "Easter Egger". The woman who sold us the chickens said there is no difference in the taste of the egg. The Rhode Island Red is a pretty good egg layer, or so that is what I read.

These little guys will be growing FAST! So, I've been doing a lot of research on coops and runs. I'm still not sure what we'll go with exactly, if we'll purchase ready made, build our own, or have someone build one for us.





Jacob loves them and always wants to visit his "chickies". Believe it or not, he is a lot more gentle with them than I thought he'd be. We still need to keep a close eye on his whenever he is around them. And little Emma seems to get a kick out of them too!

Now that we have some livestock, I told Mike that I wanted a sign for our yard to read:

VERHOEVEN FAMILY

BABY & CHICKEN FARM

est 2007

What do you think?