Chicken Swap

I am so incredibly blessed to belong to a fantastic facebook group called Chicken Swap of Missouri... they have been my helpers and teachers and I am just blessed. We did an ornament swap this year which was super fun. I found rooster ornaments at Hobby Lobby and sent those out.. and I received some cute ones back.. I received a snowman made from a lightbulb ( forgot to take a pic of it, but it was super cute!!) and here is the other two I received!!!

Both were homemade... crafty ladies!!!

Aren't they adorable?? It's kind of hard to tell, but the one on top is a sewn hen.. super cute and the one on the bottom is a clay star with a sparkle rooster stamp!! LOVED THEM!!!!

Do you have a go to group of friends that help you with all your chicken problems?? Or a group of people just to chat with about chickens? I am incredibly thankful for the awesome "peeps" at missouri chicken swap!!!!

Love, JL~

Feed the Birds.. Tuppence a Bag!

Don't you love that movie???? It has to be one of my many favorites! We are blessed here at Fruit Tree Hill.. we have hundreds of birds that flock around the bird feeders and we love to watch them and listen to them! The kids have actually held a couple of the baby birds, and we love to watch the resident cardinal couple make a nest and hatch some cute babies!!

Here is one of the bird feeders... you can probably see the 1.00 sticker on it.. good ole yard sales!! Plus we have multiple suet feeders which they go crazy for!! This week we will be making some new feeders. I have been browsing pinterest and they have such cool ideas!!!

This one is made out of a slinky!!!! How smart!!!

This is a great idea to me... I can just picture lots of these stars hanging in the trees etc for the birdies to eat!!!!

What kind of bird feeders do you have at your house?? Any fun stories about the birdies?? Leave a message in the comments!!!

Love, JL~

The case for the turkey....

My son is saving his money. This in itself is a miraculous feat, but he is saving it for something special. A Turkey.

He has a plan. He will buy the turkey at Farm and Home in the spring. Then he will bring it home and keep it in his bedroom until it's old enough to go outside ( remember this is HIS plan.. mommy has the right to change any parts of the plan ... like letting the turkey sleep with Dylan, umm no.).
The next part of the plan is to build the turkey a pen. He is also saving money for food, as they eat more then chickens etc. He wants to sell the turkey eggs. Sigh. He has a big plan. For now, we are letting him dream and save his money. We will see in the spring, whether a turkey on an "urban farm" in the middle of town is going to fly.. hehe get it fly??

For now, he has a good case. We will see what the judges decide in the spring. :)

Winter at the Hill

Brr!! Last night we got the first flurry of the season. Nothing stuck, but it was pretty for the little bit it came down. Now, I was born in Florida, but raised in Ohio...so I hate snow.. but unfortunately, living in Ohio and now Missouri, I'm used to it. I guess it's just in my blood to hate the cold!!

The animals are all dealing with the winter in there own special ways :

Roxie likes to stay inside and lounge on her blanket  ( She is so very very spoiled lol)

The Ladies like the cold, as long as they have scratch grains!! ( they are also so very very spoiled!)

and my little fluffy butt, Elvis, also doesn't mind the cold. He is a bantam cochin and he has a special job in the flock... he is the protector of the eggs... it is so cute!! Sometimes he will even lay beside the hens as they lay the eggs.. then he sits with the eggs until we collect them! What a gentleman!!

Fancy Egg Cartons

My girls were busy this weekend!!! They blinged out some old walmart egg cartons so we can have something snazzy to give away eggs in!!! It's hard to see in this pic but they are COVERED in glitter!!! LOL... anyway.. I think they have something here... blinged out egg cartons! We are ordering egg cartons and labels at http://www.customeggcartonlabels.com/  this spring.. so we can use them at the Farmers Market... I'm thinking the girls will have to add some glitter!!! LOL!!!!

The egg carton artists :

Marlee and Sydney

( this is an old pic but you can see how fun they are!!! Buckets of fun I tell ya!!!)

Chicken Hats

So.... do you think if I crocheted some warm chicken hats and scarves... the ladies would wear them???

Cute huh! :)

Winter is coming.....

Winter is coming.... that means it is time to break out the garden catalogs and hatchery catalogs and start planning for next spring!!! What are some of your favorite companies for gardening? Right now I'm really liking the Gurney's catalog, because they are running a deal I am going to take advantage of! You spend 25 bucks.. you get 25 bucks free!
www.gurneys.com

Also, this weekend has alot of plans... we need to finish getting the yard ready for winter.. time to put everything to bed. Being in Missouri, you just never know what the weather is going to be like. Last winter we had tornadoes and also ice storms. So we will mow the yard one last time, get straw on the beds, and put away all the outdoor toys. Keith will be finishing getting the coops and cages winterized and then we will just have to take care of daily needs for the animals. Keith built a new huge run in the back of the big coop for the chickens. They LOVE it. They have been chowing down on pumpkin ( the obligatory front porch pumpkin that everyone has on their porch for fall) they love the pumpin and it is super good for the chickens. I have read it also works as a natural de-wormer which even tho my chicks don't have worms, I am hoping it is a good preventative too! I have been reading alot on what makes healthy chickens, because we have happy healthy chickens, and we are getting beautiful eggs. We are blessed.

Don't tell Dylan ( the rooster whisperer) but he is getting an incubator for Christmas. He can't wait until spring so we can incubate our eggs and grow our flock , so we can sell eggs at Farmer's Market. I have huge ideas for Farmer's Market next year. I can't wait!!

So I will leave you with a pic of the kids enjoying the park this fall... just because I can. HA!!!