Backyard Chickens

Often times people are surprised when they discover we raise chickens in our backyard.  Usually, their next question is...Don't you live in St. Louis?  The answer is yes, we live in the suburbs! Actually, there are very few cities that don't allow you to raise chickens (some do not let you have roosters).  Chickens are often thought of as strictly a farm animal, but actually they are great backyard companions! I wanted to share with you 6 reasons why you should raise chickens!

1. You don't have a have a rooster to have eggs! That's right! Hens will lay eggs all by themselves!
2. The eggs your chickens produce are much healthier than store bought eggs, especially if you allow them to free range (walk around your yard & pick at bugs and worms). Plus, they are much cheaper than the organic brands!
3. They are wonderful insect control! They love to eat just about anything that's wiggling/flying/crawling around.
4. Chickens can be used to teach your children about responsibility and where food comes from! I don't want my kiddos thinking that you can only get eggs from a store!
   
5. Chickens are very low maintenance.  All they need is a coop (for protection and a place to nest and roost), fresh water, and some type of feed.  We feed our chickens cracked corn and egg crumble feed.  
6. Chickens are just fun!  They are interesting to watch! My chickens will RUN to the back door when I open it, hoping to get a tasty treat. My two year old daughter loves to chase the chickens and tries to 'catch' them! 
   

 If you are considering raising backyard chickens, write me with questions or comments! I hope to do a blog soon about raising goats...but I'm still learning right now!  So far, our goats have been a little mischievous, but good! Until next time...

Good afternoon!  I decided to try and squeeze in my first blog entry while the kiddos are napping.  I thought I would put up a quick tutorial about a recent project I did for my daughter, Lydia's room.  She had a kind of "bleh" looking dingy white pull shade in her window that was here when we moved in.  It was nice for nap times, but I wasn't a huge fan of the way it looked.  So... I thought I would dress it up and paint clouds on it.  Get it?  Pull shade...clouds? hahaha. :P  Anyway, here's a quick tutorial on how i did it!

1. I cleaned it up with hot soap & water and my mother-in-law's fabulous homemade stain stick! (Be sure it's dry before moving on!)

2. I drew a puffy cloud on a piece of computer paper, cut it out, and used it to trace & cut out 4 more clouds.

3.  I put tape on one side of the clouds and arranged them how I liked on the shade.

4.  I placed newspaper all around the shade so i wouldn't get paint on my table!  I got out some sky blue paint I got on clearance & paint brushed over the entire area that would be showing when the shade is all the way pulled down.  Paint over the clouds carefully, so as not to get the paint under the clouds.  

5.  Wait until the paint is completely dry & VERY CAREFULLY pull off the clouds.  Touch up with paint as needed.  And Waaaalaaahhh! You have a very cute cloud pull shade for your kiddo's room!

Stay Tuned for more DIY TUTORIALS!!!