Sleeping in the Bath Tub

6 weeks old and the cutest darn things. It was supposed to be 20 degrees tonight, and I didn't want to risk these two freezing. I think they look rather cozy.

The kids were so excited to have them sleeping inside. These two are quite fond of people and will try to jump on you to get you to hold them. The kids have given them plenty of hugs. Hopefully these two survive the bear hugs and still love people.

Big Mama. She is our beautiful Easter Egger who lays faithfully everyday, beautiful blue, and mint green eggs. Our dog got in the coop today. We came home from the city and heard her pleas for help. She managed to hide herself between the barn wood and coop wood, but by the time we got into help, she was cut at the top base of her neck. Mike and I ran her inside. We cleaned the cut and poured a little 'nuskin' on her (we were out of super glue) I wrapped her in a towel and kept her inside a crate all day in the warm house with plenty of food and water. She seems to be doing really well. Thank goodness! She is eating and drinking and even laid an egg. She perks right up when you talk to her, and seems comfortable. Tomorrow I will pick up some 'Blue Kote' from our local feed store to speed up the healing process. I think she will be ready to be re-introduced to the flock in a week.

Our First Egg

…well, our second actually. Our first egg was just as beautiful but sadly was laid outside of the nesting box and broke. One of the chickens was pecking at it when I opened the coop. I quickly shooed her away and will be on the look out to see if that bad behavior continues.

This morning our chickens looked settled in. They were confident enough to exit the coop and do some exploring in their run. Kate, Colt, and I changed their water, put out their feed and gave them a slice of a banana as treat. We closed the nesting box empty handed. It was only 7 am, so we still had hope that we would get an egg before afternoon.

Sure enough a couple hours later we discovered a beautiful mint green egg laid by one of the Easter Eggers. The kids were ecstatic. Our first (intact) egg! Even I was smiling. We are still waiting for our Orpington, and Sussex to lay, though my hopes aren't to high in this weather.

It Came...

The snow was almost melted. We heard birds singing. We played outside without gloves.
…..& then it went……

At least a foot of snow is already covering the ground. I feel bad for the chickens. I thought the worst was over when we brought them home. Thank goodness they have a nice cozy coop tucked inside the barn to prevent wind and snowfall. I feel bad for me too. Trudging through a foot of snow before the sun is up, to feed and water the animals, isn't the funnest thought. Come quickly spring...

An Early Birthday Gift

The kids were chasing each other through my legs and around the kitchen island giggling (or screaming) loudly. I was trying to finish getting dinner on the table. Wyatt was yelling from his highchair at the table for more black beans. Michael was attempting to tell my about his day with a raised voice to compete with kids. Things were being knocked over, and a pillow fight ensued in the kitchen with the living room pillows (note; all of this is normal). All of a sudden Michael's phone rang and he left the room in hopes of hearing who ever was on the other end. Seconds later he came back with his phone out held, mouthing it was for me. I grabbed the phone.
"Hello?"
"Hi, is this Christen Craven?"
"It is. How can I help you"
---sound of something breaking, kids laughing, a pillow hits my face----I run upstairs.
"This is Ruth from Thanksgiving Point. I am happy to inform you that you have won a Free Family Pass for the 2014-2015 season."
I literally screamed with joy..and shock.

We had a membership to Thanksgiving Point last year. It was amazing and a really good deal. Free admittance to the Dinosaur Museum, Farm, Garden, Kids Discovery Garden, and now it will include the new Museum of Natural Curiosity that opens in May. We could spend a whole day there and still not visit all there is to see. I was so sad when our membership ended. We had also moved further away into the country and I knew Michael would take a lot of convincing to buy another pass seeing as we were 2 hours away.

I am so excited! I never thought while filling out their survey I would win-I hoped I would!- but never thought it would happen. It was a great early birthday gift. Every time we make a trip to the city we will take full advantage of this amazing membership. Our kids are already talking about digging for dinosaur bones again, and feeding the sheep, and riding the ponies, and the splash park. They are almost as excited as I am. Tulip festival here I come…in a few more months of course.

Projects for Spring

The sun has decided to show its face these last couple days. Looking out our windows, you might think it was raining from all the icicles melting and dripping away to nothing. Michael managed to breakup all the ice on the outside patio to give the kids a dry place to play and ride their bikes. With all this nice weather I can't help but long for spring. While the sun is melting the ice, its not doing much for the air temperature, which I long to see in the 90s personally. Here in our small town its still barely reaching 40* outside. That hasn't stopped me from dreaming though. Plans are drawn up for gardening, and visions of letting the kids lose outside all day long with no excuses such as frozen fingers and toes to stop us from soaking up summer run through my head. I have big plans for spring. It will be our first spring and summer with adequate property for a minuscule farm. So, we are starting with chickens... or ducks. Did I just say or Ducks? Oddly, yes I did. Maybe both? After some research I found that Duck eggs are actually slightly more nutritious - and lets face it, ducklings are soo cute. Michael is voting for chickens for one reason - they taste better. True. We'll see what we end up with.

To feed the poultry we want to supplement there feed with organic sprouted fodder, a mixture of barley and various grains, to cut the cost and enhance nutrition. Michael found a small green house design that uses hydroponics to sprout the fodder in a 7 day cycle. Using fodder and just a small amount of feed and letting our chickens free range, I calculated based on the average chickens weight and the cost of feed it will cost us .06$ a chicken a day to feed our birds an all organic diet. Not too shabby. Now to build the coop and green houses and buy our birds…

Snow Day

It hit. All day yesterday and last night snow fell steadily. This morning the first snowfall of the year is glistening 8 inches high all over the ground. Rodeo has taken to sleeping in the hay in the barn in-between her bouts of snow diving and sliding during the blizzards. That dog loves the snow, and so do our kids. They couldn't wait for the sun to come out this morning to be warm enough for them to have permission to play in all the new powder.

Welcome

cru·sader (kr-sder)
n.
definition:
Those involved in a vigorous concerted movement for a cause. 

Craven Crusaders

That name suits this blog well. If I wanted my family to be remembered for something here on earth it would be that we were remembered for being actively and fiercely involved in a great cause. I can think of no greater cause than that of defending God and family. We believe America was founded on good God fearing values. Those principles and values made this great nation rise. We also believe the responsibility of keeping this nation great, rest on the shoulders of its families. They are the fundamental units of society. More importantly we believe families are the fundamental units of an eternal round. 

Here on our family blog we'll record experiences and pictures as we learn and grow together and maybe inadvertently help someone along the way.