Spring Chickens

So, on a sad note, we had a hen go broody and she hatched her first chick yesterday. Sadly she also crushed the poor little dear. To say it ruined my morning to find the little thing is an understatement. She is still sitting on some eggs, but I have a feeling that they are all duds. We'll give here a few more days before I take them. Lesson learned though. If we ever have another hen go broody I have a much better plan on how to deal with it. Hindsight and all that...

On a happy note I've secured our 4 new additions for the year. I'm not planning on adding to the flock after these 4. We'll have 12 hens and a roo + the guineas which I think is just about perfect.

Our first new addition will be a Tolbunt Polish. Yes, I'm totally just getting this hen because it might be one of the funniest birds I've ever seen in my life! You can't look at this hen and not smile. Plus, they are super cute as chicks too.

Top hat baby!!!!

Next up on the newcomer list is a blue Cochin. Cochin's are supposed to have one of the best and sweetest personalities. They are also well known for going broody and being great mothers, which could be fun down the road. (My hearts not quite ready for more dead chicks at the moment.) Plus, they have pants. I feel like this one is going to need a good grandmotherly name.

Next up is a Maran. Not sure what color I'll be getting. The come in black copper, cuckoo, wheaten, and a few other colors. The cool thing about these guys is their eggs. They are supposed to lay dark chocolate brown eggs. Since I'm not buying from a hatchery I'm really hoping that they will lay true.

Last, but not least, is the Cream Crested Legbar. This breed is a fairly newer breed and not very common but they seem to be gaining popularity. They lay large blue eggs. 

Also, picking up my camera charger tonight. I went to take pictures of the house for an update and the camera is completely dead! Should have something for y'all in the next few days.

Apt Blog Title

I've been extremely quiet lately, for that I apologize. I received a message on FB asking if I was still blogging and I think it was the little nudge I needed to do a long overdue update. Life is still flying by at a rate that is frankly quite frightening. We are still accomplishing new tasks on the house and property everyday and winter is (God willing) coming to a close.

Quick recap on where we are personally. Last July we got a bit of a push to jump in and finish the unfinished portion of the house (spare rooms and guest bath). With the arrival of our first child in just about 2 weeks, he gave us that little nudge that we needed to jump back into hardcore construction mode again.

List of current projects...
1) Coop- Just needs siding and it's 100% complete. Hoping to get this summer.
2) Spare room #1 (nursery)- Completely done! Just finished putting some pipe shelving up this past weekend. The room is complete with floor, door handles, trim, even a real ceiling light!
3) Master Bath- Still needs quite a bit of work. There is still not trim up in it. I'm trying to convince Brad to just rip out the current counter tops/sinks and put something new in because I'm super lazy and don't want to paint them. Also, I can't figure out what color I want to paint them anyway. We'll see if I'm successful. We need to put something up around the tub as well. I think Brad is planning on using either the old bamboo flooring we have or the cedar fence planks... In a perfect world, we'd just rip out the tub and shower and do a large standup shower across the wall. We'll see what this summer brings.
5) Door Handles- We have them! They are installed. We can actually close doors without jabbing pencils through the holes.
6) Lighting- We finished the exposed bulb cluster light over the dining room table and it looks pretty good if I do say so myself. It was a bit of a pain, but I'm really happy with how it turned out. I have everything we need for my mason jar chandelier. Maybe that will be this weekends project. It would be nice to get that one up in the kitchen.
7) Cosmetically we've updated a lot of little things around the house. I'll do my best to get the camera charged tonight and get some updated shots of how things look.

Pinterest Destroys my Soul

The more I'm on Pinterest and the more I find cool blogs... the more I wish I was those people. Not that I actually want to be them, well maybe in a few cases, which is kind of creepy I know, but more I wish I was that cool, crafty, creative, DIY girl. You know, the one with the super creative blog that always has cool tips and tricks and new things to try out. That one that actually updates her blog... yeah, that girl.

How do people find time for it? I don't have time to be creative, let alone clean up the mess that inevitably occurs when I try to be creative. I console myself by firmly believing that I require way more sleep that these "creative types" that I am so envious of. They are like the "super moms" on Pinterest that make... well, everything.  They are the mom's that are without a doubt going to make me feel inadequate as a mother if we ever have children. Then I think, "you have kids.... how on earth do you have time for this!". Which I then revert back to my mantra.... they don't sleep.

Ever.

Regardless, I wish that was me. God kind of left out the creative gene when he made me. However, I am great at copying other people. ;) That's gotta be good for something. Right?

Maybe someday I'll attain this level of awesome, until then, I'll just check my Pinterest and feel even worst about my abilities. ;)

Carl

Roosters.... who knew they were so cool. I didn't. Whoever, this guy has stolen my heart. Originally Caroline, Carl sneaked his way into the coop. We weren't planning on having, or keeping, a rooster, but I could never part with him now.

As much as I love eggs, I may love this kid more. He's the first to come running, will sit in your arms, and is a stud. He's about 3 months old now and is just starting to get his saddle feathers. Can't wait till he's a full fledged Roo.

2013 Westrate Coop Raising: Part 3

And on and on it goes. I just keep telling myself we're going to finish this. Every weekend brings us closer, but I'm a little tired of working on projects every weekend. Such is our life though, it's really our own fault.

Anyhow, here is the latest photo update of the coop. It's fully functional and the ladies and Carl have been sleeping in it for a week now. #nomorechickensinthehouse We're currently working on the run so that we can leave for long weekends and not worry about anyone getting eaten. We got pretty far this past weekend. Not as far as I would have liked, but that's generally how it goes.

Window and door holes cut, interior painted.

Interior, I kind of ran out of vinyl. Oh well.

And then there were windows.

Trying to keep them from constantly dumping their water and food. It's still a work in progress.

It's not pretty yet, but it works!!!

Interior shot, temporary roosting pole. I'm going to glam up the inside, but I just wanted it to be functional for now.

The chicks first night in the coop.

Run construction. Don't worry, I'm painting the door.

2013 Westrate Coop Raising: Part Two

Amateur hour continues on the Westrate homestead. God blessed us with some beautiful weather to get some more work done on the coop. It's really starting to come along! Hoping to have everything functional by this weekend.

2 sides done and a roof. Hopefully I'll have completed coop pictures for you soon!

2013 Westrate Coop Raising: Part One

Ok friends, last weekend was the official 2013 Westrate Coop Raising! The size we finally decided on is an 8'x8' coop raised 2 feed off the ground with an 8'x16' run. We tried to make the size economical so that we are wasting as little material as possible. We got rained out on Monday, so the Coop Raising will go into next weekend, but you can't control mother nature. Chicks are in the house for one more week. What ya gonna do?

Below is a quick photo rundown of our 2 days pretending to be carpenters.

Just in case it floods?

Belle, not overly impressed with her new digs.

First side framed in!

The exact moment we both realized we may have gone a littler overboard. 

The ladies enjoying their first day in the sun.