My 40/40 list: Part II

Back in April I posted my 40/40 list: part 1 and I had no idea it was going to take this long to come up with 20 more items.  I wanted to make sure they were realistic goals and give myself enough time to think of things I really wanted in my life.  I finally finished the second half of it and am ready to post it.

21.  Go to the Oregon Coast: Its about an 8 hr drive from here and we almost went this past summer but decided to go to Wallowa Lake instead.
22.  Make my three youngest kids a quilt of their own
23.  Go on a back country trail ride:  Idaho has such beautiful back country, I would like to see it on horseback someday.
24.  Raise some meat chickens:  and process them myself.  This was something I was going to do last year but ran out of time with the busy summer.
25.  Go ice fishing:  My husband takes the kids each year and soon we will all be able to go.  They seem to have a good time and now that the kids are getting older I hope it can be a family event some of the time.

Taylor and her large trout

26.  Float the Boise River

27.  Ride the Zip Idaho zip line:  I remember riding a small zip line as a kid and it was a lot of fun.
28.  Go hunting:  I have no idea what for but I need to put my hunters ed to good use.
29.  Ride a jet boat in Hell's Canyon
30.  Stay at an all inclusive ranch:  It would be nice to go on vacation and not have to do anything.. just relax, ride horses, swim, hike..
31.  Run the Dirty Dash:  I was supposed to do this in 2012, but by the time August rolled around, I was not int he proper shape for it.
32.  Own some kind of livestock: which means......
33.  We will be living at our final destination:  I think we knew all along that this was not going to be our final home, but the stars need to do some major aligning in order for us to get to where we want to be with a little bit of land, where life is a lot slower.
34.  Become completely debt-free aside from the house.
35.  Complete my Idaho Master Naturalist training:  I never became fully certified so beginning in January I am going to pick up the pace with volunteering.
36.  Go cat-fishing: YUM

37.  Volunteer at the Idaho Bird Observatory banding birds

38.  Go to Yellowstone:  Its just too close to not include on here!

39.  Visit Silverwood Theme Park and the Northern Idaho Panhandle

40.  See either a Cirque du Soleil or ice skating performance

So there it is, my odd list of things I want to accomplish in the next 5 years.  I know some of them will happen next year.  I know others won't happen for another couple of years but I will do my best to get these marked off my list!

Girls Gone Wild!

Ha! If you got here looking for something "else", I hate to disappoint! You won't find any of that here.

So spring break has been less than productive.  I have not made it to the gym even once yet, we only went on one excursion due to all this massive rain, and not a whole lot has been done around the house.  Oh well sometimes its nice to just be lazy and sleep in.  We did go to the zoo on Tuesday.  It started out really windy and cold but once that died down it was a nice day.  Before we went to the zoo, we played at Kathryn Albertson Park and had a picnic.  Then we walked along the Boise Greenbelt for about a mile and learned some rules of the road and trail manners to get to  Zoo Boise.  It was a really fun day and to top it off after wards we went to Baskin Robbins for a cone.

Boise Greenbelt

Now as for the title of my post... my chickens are being naughty.  Since we live in a neighborhood, our back fence is shared with the neighbors.  The chickens like to take dirt baths right beside the fence and it is causing holes that are creeping to the neighbors yard.

The other day while doing some landscaping, Brent noticed the neighbors filling in our holes.  Brent had warned me for many weeks that we needed to fix it and I honestly didn't know how.  If I put dirt there they would just dig it out again and they are pretty adept at shuffling rocks around as well.  I decided to get some bricks and line them up along the fence.  I was about to go buy some when a co-worker said she had some I could have so I went and picked them up.  So far I have the back part laid out and I think it will work well.  I just want to keep the neighbors happy or else some chickens will find their way to freezer camp!

Preparing for Spring

It seems weather all over the country is pretty bizarre.  Here in Idaho we are no exception. Spring is trying to show up but if you are a local resident, it is well known that you do not plant outside before the snow is off Bogus Basin, our little ski hill. Then, and only then is it safe from frost.  When I worked in the garden center, many customers would come back to buy new plant starts because they jumped the gun and planted too early in the season only to let Jack Frost claim the lives of the tiny seedlings.  I have to be patient and not allow this to happen to me.

It was supposed to rain all weekend but Saturday turned out to be really pleasant.  We managed to get some yard work done only to be surprised with a dusting of snow this morning.  I have been planning my garden for nearly a year now.  It was a year ago March 11th that we became homeowners and chicken owners.  I had decided long ago that when I owned my own home I would have chickens and a garden.  It's hard to believe we started out with 5 fuzzy chicks and now have 7 mature laying hens.  They have been doing a great job and we get anywhere between 4-7 eggs each day.

With our busy schedules I wanted to get a jump start on the raised beds we are planning.  I want to do it as organically as possible so I don't want to use chemicals on the ground where they will be going.  I am going to have 2 - 5x10 ft raised beds and 2 - 4x4 potato planters along our back fence, next to the chicken coop.  My goal is to have them installed and filled by the end of April so I can get them planted in May.  So this week, Brent and I laid down some black plastic and weighted them down in order to begin killing the grass where the beds will go.

Spring Rhubarb

Last fall we covered the Rhubarb plants with straw to protect them from the cold weather.  I had never grown a perennial plant like that so I wasn't sure if it would grow back this year.  We decided to peek at them and see how they were doing under their protective covering and lo and behold!! We have baby plants growing!! This year we will actually be able to harvest from it so we can have fresh rhubarb crisp!

I am so anxious and excited to have a real garden this year.  I only hope it will be as successful as my chickens are.  Now I have to decide what to plant.....

Happy Birthday!

My chickens are now a year old!! Happy Birthday chickies and thanks for giving us delicious eggs!  You are beautiful ladies! 

Revenue

No, not the tax kind.  We have egg revenue! I know with only 7 chickens I cannot make  a  living off them, but I can let them pay for their feed.  A few weeks ago I had 4 dozen eggs.  I am getting anywhere between 4-6 eggs a day and we just do not eat that many eggs.  In fact when I got the chickens, the eggs were just a perk.  I never thought that the eggs we wouldn't have to buy would save us money in the end.

When I had eggs overtaking the fridge we started asking around to see if anyone was interested in our surplus.  Brent struck up a barter with a co-worker to trade the amount of eggs as needed for some home-harvested honey.  Personally I think you cannot compare fresh honey to commercially harvested honey.  It is so much richer and more flavorful, so for the price of 7 dozen eggs, we received a quart of honey.  Personally I think the bartering system is a great thing.  It worked for our ancestors, perhaps it is a better method for today's society rather than concentrating on money all the time.

We also were able to have three other families agree to pay $2 a dozen for our extra eggs.  At a rate of 2 dozen per week, our chicken eggs will pay for their food bill.  I'll take that.  Not only is it neat to make a little cash from the eggs, but it feels good knowing I can share fresh natural eggs from happy chickens to other families at a reasonable price.

Chick days will be starting up soon and it will be hard to resist all those cute fuzzy butts, but I am maxed out on chickens, space, and eggs so I will just have to visit and snuggle them and enjoy my little flock here at home.

Mary, Mary quite contrary....

How does your garden grow? Well it's that time of year,  frost is on the ground, snow is in the mountains, and I am dreaming of the fall harvest. I'm determined to grow a garden this year. We decided not to renew our CSA membership  and we are going to build two or three raised beds and grow our own produce instead.

I have tried many, many times to grow things in pots and  in the ground with very little success.  I managed to harvest about 4 chili peppers one year off one plant and the first year we were here, we were able to gather quite a few cherry tomatoes and zucchini from the garden that was already here.  Now the chickens reside in that area so we have to build a new one.

I don't know if it's lack of experience in gardening or lack of effort on my part that caused the past failures, and honestly it was probably a combination of both.  I figured if I can keep a flock of 7 chickens alive, then maybe I can grow something also.  Now I am just trying to decide what to grow.  I've priced out the materials, and we have a vague idea of where the beds will go.  I just hope installation doesn't become a huge project and that we don't have to do too much to alter the irrigation in order to make it work.

There is just something so gratifying about producing your own food.  I watched a documentary tonight about the South Central LA farm issue back in 2006.  It was called Save The Farm and there is another one that I will watch next that won many Oscars called The Garden about the same situation.  It was very upsetting, yet moving.  Both of these are available on Netflix instant streaming.  If these people can build a huge garden in the middle of South Central LA, then surely I can can build one in the middle of Idaho.  It will be a labor of love and I will definitely keep you all posted.

On another note, I tried a few new recipes this week.  First I made these homemade granola bars and boy were they good! These are something I am going to be making again.. tomorrow in fact.  My kids gobbled them up and even my husband took one for a snack.  Although I think it's because he is in love with anything he finds on Lauren's Latest .  I thought the flavor was fantastic, very rich but not overpowering.  I am going to attempt some other versions also, like peanut butter and a maple one.  I also made this cream cheese banana bread but the verdict on that will be out tomorrow since it will be breakfast.  It is in no way healthy and it had more ingredients than just about any other quick bread I have ever made, but if it tastes as good as the batter then it will be delicious.

I am researching and brainstorming on what I want my blog to look like, and I will start getting some more pictures up.  I know all this text must be pretty darn boring.  If there is one thing I am uncomfortable doing, it would have to be dealing with and learning new technologies.  My husband picks up on the stuff so easily and to me its like another language, so bear with me and hopefully we will start looking a little more high-class 'round these parts.