While tropical storm Issac is running its course in the Gulf of Mexico, here at the White House on the east coast of Florida we are staying pretty busy.  After spending a great summer in the Amish Country of the Finger Lakes Region of Upstate New York I came home ready to get a garden started in hope that we would be able to not only eat what we grow but possibly can or freeze the harvest. 

Here is the picture taken at the end of July about two weeks after we planted.  We planted everything from seed except for the corn in this picture.

These two pictures are the same area as the picture above from July 31.  These picture were taken today August 27 between storm squalls.  The picture on the left shows the pole beans in between rows of corn.  At the bottom of this picture are the pumpkin and watermelon seeds that my boys planted.  The right picture is more corn with a row of bush beans in between.

The picture above is from the other end of the corn rows.  These plants are squash and cucumbers.  They are looking pretty good so far.  I hope we can keep the pests out.

This is the area of the garden north of the squash.  We planted tomato and pepper seeds but nothing came up.  So I decided to have a try at growing seedlings in a recycled plastic 9 pack container.  I used the burpee seedling dirt and the seeds grew very well.  I have now transplanted them.  The larger plants were bought and the smaller ones are my home grown seedlings. 

 

We are looking forward to have a fruitful harvest that we can enjoy and share fresh vegetables. 

I would love to add some pictures of my garden and all the growth however we have not had an evening without rain so I can get out there.  By the time I get home with all three kids, make dinner, four lunches, clean the kitchen and the kids and homework done I get about an hour of daylight.  Well unless it is storming.  So instead of working in the garden tonight.....

Homemade Chocolate Ice Cream

I made this with the rival ice cream mix that was on sale at Wal Mart.  It was chocolate mix that I made with skim milk (even though it called for whole).  It is very chocolaty and pretty creamy.  The boys .... and I loved it.  I think tomorrow night for dessert we might add some bananas and peanut butter and make a monkey milk shake.

Busy Breakfast

Not much going on with the chickens and haven't had the much time to tend to the garden.  Between getting use to being in the classroom all day, figuring out how to get 1st graders to calm down in the evening time while the younger brother is doing Olympic dives off the top bunk and lightning storms every evening when it is finally cool enough to go weed the garden, I have turned to baking. 

We ran out of milk early in the week and had to switch from our staple cereal breakfast to homemade cinnamon rolls made with challah bread dough.  As much as the kids love cereal I did not hear any complaints.  This bread dough was filled with cinnamon sugar butter mixture.  The next morning the filling was nutella with cinnamon sugar. 

I came up with a new way to make breakfast, using my olive oil bread dough and eggs...soon to be fresh eggs.

Our Family Chickens.

In just three short months our chickens have really grown up.  Since the boys have handled them since the first day they are still friendly and personable.  We are hoping that in the next month they will start producing eggs.  The chickens are great pets for our family.  Low maintenance and always outdoors so they don't add to the mess in the house.

Still Friendly- Best Pet Ever!!!



Uncle Jimmy meets the chics!!!

the Chad May 17 2012

the Chad Aug 8 2012

Chuck Chicklin Aug 8 2012



Chuck Chicklin May 17 2012



Becca Aug 8 2012- No before picture

                

Sonic Generation May 17



Sonic Generation Aug 8 2012



Sonic Boom Aug 8 2012

Sonic Boom May 17

Lightning Rod Aug 8 2012



Lightning Rod May 17

 

 

Fellow Aug 8 2012

Fellow May 17

The frame of the tractor coop.

The door is on.  The back part of this is the coop with a place for the nesting boxes.

The boys are testing the sturdiness of the inner conduit that we later attached the poultry netting to.

In back of the tractor is where the nesting boxes were attached, air vents were put in, a door for the chickens to enter and exit as well as a mesh wire flooring, and then covered with plastic sheeting

Here is our youngest testing out the chicken coop.

Here are some pictures from the start of our world with chickens.  My husband did some research on tractor coops and then drew up his owns plans of a coop that would meet our needs.  The front and back of the coop are plywood.  He then covered it with plastic sheeting.  and then we covered the completed coop with poultry netting.  The boys were a big help with getting the coop completed.



Finished Coop!

 

Here are the pictures of the chickens during the first few weeks we had them.  This pictures were taken May 24 2012.  The chicks ranged from 2-4 weeks old.  We have 7 different breeds.  We planned on getting all the same breed but when my husband went to purchase them (planning on getting 6)  the farm had 7 different breeds so my husband figured he would get one of each.  We kept them in the rubbermaid container in the living room for about 6-8 weeks.  The top picture is my youngest testing out the chicken coop with the chickens.  We did not leave them- the chickens or my son- in the coop overnight.  The chickens however started staying the coop  at about 8 weeks old.  We built a tractor chicken coop.  I hope to add picture of the process of building the coop soon.  We are able to move the coop around the yard.  However we are still working on having a better wheel system for the coop because it is too heavy for the current wheels.  We are hoping to get eggs from our chickens in another month or so.  More pictures to come.