And so we begin farming...

Emilie has been praying for us to have our own farm animals and to do more things from scratch. Patrick was looking into getting some chicks so we could have our own eggs. He was just about ready to place an order when a lady from church came up and asked him if he wanted some chickens. She as a friend who rescues all sorts of animals and she had more chickens than she could handle and wanted to find a good home for them. The result is that we are now the proud owners of six hens and one rooster!

Our first eggs!

Emilie helping her daddy build a chicken tractor (movable chicken coop).

Taking shape

Painting

The kids really enjoyed being a part of the project.

Fowler

Emilie loves her chickens. Her sweet prayers answered right before her eyes.

Patrick did quite a bit of research online looking at many different chicken tractors and then came up with a plan using the different elements he wanted to have. It is great for the small number of birds that we have. We are able to move it daily and give them fresh grass and bugs to feed on as well as letting the chickens fertilize our future garden areas.

Checking for eggs.

Easy access to the nesting boxes and the water reservoir.

The kids named the birds for the "Chicken Run" characters.
Fowler, Ginger, Doll Face, Babs, Mac, Bunty & Edwina.

We have also been blessed with a pig. Pumba is a wild hog that was rooting in our yard for several weeks. A neighbor came up one day and offered to catch him for us. We mentioned we'd love to cage him and fatten him up and the guy offered to hold him a couple of days while we arranged a pen. So we asked some friends of ours if we could borrow their dog kennel that they weren't using at the moment. The blessings keep abounding!

That's some pig!

Patrick had to make some adjustments to the chicken coop, so he let the birds wander around the yard one day. Boy did they have a great day. I was nervous as could be that we would never get them back in, but they returned with just a little persuading.

Surveying the cement pond!

Elly Mae Franklin?

The Lord has truly blessed us.