For the Love of Chickens Pt.1

I was not raised on a farm. My husband however, grew up on his grandparents' farm. Farming was in his blood! All he ever talked about was one day buying his own farm. During the summer of 1997, he was transferred to Wisconsin. After settling in and getting a feel for the lay of land, we decided where we wanted to buy a place. So after lots of searching, hubby's dream was realized when we settled on what we affectionately referred to as "Green Acres."

After a lot of blood sweat and tears, we turned Green Acres into this!

We quickly added a menagerie of animals-a few cows, chickens and goats.

It was not my "job" to care for these critters. At "Green Acres," it was our children who cared for the animals. We were a homeschool family, and taking care of our barnyard friends was part of the daily routine. They learned so much from the animals, like...... RESPONSIBILITY! Even though I didn't care for the animals on a daily basis, I certainly enjoyed their company when I was working outdoors. And I made many stops to the fence to just watch them interact with one another. As a self-professed chicken hater, I soon changed my tune and fell in love them. I especially enjoyed the watching the beautiful roosters and hearing them crow.

Duke

Eugene (my favorite)

So this is how it all began. We moved from our beloved "Green Acres" in 2003 when hubby got transferred-AGAIN!

We ended up back where we started......in our hometown in Central Pennsylvania.

Stay tuned for the REST OF THE STORY!

Green Acres is the place to be!!

For the Love of Chickens Pt.2

After making a move back to our roots, we purchased yet another fixer upper. This time though, we had a much smaller home than our Wisconsin farm house. And instead of 80 acres, we had just 1 acre. It was quite a change. But we chose this home primarily for its location. It was centrally located for hub's job, our daughter's future college as well close to friends and family. The home belonged to my grandmother who had recently passed away. And since the family needed to sell it and we needed a home, it seemed like the perfect solution.

So after some MORE blood, sweat and tears............and some help from some family and friends.......we turned this....

INTO THIS!

(In case you're wondering....hubs is in the construction business!)

In 2008, we had the opportunity to purchase 8 acres of land that connects to ours.

This made my farm boy hubby very happy!

What will we do with all that land?

The first thing we did was plant a garden......

And the second thing we did was buy some chickens!

Aren't they cute....little Auracaunas










Some more chickies....that handsome guy in the middle turned out to be a Polish Crested rooster!








Hubby built a nifty chicken house for them. It was portable. So we could move it around the yard as needed. They could destroy the grass in a day, making it necessary to keep their house on wheels, on the move.



This is the upstairs roosting area...there is a set of steps for the girls to get up and down as well as a "lid" for the hole to lock them safely in at night, keeping them safe from preditors.


As the girls out grew this house, Hubs built yet another chicken house. This time, he built them a house up on the hill and fenced in a HUGE yard for them to roam around and dig and scratch and eat EVERYTHING! This made them veeeerrrrry HAPPY!

This is our little Homestead today.

We enjoy the extra land for gardening, taking long walks with the dog, watching wildlife and especially raising chickens!

So now you know the rest of the story!

To find out more about our simple life, and living on the land, feel free to view our family's blog .