Old World Market/Cost Plus Desk. $99
Lamp $15 (about a year old)
Leap Frog/Leap Start Learning Gym. Kaianah has outgrown. $15 (selling for $77 on Amazon right now)
Another pic of the learning gym
Bumbo w/tray $20Thursday, July 30, 2009
The Yearly Purge!
We are working on the yearly purge and as always we end up with items we don't need. Here are some pictures of items we have for sale. Let me know if you are interested! We just posted some of these on Craigslist. I know we'll have more... :)
Old World Market/Cost Plus Desk. $99
Lamp $15 (about a year old)
Leap Frog/Leap Start Learning Gym. Kaianah has outgrown. $15 (selling for $77 on Amazon right now)
Another pic of the learning gym
Bumbo w/tray $20
Old World Market/Cost Plus Desk. $99 Lamp $15 (about a year old) Leap Frog/Leap Start Learning Gym. Kaianah has outgrown. $15 (selling for $77 on Amazon right now) Another pic of the learning gym Bumbo w/tray $20
Monday, July 27, 2009
Slaughter Fest '09
After a title like that I feel I need to explain a little...
We were interested in raising our own chickens for meat this year, AKA "meat birds". We were thinking of raising 10 or so. After I found out that you could get a price break if you ordered 50 birds I decided to call a friend that was planning on getting meat birds this year as well and see if they would be interested in splitting 50 birds so each family would have 25 each. And that is just what we did. :)
Just to clarify, we aren't cruel animal hating people at all. We wanted to raise the meat birds for a couple reasons.
1) We would know what the animal was feed.
2) We would know that the animal wouldn't have been given hormones and vaccinations.
3) We would never have to think about a poultry recall.
4) And lastly so we could learn the entire process from start to finish. Thus taking another step in being less reliant on BIG INDUSTRY to provide us with food.
This was the beginning set-up process. The canopies aren't up yet.
The slaughtering cones and the hay lined wheelbarrows to catch the dripping blood. Yeah, I know it's a little gross but they don't bleed all that much.
Me, with a slaughtered bird, I'm just about ready to dip the bird into the scolding water.
Dusty and his overalls. He saves a lot of clothes wearing these around the property.
This is our birds on one side and our friends birds on the other.
Jon & Ty setting things up.
We were interested in raising our own chickens for meat this year, AKA "meat birds". We were thinking of raising 10 or so. After I found out that you could get a price break if you ordered 50 birds I decided to call a friend that was planning on getting meat birds this year as well and see if they would be interested in splitting 50 birds so each family would have 25 each. And that is just what we did. :)
Just to clarify, we aren't cruel animal hating people at all. We wanted to raise the meat birds for a couple reasons.
1) We would know what the animal was feed.
2) We would know that the animal wouldn't have been given hormones and vaccinations.
3) We would never have to think about a poultry recall.
4) And lastly so we could learn the entire process from start to finish. Thus taking another step in being less reliant on BIG INDUSTRY to provide us with food.
This was the beginning set-up process. The canopies aren't up yet.
The slaughtering cones and the hay lined wheelbarrows to catch the dripping blood. Yeah, I know it's a little gross but they don't bleed all that much.
Me, with a slaughtered bird, I'm just about ready to dip the bird into the scolding water.
Dusty and his overalls. He saves a lot of clothes wearing these around the property.
This is our birds on one side and our friends birds on the other.
Jon & Ty setting things up.(Father/son)
Yes, the kids watch and or participate. We need them to know why we raise the chickens, why we kill them and what we do with them next. We would love for them to remember how to do this as adults and hope they can leave childhood with these memories and a confidence to do it themselves. At our house we only have animals that serve a purpose.
Dusty and Jon, they are cleaning out the parts we don't need and preparing them to be wrapped.
Here's Kevin and Jon at the sink Jon made for chicken slaughtering. We are a high tech operation around here! Check out that piping and faucet.
This was just to funny to not post...sorry Kathy, had to do it! hee,hee She is reaching her hand into the slaughtering cone and pulling the chicken out by it's feet.
Here's our friend Greg. He is plucking the feathers off.
Greg, Tara and Dusty in the back. She's the new model face of Chicken Slaughtering Magazine! The subtitle reads "YOU TO COULD LOOK THIS CUTE WHILE SLAUGHTERING CHICKENS" ha,ha
Our friend John got in on the hot dunking action.
The De-feathering Station
Tara, Melissa & Greg.
Yes, the kids watch and or participate. We need them to know why we raise the chickens, why we kill them and what we do with them next. We would love for them to remember how to do this as adults and hope they can leave childhood with these memories and a confidence to do it themselves. At our house we only have animals that serve a purpose.
Dusty and Jon, they are cleaning out the parts we don't need and preparing them to be wrapped.
Here's Kevin and Jon at the sink Jon made for chicken slaughtering. We are a high tech operation around here! Check out that piping and faucet.
This was just to funny to not post...sorry Kathy, had to do it! hee,hee She is reaching her hand into the slaughtering cone and pulling the chicken out by it's feet.
Here's our friend Greg. He is plucking the feathers off.
Greg, Tara and Dusty in the back. She's the new model face of Chicken Slaughtering Magazine! The subtitle reads "YOU TO COULD LOOK THIS CUTE WHILE SLAUGHTERING CHICKENS" ha,ha
Our friend John got in on the hot dunking action.
The De-feathering Station
Tara, Melissa & Greg. Greg had lots of fun at Melissa's expense, he was making his chicken talk n' walk just to freak Melissa out. (They are husband/wife and left in the same car so I think it was all good.)
That pretty much sums up Chicken Slaughter Fest '09. The cows are next...
COMING THIS FALL TO A DAVIS BLOG NEAR YOU!
Saturday, July 25, 2009
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD
HAPPY 60th BIRTHDAY DAD! We love you and miss you!
Me and my Dad at Kevin's wedding '09
Dustin, Leia, Austin, Dad & Kevin. (Maui in maybe '02?)
2006 at our old house...
Kevin's Wedding '09
Dad's backyard '09Thursday, July 16, 2009
COB = Earth, Straw & Sand
~~~~~~FREE COB WORKSHOP SCHEDULE COMING SOON!~~~~~~
Okay, so some of the family & some friends aren't understanding what COB is.
COB=Straw, Sand & Earth
Yes, we would love to build our primary house out of COB. Not only for the financial advantage but for the health and sustainability. We love the idea of building a home with what God made.
Here are some examples of homes, sheds, or garden areas made out of COB. These were taken from all over the internet, these are not our pictures but they will give you a good idea of what can be made with COB.
As you can see no corn involved! ha,ha I have people ask me all the time how we will build a house out of corn cobs.
Okay, so some of the family & some friends aren't understanding what COB is.
COB=Straw, Sand & Earth
Yes, we would love to build our primary house out of COB. Not only for the financial advantage but for the health and sustainability. We love the idea of building a home with what God made.
Here are some examples of homes, sheds, or garden areas made out of COB. These were taken from all over the internet, these are not our pictures but they will give you a good idea of what can be made with COB.
As you can see no corn involved! ha,ha I have people ask me all the time how we will build a house out of corn cobs.
COB project (not corn on the cob. Earth, Straw & Sand)
The boys are hard at work on the earthen structure. Here's pictures from last night.
Austin
Dusty & Austin
Being silly
Alanah wanted in the picture
He's really growing up!
Austin
Dusty & Austin
Being silly
Alanah wanted in the picture
He's really growing up!They were finishing up the last part of the drainage ditch. Dusty picked up the corrugated drainage pipe on craigslist for $5, that was an AWESOME deal! We had already got a quote on the pipe and it was going to be $75. (That was including the family discount!) WOOHOO!
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Unexpected Circumstances...
Today we had one of those unexpected circumstances...we came home from our homeschoolers park day to notice that our toilets weren't flushing properly. Long story short and $422.00 later we needed our septic system located, have the cap dug up and then have the system pumped.
As you can imagine, this process is a little stinky. Alanah was trying to enjoy some raspberries from the garden while the men were pumping the system. She said, "ewww, mama, it's stinky!"
Truck #1
Truck #2 
Cherries, apple butter, pickles, tomatoes, cilantro, basil, pie filling & zucchini.
As you can imagine, this process is a little stinky. Alanah was trying to enjoy some raspberries from the garden while the men were pumping the system. She said, "ewww, mama, it's stinky!"
Truck #1
Truck #2 About 30 minutes after the septic system guys left I was in the kitchen starting to prepare dinner.
The whole time I'm trying not to stress out about the money we just handed over. All I'm thinking about is I need to buy groceries this week and I don't have an extra $400 plus dollars laying around so where's the money going to come from?...Most likely the food budget...yikes, how am I going to make this work etc. etc.
THEN, out of the blue, at that very moment, a friend from Bunco calls and says that she's got all this extra food from her garden and she would love to share with us! (I'm thinking, wow, God that's fast. I was just stressing about this and look someone calls and wants to give us food!) AND they want to bring it over to us right now. Okay! Come on over!! (Wow, God. Food & Delivery?! Thank You!)
Cherries, apple butter, pickles, tomatoes, cilantro, basil, pie filling & zucchini. Dusty said that he's going to make a composting toilet outside for the kids & him during the day! He said this should help to expand the time between septic system pumps. hee,hee
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
The Country Life...
The thing with country living is the job is never done and vacation translates to LOTS OF WORK WHEN YOU GET HOME! ha,ha
We hit the ground running since our return from Hawaii. We had TONS of tasks to do. The first day back was spent making our "convenience foods". I had used up mostly everything prior to the trip so many items needed to be made again or prep work to make something else. Here's what we made or prepared when we got back.
This is not even half of what I've made over the last week...
Next on the list was the COB Structure. COB is a mix of sand, straw & earth. We are wanting to attempt a COB structure. Soooo, it's official, we broke ground! Here's some pics.
Due to rules and regulations this structure will be very small, less than 200 sq. ft. A great starting point for getting our feet wet and learning about building with COB.
Dusty lookin' happy! It's like 98 degrees outside and he's doing this by hand. He is digging for the foundation...Frost line is 2 ft. so he has to dig down to the frost line.
We hit the ground running since our return from Hawaii. We had TONS of tasks to do. The first day back was spent making our "convenience foods". I had used up mostly everything prior to the trip so many items needed to be made again or prep work to make something else. Here's what we made or prepared when we got back.
- 2 Loaves of bread
- Pancake Mix
- Muffin Mix
- Ground Coffee
- Ground Wheat for the bread
- Soaked beans (needed for the next nights meal.)
- Raspberry Jam
- Bug spray for the garden varmits.
- Dehydrated raspberry & clover leaves for tea.
We came home to a TON of raspberries. Our sweet friends (Thank you Shaffers!) picked them while we were gone but the task is huge and was far from complete since the growing season isn't over yet.
This is not even half of what I've made over the last week...Next on the list was the COB Structure. COB is a mix of sand, straw & earth. We are wanting to attempt a COB structure. Soooo, it's official, we broke ground! Here's some pics.
Due to rules and regulations this structure will be very small, less than 200 sq. ft. A great starting point for getting our feet wet and learning about building with COB.
Dusty lookin' happy! It's like 98 degrees outside and he's doing this by hand. He is digging for the foundation...Frost line is 2 ft. so he has to dig down to the frost line. SUMMER COB PROJECT TO BE CONTINUED....
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Wedding pictures
Yay, some more FINALLY loaded. All of these pictures were taken by our cousin, Ilana. Thank you!
Mr. & Mrs. Kevin DeVito
My brother and me
If the groomsmen don't hold on to her she going to end up in the fish pond.
The mother-in-laws
The wedding party
Father of the groom and all the ladies...
Pretty picture
I do's
The bride at her reception
From left to right...
Mr. & Mrs. Kevin DeVito
My brother and me
If the groomsmen don't hold on to her she going to end up in the fish pond.
The mother-in-laws
The wedding party
Father of the groom and all the ladies...
Pretty picture
I do's
The bride at her reception
From left to right...Leia, Anna, Lindsey, Kahua & Jacki
Another cute picture...
Left to right
Another cute picture...
Left to rightUncle Rob, Mike, Kevin & Fletcher
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