Here is the beauty of living out in the country. We have been living this dream for over a year now and I can't believe I STILL LOVE IT!!!!! I am not that big of an animal lover but I have found out that I absolutely LOVE outside animals. Are they a lot of work? YES! Are they worth it? YES!!! I think I mainly love it because of the work and fun opportunities they give my children! We have all learned a lot this past year. The bigger boys do a GREAT job at feeding and cleaning out the pens. I love watching them out there with the pitch fork, shovels and wheelbarrow! It is fun to see the pride they have when they are done and the animals are all taken care of. One of the farmers that live out here by us came over and showed our family how to butcher, cut, clean, & package up chickens. We had 4 roosters that we needed to get rid of before our hens started laying eggs. It was not the most pleasant thing to do but a great learning experience. My boys now know how to.........if all else fails, butcher, cut-up, and FEED their family. (me too) Ken is always wondering what is next :~)) We both agreed that having this opportunity is wonderful and we are going to use it! We had a big garden last summer and I LOVED growing and picking beans the best! You won't believe it BUT......I even canned all of them!! I canned a bunch of tomatoes, pears, peaches, and pickles!!! It was nice having a big storage room with shelves that I could put all my treasures on. My other favorite thing to do was as I would walk out of the storage room turn and look back at all I had accomplished. It felt so good. I guess it was the feeling of having food for my family but mostly that I could actually do it!!!! Anyway here are our new little ones. I got more chicks because 3 laying hens is not enough to keep my family in eggs all year. My 3 girls did really well though and gave us 3-4 eggs every day!! Most people around here told me that my hens wouldn't lay during the winter, WELL......they did! THAT'S MY GIRLS!!!!!!! I have even gotten 2 triple yokes!!!! When Travis and I went to the ranch store to buy the chickens we couldn't resist falling in love with the ducks, soooooooo we now have 2 ducks. They will live with our goats when they are old enough. FUN, FUN!!!! Here us Travis with "HIS BABIES"

Here are our 2 little ducks. I told the boys they could name the ducks but not the chickens (they are food). They named the ducks Frank and Marie. Do we know if they are male and female? No. Do they care? Probably not!

Here is the "nursery". There is just something so sweet, happy,and SPRING-E about hearing those cute things chirping during the day. They will stay in the house about 3 weeks. By the end of three weeks as I can remember, they don't sound as sweet or smell as nice. That's farm life I guess. BUT......it's fun for now.