Urban Farm

If you would have told me 5 years ago that I would be planting starts for a garden in February and raising chickens for eggs I would have told you that you were crazy.  I still think it is a little crazy, but that is my life now.  I, a full fledged city girl, married a city farm boy.  He thinks he is a country boy, but come on!  He was raised in a suburb of Boise.  Anyway, we had 5 chickens and due to giving some away and the appetite of a few dogs, we have no chickens left.  We put up a fence around the coop and we are starting from scratch. 

We picked up 4 chickens after work today.  The kids came and helped.  They are pretty cute. 

We set up a Rubbermaid tub with food, water, and a heat lamp in the nursery.  The nursery is currently empty and will be empty while the chickens grow.  They should be able to go outside in May.  That will be perfect timing for Baby Jenkins. 

Oh yeah...and we got a duck too.  It won't fly and it will also give us eggs.  I couldn't resist.  Look how CUTE she is!

We got three varieties of chickens.  We will get green, brown, and duck eggs.  I guess the Duck eggs are good for baking, or at least that is what the lady at the store told us. 

 Here is the whole production.  We put a child door handle cover on the door so that no one (Bruce) will disturb them.

 And here is our set up for our starts.  Alan built a shelf in the laundry room and hung a light.  We started onions, marigolds, and vincas.  They are all doing very well.  We will start another batch of plants on Saturday. 

The cat eats on top of the washing machine so the dogs won't eat her food.  Bad dogs!

  So I guess I am married to an urban farmer.  I try to be supportive, but I also have to level him out at times.  Today he was wearing cowboy boots.  Silly Alan. 

Family Field Trip #2

 For our second family field trip we decided to visit our state capitol building. 

 Bruce was very excited to run around on marble floors and yell so he could hear his voice echo.  

 Which is what he did...the whole time.

 The water fountain was also very exciting. 

 But the real point of this trip was to teach about the importance of government and what the capitol building means to us. 

This is the view from the 4th floor down.

 This is the view from the 4th floor up.

 And this is the view from the 4th floor out.

 Bruce did not want to be constrained.

 Here is where the state Senate meets.  We discussed what they do and why it is important in a way that a 5 year old can understand, I hope. 

 She was very interested, as you can see. 

 Then we visited the room for the representatives.  It was blue.  The other room was red.  Kinda interesting.  There was one representative there working and making calls.  I hope that we were not too loud. 

 And this is the great seal of the state of Idaho, in case you couldn't tell. 

 After the capitol we went to Cabelas.  Bruce tried on hats with grandpa. 

Another great family field trip.  We finished the day off with Red Robin.  I usually get the Bonzi Burger but I got the A-1 burger today.  It was good, but I still missed the pineapple. 

Family Field Trip #1

We started a tradition last year.  We set goals for the year and each month we worked, as a family, to achieve our goals.  Last year we had 3 goals: plant and harvest a garden, make our beds daily, and play outside more.  We did pretty well.

This year we chose 4 goals: take a family field trip every month, beautify the yard, take treats to people bi-monthly, and keep a family journal.  

We took our first family field trip last month.  We went to Birds of Prey and the The Boise Fry Company for lunch. 

Birds of Prey is basically a conservation/education facility where they keep bird that prey on other animals, like this owl.

 

 We went on a family day so they had activities for the kids.  This center had a craft where you built your own bird out of recycled materials. 

 This center we dressed up like a bird.

 I could only get Alan to wear the glasses.

 Bruce thought it was pretty fun.

 Here is the Karina bird!

And last of all, the Candice bird.

Karina played a game put on by Idaho Power to teach kids about the importance of conserving energy. 

 Bruce and Alan watched. 

 And of course, we looked at all different kinds of birds.  I really liked this one.  It's face is mesmerizing.

 They had a few peregrine falcons of leashes.  Bruce want to pet one. 

 Then we took a walk on the nature trail.  It was cold and windy, but the view was amazing. 

We had a very nice time.  I think this goal will be a lot of fun.  Field trip 2 coming very soon...

Picasa

I just downloaded Picasa 3.  This is me playing around with the program.  Sometimes I am such an old lady when it comes to technology.

These pictures are from our trip to Rigby for New Years.  We played and ate, and played some more.  The kids really liked grandma's tub! 

Chicken Pot Pie

I have been working on updating my recipes and menu items as of late and I added two new dishes to my menu this month.  This was the first.  Homemade chicken pot pie from The America's Test kitchen.  I love chicken pot pie and America's Test Kitchen is my food guru, so I was anxious to see how it would turn out.

I think it looks pretty good.

It was very yummy.  It will definitely stay on the dinner menu.

Hair Frosting

Christmas Eve

 We decided to start a new Christmas tradition this year.  On Christmas Eve we had a "fancy" meal.  We used our nice china and made nice dishes.  Here is a view of what we ate and how it went.   

Alan set the table.  He is very particular about where things go.  It turned out very nice.  

 Bruce promptly messed his all up.  

 We wore our Sunday best and the kids were taught how to act and what was and was not appropriate for a nice meal.  Karina really enjoyed the whole evening. 

 Even Alan dresses up.  What a cheese!

 I was exhausted but I was also very excited to taste everything. 

 Here is the salad course.  Almond strawberry salad with candied almonds and dressing made from scratch. 

 Bruce loved the almonds and strawberries but not so much on the spinach. 

 The main course was an apple, cranberry and cornbread stuffed pork tenderloin.  It was amazing if I do say so myself. 

 The lighting was bad, but you can see the inside in this picture.  Alan also made garlic mashed potatoes. 

 Karina chose our desserts.  This is a frozen raspberry mousse with a raspberry puree.

 Karina chose one fruity dessert and one chocolate dessert.  They both happened to be mousses.  We used a french cookbook, so maybe that was why.  this is a chocolate mouse cake. 

 The presentation was beautiful. 

I felt that the meal was a success.   We topped it all of with Martineli's Apple Cider.  The kids loved it and I was satified with a job well done.  

We now have a fridge full of wonderful leftovers and happy memories to go with them!