The First of Many... I HOPE :)

Today we had the first egg from the chicken tractor, from either chicken tractor actually. I hope the other hens catch on cause I'm ready to start sellin' some eggs. When they really start producing we just cant use them or eat them all, so I thought why not sell locally and by word of mouth. There wont be much profit, just enough to cover the cost of feed. Its not about makin' money though, its about providing a healthier product :)

Awesome Savings!!

Yesterday Nana and I went into town and I took that opportunity to do a little shopping. Kroger is having their Mega Savings Event and many of these are deals I just couldn't pass up. Total retail value was $95.50 but I only spent $42.10. The savings total was 56%, a personal best for me. In this haul I got:
10 Good n' Natural Bars
1 Peanut M&Ms
1 pack of Kaiser Rolls
4 SOBE drinks
2 Pepsi 2-Liters
5 boxes of cereal
20 Easy Mac bowls
5 bags of Gold Fish
1 Sunny D
2 Sierra Mist 2-Liters
5 Propel Waters
5 Hunts Tomatoes

A total of 61 items for less than $1 each, you just can't beat that!! 

Here are some other deals Ive gotten within the last few months...

We paid less than $10 for all of this.

Dentastix were FREE with price match and coupon.
Pouches of dog food were $0.55 with price match and with a coupon I basically paid $0.21 for each.
Beggin' Strips were BOGO Free.

I spent $118.56 and saved over $100 using coupons and price matching :)

Simple Eatin'

Happy Face

Snowman

Robot

I made some calzones for supper and as everyone besides me apparently knew or realized until that night (according to my little brother) everyone bakes calzones and pizza on corn meal. Anyways I did just as the recipe said and after they came out of the oven (they were very very yummy I might add) the boys had fun drawing pictures on the pan. I thought they were pretty funny and artistic :)

We don't always play with our food, or what's left of it anyway. Sometimes making food is not all fun and games, it can be hard work. We made homemade wheat bread this past weekend and man was it yummy :) I also made some homemade butter to go along with it. It was tedious work but the finished products were so worth it! Its amazing what one can do with whipping cream and a Mason jar. I love knowing these little things that  make life so much more enjoyable. We enjoyed our fresh bread and butter by the fire all afternoon. I cant think of a better way than to spend my time than with family, sitting around the fireplace, and enjoying good food.

The Girls are Back in Business

The warmer weather has brought more along with it than sunshine to the Thomas house. Two of our hens have decided to start laying again. We have had three eggs in the past three days. For us this is such a joy because when the hens don't lay, we generally don't have eggs. The good eggs are just too expensive to buy in the store and the cheap eggs don't taste as good and aren't as good for you. I hope the rest of the hens will begin laying soon because everyone keeps asking for eggs and I hate having to tell them that we don't have any.  I am looking forward to getting some chicks closer to the spring and then maybe some already producing layers soon too. The more eggs the better! I have been working on the new chicken tractor and I hope the good weather continues through the weekend so it can be finished. All the hens and the rooster included should love their new home.

This picture just shows the basic design of the chicken tractor. I have done much more work on it since this was taken which means I will just have to post another picture later. Having two chicken tractors along with the stationary coop will be a challenge since we plan on having chickens in all three but I think I am up to it. Eventually I would like to have a larger variety of animals. Right now all the "farm" animals we have are a horse, a donkey, a duck, and of course the chickens. I'm thinking a  sheep or cow would be a nice addition to the family. This means I will have to get to working on some fences, oh the joy... but in the end though, I think it will all be worth it. I will have my own country paradise :)

 Well I finished it last night so as promised, here is a picture. I'm so excited to introduce the chickens to their new home :)