• Build It, Make It, Do It

    DIY Chicken Roost

    When we first got our baby chicks we were so excited to get them out of their brooders and into their new coop that we put up a temporary roost that was the perfect size for them. Tiny. Like most babies though, they grew wayyy too fast and before I knew it they were running out of space on their tiny roost. They began to take over window sills and food dispensers for roosting so I decided I had better take action. When deciding what I wanted to make for their new roosts I kept a few things in mind. I knew that I wanted roosts that… could be easily…

  • Lifestyle

    Leave it Better than you Found it

    There is nothing like falling asleep inside a cozy sleeping bag with the sound of a babbling stream in the background, and the smell of campfire still lingering on your clothes and in your hair. You know you’ll be awake far too early as the morning’s first light warns you to vacate the tent before it becomes an oven full of human pigs in blankets. Some of my fondest memories of growing up are from camping, and now that I’m a mother I long to share these experiences with my children. While I will definitely be roasting marshmallows to make s’mores, and telling stories around the fire at night with…

  • Food,  House and Home

    Classic Carrot Cake

    It is tradition in my family, as in most families I would imagine, that when it is your birthday you get to choose what kind of cake you want. For me, the choice is always the same year after year. I want my grandma to make her carrot cake. This recipe makes the most dense, moist, and perfectly delicious carrot cake you’ll ever eat and lucky for you…I’m going to share it with you! Here’s what you’ll need… 1- 20 oz. can crushed pineapple (not in heavy syrup just pineapple juice) 2 cups shredded carrots 4 eggs 1 cup sugar 1 cup packed brown sugar 1 cup canola oil 2…

  • Garden

    Prepping your soil for a garden.

    When we first bought our house I was so excited to have a place to put a nice big vegetable garden. My grandmother has been known to have beautiful gardens that yield up far more than even pictured here below on her giant family table. But somewhere along the journey of three pregnancies, births, months of breastfeeding, and everything else that life threw at us in between the garden fell to the wayside. The back corner of our yard became a favorite place for weeds and broken children’s toys somehow always got blown there in the wind. Until this year…this is the year I start working on getting my garden…

  • Food,  House and Home

    Sinnett Lasagna

    Lasagna whether it is store bought, Olive Garden, or my favorite mom and pops Italian Restaurant has never been a dish that I really enjoyed…that is, unless it is THIS lasagna. So in the hopes that I can make Lasagna lovers out of you all I’m gonna share the recipe. When I make Lasagna I use two 13x9x2 in. baking dishes and make two lasagna’s so I can cook one and freeze one for a later time. So if you do not want two Lasagnas you will need to half this recipe. Here’s what you’ll need… 4 lbs. ground beef (I like to use ground chuck) 1 lb. Italian Sausage…

  • Hens and Hooves

    Holy Crop! My chicken has a tumor.

    I’m new to chicken keeping, like embarrassingly new. My grandmother, my aunt, and I collectively decided that buying 30 baby chicks all at once was a great idea…and that for whatever reason my house seemed the best place for them despite my lack of experience. So after they were old enough to get out of their brooders we excitedly moved them into their newly constructed coop. All seemed to be going well the first day and then all of a sudden on the second morning I went out to check on the chicks, check food and water, and open coop windows for ventilation and lo and behold I find a…

  • Garden

    Lazy Decorative Planters

    I love to garden. I like to plant things, water them, and watch them grow. There is, however, a part of me that is stronger than my love of gardening….that’s Lazy. While I certainly love some annuals (plants that only live for one year or season then need to be replanted.) I struggle to rationalize spending time and money on plants that just won’t stick around when I have a whole acre to try and landscape and maintain. Hence my love of planting perennials (plants that will go dormant and then return year after year.) In this post I will walk you through how to choose perennial plants for your…

  • Life with Children

    Mom Guilt

    When you’re pregnant with your first child people are always so eager to make an uncomfortable comment, or offer up unwanted advice, or tell you how to be a mother…but the one thing that nobody ever mentioned, that no amount of books or research decided to warn me about before I became a mother was the guilt. We like to joke around and make light of it sometimes but the truth is, mom guilt is heart wrenching and real and inescapable. If I spend my entire day playing and doing fun, educational things with my children I still feel guilty when I lay in bed and realize they are going…

  • Food,  House and Home

    The last CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE recipe you’ll ever use!

    Some people think that chocolate chip cookies should be thin and crunchy, I am not one of those people. I like a cookie that has a thin crisp layer on the outside and stays nice, soft, plump and delicious on the inside. Anybody who has ever had my grandmother Mary’s chocolate chip cookies would tell you that they are exactly that…and that they are some of the very best they’ve ever eaten. So after getting permission from her I have decided to share her recipe with you all! Here is what you’ll need… Ingredients 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature 3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar 1/4 cup…

  • Build It, Make It, Do It

    Weatherproofing our nesting box hinge!

    When designing my chicken coop and run I wanted to make sure that not only would my chickens have a well ventilated, dry, clean, and comfortable place to call home (resulting in more eggs for me!) but I also wanted it to be a beautiful addition to my backyard and help my daily maintenance and routines to be as fast and easy as possible because let’s face it…I have a very full plate. For these reasons I decided that I wanted to be able to collect eggs each morning without having to enter the run and open the man door into the coop. I decided that a hinged roof on…