Nicole's

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Thankful Thursdays: Summer Roses and Novel Ideas

August 17, 2014 confessions, thankful thursdays

Note: I’m realizing Thankful Thursdays aren’t always happening on Thursdays, but better late than never. 🙂  There’s always so many things to be thankful for. A few of the gifts I’ve experienced in the past few weeks include: 1. Chances to take photos: Taking a moment or two to slip away with my DSLR clears my head and awakens my soul. Especially with beautiful roses at hand: 2. Exciting awards: The first three chapters of my novel won a Cascade Writing Award from the Oregon Christian Writers – I’m so honored and grateful for the affirmation. 🙂 3. Riding Grunnion again: Though it’s been four weeks, I got back in the...

The Six Life Lessons I’ve Learned in Urban Homesteading

August 11, 2014 confessions, Urban Homesteading

In February, my husband and I jumped head-first into urban farming — starting our summer garden from seeds. It then developed into an even larger endeavor when we added 13 chicks into our home. And then four ducks. And then three more chickens… The past several months have been a blur between brooding chicks, building coops, free-ranging, fixing fencing, gardening and finding eggs. As I look back upon these summer months, sever distinct themes come to mind — and boy do they ripple beyond our little urban homestead. 1. No matter how much you try, you cannot control everything.  When we first let the chickens out of the coop to...

Chicken Chronicles: The Secret Nest

August 3, 2014 Photography, Urban Homesteading

The girls have been laying for two weeks now (some more consistently than others,) but we noticed a dip in egg amounts the past few days and were thinking that the heat might have just been messing with the girls. And then we found this:   And then this: All in all, we hauled in 27 eggs: And boy are these eggs beautiful:   And because I don’t want to deprive you of this, here are ducks being cute:

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Chicken Chronicles: Egg Mania!

July 31, 2014 Photography, Urban Homesteading

The eggs are here! It happened before we even realized it! How are the chickens five months old already? Here’s the proof!   We discovered the bird’s hiding place inside a brush pile (we’ve meant to clear it out a few weeks now, but it’s a jungle gym/nesting box deluxe!) I caught Icarus coming out of the nest after doing her “business”… Our little bantams were also laying (without us realizing) so I dug around in their own mini-brush pile and found their stash. 🙂 Poor little Bossy has been struggling with a respiratory infection or worms of some kind — she’s sneezing, gasping and wheezing and the other chickens...

Thankful Thursday: Eggs, Healed Ankles, Quiet Nights

July 31, 2014 thankful thursdays

Each week seems to bring new adventures and gifts to revel in! Here are some of the many things I’m thankful for this week… Egg-citing surprises: We knew our chickens were hiding eggs… We just didn’t realize where or how many! Now I think I’ve got their spots figured out and we’ve been collecting 4-6 a day! The rest of the hens are still maturing and should pitch in soon too. Health and healing: My not-so-graceful dismount from my horse left me with quite the limp the past few weeks, but the ankle has healed a lot these past few days (and a visit to my trusty chiropractor helped as...