Well I can finally say, “Welcome to our wilderness zoo – caution all the animals are out of their cages!” And this time I am not referring to us!! 🙂
The chicken coop was finished yesterday and we drove north to pick up 8 chickens, a rooster and a lone ginny rooster. We have an additional 19 or more chicks waiting to be picked up as well. We will have a full coop which will be such a blessing to help fill the need for 8 dozen eggs a week to feed this hungry crew! 🙂
Now just for fun – I have been naming the chickens. I grew up on a farm and my Mother named ALL of our animals and her house plants for that matter. It is safe to say, this has stuck with me. Now my husband grew up on a farm too. It just so happened that the farm he grew up on was one of the largest chicken farms in central Pennsylvania. So he is a little dumbfounded to say the least that I would have any interest in naming these chickens and even more baffled by the fact that they are getting “people” names.
In my opinion, life is short and without a good sense of humor you may as well throw in the towel. It is meant to be fun and I enjoy doing whatever makes me smile! My husband is truly the same way, but he just couldn't wrap his head around this one…. 🙂
I thought for sure the chickens would take a couple days to get acclimated, but 5 am Ray the Rooster was crowing and we got two eggs today. I had one for lunch with some fresh tomatoes.
Today, thanks to all our Facebook friends I believe we named the Ginny Rooster Gus. He looks like a Gus. Last night, Gus was the last bird to be gathered and he wasn't caring much for being rounded up. When he was just about caught, he once again escaped the hands that held him. In an effort to find a place to land and I being the closest thing, he chose my head to land on. We will see where Gus and I go from here.. 🙂
This is just the beginning for us… Our biggest goal was to get our house built initially. This year it was getting the boy's tree house, chicken coop and greenhouse built. Being able to live off-grid is an amazing thing, but to be totally self sufficient along with being off-grid is over the top. Life is good and God keeps open up new doors for us.
Matthew 19:26 “..with God all things are possible.”
Be sure to check out:
http://mountainmanjournals.com/
http://www.mountainwomanjournals.com/
http://www.mountainboyjournals.com/
Hi Tam!! Just finished reading the blog above, “Welcome to our Wilderness Zoo!” And I got to thinkin, I don’t remember which book you are working to finish by month’s end. But having read the “zoo” blog, I thought, you should be writing a book about “The Trayer Family” you know, stories like the “zoo”, and all the other stories, that would easily fill, and then some, a book about your lives as a whole. Like cooking in an outdoor home made oven, the hunts, y’all do every year, there’s gotta be some good stories there. Cuz I for one, would love to hear/read about what all you guys have gone thru, the good and the bad, lessons learned in the “school of hard nocks,”, and the changes made and learned thru those hard nocks!! All those stories that brought all three of you to where you are today, living off grid, in God’s beautiful country of North Idaho! I would definitely buy one to read even more to gift to my friends and family, who know your name know beings your are a big part of my life, and the guys too!!
Well it was a thought, and something ur either working on, or been thinkin about at the very least. Ok I was just ruminating on that thought and thought I’d share what I was thinking!! Love u tons!!
Nanc
Thank you my dear friend Nancy!! I am working on several books right now and am doing just this… Sharing our stories and knowledge… My dear friend’s Carolyn and Julie had already put orders in for books while we were in Pennsylvania and I am doing my best to oblige… I love our life and could sit and tell you SO many stories!! Thank you for your encouragement to continue what I have started…. Love and prayers your way dear friend!!