This week has been mentally hard. Physically, I know we are good. The root cellar is full of food and no one is sick but Wow. This whole corona thing has become such a emotional roller coaster. I go through my day like normal. At times though it just hits me and I feel scared for our Country, our State, Our City, Our community, My Family and Friends, and my boys and husband. It is a feeling I wish I could tell to go away and just “Cowboy Up” like I usually do when the shit hits the fan. But this is different. It is a different kind of fear and situation. We haven’t had a big change in our schedule because our kids are already home-schooled, and we also stay home a lot. But beside that most of this has not made of a physical change to out lives. But mentally, ever morning the news announce more restrictions and more cases. It makes a person just want to stay in bed all day. This constant wondering about what is coming next, and waiting for the other shoe to drop has been difficult. I have tried hard this week to focus on the Good. So let get to it.

On the homestead this week, the chickens are laying more eggs. Ebony’s baby girls are growing like weeds. We have decided to start our Chicken House remodel early. When we first got our chickens, lets see, how many years ago was that? Right, 12 years ago. We bought a 16 by 12 foot shed. We converted a third of it into a chicken house. We put in an extra door in that side for easy access to eggs and easy clean up. But I think it is too big. It lets too much cold air enter in the Winter. It has served us well over the years but I think we are ready for remodel. I would like to get rid of the huge door and change it to a chicken size door that would be open daily. We are going to keep the big door that we can access twice a year. We are going to add a interior door for daily access. We also are going change the nest so they can be accessed without walking into the chicken side of the shed. We also are going to get rid of the floor and change to a deep mulch system. It will make cleaning of the chicken house easier and great compost for the garden. I also would like to add an area to keep our new baby chicks instead of in my house. It has worked fine keeping the chicks in my house then moving them out after a couple weeks. But we found that the turkeys need to stay in a minimum of 4 weeks. I have decided I need to draw the line at only baby goats in the house. We will also be adding more insulation. I hate dealing with itchy insulation. Focus on the good, Crystal! I got our chicks ordered. I can’t wait! They should arrive around April 1st. Blog Posts coming out soon about chick order and chicken house remodel.

In the Garden, I start a bunch of seeds on Saturday, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Peppers, and Tomatoes. The rain water has unfrozen enough for us to gather some, which is nice. We also got some tarps laid down on some of the raised beds. It was the first day of Spring, and that marks the start of our drying our clothes on the clothes line. We replaced our old strings.

In the kitchen, I challenged myself to make three meals from one of our whole chickens. For the first meal I deboned the legs and thighs and made Chicken Pot Pie. The second meal I cut off the breast and pieced up the rest of the chicken and made Chicken Noodle Soup. For the last meal I slice the chicken breast into thin steaks and made Chicken Parmesan. It was fun! The only thing I threw away was the bones. My middle son also made a very delicious Strawberry Lemonade Cake. Tell next time.

Pray, Just Plant