In the beginning.....

We have decided to start a blog to chronicle our craziness. So, we must first say how it all started.

Chris and I bought a house the year before we got married. Because we finally had a place to call our own, we started to dream big! Chris wanted to raise chickens in our backyard....I was totally against it! We had a pretty backyard and I thought if we had chickens it would ruin it all. I was completley concerned about how pretty our yard would be.

Chris made a beautiful chicken coop and my dad was kind enough to put a nice little copper roof on it. We were all set to get some chicks.

This was in the summer of 2007. We had a few chickens, and two ducks. The ducks were named Charlie and Pickles. They were noisy but a lot of fun. Unfortunately, we went on our honeymoon (we were gone only one weekend) and the poor ducks and chickens were killed. We are unsure what killed them but it was quite sad. However, we were not to be deterred! We wanted fresh eggs! (Below, we have Charlie and Pickles)

Chris then ordered more chickens--some to be butchered and some to be laying hens. Chris had never butchered chickens before, but quickly learned. He and a lot of his friends became butchering fools. Some people say that we are crazy...but isn't it more crazy to eat the mystery food from the grocery store? (Below is Chris butchering one of the chickens!)

During our first year of marriage, we had a lot of projects going on. Right before we were married (like the weekend before) we realized our basement bathroom was leaking and all moldy so we had to fix that. Also, we were fixing up our front yard. We cut down two big pine trees, tore out our front lawn, put in a new sprinkler system and new lawn, built a side yard to plant berries and veggies, a new paver walkway and oh yeah, had his friends help us build a new porch.We were quite busy that year! In addition, I was in my first year of teaching, very difficult classes at a pretty challenging school. I am so glad I survived! At the end of the school year, I needed to reward myself with a little present. I bought myself a very nice bread machine! I wanted to be baking our own bread...we had chickens laying us eggs, why not fresh bread as well? Since then, we have only bought bread a handful of times...when I was sick and couldn't make it, or I just plain forgot and we needed bread for sandwhiches that week.

My first summer off, I took a quilting class. I have always wanted to learn to quilt, and Chris, being the amazing husband he is, bought me a sewing machine for our first Christmas together. I enjoyed the class so much, but have not had the opportunity to take another one yet. Hopefully this summer!

Also, I decided I wanted to try making soap. My first attempt was okay. Not great, but not bad either. In fact, we are still using some of that soap! It did last us a long time!

Overall, our first year of marriage was wonderful. We were very busy, but loved every moment of the business, loved each other and most importantly, loved God.