Chickens and Frugal Steps

Well, the girls are 3 weeks old now – time flies! They have entered the ugly stage, too. I also figured out that one of them is a boy – yep, I missed the little tuft of white feathers on his head when I bought the chicks! Now he is feathering out barred, which is what male black stars do.

Thankfully, I have a backup plan, so there is someone who will take him off my hands. Living in town, I need my chickens to be as inconspicuous as possible Since I knew I’d be getting rid of at least one of the black chickens, I picked up two Rhode Island Red pullet chicks on Monday when I went to get feed. They are adorable, but have to be kept from the others, as the rooster especially was picking on them.

My planting is not going as quick as I had hoped. We are so busy these days! I long to be home more, and must figure out how to cut out on some of my running in order to be “steadfast at home”. Hubby’s last day of work is tomorrow, so we have been working on cutting back as much as possible. I’ve also taken to doing some serious couponing – I finding that I love CVS! There are 3 within 2 miles of my house, so I’m often driving by one. I am trying to only run errands once a week, but shouldn’t have a problem taking advantage of the deals offered at my local stores.

We’ve started hanging laundry – I hang it around the house and on the patio chairs since we don’t have a line. Tomorrow we’re going to finish switching out our old lightbulbs for the new energy efficient ones. I’m cooking more with the solar oven, and we’re running the heat/ac less. In addition to making my own bar soap, a friend helped me make a batch of laundry soap as well. She says it works great, and the cost is so much less than store-bought. I’m waiting to use up our current jug of ALL before trying the homemade stuff.

I’m so thankful we started on a journey toward a more self-sustaining lifestyle months ago. Although I feel I haven’t made much progress, I know I’ve learned so much from experience and lots of reading! All that research is about to be put to practice