Chicken License

The other week at work I was looking for a permit form on the City of Salem website and saw a form that said "Chicken License Application".I had to see what it was so I downloaded the form. Apparently if you are within the City of Salem you must have a Chicken License before you can get some birds. The process goes like this:

1. Build Chicken Coop following all the rules, setbacks etc.
2. Submit License Application with $50 fee.
3. Chicken Coop Inspector (no joke) comes out to inspect your coop
4. Receive approved Chicken License Certificate
5. Stock Coop with Chickens
6. Payments and Renewals ($50/year)
7. Live happily ever after

I can understand in a more urban area there is a need for some rules and regulations for people to abide by, but I think that this is too much. In most jurisdictions, the only time someone comes out to inspect is if there is a complaint filed. In these tough economic times when people are trying to save some money and eat a little healthier by using eggs from backyard chickens this $50/year fee defeats the whole purpose. Having your own chickens for eggs is not necessarily cheaper than buying them from Costco, but if you are looking for good free range eggs with a nice dark healthy yolk, and don't want to support the industrial food system. Then having your own chickens is the way to go. Once again the government is trying to stick their nose too far into an area where it should not be.

Dave

Our week of trial

So on Sunday, I started to have the signs of loosing the baby. I was 7 weeks along. Lily and I stayed home from church but Dave took the other 3 for a late service. We had told the kids before they left so they wouldn't keep telling everyone that our family was going to have another baby. All morning there was talk from them about our family of 7 or Mia patting my tummy and talking to the baby. We didn't want them to go on all day. It was making it so hard for me emotionally. Ethan took it really hard. He cried hard and so did I. We talked and shared and hugged. The other two it didn't really hit until Monday when I was so sick and in pain that they realized more of what was happening. We always have worship music on Sunday mornings to prepare our hearts to worship at service and the music that was on was hitting me hard. I am Falling On My Knees was one song that really struck me. Which I was doing all morning on Sunday. Falling on my knees before the Lord asking for strength. And then the one song that was with me when we lost the other baby, He gives and Takes Away, was being sung again. I know that this was all part of His perfect plan it is just so hard for our eyes to see why and how this could be perfect. It's amazing to see how this baby was already such a BIG part of our family. We loved it, yet we hadn't even see it yet. I am doing really well. We just had one hard day which I just lied on the couch and watched movies with the kids, read and slept. Ethan was a huge help with Lily and I. The kids took charge of meals and snacks which they did a great job on.

So we are at the end of the week and we are all doing much better. The kids are still sad at times and I still cry when something hits me just right, but God did give me a peace about all of this and the strength to get through this trial. With a supportive, loving husband and family and close friends I am getting through this time with lots of prayer and encouragement.

Blessed be Your name In the land that is plentiful Where your streams of abundance flow Blessed be Your name And blessed be Your name When I'm found in the desert place Though I walk through the wilderness Blessed be Your name Every blessing You pour out I'll turn back to praise When the darkness closes in, Lord Still I will say Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be Your name Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be Your glorious name And blessed be Your name When the sun's shining down on me When the world's 'all as it should be' Blessed be Your name And blessed be Your name On the road marked with suffering Though there's pain in the offering Blessed be Your name You give and take away You give and take away My heart will choose to say Lord blessed be Your name I will bless Your name, Lord Oh, You give and take away You give and take away But my heart will choose to say (oh Lord!) Blessed be Your name You give and take away You give and take away But my heart will choose to say (oh Lord!) Blessed be Your name

Lily is walking!!!!!!

FINALLY!!!! We were so anxious for her to walk. I thought that something was wrong. She could stand and walk holding onto our fingers or push something so why could she not just go. But as my mom pointed out to me and reminded me, this fits her personality. She is so laid back with everything else she just took her own sweet time in this milestone. It took her a long time to crawl and she did it just after her first birthday. She scooted for a long time before that. And she was walking holding onto our fingers when she was 14 months and finally started to push things everywhere at 15 months and day by day she was starting to get more courage and today at 16.5 months she finally took off!!!!! It is so fun to see her walk. I love to see how the kids are all just so excited at each milestone she crosses. And they will be able to enjoy it all over again with the new little one coming.

Sooooo . . .

Look closely at the following pictures. We made one for each of our family members.

We are expecting number "5" in mid June!! And we are all very excited.

Fall Harvest

over grown after a long vacation (let's say chicken food?)

Hot summer evening in the garden next to a Red Mammoth Mangel Beet

Our September Garden

Baby who LOVES tomatoes (she eats them like apples)

Green beans from our garden. We, with lots of my mother-in-laws help and their green beans too, canned 67 quarts.

Yukon Gold potatoes. These are so good roasted. We love them.

Fall has come with Oct. weather finally.

Ben, Logan and Dave working the potato/apple cannon

Team Bronson kiddos harvesting pumpkins

Getting a ride from Little Red (we almost got 7 kids in)

Picking the last of the black berries

Harvesting pie pumpkins

Our first Red Mammoth Mangel Beet. Look at the size of this thing. They are great for feeding animals during the winter months. The leaves are just toxic to animals, but the chickens will have a nice treat every now and then. These beets can get up to 20lbs. but this one was only 6 lbs.

Our fall Harvest and there is lots more to go pick too. Dave just came in with more tomatoes and zucchini. Surprisingly they just keep coming. We found a favorite way of eating the zucchini now so it doesn't get to tiresome. We still are enjoying them.

Just some fun pictures

Three ninjas

Dave and Lily doing push ups (Lily does some great sounds affects with them)

Just cute!

It's fort season.

We get about 8-10 eggs a day now. They are sooooo good. And I love not having to buy them anymore.

Our second Honey Harvest

Home school lesson. We invited a few families over and the kids had a great time playing together, more then watching the harvesting. But it was fun all the same.

Honey and biscuits. YUMMMM!

Our final product. 4 gallons!!!!

Making Vanilla

So a blog that I enjoy had a recipe for making homemade vanilla. That was something that I have been wanting to try this year. So we got the two items that are needed and voila. It was so easy. And in a few months I will be able to enjoy some yummy REAL vanilla.

Father's and their helpers

Who needs a ladder when you have a son on hand?

All for a clothes line.

Dad's night in

So my dear friend Katrina and I went shopping a few weeks back on a Saturday. We went to lunch and then hit a few Goodwills and last we ended up at Hanna Andersson outlet cause they were having a great sale. We found some good deals everywhere and were so excited. We were gone for about 7 hours and the guys did great with all the kids. Of course when we leave them to figure out meals for the kids, they might end up with something interesting. But at least the kids are fed and happy and we all had a great time.

Summer pics we never got on here

So this year we broke down and got a BIG pool. The kids absolutely LOVED it during the hot late summer days. We didn't get it until August but here in OR we didn't really need it until then. It took us 5 days to fill it on our well. We would fill it 3 times for an hour each day. Of course when we drained it, it only took one night. :o)

Girl's night

Since the boys have a boy night every other Tuesday night with their Alert Cadet group (kind of like boy scouts but Christ centered) us girls at home decided to have some girl time. Mia has been almost begging me to teach her how to sew. So thanks to Katrina who told me about this program, we started last night and she was giggling the whole way through. She has almost completed her first project and is loving it. She can't get enough of it and has been working on it during her free time. So fun. Lily just got to hang out in her high chair and eat popcorn, watch Mia and do other things in her chair so I could keep an eye on her and didn't have to run around the house after her.

We are looking forward to the next Tuesday Girl's night. She wishes it was tomorrow.

Our mishap with the wash

So one late afternoon I was finishing up a load of laundry and I walked past the washing machine and glanced at it, and low and behold it was full to the brim with suds. Now, this machine is a low suds machine so I was quite alarmed when I saw this. I was wondering how in the world did that happen. Thankfully Dave came home a few minutes later and after much thought we decided to just open up the door and see what would happen. The suds just started falling out. WOW! I've never seen so many before. Dave scooped more and more out. He was looking around in the basin and I saw this yellow bar sticking to the side of the tub. He pulled it out and behold it was my bar of Fels Naptha soap that I use to get stains out. I normally put it up in the cupboard where it belongs but that day I had put it on some rags/dish towels that were needing to get washed. Well, rags kept getting piled on top of the bar so soap and in my quick haste to load the washer with the towels I forgot that the bar of soap was in there. Word of caution. Don't leave a bar of soap on top of the washer. It took a total of 2 full wash cycles to get the soap suds out. And we had to stop it twice to pull out more suds. Of course the kids thought it was great fun. I was j

ust thankful that my washer wasn't broken.

Morning cuteness

So Lily does not like to sleep in. It is very rare that she sleeps in past 6:15. So we usually get about 30-45 minutes to ourselves and we get lots of cuddle time and reading time in during then. One of her favorites places to sit in the morning is one her pick chair with her blanket and pulls out her books and starts reading. I love these moments and I try to remind myself that she won't always wake up before the sun comes up so I

treasure these special times with her now.