Rainbow Eggs

It's not only a beautiful day here in South Carolina, but a colorful one!  This morning on our first run out to the coops to check for eggs we got a surprise....our first pink egg!  We've been getting brown ones from our Red Star hens, and the blue egg is from one of the bantam Araucanas, and now a pink one from one of our Americanas.  How fun! 

Today we are keeping busy building chairs and benches for outdoor use.  Jason also built a ping pong table with the boys!  Thanks grama Sonia for the net, paddles and balls :)

Cookies

Hi, this is Caitlin.  One of the things I like most about being homeschooled is that I get to spend my entire day with my sisters and brothers.  I especially like spending time with Gracyn.  She is so cute and fun!  Today her and I decided to bake some gingerbread men to share with everyone.  Graycie wants to do everything by herself, so it was a bit messy but it was fun!  Momma taught me a really yummy recipe for frosting and I would like to share it with you.

cream cheese frosting

1 stick of butter, softened

1 block of cream cheese, softened

1 tspn vanilla

5 cups of powdered sugar

Mix all ingredients and spread on cookies!

Nate's Rabbit Cage

Hi this is Nathan.  I built this portable bunny cage.  My Grama Jo and my dad bought Cait and me two bunnies last weekend at the flea market.  Mine is black and Cait's is white.  I'm going to have them make babies and then I'm going to kill them and sell their meat.  It will be hard because they are cute.  I built this cage for traveling.  If we want to sell the babies when they are still alive I need something to put them in.  I made it by myself.  I used scrap wood, small wire fence, and screws.  I didn't follow a book.  I'm going to get better at building the cage and then try to sell them too.  

Working the Land

There is an abundance of work for the kids to do here in the country...it's been wonderful to see them spend their free time working on an outdoor project instead of asking to watch tv!  The boys' recent project has been finding felled trees to drag out of the woods and cut into firewood for our outdoor firepit...even Gracyn got in on it {that's my girl!}  

We spent Thanksgiving in Virginia, and while we were there we went to the local tree farm and picked out our tree and had it cut down.  Nothing like the smell of a fresh cut Christmas tree!

November 21...an eventful day at Kornerstone

Yesterday was Ben's 8th birthday! Birthdays in our home start out with ice cream cake for breakfast!!  Daddy made this one for Ben...vanilla ice cream and oreos...yum.

We spent the day at the Greenville Zoo to celebrate.  It was a beautiful Autumn day to be outside.  

Yesterday was also the day Ellison turned a month old....

Ellie is a sweet handful.  She loves to be cuddled and held 24/7...it's a good thing we have many hands in our home that are capable of holding a baby!  We cherish these first few months with a newborn as we have learned they are so fleeting.

And another exciting event that occured yesterday...

...we got our first egg from one of the bantam araucanas!  These are the ones we are going to incubate and hopefully hatch!  But we're a bit unprepared.  Jason ran electricity out to the barn this past weekend so we could hook up the incubator, but it needs to be cleaned out.  Plus, we have to learn how to use it first!  We are spending Thanksgiving in Virginia so the incubating will have to wait until next week.  Sorry chickie!

Meet the Chickens

Our 4 rumpless ear tufted bantam araucanas  (What a mouthful!  Took me forever to remember it and to figure out what each word meant!)

*UPDATE 1/10/13*  The 2 hens on the left of the our rooster have been killed...one by a predator and one choked on a piece of fish.

*UPDATE 1/10/13*  All of these hens and rooster are gone.  We started over with baby chicks that we have raised ourselves.

We are learning so much about our feathered friends...we really had no idea there were so many kinds.  Here are some pictures of our newest bunch that we acquired from The Chicken Man!

It's great fun learning about all the different breeds.  We plan on hatching or own chicks as soon as we get some eggs!  It takes a few weeks for the hens to begin laying again once they've been relocated.  Plus, during the cold time of year they don't lay as much, we've learned.  We plan on pulling out the incubator and hooking it up after Thanksgiving...that will definitely be a learning experience.  I'm so thankful we moved to the country!..my kids are getting the chance to learning so many new things about God's great world!

The Beginning of Kornerstone Farms

Welcome to our new blog!  A lot has been happening in our korner of the world.  I'm happy to share it with all you that wish to read, and hopefully I'll get the hang of this blogging stuff sooner than later.  Two weeks ago we welcomed baby Ellie into the world...Ellison Jubilee.  She weighed a healthy 9lbs3oz and was 21 inches long.  Jason delivered her himself!  It was quite an experience for all of us! 

As we've all been adjusting to life with a new baby our farm has been growing as well!  We met an incredibly knowledgable man named Steve who we've dubbed {The Chicken Man}.  He invited us to his home to see his chickens.  I would call them his life's work.  This man has devoted countless hours of research to his chickens.  He has rare breeds that lay chocolate colored eggs!  He has some that he has crossbred that lay rainbow eggs...various colors from the same chicken.  I wish I had a tape recorder when we spent the few hours with him...we will be visiting him again!  As a family, our plan has been to buy chicks already hatched to raise for meat or eggs, but The Chicken Man has encouraged us to hatch our own eggs!  He has all the equipment and did it with his kids, and he is willing to pass on his knowledge, chickens and incubator to us!  I think we're going to give it a try!  God is good!  I love the way He puts people in our lives at the right time!  We are clueless with raising chickens and this man knows a ton and is willing to spend time with our family to teach us!!  We're supposed to pick up the incubator and hens this weekend...will be sure to post about it next week!