We decided, now that the Thanksgiving craziness is over, we would get back to work on our guest bedroom.  When we left it we had put in two new windows, installed new (non-rotten) studs in the walls, and foam board insulation.  Kyle had spent some time during his vacation to put up a few lengths of the fiberglass insulation but there were still spots that needed to be finished up.

So, Saturday we finished putting up the kraft-faced fiberglass insulation, filling small spots that we missed initially with the canned spray-foam first before covering it forever (fingers crossed).  Before moving forward Kyle ran a length of electrical wire through the wall to the hall closet from the exposed outlet so we could install a light in there.  Hopefully soon we will be converting this akward hall closet into a closet for the bedroom (which currently has nothing for storage space, minus the one dresser that we happily transplanted in there from the living room).

At this point we went ahead and put up a sheet of 4 mil plastic as a vapor barrier along the entire length of the wall.  Once it was solidly in place we cut out the holes for the windows and called it a day.  That night we really noticed a HUGE difference in the comfort of that room.  It was fairly toasty considering that the vent is still currently shut, so we were pretty thrilled with the transformation.

On Sunday we put up a few sheets of drywall and then spent alot of time cleaning up the guest bedroom.  We had initially kept up with the mess, trying to keep the dust down to a minimum but as time progressed we started slacking in that area so to work in there meant stepping over or around various building materials and tools (not to mention the need of a ventilator).  So, with broom, shop-vac, and contractor bag in hand we did a quick assault on the mess and it really makes the room feel closer to being finished.

Before I bother taping and mudding the drywall seams and screws we'll probably cut into the wall going into the hall closet.  More than likely this project is going to require some major demolition as well, resulting in the installation of yet more drywall.  But I see an end in sight.  I'm hoping that with just one more weekend (ok, maybe two) we'll be able to start priming and painting the walls again. 

We'll install a new, white-trimmed, ceiling light to replace the ugly, brown one and then I hope to use some wood caulk to fill the gaps between the floor boards.  I've done some reading and it sounds like caulk will expand and contract with our boards unlike wood filler.  The previous owners had actually filled some of the gaps with plaster but due to expansion of the boards all of it has cracked and we've removed the majority of it as it looks worse than the gaps themselves.  It is just frustrating how much dirt, hair, kitty litter, whatever gets down in these gaps and it looks terrible.  Not to mention that if something is spilled on the floor it just seeps in between the boards.

So I'm sure we'll be making a run to the hardware store later this week to grab some supplies for the final push to get this room finished.

On another note, we got eighteen eggs this weekend!  So almost all of our girls have started laying!

Wow, well yesterday Kyle found six eggs in the barn!!  I was so excited yet a little jealous that I wasn't able to hit the mother-load myself!  That got our numbers up to a dozen exactly.  I wasn't expecting much today, as we've been averaging just a few a day.  I hit the grocery store as soon as I got out of work to pick up some stuff for next week's dinners.  I was walking through the dairy section and it felt so strange as I walked past the eggs- we almost always have to buy eggs whenever we go to the grocery store.  But no more.  We should have eggs coming out of our ears pretty soon.

I arrived home, hastily unloaded my car, let out the kids and threw on my muck boots.  It was amazingly mild outside for a rainy December day in Northern Vermont.  In fact, I walked to the barn with just a light long-sleeved shirt on, my jacket taking up residence on a chair in the dining room.  Much to my excitement, I was able to find another six eggs.  Only one was in a nesting box, one more was in the manger, and the other four were sandwiched between layers of straw on top of our nice stack of hay that we had tried to cover to keep them from laying there. 

So, with eighteen farm-fresh eggs in one carton, and eight store-bought eggs in another, we decided it was time to have 'breakfast for dinner'.  I started up some hollondaise sauce and a pot of water to make eggs benedict while I set the eight store-bought eggs in another pot to boil to make hard-boiled eggs for lunch tomorrow.  Dinner was delicious but not quite as filling as our eggs aren't exactly "jumbo" sized.  Kyle had to make himself two more eggs after we finished eating.  But, I guess this is the end of store-bought eggs for us!  Hooray for home-grown food!

This set up worked for a few weeks.  We would move the tractor about twice a week, just long enough for them to eat down the tall grass but not long enough for them to destroy it all together.  Its amazing how green some of those spots of grass were a week or two after we moved the chickens off of it.  In one spot there was a perfect rectangle of longer, darker grass where we kept the chickens for a full week.  But before we knew it there just wasn't enough room for them.  We would have loved to let the girls run free around our yard but our dogs would, most certainly, find them too irresistable.  We didn't want to risk it.  So we fenced in about an acre of land behind our old barn.  The land here was never used, it was always overgrown and covered in snails and other delicious bugs.  We ended up having to brush-hog it all down so the chickens could move around but they had plenty of grass and ant hills to enjoy as a result.

It seemed like every time I thought 'they must be done growing now' I would look at some pictures that were taken a week before and see a drastic difference.  Our girls had gone from fairly docile birds to massive, demanding chickens.  We love them, though.  Even Kyle, who never imagined himself as a person who would own chickens (or ANY farm animals for that matter) started really enjoying them.  They are good entertainment and the noises they make when they are eating or foraging just brings such a smile to our faces.  It is such a pleasing sound.

Our girls have just started laying eggs- so far only two (maybe three) chickens out of the twelve.  This time of year really isn't the typical high-production time for chickens, what with the lack of daylight, so we'll be lucky if we get many at all until spring.  But we look at our girls and think of how great it would be to get more.  Yeah.  More.  When we first started out we thought we would just want six or so.  But now we look at our twelve and imagine what it would be like to have double that.   Of course, in a couple years our current gals will start slowing down their egg production and we'll end up culling them all at some point so we'll need replacements standing in the wings.

I know it sounds crass.  But this is the way it is for homesteaders.  These chickens are not pets.  They are part of our lives, though.  We nurture them and they will, in turn, nurture us.  I'm not saying it will be easy.  In fact, it could very well be one of the most difficult things we'll ever do, but this is life.  In the spring we'll be ordering another round of chicks, some turkeys, and maybe some geese to add to our growing farm.  We'll never need all of the number of eggs we'll collect, but friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers are more than willing to buy them or trade for them.  So it seems this could be a good start for income from the farm.  So it begins.