The Death of the Dishwasher

        Our dishwasher broke down in July of 2011. We decided to do without it.  As a result of the tragic death, there were some changes.
        Of course, we had to start washing dishes by hand. As there are six people in the family we made teams. B and L (youngest two) wash after breakfast. A and I wash after lunch. We alternate drying/washing every day; we both prefer drying. Mom and Dad wash after supper. Mom washes and Dad drys while mostly A and I put away leftovers and wash counters and sometimes make Dad's lunch for the next day. B and L usually somehow drift away after the table is cleared :-) Somtimes there are some dishes to wash between meals. Someone usually does that for 'before supper prep.' work.
  
 Pros of washing by hand:

• Money is saved: instead of putting it toward fixing/running the dishwasher we can put it toward things such as our mortgage.
• We have more visiting time together. That could be good or bad: depends on what mood I'm in :-)
• It's good to experience something different and it makes me thankful for what I do have; usually I would take the dishwasher for granted. I used to hate loading the dishwasher; now I am the dishwasher.

Cons:

• It cuts into time that I could be doing something else, such as finishing school. In the evening we don't have as much free time together.
• It's a little more work, but that doesn't hurt; it's probably good.

Conclusion: I think it is good that the dishwasher broke down, even if it doesn't seem so good sometimes.

Chicks 2

Here are our Rhode Island Red chicks. We have 24 of them. (We have 45 Dark Cornish.)
We had to seperate the two breeds. The Rhode Islands were looking for mamas and crowding under the Dark Cornish, who didn't take that very well. There was some pecking going on.

 Rhode Island Reds on left side of box

Both chick breeds are already developing wing/tail feathers!

P.S. I'm extremely lazy about getting my posts posted, so now all the chicks are out in the chicken coop in a closed off section. They also have lots of adult feathers. The exotic chick looks like it has major hat hair!!!

Skirt 2

Another skirt I made (with the addition of my new boots, of course ;-)

Chicks!

We got some new chicks! They are the Dark Cornish breed. The top picture is of our free exotic chick. When it grows up it will probably have a HUGE tuft of hair over it's whole face so that you can hardly see it's eyes! :-) We are expecting to get some Rhode Island Reds soon, too. I'll have to make a second post.