This past weekend we pulled the sides down on the chicken house for the winter. It was cold. And wet. And we all worked anyway.

That doesn’t mean we didn’t have some fun along the way.

Because honestly, these boys are never serious for very long!

We added some screws to the towing skids to strengthen them up. Those skids are also what we attach the side walls to when they are rolled down. Everyone got to help out working tools and running errands.

Then we unrolled the plastic sides and nailed them down for the winter. And I caught this moment of complete concentration from my Speedracer. It was a moment–just a flash–but it gave me hope. {smile}

The first side is always the trickiest because the wind was blowing straight through and it fights against you holding it down tight. Once the first side is down, everything gets easier.

Of course, it started raining on us somewhere in the middle. It wasn’t enough that it rained that morning and everything was wet. We had to actually be IN the rain to get the full, pre-winter, effect. {smile} Everyone started complaining about cold hands, but you couldn’t grip the plastic with gloves on.

But the chickens were super cozy afterwards. We hooked up the tractor to tow them around to a nice, clean, winter resting spot near the house. They’re still inside the electric fence, so our biggest predator problems are raptors. We found some claw marks on the top half of the hoop house that we patched up with duct tape for now, but I’m betting it was the owl that was pestering Coal the other night.

So the ladies are comfortable to lazy away the winter–since they’ve pretty much stopped laying eggs. (Bunch of free-loaders!) I was also really excited to watch Pixie catch TWO mice on the run while we moved the house. They scrambled out of the grass and she snatched them up like she was grabbing a grasshopper and dispatched them. Ha! Take that, ya little beasties! (I despise mice!)

We’re still busy stockpiling hay for the winter and moving the sheep to the nearby fields for a few weeks while we start a grain-feeding routine. We’re also still selling some animals while everyone is stocking their freezers around here, but that should taper off shortly. Now we’re trying to move into enjoy the busy holiday season mode. We’ll be working on a Christmas parade float, the children are all in the cantata this year, and we’ve also got the Cowboy’s birthday in December and Speedracer’s birthday in January.

{BTW…we’re getting the Cowboy a tablet for his birthday and I just had to share that I’m excited to see the Amazon kids fire bundle’s on sale today. Under $85 for the non-HD 7″. Using my own 3 Simple Tips for Amazon Shopping advice, I’ve had one sitting in my cart for weeks now watching the price and snatched it up today when it dropped 15%. I also stacked some Swagbucks gift cards to get an even better deal. You might want to check it out!}

What type of technology do you’re kiddos have? So far, we’ve gotten each of them (meaning only the Ladybug at this point!) a tablet when they turned 9. They like to play games with it, obviously, but it’s great for homework too–especially with the Ladybug’s learning challenges. It helps her with spelling, and maps for social studies, some math work, and we have a great make-your-own flashcard app we use for history and science as well as math. Also, with Google, she can email a carefully managed contact list of friends and family and type her assignments in Drive without taking up the one and only family laptop until she’s ready to print.

I’m not crazy about technology for children and they get a lot of it at school, but it does have some benefits. (Plus I make them read for 20 minutes any time they ask to play games, which increases their reading AND cuts back on their requests for game time.) How do you manage screen time at home?

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