My youngest turns three today.

I hung the glittery paper birthday banner in our front window last night, thinking about the day I bought it for her big sister’s first birthday party, and where I hung it then, and for the following family birthdays. I never intended to make it a tradition, but here it is. It hung in the summer rental for Beanie’s first birthday, and then in the second rental for her second birthday. It’s now hanging in our own home, a ready backdrop to cake and candles later tonight. My littlest love has lived in four houses in her three years; it’s so nice to celebrate in our home today.

I’ve posted twice now about our big move, though realized that I still haven’t made an announcement or explanation. Such is the tattered brain I’ve been taping together these past few weeks.

We have bought a home. A beautiful home with plenty of space for our family and for guests to stay – inside, rather than in a tent in the yard. And the yard! Almost seven acres total, with two small apple orchards and many mature trees. It’s on a dead-end dirt road, and our neighbors are proving to be just delightful. The first day of moving in (two years since the girls and I arrived in Maine, almost to the very day), they showed up with a bottle of apple cider wine from our very own trees.

And it feels like home already. Despite the rooms littered with boxes, and the big empty walls, there is none of that vague unfamiliarity that so often comes with a new space. No, this home is warm, and welcoming, and instantly comfortable for us.

I baked a cake and we opened presents after breakfast. Swee even picked out a special something for her Beanie at the swap shed this weekend, and it’s truly the perfect gift. I’m tired – goodness, I’m tired! – but it seems fitting to celebrate our little love here tonight, in our family’s very own space.

Oh, were we ever a sight yesterday afternoon. With very minimal time to spare, we decided to help the chickens make their big move. J somehow, somehow maneuvered his Silverado into the backyard and behind the coop. I ran next door to borrow a dog crate and then followed all five birds around the yard, shaking a parmesan cheese can full of scratch and calling to them like they’re dogs. To be fair, several came running like good little dinos, but the others had no intention of being captured. It was probably pretty funny to watch. With the big girls corralled, I headed in to the bathtub to scoop the “babies” into a cardboard box. When I reached in to catch them, one of the cockerels bit me on the wrist…and held on! He didn’t break the skin, but I was yelling some unpleasant things while trying to shake him off. Little punk.

Finally, all the critters were contained, and J had dug up enough of the base to tip the coop into the bed of the truck. Now, this thing stands taller than I do, with a fully shingled roof and barnboard siding. It’s heavy. More than once I wondered what would happen if it tipped the wrong way and landed on me. I don’t think I was much help, to be frank, but “we” managed to get it into the truck, get the truck out of the backyard, and lash everything down.

With the four-ways on, we crept our way to the new house. At one point I speculated to J that the people behind us might be taking bets on what exactly we were moving, though we eventually agreed that given the area, they probably accurately identified it as a chicken coop without much discussion.

The girls spent their first night on the homestead last night. I didn’t let them out this morning, wanting them to know exactly where their home is since we don’t have a run set up yet, but J decided to free them after lunch. They certainly looked grateful. It will be nice to have them around again. I’ve missed seeing them in the yard, and I certainly won’t mind the bug control!

Our little ones are only seven weeks old, so they overnighted in a big bin in the shed. I drilled some holes in the lid for air, and once we have the interior coop reinforced, the big girls will move inside, and the young-in’s will occupy Fort Knox until we can integrate them. Most sources suggest waiting til the chicks are 16 weeks old or so, giving the little ones a chance to grow to a comparable size next to their new sisters. We want them to survive any pecking order scuffles…literally. They’re growing fast, however, and we might not need to wait that long. I’ll snap some photos of them tonight…

We were doing our final walk-through before closing when I opened a cabinet door in the first floor bathroom and realized our new home has a laundry chute – from the second floor bathroom, through the first floor where I was standing, and on down to the basement washer/dryer hookup. I have happy memories of playing with the laundry chute at my Nana’s when I was little, racing up and down with my cousins and brothers, tossing something or other down to the waiting party and then switching places. I think it’s these amenities, the little details that help make a place feel more like a home, and this new house certainly is welcoming us in.

Moving has been a slower process than I’d maybe hoped, but it’s pretty much done though a lot of unpacking still remains. We won’t have internet until this coming Friday, and the cell service is such that I can call and text but that’s it (remember when that’s all cell phones could do?). J didn’t take any extra time off so all of the big moving has been done in short windows, and I’ve been coming back to the rental to work my real job. Our chickens are still here, and are hopefully moving today. They’ll have lots of space to roam.

We lit our first fire in the woodstove this morning, and I’m looking forward to getting home to sit by it and thaw out from working in this unheated office; it’s chilly in here. Getting home. Doesn’t that sound nice?

I was out of town all last week for work, an experience I don’t have very often. It was five days of hard thinking, wrapping my brain around new concepts and different ways of looking at things. I’ve never had instruction in curriculum design before, but my head is spinning with all sorts of potential applications, personally and professionally. There was lots of eating out with colleagues I never see face-to-face, which was so very nice, but damn, am I tired! I got home last Friday, and am still trying to catch up.

Before I left, our family had the chance to visit our neighbors over at Sweet Clover Farm and meet their little lambs. You might remember the open farm day they hosted last year, an event that was unfortunately canceled this spring due to all the late snow we had: there was nowhere for anyone to park! But with the snow finally gone, we were invited to bring the girls over to meet this years’ babies. We made friends with a sweet little man named Prince Valiant, and little Parsnip fell asleep in J’s arms, firmly solidifying his wish to expand into four-legged farming. I’m not completely sold on that idea, but something tells me I’ll get there eventually. They don’t call chickens the “gateway” critter for nothing…

Speaking of chickens, our own babies are firmly in the awkward teenager stage. They’ll be five weeks old this Friday, and I think it’s clear that we have two cockerels and two pullets. You can see the difference in their coloring and their combs above, the darker birds being male, and the lighter being female. I had to look through my blog posts to remember that we moved the chickens outside at this same age last year, but it was a good three weeks later into the season. We also didn’t have to integrate them into an existing flock, which presents some logistical problems for our current setup, so these little nuggets will be staying in the bathtub a while longer. I’m finding they’re not nearly as messy this year, which is probably a combination of using the larger tub and the fact that there are only four of them.

Salmon Faverolles are known for being docile and friendly, even the roosters, so we will probably keep them all. They do have funny feathered feet with five toes (as compared to three!), so that’s been a little bit different. I’m working on a post compiling all that we’ve learned over our first year of chicken-keeping, so if there’s something you’ve been wondering, drop your questions in the comments!

Our first double-yolk egg. You can see the size comparison on my Instagram.