Sponsor Highlight: MomJeanz

I have just started accepting sponsors on this little website.  I'm excited to be pairing up with some blogs and business that I believe in and that I think provide a good message/product.  If you know someone who you think would be a good match for us here at Five Little Homesteaders, be sure to send them our way.  Additionally, when you have a moment, be sure to check our sponsors out.  I assure you, they are worth your time.

This week's Sponsor Highlight post brings you the blog MomJeanz written by the funny and inspirational Elaine.  Elaine and I share a mutual friendship with the wonderful Mary Catherine and have some similar goals for our families - thus a lovely cyber-friendship has formed.  Her blog has become a daily read for me. 

Elaine has an adorable daughter named Darla (how cute is that!?) and currently lives in Columbus, Ohio.  Her blog is filled with stories about life with her little one, inspiration for living a more sustainable life, and a touch of "birthy goodness" (to use her words).  Be sure to check her blog out when you get a moment. 

Me:  How would you describe your blog? 

Elaine:  hmmm, i'd say it's the place I gather and dump a bunch of things that will probably come back to bite me later in life about my parenting, family ideals, birth work and whatever other brain fluff is happening at the moment. i sometimes have a hard time remembering that the internet is forever. reoccurring topics include my hilarious and quirksome daughter, birthy goodness, earthy goodness, music and travel doings, zero-waste home efforts and an occasional emotional breakdown. i think my blog is eclectic and funny and lacking concrete structure. it's basically just like me. 

Me:  Why do you blog? 

Elaine:  wow. these questions are hard for someone who regularly makes simple stuff more complicated than need be, i.e. me. i've been asking myself this same question since i started blogging and i think it might be an experiment in stroking my ego?? i could write out a list of possible reasons but the most important one is that i just plain like to write this blog. i just like it. love it, maybe. i hope readers will like it and love it and want some more of it, too. 

Me:  What is one thing you want readers to know about you? 

Elaine:  well, i have a really hard time taking much of anything too seriously and a good deal of my writing comes from that voice. i really find life humorous. oh and i have a penchant for things that start with B: butter, boots, big hair, babies, biscuits, birth and blogs. 

Guest Co-Host: From the Farm Blog Hop #33

Welcome to

From the Farm Blog Hop #33!

Greetings friends!

This has been an exciting week for us at Five Little Homesteaders.  We introduced a great giveaway and now we are guest hosting the From the Farm Blog Hop.  I am so honored to work along side these six amazing bloggers this week.

Blog Hops are a lot of fun.  They are a great way to be introduced to interesting articles and new blogs.  I've linked up to several different blog hops in the past, but this is my first time guest co-hosting.  I hope you enjoy what you find here today!    

And now, for the From the Farm Blog Hop!

 If you would like to join in this week, please share up to three of your best:

• Gardening or homesteading tips
• Farm-themed posts
• Recipes
• Homemaking and simple/frugal living tips
• Decorating ideas
• DIY projects, craft ideas, thrifty makeovers or repurposed items
• Healthy and sustainable living tips

<a title="From the Farm Blog Hop" href="YOUR BLOG ADDRESS" target="_blank"><img src="http://i673.photobucket.com/albums/vv97/StoneFamily_2009/LetThisMindBeinYou/FromtheFarmButton-Final.jpg~original" width="180" height="180" alt="From The Farm Blog Hop"></a> 

Please grab the Blog Hop button above or somehow link to this party from your blog. We would love for you to follow our blogs, and if you are a new blog follower, let us know so we can return the favor!

Note: Linking up to this party will automatically sign you up for an invite to next week's party via email. To unsubscribe, please reply to any email you receive and you will be removed. Linking up also allows us permission to publish one of your photos on our blogs, Facebook, and/or Pinterest pages.

Let's see what you've been up to this week! Don't forget to visit some of your fellow authors' blogs and let them know that you found them through the From the Farm Blog Hop!

Warmly, Colleen from Five Little Homesteaders    And the co-hosts of From the Farm Blog Hop:  Dani from The Adventure Bite  Elaine from Sunny Simple Life  Jennifer from 1840 Farm  Kristi from Let This Mind Be in You  Leona from My Healthy Green Family  Lisa from Fresh Eggs Daily

Creating a Children's Garden

I know we've all done it.  You pinned an image on Pinterest and thought to yourself,

"Self - you are going to do that awesome craft/activity/recipe/diet/homeschooling-thing this week!  That is just too cool to forget about.  I just can't live another day without doing that!"

And then, lo and behold, the week ends, a new week begins and that lovely little Pinterest image moves further and further down your feed and eventually, that little project joins up with the zillions of other pinned images that you never get to.

Well friends, if this is you, you are not alone.  In fact, if this is you, then you are in the right place and you're reading the blog of a chronic "pinner-but-never-doer."

So, now you ask, what does this have to do with the title of this post - Creating a Children's Garden?  Well, you see, I've pinned every manner of image related to children's gardens.  I've had the best intentions for creating one - a lovely little place for my toddlers to play in the dirt and pick flowers without mom's watchful eye and gentle reminder to not touch and pick things.  And you see, folks, after all this time, we finally did it.  We created a sweet little space for the kids (and apparently the chickens) to play and dig and pick to their heart's content.

Yes, there is weeding to be done and the beans still need planting.  Don't rub it in.

We started by placing some edging stones in a semicircle to mark an area to make the garden.  We picked up a load of compost and dumped a bunch of it in the semicircle.  Then I placed some stepping stones in the garden that would allow the kids to walk around without trampling TOO much stuff (but then again, it IS their garden and if they want to trample, mama's just gonna have to be ok with that).

Then I went to Home Depot and picked up a couple of flats of cheap bedding flowers (some petunias in this case).  I showed the kids how to plant them and let them go at it.  Again, I turned off my "perfectionist" radar and let them do it their own way.  We also added some sunflower and squash seedlings that I had left over from the spring garden.

We added in a "tee pee" to grow yard long beans on during the hot, hot Arizona summer.

Olive used her little broom to sweep the stones.

The chickens checked out the new garden. 

Finally, we pained a portion of the fence in a rainbow pattern to add a little interest and fun to the area.

In the future I hope to:

1.  Add an outdoor chalkboard by painting a large board with chalkboard paint and leaning it up against the block wall fence.
2.  Add a "pounding" table - Perhaps a small wooden table that the kids can bang nails into with a small hammer.
3. Large river rocks that we paint and decorate with the letters of the alphabet.  (I also think that these strawberry rocks are absolutely ADORABLE.)

Other Resources:

• Gretchen, from The Backyard Farming Connection, posted this great article in January about planning her children's garden.  I need to take a few pointers from her.  
• Isis, from Little Mountain Haven, posted an article recently about how to garden with children. 
• This article on 30 Ways to Make Your Backyard Awesome This Summer is a great one. 
• These hopscotch stepping stones would be perfect.  I think I might have to do this. 
• If you want to a birdbath, this one would be fun to make. 

Books and Tools:

• A Child's Garden: 60 Ideas to Make Any Garden Come Alive for Children (Archetype Press Books)
• House Of Marbles Children's Garden Tool Set
• Kids Garden Tools Kids Wheelbarrow

Shared on The Backyard Farming Connection

Shared on The Homeacre Hop

Shared on Frugally Sustainable
Shared on the From the Farm Blog Hop

Wordless Wednesday

A Caterpillar Friend

Giveaway: The Homemade Pantry: 101 Foods You Can Stop Buying and Start Making

I have good news and I have bad news.

First the bad news - no Pantry Revamp recipe today.  (I know, I know.... you're shedding a few tears.)

Now the good news - today I am excited to bring you a giveaway!  As you know, I am a huge fan of Alana Chernila's book The Homemade Pantry: 101 Foods You Can Stop Buying and Start Making.  I've made several of her recipes and shared some of them with you as part of my Pantry Revamp series here on the blog.

Here's a review that a fellow blogger, the Homestead Lady, did of the book, in case you're interested in reading more: Homestead Lady Review of The Homemade Pantry

Please enter below and send your friends!  The more the merrier. (The entry period begins today, May 14th, and ends next Friday, May 24th.  There are three entry opportunities.  You may complete all three entries (for three chances to win) or just the one or two if you want.  Completely up to you.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure:  I was not financially compensated in any way for this post.  I have purchased this book with my own funds.  All opinions about the book are 100% my own.  This post contains affiliate links. For more information, check out our policies and disclousures.

This giveaway is open to US Residents ages 18 and over only.  (Sorry to those living outside the US, as the blog grows, this will change.) Entries close on May 21 at 11:59 pm and winners will be drawn by May 23.

A Cheap, New Run for the Baby Chickens

It may come as no surprise that our baby chickens are no longer babies.  Last weekend I realized that it was time to give them some more space and that meant building a run to attach to the existing coop.

I did a lot of research (ok, maybe I just searched Pinterest) and decided that I didn't want to do anything elaborate.  Number one - I'm not really capable of doing "elaborate" construction.  Number two - my husband, who IS capable of doing elaborate construction, has a lot on his plate at all times and I didn't want to give him any more projects to work on.  So, I used my imagination and I think it paid off.

If you recall from a recent post, I think masonry ladders are pretty nifty and they can easily be used in the garden.  I used this same concept and applied it to the chickens and the construction of their run.

Here's a quick DIY for you.

Materials
1 roll of chicken wire from Home Depot
wire
3 masonry ladders
wire cutters
circular saw

How-To

Place your masonry ladders so they form a short tunnel on one end the existing coop (a chunnel if you will - chicken+tunnel=chunnel).

Cover the tunnel with chicken wire and use wire to secure it to the masonry ladders.

Use a circular saw to cut a 10x10 hole in the side of the coop (we saved the wood to make a close-able door if necessary).

Using the remaining chicken wire, create a flap-style door at the end of the tunnel.  (This is tricky and came out a little messy.  It will definitely work, but I think we might need to come up with a different solution in the long run.)

This project was seriously so cheap and easy.  The chickens love it and happily hop from one "room" to the other.  It makes me feel so much better that they have more space to spread out and scratch.

What do you think?

**Note** Some of you are going to think I am CRAZY, but rest assured, we don't have a lot of predators in downtown Phoenix that can get at our chickens.  The worst that we encounter are stray cats and they can't get into this run.

Oh and, you can put babies in it, too.

Booklist:

Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens: 3rd Edition (Storey's Guide to Raising Series)

Chicken Coops: 45 Building Ideas for Housing Your Flock

Reinventing the Chicken Coop: 14 Original Designs with Step-by-Step Building Instructions

Shared at The Backyard Farming Connection
Shared at The Homestead Barn Hop
Shared at Frugally Sustainable
Shared at From the Farm Blog Hop

Sponsor Highlight: Summers Acres

I have just started accepting sponsors on this little website.  I'm excited to be pairing up with some blogs and business that I believe in and that I think provide a good message/product.  If you know someone who you think would be a good match for us here at Five Little Homesteaders, be sure to send them our way.  Additionally, when you have a moment, be sure to check our sponsors out.  I assure you, they are worth your time.

With this weeks sponsor highlight, I bring you the blog Summers Acres written by a husband and wife team, Jon and Ann.  When I started this blog, I immediately started seeking out other homesteading blogs.  One of the first ones I came across was Summers Acres and it became one of my regular reads.  

Ann and Jon live on just over an acre of land and are new to the homesteading lifestyle.  I love reading about their new adventures and have learned a lot from them.  Stop by and check them out when you get a chance.  

Me:How would you describe your blog?

Ann:  Our blog is a journal chronicling our journey to become more self sufficient and prepared while learning how to homestead.

Me: Why do you blog?

Ann:  We blog for the community of like minded individuals, sharing of ideas and knowledge, as a journal of our homesteading endeavors, and possibly to help someone else by learning from many of our epic fails.

Me: What is the one thing you want your readers to know about you?

Ann:  We have no idea what we are doing, but we are having a blast!