Chickens

We received our first batch of 25 chickens four weeks ago.  It was not a happy day for us.  The post office called and I had my phone on do not disturb so  I didn't get the call until 8 am.  The nice lady at the office let me know that she had peeked into the box and she thought that over half of them were dead.  That is 13 chickens that didn't even make it home.  We lost another three over the course of 48 hours.  There were tears and proclamations that we were chicken killers all for the sake of eggs. ( the drama of young boys!) The company we ordered from sent us a fresh batch of 25 the next week.  Three of those didn't make it within 48 hours, but all the tears had been used up the week before and no burials were performed for them.  Our kids were farm hardened all ready.

Mixing the two batches took less than a day.

 Such good guardians.  The run is not fully enclosed on top yet so the kids sit out there and do school while keeping an eye on the birds.

 Piper just wants to herd them!

On Tuesday we moved 29 of the 32 out to the newly finished chicken coop.  The other three were recovering from wounds due to overcrowding.  All three of those have now been reunited with the flock.  My kids are loving them.  I'm loving the fact that I am no longer sharing 400 sq ft with 32 chickens at night :)

FamilyMint a review

Online banking is all the rage.  It seems that humans rarely deal in cash anymore.  For someone who has mostly gone to a cash system it is sometimes hard to get another to accept cash. Why? Because cash is hard to deposit with your smartphone.  It is hard to track with a check #.   Now our kids deal all in cash because we pay them in cash.  Our oldest will occasionally get a check for a babysitting job which we have made out to us, hand her cash and then use our smartphones to deposit.  See electronic banking!  Familymint brings online "banking" to the kids.  At first I was not impressed because my kids deal in cash.  The website asks the bankers to be the parents, depositing the kids money into a jar.  Knowing myself I had the kids hang on to their own money:).  Having cash sitting in a jar on my dresser was asking for it to be "borrowed" by ::ahem:: me.  Come on I know I am not the only one!  So my kids retain their cash and we proceded with the program online and the workbook.
As a part of the review I received a premium membership which will run you $29.99, this includes the workbook.  Familymint is running a special introductory offer in which you receive the workbook and a lifetime subscription for this same price.
I used this program with my newly minted 10 year old.  He had quite a bit of holiday money and birthday money in his possession and had goals in mind.  I had him work the first chapter in the workbook.  He came back to me exclaiming that it was fun and he enjoyed writing checks!  I then plugged him into the website with his username and password and he had fun moving his money around.  (mommy brag alert) he hit his spend goal and moved the extras to give with no prompting from me!Here is a screen shot of my son's account.  The red transaction was a lesson on what happens when you click the white box :) Neil has continued working in the workbook and proclaims it is right up his alley.  Not difficult but it makes him think.

Topics in the workbook include, but are not limited to,Tracking your money,

Goal Setting, and Budgeting.  On the back of the 58 page workbook is the certificate of achievement.   

What I liked about Familymint.com.  My son really got into it.  The workbook was geared perfectly for his age.  The parent has options to lock transactions so the kids can't mess with them on their screen.  I could create a savings plan that portioned out any money deposited into his goals of spend, save and give.  I did not have to do the math and chop up the deposit myself.  It gave my son a sense of control over his money.  I loved that allowance is automatically deposited each week.  I don't have to keep track of it :)

I can't think of much that I didn't like other than my own hangup of  just another thing for him to be on the computer for.  But if it creates a fiscally responsible 10 year old who can set monetary goals than I can be ok with extra computer time.  He has almost worked the entire workbook himself and at 10 was moving money around his account.  I think that is a step in the right direction.  I think I might be taking him out later tonight to buy that flash drive he was saving up for!

How's that for planning....

I set my blog planner aside and as you can see it did this site absolutely no good!  In my defense I have been dog tired!  Guessing my iron is low again but not wanting to go in for a blood draw.  I'll start popping those iron pills again and see how it goes.
In other news the chickens got to be too big for their corral and we moved 29 out to the coop tonight.  3 of them became injured today and will remain in the corral until they are healed.  Gosh they got big fast.
The house foundation has been poured and framing has started.  Plywood siding went on today.  We are so excited to walk through the house and be able to see rooms and bathrooms!  All pictures are on my phone so I will have to get them downloaded tomorrow.
In other exciting news Hannah got her braces off today!