When I was about 8 or 9-years old my family bought their first batch of day old chicks. They were delivered by parcel post and lived in a cardboard box brooder in our family room for the first month. Before they arrived we had built the coop, fenced in an outside pen area, set the water fonts, made feeders from scrap lumber and bought enough chicken feed to last a month.

Over the years I have raised hundreds of chickens in dozens of breeds and enjoyed every one of them. I am always amazed at how much information is out there about raising this docile, versatile, homestead mainstay. When my daughter first started raising poultry in her 4-H project, we once again, combed the internet for resources that were up-to-date as well as kid friendly. And we weren’t disappointed.

Sites like BackyardChickens.com and Feathersite.com are great resources for anyone thinking about getting a few hens. It has free information, a downloadable care guide, images, a forum, questions and more. It’s for new chicken people, poultry lovers and gawkers alike.

Most towns and cities now allow backyard chickens as long as they are hens and are in a confined area. Chickens are easy to raise and as long as they are given a place to nest at night they are quite content. They don’t require fancy digs that cost a lot of money. A friend of mine houses her hens in an old outhouse and lets them out during the day. The coop at my first house was an old wooden tool shed with an outside fenced area. Today, things haven’t changed much. My coop is still simple, well-built, has enough room for a growing flock (which we need given our current hatch) and gives the girls plenty of room to roam.

Check them out, you won’t be disappointed. Click here for the link http://www.backyardchickens.com/ or http://www.feathersite.com/

As for our surprise! We have 8 chicks hatched, with more on the way. They are all snuggly warm, nestled in our brooder box in the corner of the kitchen. Man, this is fun!!

photo credit: kusine

In the past few days we drove north to a junior livestock show (Brianne placed first in her class and competed for champion), spent a long wonderful day visiting with other livestock showing friends, had a late dinner with a sheep breeder friend, looked at potential candidates for our county fair, and came home to a new batch of CHICKS! Life on a farm, no matter what the size, goes on about its business with or without you.

I’m recouping from the weekend’s non-stop pace, I’ll fill you in on it all… but tonight I am barely standing up. We got home around 3PM, and started to get the lambs settled back in the barn when I heard the tell tale peeps of newly hatched chicks. When Brianne checked, sure enough our little Frizzle hen was guarding three day old chicks and two more were pipping through their shells. We quickly set up our brooder with heat lamp, feed and water and brought the new chicks into the kitchen. We’ll see how many new one’s we have tomorrow.

To add insult to injury: this afternoon I ran around and watered newly planted seeds in mini-greenhouses, washed show blankets and towels, filled feed barrels and still managed to make dinner from scratch. I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck (or is that a farm). It’s time to sleep. I am beat!

Before I go… I want to wish everyone a happy spring equinox. Life with longer days and warmer weather is eagerly awaited.

photo credit: Andrei!

I saw this article in yesterday’s Personal Journal section of the WSJ, touting the increase in new home garden enthusiasts.

To read the entire article and get advice from seasoned Master Gardeners click here.

photo credit: wildgrace429

Grocery store shopping cards have been around for more than 10-years. They offer deep discounts on groceries and special purchases. They enable stores and government agencies to track back to the source of food bourne diseases, which is a good thing. But, with all this tracking and data storage, what is the hidden cost of “someone” knowing what we buy on a weekly basis?

Decide for yourself if you want “someone” knowing how many pounds of apples you buy or how often you stock up on canned goods by reading the article here.

photo credit: maistora

I was asked once, how my suburban homestead runs throughout the year. When I first began, I had an annual calendar so I could schedule major farming activities like ordering chicks or planting pumpkins or when DD’s sheep shows were. I never leave anything up to me remembering. Over the years, and with a comfort of the “seasons” of our homestead, I’ve been able to use a monthly calendar. But, we still book sheep shows months in advance, post school events, holidays and ½ days and of course the arrival of baby chicks!

This is a look into our homesteading life.
Quarter-by-quarter.
Season-by-season.

WINTER

January

My suburban homestead is at rest in the winter, not frozen like some areas of the country, but at rest all the same; soaking up nourishment from a steady stream of rain storms that float overhead and a new layer of mulch, warm and thick. But, the gardener in me is not at rest. All during the holiday season my mailbox is filled to overflowing with catalogues of all kinds. Each one announcing the newest, the biggest, the best or the most unusual in seeds, transplants, berries, fruit trees and bulbs. My mind races with all the possibilities. My modest garden layouts explode into grandiose dreams of “what could be”. But, being the sensible person that I am, I stop myself, take a deep breath and reexamine my overall homestead layout. Yes, there will be room for new varieties of seasonal vegetables, maybe even a few new berry bushes here and there, but mine is a suburban homestead bounded in size by block walls and property lines. Restraint is the key.

• Review my overall homestead plan to see what and where new additions can be made
• Check rain barrels and set out when storms are predicted
• Sort through catalogues and prepare seed list
• Order seeds
• Purchase/plant new fruit trees and berries from local vendors
• Plant cool weather crops like peas, lettuce and spinach
• Clean barn in preparation of new lambs; make needed repairs
• Pick up hay and grain for new lambs
• Attend sheep auctions and buy new show lambs

February

If weather permits, outdoor chores begin in earnest in February. The longer days, with weak rays of sun still shining at 6:00 P.M., are a welcome sight. I am able to walk around the homestead during this dusky time and take note of projects that need to be done. I may even stop and trim a few broken branches or berry bushes along the way. I check the trellises and arbors for storm damage; fencing that has come loose from their posts during the winds and garden borders that have broken or fallen over. February is a time for “getting ready” – for the gardening to come.

• Leaves picked up and mulched in compost bin
• Prune fruit trees, grapes and berries
• Plant onion sets and seeds
• Sheep shows start (2 or 3 weekends a month)
• Lambs wormed
• Organize seed packets as they arrive
• Clean and prep seed starting supplies, replace or add to as needed
• Clean and check rototiller

March

I have fond childhood memories of March days spent with my dad planting seeds indoors. We would use half-pint milk cartons, collected from school, to start seeds of larger plants like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash and pumpkins. I can still remember looking through racks and racks of plants at our kitchen window as they reached for the sun. Today, my seed starting is not quite so “elementary”. I use flats of seed cells, recycled pony packs and individual pots. But, the results are the same – a jumpstart on the growing season.

• Start seeds indoors in pots and flats
• Prepare fencing for vine crops
• Plant sweet peas on picket fence
• Replace broken berry cane ties and dug up sprouts
• Till garden beds
• Mulch garden walkways
• Check garden water system; repair or replace as needed
• Fertilize all perennials, fruit trees, grapes and berries
• Use credit card rebate check to stock up on staples like flour, sugar, cornmeal, beans, split peas, rice, pasta, and hygiene products
• Sheep shows continue
• Firewood rack near house moved to woodpile

photo credit: elisabeth99

FRESH is a grassroots efforts for a grassroots movement. The movie is a platform to raise awareness and connecting people to the solutions available in their community.

The objective is to make sustainable food no longer a niche market. You can view more video here.

FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources, and morbid obesity. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet.

Among several main characters, FRESH features urban farmer and activist, Will Allen, the recipient of MacArthur’s 2008 Genius Award; sustainable farmer and entrepreneur, Joel Salatin, made famous by Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma; and supermarket owner, David Ball, challenging our Wal-Mart dominated economy.

… food for thought.

That sunny day I was wishing for turned out to be just a pipe dream. I woke up yesterday morning to rain. Not a huge storm, mind you, but enough to throw me off my outdoor schedule and dampen my spirits. It was a slap in the face. A wake up call that winter, even in California, is not over yet. Welcome to March!

I was outside assessing the storm damage (thankfully none) and checking on the chickens when I got a call from my friend and fellow 4-H leader. One of our club members had ordered their batch of turkey pullets for our county fair in August. The family didn’t want all 25 birds and was polling other club members to see if we could take some off their hands. While Sandy and I chatted for a while I could see, in my minds eye, turkey tracks across freshly tilled garden soil, a parade of them as they scoured the garden for grubs and bugs and treats of spent lettuce. I was surprised how nostalgic it made me for raising turkeys, something I never thought I’d miss. But, raising poultry here on the farm and seeing them through to dinner tables or holiday gatherings is one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had as a small suburban farmer.

I haven’t raised turkeys in a while, but I want a small flock of them again. I think Midget Whites this time. Or maybe even the Broad-Breasted White raised up to 12 or 15 pounds. If my family won’t dine on them there are plenty of folks around looking for a naturally raised, free-range bird come holiday time. It’s something to think about for small suburban farmers. Compact, easy to care for, with manageable space requirements. Unlike sheep or gardens, birds don’t need the capital and fences up front like a flock of ewes would. Ten turkeys could be raised for the price of one registered sheep and the cash from selling the birds at Thanksgiving could be put toward improvements or other homestead operations. It’s time to start planning for the future, folks; of a working homestead and not just a personal supermarket.

To read more about raising turkeys on your suburban homestead check out these helpful resources.

Books Links

http://web1.msue.msu.edu/poultry/poultry/e1259/e1259.pdf

http://extension.unh.edu/resources/representation/Resource000475_Rep497.pdf

photo credit: bgblogging

Composting is the art of turning organic matter and waste into a rich soil amendment called humus. Backyard composting is easy to learn and is full of benefits for you and the environment. Plus, most needed ingredients are right at your finger tips. Organic matter and wastes that can be composted include fruit and vegetable peelings (kitchen scraps), grass clipping, leaves, and small diameter tree trimmings. Some things you should not include in your backyard compost include meat and dairy products, weeds or weed seeds. These materials can attract vermin and pests, and can spread weeds throughout your yard.

The Five Key Steps…

Compost Bin Size and Volume: Ideally the bin should be between 3’x3’x3’ and 5’x5’x5’. A bin that is too small cannot produce enough heat to cook the ingredients. If the bin is too large, it won’t get enough air in the center of the pile, allowing the pile to breathe. It is also easier to manage two or three medium bins than one large one.

Feed Your Compost: A perfect mix of compost materials consists of ½ brown matter (carbon-based material) like leaves and ½ green matter (nitrogen-based material) like kitchen scraps. Waste material should be mixed by weight, i.e. 5-pounds brown to 5-pounds green.

Let Your Bin Breathe: The organisms that live inside your compost pile need air to survive. Mix or turn the pile three to five times per season using a pitchfork, garden hoe or shovel. Proper aeration can make a big difference. You will know if your bin is not getting enough oxygen because it will begin to smell of ammonia.

Microbes Need H2O: The organisms also need water to survive, but not too much or they will drown. The ideal moisture level of your compost bin should be like a wrung out sponge.

Surface Area: Cutup or shred organic materials before placing them into the bin. This increases the surface area and speeds up decomposition. You can also store your kitchen scraps in the freezer to speed up decomposition, as the materials will break down at the cell level when frozen.

Compost bins can be found through most city waste management programs or can be built out of simple materials like wooden pallets or wire panels. But, no matter what method you use, the important thing is getting these nutrient rich materials back into your soil so it can be healthy and vibrant for growing fruits, vegetable and flowers.

For compost bin ideas and plans check out this University of Wisconsin Extension link

photo credit: nicer than air

…How do you combine your homesteading life with your work life?

For most of us living on a suburban lot, but dreaming of a life in the country, a full-time job spent under fluorescent lights and behind ergonomic office furniture is a reality as much as it is a necessity. Our head may be in the corporate world, but our hearts are steadfastly entrenched in gardens and coops and fresh baked bread. This is the way I’ve lived most of my adult life – one foot in the corporate world and the other in the country.

Balancing the two can be a tricky proposition, full of schedules, compromises, hard work and strange looks from co-workers and neighbors alike. But – it can be done and done successfully.

At this point I think it’s fair to say that none of us are perfect, we don’t ALL live an off-grid, in a stick to ourselves kind of life. We are part of our community, with schools and organizations and activities. We are doing what we can, with the resources we have and within the parameters of city or town regulations.

I think it’s also fair to remind everyone (in case you haven’t read About Me) I have a degree in Agriculture, I’ve raised sheep since I was 11-years old, I was married to a farmer, I’m now single and I currently live on a third-acre that is zoned for all livestock except for horses. So, my capabilities for self-sufficiency are different from those who have limited space or stricter regulations.

Having said that - “How Do We Do Both”, and live as much of the homesteading life as we can? First, I think each person must take a hard look at their current lifestyle. What they currently do for fun, work, improving ones self, exercise, etc and then decide what part of the homesteading life or how much homesteading they want to do.

If you work an 80-hour week with frequent business trips you’d be hard pressed to keep a potted plant alive much less grow enough vegetables for your family’s dinner table. Even if this is not your situation, how much time you spend running kids to sports, working out at the gym or even hanging out with friends will affect how involved you can be in your own suburban homestead.

I think too, we have to remember that homesteading isn’t all about growing vegetables and raising livestock. It also includes recycling, conserving energy, and producing energy. The challenge and fun (I think) of suburban homesteading is finding ways to incorporate all five into your daily life.

So – how do I manage both?

Simply put – better on some days than on others. Honestly!

When I first moved here I started off with a grand layout of a smooth running homesteading utopia that would give my daughter and me all the homegrown food we could ever need. We would bounce around town in handmade clothes and in the winter scarves spun from our own sheep’s wool would be wrapped around our necks. Church potlucks would be a showcase for homemade breads and jams. But, as with most overly ambitious plans, reality set in.

My utopia was pared down to a list of small achievable goals, which were scheduled on the family calendar and checked off when finished. Tasks were both inside and outside jobs and included setting up a compost bin, staging recycling bins, putting up a clothes line and collecting waste water from the kitchen. I would work on them after I got home from work, on the weekends and during holidays.

As we became use to the new routines I added more goals and larger projects, like building raised veggie beds or planting the berry patch. With each added goal I made sure to give myself a manageable timetable for completion. The year we built the barn that would house our chickens and rabbits, and DD’s market lambs for the county fair took months of weekends and holidays to complete. During that time we made very few plans for other projects. I didn’t want to get distracted or have multiple unfinished projects.

Once the barn was finished and the livestock happily installed we went back to making our goals list – fruit trees, grape vines, garden irrigation, bread making, canning/freezing, sewing and quilting all went on our list, each to be checked off as completed, or, in some cases learned. Inside projects like learning to quilt or making bread were learned and practiced at night or on the weekends. When you’re doing something that you enjoy it doesn’t seem like work.

When we planted our first garden, it too started out small - four 4’x8’ raised beds, mostly tomatoes, beans, salad greens and squash. When the harvest outpaced what we could eat, it was blanched and put in the freezer. Making spaghetti sauce from summer tomatoes is a perfect rainy day project.

Over the years our suburban homestead has grown, becoming more productive and more efficient. And, we have become more efficient too - we limit our trips to town, errands are run one day a week, usually when DD is at her dad’s house, laundry is broken into a few loads each day instead of all at once and we use our crock-pot quite often in the colder months and during sports seasons.

The basics are the same though. We still have a goals list; we still manage projects on the family calendar and we still work on a project until completed. What has changed is DD’s ability to work independently, especially with her animals, which frees up my time to work on other projects.

I believe you CAN successfully combine a job and a homestead, creating a lifestyle that is easy on the environment, fulfilling and satisfying. By combining the two you can have a challenging, exciting and truly enjoyable life that will bring a sense of accomplishment to you and your family. And, although there is no proof of this I truly believe that people who become more self-sufficient and able to care for themselves are more positive in their outlook on life, the world and their job.

Get excited, keep it simple, take one task at a time, work it into your life - your own backyard could be a very productive piece of dirt.

A reader also asks…

…What does your job schedule versus your homesteading schedule look like?

As with most employees, I work a full week, except for national holidays and vacation days. So how does this single mom with a full-time job and a child in school handle it all? Very carefully. From school to work to sheep shows and garden plantings, all activities go on a master family calendar. I know this sounds a bit restrictive, but actually it is extremely helpful in keeping us on track and life moving along smoothly. Knowing what needs to be done and when gives us plenty of time for fun and spontaneous activities.

A day in our life

I personally hate alarm clocks – really hate them, so most days will find me waking to mornings sun streaming through my bedroom window. It gently brings me out of my deep sleep. I much prefer the sun to the sound of a jolting alarm clock or the wail of a clock radio. Brianne usually beats me out of bed about 6:30am.

Morning:

6:30 – Fumbling out of bed, Brianne heads to the barn to feed and water lambs, chickens, rabbits and dogs. While she’s outside I turn on the tea pot, throw in a load of laundry and empty the dishwasher, while listening to the radio for the day’s weather forecast and putting dinner in the crock-pot.

7:00 – tea, get ready for work and school, check e-mail

7:20 - pack up for work and school

7:30 – out the door

7:50 – drop Brianne at school, possible stop for another tea before hitting the desk.

8:00 – get to work, and start one of many, many, many grant proposals or fundraising projects

Afternoon:

My schedule is pretty flexible. I can take my lunch when ever I think I’m at a break in a project. Plus it doesn’t hurt that I’m the Dept. head.

– head home for lunch, hang laundry on line, take something out for dinner if I didn’t start the crock-pot in the morning, check the animals

– back to the office with tea in hand

3:30 – Brianne gets home from school. Switches laundry, flips on the tunes, starts homework.

Evening:

5:00 - leave office; crank up cd player, head home

5:15 - pull into driveway, hug my kid, change clothes and take a walk around the place – tea in hand

5:30 – work show lambs, feed lambs and dogs, top off chicken and rabbit feed and water

6:00- finish fixing dinner, fold laundry

6:35 – dinner and chatting about our respective day

7:00 – watch a movie, (last night was Anne of Green Gables), listen to music, read, quilt, gab on the phone, check email, blog

9:30 – shower or bathe, think, worry, plan, hope, dream

10:00 – bed and a book, out cold

Stay tuned for a look at our homesteading year, season-by-season.

photo credit: m.shimer

It’s raining outside right now. Not a squall, just a steady shower, but it’s enough to have me on edge. Not more than a week ago is was in the 70’s outside. The sun was beating down on my salad garden and I was planting peas along side the newly installed garden fence. I was sweating, birds were flying about and the chickens were fluffing and rolling around in the dirt, shaking off any mites from their feathers in the process.

But last night… life changed here on the Central Coast…clouds rolled in with a vengeance and the temperature dropped into the 40’s. Winter here can be fickle when it comes to weather, and like all the other silly cool weather planters; I was outside in the blustery evening wind, covering up my tender seedlings with plastic greenhouses and straw.

Some gardeners may have been doing nothing, having already given up on our bi-polar weather, but not me. This wasn’t my garden anymore, to squander and neglect. My daughter had given up a whole day of her teenage life to help me install the fence and plant these greens and I had spent hours more planting the other bed myself. I wasn’t going to lose 128-feet of food over one bad night. So I made little greenhouses out of scrap PVC pipe, wood and plastic, and held down the newspaper mulch with straw, went inside feeling cold and tired, but optimistically compassionate. I’m still surprised at how much emotion dirt and plants can bring up in you. Like a bucket dipped into a stream, it brings up whatever’s just below the surface.

This morning, the plants were fine. My mulch and greenhouse insurance policy seems to have worked. When I checked on the garden at 7 AM, the straw and plastic was covered in a fine layer of ice crystals, but the leaves below seemed content. I felt proud. It’s nice to watch the land take care of you while you take care of it.

So… speaking of insurance policies…

I am comforted, even if it’s just a little bit, by my garden, my flock of birds, my hutch of rabbits and pen of sheep. Knowing that there is a source of protein and vegetables on the other side of the yard brings me a little more solace. Come summer, the price of a pound of tomatoes might shoot up to another ridiculous amount. I can’t imagine what any organic vegetable will cost by then, but they’ll easily trump their chemical laden cousins. Right now the prices for gas and grain, and the world’s shortages in food are all I hear about on the radio (if not that, than the war) While we couldn’t survive off our little homestead for a very long time, we can supplement our diet and most of our meals this summer, with fresh local food grown less than 100-feet from our back door. And yeah, it’s a hell of a lot of work, but we’ll also be saving a lot of money. The seeds for the broccoli I put in the ground last November cost 2.79 a package. A head of organic broccoli is 2.69 a pound in my local store. Growing my own heads costs me a few cents each, plus I can keep planting more as long as the recipes hold out.

It’s not just eggs and the garden and the barn that give me comfort. It’s the skills I’ve picked up along the way. When berries flood the farmers market I can make a years supply of jam and pie filling in one afternoon for a few dollars in supplies and some mason jars. My stock of flour and yeast keeps us in all the home baked bread we can eat. A bountiful tomato crop will give us all the pasta sauce we need for the winter. If we’re lucky, this coming fall we’ll have hand-raised turkeys adorning our Thanksgiving table and homemade sausage for biscuits and gravy.

Being able to produce, preserve and create some of our own food feels kinda good when the average tank of gas is pushing towards $5.00 a gallon. We’re not there yet, but just you wait. When your next loaf of bread costs ten bucks you’ll feel it there and at the pump. If there was ever a time to start learning to garden, to cook from scratch and preserve, if only for the saved cash, now is that time!

I don’t want to be an alarmist, nor do I think mankind is at the edge of extinction. I do think; strongly believe that most people would be better off, happier even, if they spent more time digging in the dirt and less time dwelling on the news. It’s hard to feel helpless with the world’s situation when you’re chomping on a salad grown just feet from your kitchen.

So, here’s my advice folks! Turn off the tube. Throw on your mud boots. Grab a shovel and some packets of seeds. And get your hands in the dirt!

To get started on your own insurance policy or to just wet your appetite check out the links below for our favorite seeds catalogs. But remember, no matter what you put in your garden, try to plant seeds that can be saved for future use.

Cook’s Garden - www.cooksgarden.com
Seeds of Change - www.seedsofchange.com
Seed Savers Exchange (heirloom verities) www.seedsavers.org
Park Seed - www.parkseed.com
Tomatomania – (heirloom seedlings) www.tomatomania.com
Territorial Seed Company - www.territorialseed.com
Stark Brothers (trees and berry’s) - www.starkbros.com
Bakers Creek Heirloom Seeds - www.rareseeds.com
R.H. Shumway’s - www.rhshumway.com
Peaceful Valley - www.groworganic.com

photo credit: ctkmcmillan