When you think of homesteading or homesteaders what do you think of? Up until about four or five years ago I never had the thought of either homesteading or homesteaders or considered myself in those categories. Actually, I wouldn't have considered myself a farmer or think of us as living on a farm. In my mind I was growing a garden and it was mostly for fun, but we did enjoy plucking ripe tomatoes off the vine and harvesting some beans or whatever for a meal we would cook later. So, no, not a farmer - not even a little. Farmers have animals and big gardens and maybe even a tractor. What we have is a riding lawn mower...which usually requires the tires to be filled and the battery to be charged. In fact I didn't even know any farmers!
Until...
Tom discovered Justin Rhodes YouTube channel and he thought that what they were doing was pretty cool. It took me a little longer to see the value in those videos. After a few videos and Justin saying that he was the Permaculture Chicken Ninja (or something close) I got an idea.
You see, I've been wanting some chickens for a little while, but couldn't convince Mr. Tom that it would be a good thing. He was well aware of the amount of chickens my mom had accumulated during our time on the house in Fern Prairie. I assured him that I would not be that crazy - our house was the landmark for anyone giving directions to go somewhere, "Yeah, you know that house with all of the chickens?"
Anyway...
So, now we are watching this guy name Justin Rhodes who is living on a farm (homestead) with his family. They raise chickens and have cows and have a vegetable garden. We watched a lot of his videos and I was getting the bug...I could see chickens in our future. I don't know what happened, probably a lot of me saying "you know, we could get chickens" and still assuring him by saying, "I won't be the crazy chicken lady, like my mom." The next season we started building a Justin Rhodes chick shaw, because I not so secretly found the plans on his website and presented them to Tom. I'm not that sneaky, but I do know what I want. After a few weeks we had 95% of the coop ready to go - we were waiting on something, but I don't remember what. It might have been the wheels. Anyway, while we waited on those, Tom built a brooder and we were off to Pioneer to pick up some chicks.
I'm pretty sure I had an idea of what I wanted for our first chickens which were Australorps, but Pioneer did not have them. What they did have were Jersey Giant chicks - they would have to do, since they were the only ones that were less than a week old at the time. Go HERE for that post. Since half of the chicks turned out to be little roos, we "had" to get some more chicks. Yeah, I'm still not a crazy chicken lady...
A search on craigslist and I connected with a woman who raises chicks on her farm in Woodland and the pullets would be closer to laying age AND she had Australorps. SCORE! We made arrangements and met her at the Safeway and completed the transaction like a drug deal going down in broad daylight...hehe...and we were on our way.
Thus was the beginning of our farm.
That season we added a gosling and duckling. Some people might just stop with chickens and waterfowl. Nope, not me...the following season which was last year, we added more chickens, pigs and more ducklings. We even grew our first batch of broiler chicks last year.
All of this would make sense for someone who might live out in the "country" someplace more rural at least. We live in a house on a piece of property that was once a farm many years ago. Our portion of the original farm is 2.71 acres. I'm unsure how much property made up the farm in the beginning. The fortunate thing for us is that we are just beyond the Urban Growth Area of Clark County and we are not bound to the rules of those who live within that area. In a way it feels like getting into this house/property was part of a greater plan.
Our home sits directly across the street from a newer subdivision of 15 or 16 cookie cutter homes. In more recent years we had been trying to figure out how to make this property more interesting and to connect to the world around us. More simply to our neighbors. Having neighbors is a fairly new thing for us as we have not had neighbors that we could actually observe from our front yard or from our living room at least.
Because these neighbors have witnessed the transformation of our property from a house on a couple of acres to a small farm. We truly are a spectacle. Anyone who walks to the mailbox at the corner across from our house can clearly see what is happening over here and will comment on it if we happen to be walking down their street.
The folks that live across the street are an interesting mix of retirees with grandchildren and families with young children. All with very different goals in life. Some are enjoying life without the daily grind of work and others just growing up their families as best they can.
We have connected with a couple of the families and have invited the kids across the street (along with Dad) to come observe/help with our last chicken harvest. One of the boys was a little traumatized at first and the other totally into helping - albeit brief. In time I hope that there might be just a little more interest - at least with the younger neighbors. An interest to learn exactly how their food is grown.
There is so much more to this story that I can't even begin to address in one blog post. Stay tuned and maybe learn a little more of what drives us. It's all very exciting for me...the reluctant homesteader.
Farm Life...it really is the BEST!
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