Really Trying To Post Daily Now

This morning I was supposed to head over to a friend's house to help out with getting a tree cleared from her driveway (?) Anyway, I wasn't one of the original people that was asked to help out, but since Tom would be going I thought I would tag along.

I decided to stay home because...

Woke up around 3 am this morning (again) after another terrible night of sleep and had a awful dream about how we only had 9 or 10 Freedom Rangers left and how I thought in my dream that it wouldn't be worth it to rent the equipment - blah blah blah. I'm so tired and have had a headache this morning. BLAH.

Since I'm not one to just sit around, I did a little bit of work outside so I would at least feel like I accomplished something.

I'll be starting some seeds for the Fall garden soon. This is something that actually should have happened last month, but everything is behind this year - and I'm still working on the summer garden.  So I cleaned up the bench in the garden garage and got some supplies all put together to start that later today.

Also did a little video of my reason for watering the garden the way that I have not been a fan of before -

I apologize for the lack of steadiness...I'm a newb when it comes to doing videos along with narration. Could this possibly be Vlogging?! I hope to get better...we'll see.

This year I also decided to try planting Three Sisters - corn, squash and beans. While I should have started this experiment sooner it seems to be working out okay. I can only hope that our summer will last a little longer. If it does maybe I'll get a few beans off of the plants that have started to vine up the corn stalks.

This is what I have done so far today. I may post again later this evening. Enjoy the day wherever you are!

Farm Life is the Best Life!

The Chicken Tractor Build

Check this baby out! Tom worked on this quite a bit on Saturday when we weren't running errands (two times to Parkrose) or taking a union break.

The best part...was finding the Chicken Wire at Pioneer Feed Saturday at only $27.99 for the 48"x50' roll. That is the best price that we have seen yet without having to order it and wait for the delivery.

The annoying part was having to talk to one of the Parkrose guys and his experience with chickens and how much feed they waste and how we need to use the system that he uses. Uhh...dude, we just want the carriage bolts, washers and nuts...plus our chickens don't waste a lot of food, just the grit and oyster shell - because they forage quite a bit, not because they want to, because they only get feed and supplements in the morning. If they are lucky, a neighbor will come over with treats for them so they don't have to totally forage all day long. Although, they do anyway - with or without snacks.

Anyway - The tractor is coming along nicely and Tom was able to do a little more work on it yesterday before we went to a friend's house for Easter lunch. The little girls could possibly be relocated sooner than the weekend! We'll see how things go!

The little Java Girls are just over 6 weeks old

They are getting so big...and fast! It was such a nice day on Saturday that I thought that they might like to sit in the sun during the afternoon. So we were able to drag the brooder over and put them in the sunshine by the open garage door. They were a little confused by the brightness and heat of the sun. Yes...littles, this is what your future will consist of. Bright sunshine and lots of grass to play on (even though you are still in the box)! Also, if you look closely, the one in up against the back of the brooder had her "hairs" on her neck standing up. I'm not sure what that meant, but they seemed happy enough. After a little while, I think the brooder was warming up and they started panting...drink some water girls! They figured out that if they went to the opposite end of the box they wouldn't be nearly as warm. The temperature for the past couple of weeks has been on the cool side, so they have been in the dark, literally, since we brought them home.

This relocation is just the first step to them going outside. Soon they will be playing and foraging on the lawn. they will be able to scratch for little bugs and whatever catches their eye. The only thing that they need is a roosting bar - I have seen them perching on the rim of their feed pan. It's time to graduate them for sure!

It has been staying light longer into the evening - which means we can do more stuff outside everyday! It's not enough that I work full-time, I need to maximize my time away from work and do stuff on our farm too!

If I could stay home and work on our property forever I would. Until that can happen, I have to divide my time and plan when I can take time off to accomplish my goals for this season.

Here's a little something from from a year ago on the Great American Farm Tour...

It's Time to Go Back a Year!

Yeah, so I didn't have a post on this blog a year ago, but there is a great GAFT video from this day one year ago! This was from Full Circle Farm in Florida. This is titled "When Organic ISN'T good enough..." as well as "The BEST way to cook pork chops"

We have been trying to eat better, that is make choices when we grocery shop. Having a steady supply of eggs really does open up all sorts of opportunities for creativity. This is something that I blogged about a few posts ago. Since our eggs are fresh as fresh can be the option to hard boil them is really a no go option. We would have to use older eggs if we want to peel them without taking half the white part away, we don't usually keep eggs around that long. I had forgotten that from my time at home and all the eggs that we had coming out of our ears then. I suppose we would have to buy eggs, but why would I spend money on eggs that are not as good as our own?

Oh, while we are kind of (not really) on the subject of chickens I came across a fun little Safety Tip Sheet on the NFPA website - I'm not sure that I have mentioned that I work for a local fire district. Anyway, as I was looking at Safety Tip Sheet to display on the counter on the National Fire Protection Association website they had a NEW tip sheet for...get this...Chicken Coop safety! Go HERE to check it out. 

So, of course I have to take a look. To be honest it seems like the stuff listed on the sheet would be no brainers, but I guess there is always someone who just doesn't get it. 

You'll have to go to the website to get all of the tips!

I just don't understand. Chickens are pretty hardy creatures and they do alright when the temperatures go down at night. In fact, now that we have our first winter with chickens on our farm behind us, they did pretty good. Granted we didn't have any crazy winter snowstorms - which are rare anyway, but there were a few days here and there where we woke up to snow on the ground. Which was fun watching them contemplate leaving the coop. In the end the chickens did just fine. So did the Dudes. Why risk a fire by putting an electric heater in the coop? We wouldn't even think to do that since the coop we built is the Justin Rhodes chick-shaw. It really wasn't designed to hold a heater or heat lamp anywhere.

In other happenings - we are getting closer to getting those piggies on our farm. I was in contact with Cascade Meadows Farm yesterday (via text) just to get the bug in Jason's ear. In another couple of weeks I'll probably send an email to get the ball rolling. We have the tote to use as a waterer, pallets to make a shelter and Premier 1 hog electric fence to help keep them contained. After watching Art & Bri's video this morning I'm pretty excited to see how the piggies will help with our garden spots around the property. Check out their video:

It's almost weekend time! The next couple of days should be decent as far as the weather is concerned. Easter Sunday might be a little rainy. The forecast is ever-changing so I guess we'll see when we wake up that morning.

Back To The Grind

Yep, I'm back at it and it's been quite a day of getting back into the work routine. While I continue to figure that out for the rest of today - here is a GAFT from one year ago for your viewing pleasure :)

Depending on what we accomplish tonight on the chicken tractor I may or may not post again tomorrow.

Enjoy!

Making a Difference

Here's another video from the Great American Farm Tour - I liked this one a lot, this guy had a lot of different things growing in his front and back yards. Granted, this was in Florida and it was also one year ago. One year ago today we had a VERY NICE DAY. After several days of rain, showers, downpours...we had sunshine! 

I want a food forest...(she said in a whiny voice)

Yesterday I was cruising through YouTube checking out what videos were recently uploaded and I came across this title: Can One Family Make a Difference? Once I read that and saw whose video it was attached to, the only family I could think that the family would be the Rhodes family.

We started watching their YouTube channel a couple of years ago...back when they were doing their 100 Days of Growing Food challenge. The truth of the matter is that Tom is the one who had discovered them. At first I wasn't impressed...homesteaders? I don't know. I kept with it though and after awhile watching their videos was part of the evening routine and I loved the family! Seriously their Chiddlers are pretty cute!

It's because of those early videos that my dream to do something more with our property started to percolate. So much so, that soon after we started watching their vlogs I promptly visited their website and signed up to receive emails and also saw that we could get the plans for the chick-shaw. The plan was to get some chickens sooner than later...as it turns out it was after they started on the GAFT when we got 10 chicks from the feed store and started on our own journey ourselves. Before the chicks came I took a staycation and we worked on building the coop. Let me tell you - there are about a million pieces that go into making that thing! We used Justin's model of having a guard goose and since we were told he would need a pal then the duckling happened too.

Then things got a little crazy with watching all of the really cool farms that were on the tour. The one that really stood out was John Suscovich - you may have read about him in an earlier post. He's all about the chickens so that was a no brainer...I got the book, then a sweatshirt for Tom and a mug and another sweatshirt for me.

Anyway - back to the original question: Can one Family Make a Difference?

Yes, they can and boy did they ever. This tour really opened up my eyes to the different types of farms that are out there and just how many people are homesteading. The bottom line is that all of these people are really no different than me. They had a vision and they went with it...and that is an encouragement to me. There were a couple of people that actually got into a homesteading lifestyle a little later in life, so that was good for me to see. Not that I'm that terribly old, but I'm not in my 30s or 40s and getting started on my dream. My dream did start a few years back, but the timing is just right now.

So, if you want to check out the series of videos that were created as a tribute to the Rhodes start with this one:

From this one I believe that you will see the other ones.

As of this moment, I am in vacation mode! Bring on the projects!

Happy Friday!

I've decided to post the Great American Farm Tour videos that happened one year ago here and there as something a little different to do.

Today's video is from a guy who lives in Southern Florida and now that I rewatch this video he seemed to be a little hyped up. He has a cool garden though and I love his drive...but he's a little wacky! He had to be the one person who I would have never pegged as an urban gardener. I don't know why - his personality...a little out there.

As I remember back, I was thinking how cool it would be to grow stuff in MARCH. Not just greens and stuff, but tomatoes! He had red tomatoes! I would love to have fresh vine ripened tomatoes in March. I wouldn't move to Florida though. So I'll be waiting until summer as per usual.

Go ahead...check the video out!

Supporting Strangers

It's one thing to support someone you know when they are raising funds for a mission trip or a project or a community group. It's especially easy when you believe in the cause. However, when it comes to supporting someone you don't know...that's something a little different.

We watch several different YouTube channels regularly: Justin Rhodes, Art & Bri, Sow the Land and John Suscovich to name a few. I don't know any of these people personally. Sure I've sent emails or commented on their videos, but that's as far as the relationship goes.

Many of these YouTuber's have different ways of making a buck whether it's by people watching their videos or offering literature of sorts that is related to farming in one way or another on their personal websites. Or if you are particularly business savvy, by setting up a nifty online store and offering things like Apparel, Books, Mugs etc.

Stepping outside of the box that we live in - we supported The Great American Farm Tour on Kickstarter and by doing so we received a stainless steel mug as well as a GAFT sticker. In addition to those two things, we'll also get the GAFT documentary that will be released next month. Fun Stuff!!

Another YouTuber that we have supported would be John Suscovich and his hashtag one million chickens project -

Tom is modeling the latest of Farm  Marketing Solutions

More recently I have supported The Elliot Homestead by buying a "How To" book:

If you don't care to do an actual farm get this book for the photos alone!

In an effort to continue supporting the Elliott Homestead I have preordered her next cookbook...

This will release on April 1

This book will be a good one. She uses a lot of food that she and her family grow on their farm...in the Wenatchee, Washington area - she's a local for me! Which really means being in the same state!

My latest purchase in support of a YouTuber is this sweet handmade kitchen spoon made out of  walnut -

This measures just about 13.5"

 

Check out Sow the Land - Jason, Lorraine and daughter Penelope - they left Southern California to follow their dreams to live a better life through self sufficiency. They are living out their dream in North Carolina. Check out their website HERE. You can get to their store, blog and YouTube channel via the website.

It's a beautiful day in the Pacific NW - time to get outside!

Another GAFT favorite

The Great American Farm Tour. How I ever sat myself down almost everyday to watch the daily video from Justin Rhodes is beyond me. We did it though, although, there were a couple I just couldn't sit through. Otherwise we watched them all! Some of them a few times even.

The farm feature was waaay back in May of last year. The Farmer is John Suscovich. The farm is Camps Road Farm in Connecticut. The book is Stress Free Chicken Tractor Plans.

The first video that was featured:

The moment he kneeled down to help out Mr. Brown - I knew this guy would be awesome! 

Then there was this video:

By the time we had watched these videos we already built the Justin Rhodes Chick-Shaw. The chicken tractor with a million pieces...hahaha! Actually the chick mobile is awesome! It did take some time though. When I found out that Farmer John had a book I HAD to check it out. Not only that I ORDERED it and we have been studying it and will be building one of these bad boys soon.

Everything about this guy...his experience kind of clicked with me and I understood what he was saying. The way he farms, the way he learns while doing stuff and then makes adjustments when things don't work out...boy I get that. He is for real people...a farmer, husband, father...YouTuber. He is a farmer...not a homesteader. We all know how that word has no meaning to me. It is over-used. Enough said. Also, not that I would do this, but he toured the part of the US on his bike, visiting farms along the way. What a life! There was a time that I thought I might want to do a bicycle tour, but that's an unrelated story.

We had the chickies before we saw these videos, but the video about the chicken tractors got me thinking about raising meat birds. Something I wanted to do last year, but let's face it, with the new chickies (gosling & duckling included) and trying to keep my pathetic garden from totally dying off I don't think that a batch of meat chickens would have helped. What we did end up doing is processing three of our extra cockerels at approximately 19 weeks old or so. That was quite the experience - one that I am happy to say I survived and didn't get totally freaked out about. Go HERE for that post.

Last summer he did a few videos on raising pigs and how beneficial they are to the land. Our property was once part of a much larger cattle farm operation years ago and our plan is to add a breeding pair of American Guinea Hogs that will help make our property healthy again. All we have done for nearly 20 years is mow the grass. Only last year did we actually introduce the chickens to part of the pasture. I have plans to keep the pigs moving around the property and increasing the food growing areas. Fruit trees, berry bushes or gardens, I want to add them all! 

What else about this guy...he is all about sharing information on YouTube - all free which is a bonus. He does have a "store" on his website, Farm Marketing Solutions. If you are looking for suggested reading, he's got a list of books. Apparel, yup. His published books...oh yeah. Like I mentioned before I got the chicken tractor book. There's a new book in the works that I'm planning to order to get our market going. 

In the time since watching these two videos, I have started to follow his channel - SO GOOD! I've commented on his videos and sent him an email of appreciation (and got a reply!) - he is seriously cool! 

Go on...check the videos above and check out his channel on YouTube. I'm going to start planning again...

Let's Grow A Garden!

Okay, so I have a little problem...

I like seeds...

Vegetable seeds, flower seeds, cover crop seeds.

You name it and I probably have got it. Well, not really, but I have a nice variety. Last fall I had intended to start sprouting seeds in trays for chicken fodder, but that hasn't happened. That is a task that I could put on my calendar to do in a couple of weeks maybe. 

Once I get all of that inventory sprouted, I'll be ready to order more from a new place that I learned about via the Great American Farm Tour - Seed Savers Exchange. 

The catalog that I requested a few weeks ago was delivered in the mail yesterday and I am excited! Yeah, I've got a bunch of seeds on my wish list on the website, but this is more fun for me, because I LOVE catalogs! I have already received 9 catalogs so far and there might be another on the way.

I love everything about Seed Savers Exchange though...all heirloom non-hybrid and non-gmo seeds. I have yet to actually sit down and look at the catalog, but I have looked at  a couple of things and it has the history of many (if not all) of the seeds that they have available for purchase.

So, while I thumb through my catalogs, take a look at the video about Seed Savers Exchange...and after you are done with that check out Justin Rhodes YouTube Channel and watch more videos from his epic 2017 tour of the United States!

Three Less...on a Labor Day

Why we chose to process three of the cockerels on Labor Day is beyond me, besides the fact that we did not have all of the items to do the processing, I don't know why I chose Labor day. Being a holiday probably was the biggest reason and we didn't have any other plans.

As far as needed equipment, we knew that we needed something to dunk the birds into before plucking. We thought we still had our turkey fryer from soooo many years ago. After Tom looked for it he vaguely remembered that we donated it for a church sale thinking that we wouldn't ever used it again. So early last week I was pokin' around on craigslist for a turkey fryer and there was a barely used one for $40 - SCORE!

With the turkey fryer purchased, the only other things we needed were knives - sharp ones. So Tom decided on a couple that we have at home and used the honing tool to get a good sharp edge on them. They worked fine, but after having done the processing, we're going to have to revisit the knife situation for future processing days.

We would need a table - so we covered up an old homemade table (formerly used for seed trays) with plastic. Then we took a couple of storage bins to fill with ice and water for rinsing and keeping the birds fresh post plucking/eviscerating.

The first task after getting stuff set up was to gather up the young roosters we wanted to cull from the flock. As I have mentioned in earlier posts we do not need 4 roosters! As the young roosters started maturing more there was more chaos in the chicken run/arena. The boys really were bullies! Also, there was one in particular that I have been wanting to be rid of as he had been coming after me and challenging me during evening chores. It was getting bad enough that I didn't want to really go out there and have to deal with him. We had to get a little tricksey to catch these guys and the first one actually escaped the old brooder (he is our keeper). We were able to grab the others once they let their guard down and started heading out of the chick mobile. We used their old brooder as a waiting room - if you will. By the time we got around to doing the deed they were not as crazy. Here the the "lucky ones..."

The one in the middle was the more aggressive dude.

My hope was to keep the "good" one. Having observed the young boy birds the past couple of months we had him picked out, but we never got the leg bands to tag him. Over the past month or so, his tail feathers started to look like the others and we lost track of which of the dudes was our keeper. In the end I am not sure who we have, but he seems happy and his crow is the least strong of the four, so I'm okay with that. He might be our original Thor - if he wasn't before he is now. As there is no more competition from the others, he will mature into a nice roo.

How the processing went - it wasn't smooth. However, I can say that it was a learning opportunity. We wanted to make sure that these 3 didn't suffer too badly, but in all honesty, the first two were the learning kills. The last one (which was also the undesirable young rooster) actually went well.

This is how the morning went down...

#1 - With this dude we figured out that the cone was a little on the smallish side. Man, Jersey Giants are BIG! Everytime Tom would try to get him in there he would crane his neck in such a way that we couldn't get a hold of his head through the bottom. Once I was able to get to his head and we could stretch his neck out through the bottom it was time to make the cut. Well, things didn't go that well and he ended up not bleeding out very quickly and he was still breathing. So we took him out and had to lay him down on the ground and do another cut. Once we felt confident that he was unconcious we felt pretty bad because the process was drawn out a bit. Then we got him plucked (by hand) and eviscerated him - it wasn't pretty.

#2 - Okay, I decided that I needed to try to do this one. After we got him into the cone I contemplated for a moment where I needed to make the cut and thought it was good...he was bleeding out all right, but at one point he totally popped out of the cone. The only fortunate thing is that he had almost no strength so actually being able to get him was easy. Tom returned and we did the deed and felt a bad for this kill as well.

#3 - Well, with two failed kills we had the motivation to not fail again on our side. Also, this was Mr. I'm-Gonna-Kick-The-Person-Who-Feeds-Me dude, so that helped us ensure this one would be the "clean" kill. Thankfully it was and we both felt relief. I tried my had at the evisceration, but it wasn't going well, so Tom essentially did all three of the birds.

Since the weekend I searched for chicken processing on the YouTubes and found a really good one by Weed 'em and Reap go HERE if you want to check it out.

How are we feeling about doing this? Personally, I was determined. After following many homesteaders on YouTube and other farmers I have decided that in order to make sure that what we are eating is good for us, we need to grow it ourselves. This makes sense to me and I wish that we had started doing this a long time ago. Also, I come from a home where there were chickens on the property (not just a few) and culling the flock was done on occasion. So it wasn't anything that was terribly freaky. It has taken Tom a few days more to work through what has happened, the mistakes that we made and the things we need to do differently.

Since I really didn't feel terrible I am starting to wonder if I'm more heartless than I ever imagined...

In the end, there were two things that made this first processing difficult. The Jersey's are: 1. A large breed and 2. They were almost 20 weeks old. Cornish Cross are processed at 8 weeks and are a more standard size bird, as they are the bird that you'll find in the meat case at most markets. A mature Jersey Rooster can get up to 15 pounds and I don't think that they were far off of that weight. Even at 8 weeks we still weren't quite sure which of the roos we wanted to make sure to keep. It took some time to really figure out the personalities of the 4 that were left (#5 was eaten by something).

So, we will explore other breeds specifically for meat birds - that will be a future post.

What will we do different next time?

The number one thing would be get better knives that we can just dedicate to chicken processing. We used knives that were a mish-mash of items from the kitchen and a couple that we had used in the garden. Earlier this week I did a little research and found that others had gotten a set of poultry processing knives from a place called Cornerstone Farm Ventures:

Go HERE to check out the set

Our goal for a future chicken harvest is to raise more meat birds which will probably require more of a set up as pictured below. We can equipment from the local Conservation District. Let me tell you this is a sweet deal for $70 (which includes a $50 refundable cleaning deposit). This set up has everything that we will need to process more than three birds! Check it out...

What an AWESOME set up!
(Fake chickens not included)

The last thing that I can think of would be extra people. More hands would make for a quick processing. The three that we did took most of the morning and we did alright. I know that this will be the challenging part. Even if we were to offer a chicken to those who come and help, I'm not sure that would be alluring enough. Not many of our friends that I can think of would be remotely interested. We might have to call on friends who hunt to help with the next round of chickens.

I get it, the idea of taking the life of a happy, healthy bird is not a popular one. It has been said on Abundant Permaculture "Every day something must die so that you can live."  

Seriously, I could go on and on...I feel so strongly about being responsible about our food and how we grow the veggies (no chemicals) and how we would raise the chickens (on pasture). Why oh why wouldn't other people consider that too?

Grow.

Your.

Food.

What Are We Watching?

We don't watch a lot of TV. There are shows that we enjoy watching so if we happen to have downtime and it's a time when the show is on TV we'll watch it. Like right now I am liking the Masterpiece and ITV shows (Grantchester, Downton Abbey etc). On network TV we try to catch the Big Bang Theory. Yeah, that's how we came up with the names for the goose (Leonard) and the duck (Sheldon).

However, when we are done with dinner or our chores we like to sit down and watch our favorite YouTube videos.

Here are our faves:

1. Justin Rhodes (abundant permaculture). He's and his family homestead in the mountains of North Carolina. He and the Beautiful One have 4 kiddos and they are currently on what they are calling "The Great American Farm Tour." Check them out HERE.

2. Art & Bri - Another Homesteading family in North Carolina and friends of the Rhodes family. We started watching their videos back when they were really just getting started with their journey. So much has happened in the last year! Go HERE to check them out.

3. Sew the Land - a family of three who left Southern California to move to North Carolina to start a homestead. Their story is so inspiring as they left the life they lived for so long to do something entirely different. This just proves that you can do anything you set your mind to. Especially if you have left behind all of your friends and family. Go HERE for more.

Are you sensing a trend here? North Carolina is a hot spot!

4. John Suscovich - Okay, this is where we diversify! This guy and his wife manage Camps Road Farm in Connecticut. Now this farm is interesting to me because it is diverse. In addition to growing vegetables, he is big into growing chickens for meat as well as pigs. There is also a brewery on site as well as a brand new tasting room/farm store. Yeah, if we lived closer I would be visiting this farm for sure! Check out his video channel HERE.

5. Diego Footer - The host of Permaculture Voices. He has a YouTube channel that we try to watch, but to be honest it is hard to get in all of the videos I like to watch before it's time to call it a night. He is very much a food grower in a neighborhood setting. Also, he is in Southern California. Check him out HERE.

There are other channels, but I just wanted to list my favorites and channels that are farm related. Check them out and let me know what you think - OR - share what you are watching.

It's Friday!

My favorite day of the week, especially when I take a vacation day and the sun is shining! What a nice day...best day all week!

First mission for the day was a trip to Wilco to buy some cat food for Mr. Decaf. However, the moment we walked into the store we could hear the peeping in the middle of the store!! Live poultry!! A shipment of new chicks were delivered this morning and they had several different breeds in the troughs. Since we already got our chicks on Monday we just took a look at the new peepers which included Wyandottes, Marans, Cochins...and gosling and  ducklings!

The point was to get the food, but I can never pass up looking at these little dudes when we visit during the spring.

They had Pomeranian goslings a couple of varieties - the one that we wanted were not available, all were already spoken for. So we went with the other. Yeah, I don't remember the names, but I'll get that later. The woman mentioned that there really needs to be a buddy other than a chicken for the goose and they said that a duck would be fine. They both will co-exist with the chickens so that will work out.

So yeah, we ended up putting a gosling and a duckling on hold. They'll call the hatchery to figure out which are males which is what we want. Hopefully they will have the information before the weekend is over.

The Premier 1 poultry fence kit was due for delivery today and it took all day long for it to arrive. Our UPS driver used to deliver to the Fire Station, so it was nice to see Jeff drive in after dinner. He was curious about what we were doing so I showed him the babies...he thought he would have chicken for dinner, but after seeing them...he decided maybe not...Hahaha!

The boxes waiting to be opened! I've seen that most of our favorite homesteading people on YouTube use this fence, so it must be good, right? We'll see how the energizer gets put together and report back later.

So yeah, this homestead thing is starting to take shape. Tom will be off to do some work tomorrow and my big project for the day will be to get the garage all cleaned up after the construction of the chicken condo. There is always something that needs to be done!

One more chickie pic before I sign off...

Being Inspired

Kickstarter Bonus for the Great American Farm Tour

Sometimes you have to get your inspiration from the YouTubes - we watch Justin Rhodes. I have to be honest, I did not find this guy - Tom did. AND when we first started watching his videos, I wasn't all that impressed. However, the more I watched his videos which was all about their homestead in North Carolina, the more I like him. Everything that he does is intentional and he is more than happy to show his successes along side the failures. Let's face it, none of us know it all! I know I don't. Because of that I choose to look at the things that I want to try as an experiment. Something that you learn from.

Now, the Rhodes family has hit the road on their tour and are posting daily...DAILY! That is something that I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around. Not that they are posting daily, but that they are traveling with their kiddos and visiting all sorts of amazing place and meeting amazing people! You wouldn't think that 24 hours would be enough time.

With that, I'm going to do my best to post here as many times a week as I possibly can. Last week was easy as I was on vacation and updating what we were doing on our little farm. It was an awesome week of being away from the crazy of work and focusing on what matters - getting our dream going.

I'm SO excited - the things that I call experiments are working. My seedlings are doing great! I've got the vision for the garden - which means that the weather could improve and not rain long enough for me to get out and dig out my raised beds. I'm shooting for 9, but I'm not sure.

I'm thinking the JM Fortier/Eliot Coleman way 30" wide by however many feet from the edge to around 3 feet from the fence. The paths will be 18" wide. Whew, that's going to be a lot of work!

We'll see...until the next post, check out the video HERE and give him a like and a follow.

Go ahead check them out...BE INSPIRED.

Seriously...then go HERE for all of his videos!