Chicken Garden Part 1

We are planting a "chicken garden" for these lovelies.

What's a chicken garden, you ask?  Well, first you take a weed-infested pen, and cover it with cardboard and feed sacks (the paper kind), then you dump on 3 loads (at least) of composted sheep manure and bedding (thanks sheep!), then you generously sprinkle all kinds of yummy things that chickens love to eat, either in baby plant form or in full-veggie delight.  We have chosen, various lettuces, cabbages, chard, spinach, broccoli, etc.  We will have to keep the ladies out of the area for a bit to let it germinate and grow in the gorgeous Okanagan sunshine, because, not knowing what awaits them if they are patient, the sillies will eat the seeds if we let them.

Then, probably in July, we will turn them loose on "their" garden.

In doing this, we will: 

*enrich the soil

*feed the birds (thereby lowering our monetary output to care for them)

*enhance the nutrient value of their eggs (which we eat, making us healthier)

*recycle the sheep's poop into really great stuff

*smother the weeds that are currently taking over said enclosure.

*ridding ourselves of weeds, without any chemicals whatsoever

*recycling cardboard

AND, since we have chicks and approximately half of these will be roosters, which we intend to make into dinner at some point, we will also be enhancing the nutrient value of the meat we are consuming.

Fun, eh?  We think so :)  

Weekend Reading

A lighter reading suggestion this weekend.  It is the long weekend, afterall.  "Please Look After Mom" by Kyong-suk Sin is a heart-wrenching read for anyone who has a mother.  You will never look at her the same way again.  So often, I think, we do not realize that our own mothers have a life and interests and passions and thoughts beyond caring for their families.  This book is interesting in that it is written in the 2nd person (I've never read a book in the 2nd person before, have you?) and tells tales of "mom" through the eyes of her loved ones.  "Mom" disappears one day after getting off the train and gets lost.  The book then, retraces mom's steps according to the people who supposedly know her best.  Truly, a fascinating read.

Whatever you do, where ever you are, enjoy your weekend!

::Re-Purposing::

 I hate to throw something away that I might be able to use for something else.  This breezy little top was given to me by a friend who got it at a yard sale.  Looked cute on the hanger, but on my self, not so much.  It so happens that my sweet girl goes to a dance studio where a lot of the little dancers are wearing these darling wrap around skirts, which (kudos to them) they get from a local seamstress who charges a mere $15 each, any size.  However, thrifty girl that I am, I cannot spend $15 on something that I can quite easily do myself.

So, a little snip snip here, and a little hemming there, and ...

Hey Presto!  A new wrap skirt for my little dancer.

Weekend Reading

Well, you'd think it was a slacker week around here.  I got absolutely Nothing done all week, as I was either hosting (new) friends and their kids at our little farm, or chauffering kids around town to their various activities.  Not my typical week, as I generally like more "home days" than we had.  Oh well.  Sometimes it just can't be helped, eh?

So, you will notice a bit of a theme with my picks of weekend reads of late.  It's springtime, in case you hadn't noticed, which means planting stuff.  So mostly, I'm reading books on ... planting stuff.  I must admit, I am bound and determined to finish  Joel Salatin's book  before it's due back at the library, which means other books I want to read are cast aside, for the moment, or browsed quickly.  This book is one of those, and although I had to return it before I had really gotten to the meat of it, it really intrigued me.

Before you think -- wow, can I really harvest tomatoes in January??  No.  Not where I live, certainly, and not where the author lives.  You can, however, for very little time and investment, harvest root veggies and salad stuffs year round.  Really?  Yes, really, and I am game to try.  I LOVE the idea of simple bales of straw surrounding your crop with recycled windows propped up against them.  Check with me next spring to see how I did ;)

Have a fantastic weekend!

Feelin Groovy

You know how the song goes, "Slow down, you move too fast, you've got to make the morning last..." (Simon & Garfunkel)  Well, I shamelessly had a chance - two really - to do just that -slow down - over the past two days with 2 groups of friends.  It's quite amazing the conversations that flow when allowed to just. be.  Kids are laughing and running in the fields with farm critters and the adults can enjoy a cup of joe or vino and some snacks on the deck and just. relax.  So difficult to do these days with all the "things to do."  "I'm so busy" is a refrain I hear all too often.  And I cringe.  I want to ask - Why?  Do you Like being so Busy?  If you do, WHY.  Life is SO short.  Kids are in school way to long, adults work way too much.  Before we know it, another year or another decade has passed.  I told both of these friends, one of which I had been trying to see for several weeks but didn't because... well, see above.  And I said to both, I'm not antisocial, really.  You can come up here whenever you like!  I'm usually home.  I just like my place SO much that I want to spend every moment I can here.  Maybe relaxing.  Probably hanging with kids in the garden or around those critters.  And you know what?  They understood.  


So when you get a chance to just sit with a friend and share some laughs, do it.  The "things to do" can wait. They will still be there tomorrow, if you want them to be.  No one on their deathbed says that they wished they'd spent more time at the office.

Weekend Reading

The Friday ritual continues...

OK, I guess this is a little mean, or a teaser, more like.  Mean because you can't just pick it up at the local corner store.  This brand-new magazine is quite a little gem, I must say.  It's put together by a small team of people, one of whom is none other than my favorite on-line guru, Amanda Blake Soule of soulemama.com.  I LOVE her blog.  Period.  So when she announced she was co-launching this magazine, I was all ears.  I bought the first issue, tried it out (you might notice a trend of trying things out before I go whole-hog, pardon the pun), and just fell in love with it. 


To quote:"Taproot is...a collection of curated stories written by and for people living fully and digging deeper; people who are interested in deepening their connections to their families, communities, and themselves as they strive to live locally and closer to the ground."

It goes on, but that will give you a taste of what this is about.  I love it, and I told them so.

So, needless to say, I was thrilled when I received a short email from Amanda Blake Soule herself the other day, asking to use my letter in the next issue!  An Honor, I'm sure.

I doubt you can find this publication on your average magazine shelf; it's not available as an e-mag.  But, do. Check it out. You won't be disappointed. www.taprootmag.com

Sheep in the driveway

This is Dulcie.  She's a St. Croix X sheep.  If you're wondering about her funky hair cut, she's just shedding her winter coat, and the winter bits are hanging onto her back, giving her a kind of mohawk look.  They are in the front yard today to mow down the grass a bit as they are getting a little grumpy being confined to the upper pasture due to the vetch germinating in the lower pasture.  (More on that later.)
We bought 4 of these lovelies a year ago as "practice": Dulcie, Moo, Sunshine and Stella, all bottle-fed lambs.

By "practice" I mean that I wanted to see if I actually liked sheep, how easy they were to care for, how much they cost to keep, that sort of thing.  And if they didn't work out, because they are meat sheep (as opposed to fleece/woolly sheep or milk sheep), we could sell them for meat or eat them ourselves.  (For the record, I could never eat one of our lambs, and I haven't eaten red meat in almost 20 years, no matter how it's raised.)  So, really, it comes down to knitting and how much I love That.  I know now that I adore sheep, everything about them.  We plan to breed these guys in the future, hopefully this fall and sell their lambs, yes, for meat.  But back to the knitting: I will most certainly fork out the dough for a high-quality woolly sheep in the near future.  I want to go "sheep to sweater" -- raise sheep, shear them, wash, card, dye, spin, and knit the wool.  And then do it all again.  The particular sheep breed I want is a Blue Faced Leister, or BFL for short.  These are not cheap.  So, again, to check it out, I have bought a full BFL fleece that I will eventually knit up.  (more on that later).

I love this.  Keeping chickens and sheep.  Honeybees too, eventually.  I love the animals and how they interact with us, and each other.  I love how the children know how to care for the animals, and where food really comes from.  I love what they teach us about life, and subsequently, death.  I love how what they do naturally enhances our lives, not only aesthetically, but how they add to the compost, break down kitchen scraps, turn over the soil, and yes, mow the grass. We have 2 acres.  It's not a lot, but it's more that a lot of people are able to enjoy.  I want to use this land to its fullest potential.  Wish me luck :)


Have yourselves a wonderful day, sheep or no sheep.