To Start The Day On The Farm

I awoke this morning at 6:00 am before the heat and humidity set in to complete the glorious task of mucking out the chicken house. It is not the most enjoyable of tasks but nevertheless a productive one.

I am reminded of the quote by Winston Churchill, "An optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty. A pessimist sees difficulty in each opportunity."

While shoveling chicken manure is a dirty task, the results are valuable for my gardens. I am left with a rich, zero waste fertilizer that is already composted with cedar shavings brought to our homestead from a local lumber mill. There are no plastic fertilizer bags left to dispose of. There are no questions about how many chemicals are contained in the fertilizer, if it is harmful or beneficial. We have kept the waste of one aspect of the homestead here and turned it in to something productive. That is an accomplishment! Nothing was sent to the landfill in the process. How can I expand this idea of turning waste into something productive on the homestead? Only time will tell. The task was much more fulfilling than I had anticipated when I got out of bed.

We each have tasks that aren't our favorite to accomplish in our lives. However, the next time you catch yourself thinking "Do I really have to do that?" stop and see the opportunity that presents itself. It's an opportunity to grow - minus any procrastination - and find the opportunity in the perceived difficulty.

Hens Nest In the Strangest Places

Upon returning home from our trip we discovered a funny sight. The hens decided that my hanging basket was a comfortable nest to lay their eggs in. To top that one broody mama decided that her next clutch of eggs should be hatched in that same location.

What to do? We have a constant problem with predators. Left alone she would quickly become the next meal for a passerby raccoon, opossum, or snake. You name the animal. The idea arose to simply move the hanging basket at night, with her in the basket, onto a nail inside the chicken coop. Of course we could just move the entire nest and hen into a nesting box, but in the past the method has proved unsuccessful for us.

Without further ado, here she is...our Hen named Queen.

Hen Nesting in Hanging Flower Basket

The Funny Farm Continued

Upon establishing the Funny Farm on our new homestead I realized that my limited knowledge of gardening and livestock husbandry left much to be desired. The small local newspaper is the go to for connecting with others in our rural community. Yes actual ink and paper! I was reading the paper regularly to learn about the community that we had newly joined. The 'back to the land' movement is still very strong in the community. Many people pride themselves in being off-grid and self sufficient. Again another daydream of our household..

I happened to stumble upon an advertisement of a local, organic gardener who was seeking help in exchange for produce and plants. This being only a few months after moving into our new home. I accepted her invitation to work. The arrangement proved to be a small scale CSA - Community Supported Agriculture. I gained a wealth of knowledge by being willing to exchange my time & energy. I learned about native plants and the local growing season while being introduced to like minded individuals. 

One of my first plants that I enjoyed from the CSA was echinacea. It is beautiful in our garden from May to July each year.

My gardening mentor lives a very simple, minimalist lifestyle. I love how contented she is with basic things: eating mostly wild foods foraged and produce grown by their household, trading for things desired or needed with their surplus produced. Both husband and wife support themselves with crafts: wood carving and weaving. I am fortunate to have wooden carved spoons and a hemp woven piece made by my mentor and her husband. 

When living such a simple life, minimal income is required. Truly "when your eye is simple, the whole body will be bright." This is an idea that has much appeal. They are not slaves to their work to support a consumption based lifestyle. They do what they love and enjoy it. It is simple and fulfilling.

I seek everyday to ask myself the question, "Is my life simple or cluttered?"

Zero Waste Food Preservation

I returned to harvest from our friend's garden and reaped even more vegetables than I did the first time. Today involved canning 21 half-pints of blackberry jam and 8 pints of salsa. Yesterday found eight quarts of whole tomatoes canned and five gallons of green beans dehydrated. I am fortunate to enjoy using an Excalibur dehydrator to preserve the summer's bounty.

Here in the country woods of Arkansas we seem to lose electricity a lot. Once after a large ice storm we lived "off grid" involuntarily for 21 days. While both my husband & I have both dreamed of living an off-grid lifestyle, we were not setup for such or prepared to do so. Everything in our chest deep-freeze was lost during the prolonged power outage. While I do enjoy canning, limited experience and storage room prevent heavy reliance on this method of food preservation. My preference is to dehydrate our produce when possible since it requires minimal storage room and no energy to prevent spoilage. The dehydrated produce is then stored in glass containers.

Dehydrated Green Beans

The simple blackberry jam is lovingly being contained in beautiful Weck jars. There is a sense of accomplishment knowing that there is no BPA in the rubber rings used to seal the glass lidded jars. Being able to reuse the rubber gaskets contributes to the experience being zero waste.

Blackberry Jam in Weck Jars

The whole Funny Farm is running in zero-waste mode today. The chickens appreciate the flurry of kitchen activity since they will be upcycling the produce scraps into delicious free range eggs tomorrow.

Summer abounds with opportunities to be plastic free with zero waste. A little extra effort is required - but an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Begin with a small step: grow a small herb garden in a window sill or try your hand at canning a couple of half-pint jars with fresh seasonal produce from the farmers market. Here's a great reference I found at the local library this week: Preserving by the Pint: Quick Seasonal Canning for Small Spaces by Marrisa McClellan.

Up next, preserving peaches, okra, squash & cucumbers. I've never made pickles or relish before. This will be an experiment..

What is your favorite zero waste food preservation tip?

Chapter 2: Homesteading - The Funny Farm

After having our first child we moved to a 12 acre parcel of land with a fixer-upper house three miles down a dirt road. This was a enormous change for my husband who lived in large cities for most of his life.

Neither of us had any experience with farm animals or homesteading. Despite our lack of experience I was intrigued by the idea. My curiosity gave birth to what we lovingly called, The Funny Farm. For our 10th wedding anniversary my husband gifted me the first farm additions - three chickens he named Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. He built a chicken tractor that he repurposed from old pallets & tin to house the birds. We use the tractor to this day to house any new chicks in our flock.

I was inspired by reading the book Made From Scratch: Discovering the Pleasures of a Handmade Life by Jenna Woginrich. She described watching the animal's antics as "farm TV." I learned by watching our chickens how to enjoy the simplest form of entertainment, nature.

Meet Our 1st Rooster - Dinner