The Pursuit of Hap-peep-ness!

A big storm coming in today has allowed me to go into work late. For some reason people aren't as excited about coming in to buy things when there is snow on the roads (go figure). Although the weather is poor, there is a flurry of activity going on in the living room brooder, a chick party if you will. Fluttering, chirping, and pecking noises are driving Daisy absolutely insane. So far the chicks are doing great and growing so fast that every morning I can see new mature feathers growing in. Our neighbors decided to add 6 chicks to our flock so they'd have some eggs too. Now the flock has grown from the original three to eleven with only three left to arrive next Thursday. Come June we should have enough eggs to keep our fridge stocked and have enough left over to sell to friends.

Meat Chickens: We are gearing up excitedly for this years meat bird flocks. This year we've decided to do multiple smaller flocks and try some of Joel Salatin's intensive grazing techniques but with more of a free range flavor. We will do the Freedom Ranger chickens again since we had so much luck with them last year. Since this property is thickly packed with manzanita we will utilize the cover to send out our meat flocks in the relative safety and protection of electrified netting. I'm thinking we will keep the space available small, so the chickens are forced to range the ground intensively. Their manure will fertilize the ground and hopefully improve the red clay with time. Since reading Joel's books, I have really begun to think of how the animals can do the work of improving the soil for us while turning a small profit at the same time. We will begin the free ranging chicken experiment with the meat birds first, then adding the goats to brush the manzanita back a bit. The pressure will be healthy for the soil and add nutrients back that have been depleted during the heaving rains and snow we've had this winter/spring.

Goats: The girls are doing great. They are both enjoying their coats right now especially with the extra chilly night here. Justin was worried that Buttercup was too cold, so wrapped her up in Ayden's extra dog coat. She's one toasty little goat now!

Now it's time for me to head to work. I cannot wait until I can just stay here at the farm working outside with the animals, making things grow, and providing gourmet locally grown food to customers. For now I'll just have to be happy with the small steps that comprise my pursuit of Hap-peep-ness!

Enticing Spring to Come

As I write there is a quiet blanket of snow forming on the trees outside my window. Living at an increased elevation of 2800 ft means that winter holds on to the chill like a vice until Spring can beat it into submission. The weather at this time of year is unpredictable at best. In fact, yesterday we checked the weather in order to decide where to park the cars. Rain was the plan, but snow is what we got. It's so weird for this Southern California born and raised girl to live by the weather forecast and pray for sun whenever possible.

On wintery Spring days like these I need to take steps to pull myself out of the funk consistent clouds and snow bring. The first step was purchasing a seed starting mat. Essentially a heating pad for your seeds, it has allowed me to put some faith in the coming spring thaw by starting multiple heirloom flowers and vegetables. Hollyhock, bee balm, shasta daisies, tomatoes and much more are happily growing in their little plastic greenhouse near the kitchen window. The little seedlings stretching out to the sky are like a beacon of hope that we will have some warm days soon!

Our next spring inspiration arrived yesterday in animal form. Three 2-7 day old chicks came home chirping away in their carrier: an Americauna, a Barred Rock, and a Red Sex Link. They are just the beginning of our 2011 egg flock with more arriving this Thursday giving us a grand total of 8 new chicks. We're hoping to get about 12 eggs a day come the end of summer! We used the galvanized water trough our friend Phil gave us as a sizable brooder for the new additions. With food, water, fresh shavings, and a heat lamp all provided the brooder will be a wonderful home for them for 2 months or until they have all grown in their adult feathers. Right now they cannot maintain their own temperature, so the heat lamp does that for them. Their homecoming was quite comical. The two cats and Daisy watched the brooder with a little bit too much interest. At the time I was thankful for the welded wire top we'd fitted to the trough to protect our newest additions. I think this will be a good experience for Daisy especially who has a slight issue relaxing around the sights and sounds of chickens. In two months she should be completely used to resting around the chick noises.

While we are thankful for the respite winter provides, the increasing daylight begs for us to go outside and get things started. For now we'll just have to be satiated with our indoor endeavors and have faith that Spring will arrive soon.

Schöne Vida gets an upgrade

Since farming has become my absolute passion there have been many things that we have needed to make certain things around here work. The biggest challenge for us is acquiring things that are necessity and knowing what things are luxuries that will have to wait. For example: we need a substantial shelter that can house the chickens and goats while protecting everyone from predators, but we don't need a sprawling red barn with a hay loft right now. My obsessive bargain searching has paid off well. We knew that we needed a new shelter for the animals at the new farm and we knew we wanted one slightly larger than the current one. I found a man on Swap Shop (a local radio station's craigslist-like website) selling a 8' x 16' shed frame constructed with 2x4s. This gentleman had built the frame years ago and covered it in plastic sheeting in order to protect his tractor. The price for this beauty: $50! Really nothing in comparison with how much all the wood would cost to build it. Justin and I promptly drove over and loaded the disassembled shed into the truck.

When we were lucky enough to have a break in the weather our neighbor was kind enough to use his new tractor to level a building pad for us. Then for the next week Justin used his amazing skills to build the barn frame then cover it in plywood and tar paper for the roof. And what good timing. Right as he was finishing putting on the tar paper a huge rain storm came through. We managed to move over all the animals in the down pour during the most miserably wet day I've been through in a long time. Being cold and wet is no fun especially with the added stress of transporting 7 frightened animals and tearing down their old shelter for scrap wood and chicken wire, but we did it. We banged together some last minute essentials and called it a day. We slept terribly that night, waking up to every little animal sound we heard, but everyone made it through the night just fine.

The shed has been complete for one week and the animals seem to love it. Their new enclosure has plenty of brush to eat and bugs to search for. As for us, we are so happy to be here in the new house. This is a great place to learn more about farming and save more to buy a farm of our own. Things continue to get even better!