Our Coop...Part 1....

The chickens are coming..the chickens are coming!  Holy "bleep", our chickens will be arriving this week. Out with the plan of having them by the end of this month!  My new chicken friend Wendy has been such a HUGE help with my journey to becoming a chicken farmer and graciously found me 4 chickens! 

I know that at least 2 of them are Americauna's, otherwise known as "Easter egg" layers.  The other 2...I'm not quite sure what they are but I do know they will lay eggs!

So, this brings us to the dilemma that Craig now faces...to finish the chicken run! The walls are started, just need to attach the chicken wire so they can't escape!  Luckily, Craig has some time off this week so he can do just that...finish the run and turn the coop into a chicken palace!

 Of course, the lawnmower and various pieces of crap will be removed!

Basically, the run attaches to the coop and allows them to have dust baths and eat bugs in our yard while being safe from Ollie and cars that ridiculously speed down our street!

 I'd love for them to be able to run around our yard freely, but I'm too worried they might jump the fence and end up in the hood (more than they already will be).  Let's just say our particular end of the street isn't bad..but a couple of strides down the block will surely be the end of them....

So my plan this week is to get the following for our new family members:

• Bedding for the coop
• Chicken feed!
• Food container
• Water container
• scraps from work like melon rinds and other safe food for them!

I can't thank Wendy enough for taking the time to go inspect the chickens, make sure they are all healthy, transport them to her home for a few days and take care of them for me.  It's really refreshing to see how kind people can be to complete strangers.  It makes me realize that others out there are just as excited to enjoy these things in life...simple things like owning your own chickens......Because of her, I know I now have someone to turn to for questions that I'm sure I'll have along the way. 

So...my next post will hopefully show the completed Chicken Head Farm Hen Palace and may even have some hens in it enjoying their new home....

Nighty nite all....

Accidental Gardening.....

Some things in life are so cool..its hard to describe in this little box....I have this thing for gourds.  Not just one kind, but all kinds of gourds.  Fall is definitely my favorite season by far. The smell of the air changes to this crisp smack in the face...the sound of the earth beneath my shoes is definitely more crisp as well...and then there's the pumpkins and gourds I'll buy at the local farm. 

Every year I say..."I'm going to grow my own gourds and pumpkins and decorate my house Martha style"...Well, lets just say, Martha is not knocking down my door to do an interview....

I did plant a gourd plant this year in one of my many large pots that my Mom gave us (thanks Mom!) and ONE gourd has grown...pathetic.

Last year I bought one of the Swan Gourds, obvious description: looks like a swans neck...I had this grand idea of how I was going to let it dry and then hollow it out for a bird to live in...right.  Well, I did let it dry and Craig did hollow it out but nothing lives in it...except maybe a spider or two but it looks cool hanging from our deck and lets face it, thats all that matters sometimes.

Ok,the point to this story. We've had this vine growing near our back porch, near the strawberries and other random good things we've grown in a small spot off our back deck.  First, we thought it was another random pumpkin growing like last year. It has the same flowers and large vine like a pumpkin so at first that's what we were expecting to surprise us.  But no...guess what it is!!!! Its a swan gourd plant!! Sweet baby Jesus, I'm growing my own HUGE swan gourd supply....

Swan Gourds

This has totally taken over the huge cast iron lantern thats sitting on a stump that Craig refused to throw away and of course it looks cool now..so much for being right all the time.

The baby gourds will hopefully bring me more Martha approved props to dry out this year again and core out the circle for a bird to live in..and once again toss the seeds over the side of the deck and not think twice about what our little garden will bring us next year.

Have you ever created an "accidental" garden??

Things I love.....

So as I've been reading up on how to become more self reliant and teach myself how to have my little back yard farm, I've come across a few blogs and websites I love!

•  http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/site that has tips, recipes, photography, design and a ton more!
• http://www.homegrownevolution.com/ amazingly educating
• http://www.fourgreenacres.com/ love it!
• http://www.thetanglednest.com/ one of my favorites....
• http://www.backyardchickens.com/
• http://www.poorgirlgourmet.com/

I'm sure I can find a few more blogs I'm obsessed with these days!


I just can't seem to get enough when it comes to reading about what others are doing to better their lives and our world...I used to be the one that made fun of people that made such a big deal about how we live and waste everyday. How we waste and take advantage of what we have on a daily basis. I can see it now..my friends will start to think I've lost my mind and label me one of "those" tree huggers...or as we call a couple of friends of ours "dirty hippies"....


These are some things I'd like to put on our "honey do" list:

• Rain Barrel system, first we need gutters!
• Build out 3 system compost bins out of the pallets we can get from work
• Expand our existing garden (we're doing this very soon!!)
• Buy a chest freezer...so we can start freezing what we can't eat!
• Start buying local fresh chicken, pork and beef to put in the above noted freezer!

I recently bought a sign that hangs in our kitchen that says "Simplify your Life"....its very simple, but to the point and it stares at you when you enter our house......That's my goal, is to simplify our lives and enjoy this change that I seem to be going through....

My happiness in life is evolving to things like: my new clothesline that my husband put up for me...the smell of the clothes off the line is so yummy and the feeling I get of not using our dryer is like how I used to feel when I bought new shoes!!

My new clothes line!

Remember...Simplify your Life....take a tiny step and go through a drawer or cabinet a day and get rid of what you haven't used in the last 6 months....More to come!

And so it begins...

I've recently had an epiphany...I'm changing from a woman who valued material things like expensive handbags, labels that I couldn't afford, to someone who is appalled by such things. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy looking at a gorgeous Kate Spade bag from a distance, but own anymore of them....I don't think so.

When did this change happen? I'd say the timing was around my recent July vacation to a camp that I've gone to since I was a child. Every year myself, my 3 boys and my husband (married since February 2010!) go to this wonderful escape we call camp on Hot Brook Lake, Danforth Maine.

It's about 5 hours away from us and we spent a glorious 7 days filled with fishing, drinking, reading, napping, eating and playing plenty of UNO at night....During this time I began to realize as I watched the locals enjoy the "bare" minimum they lived off that hey, maybe I can downsize some of my crap I have at home and learn to be less materialistic and more comfortable with "less".

During this vacation, we had the chance to go visit my mom and step dad at their new farm house in Maine. They recently bought the house, old farm and the 80 acres to begin their retirement years together. At first I was like "why would anyone want to live out in the middle of no where"..but I quickly realized that (a) its not in the middle of no where and (b) ITS AMAZING!

They have acres of raspberry bushes, enough garden space to have multiple gardens if they choose, an old chicken coop and outdoor run that could hold 20 chickens and a house that screams "Martha Stewart Approved!"

Sitting on their front porch I started to see my husbands point of view about living on less and living in a country setting. For years I've always said I wanted to end up living in NYC and enjoying the culture, food, entertainment and hustle and bustle it brings to its many. But now, I've completely changed my outlook and the thought of living in the city makes me sweat!

The next visit we made that added to my revelation was to my dad and my step moms amazing farm also way up in Maine. They live on approximately 23 acres, have a large barn, garage with an apartment over it (which they lived in for 6 months while building their house!) house with plenty of guest rooms and a huge wrap around deck facing the mountains....

They also have Black Angus beef critters they raise and sell.....oh and did I mention the HUGE garden they have and root cellar with all of their home canned goodies! I'm not talking a small root cellar, I'm talking "the end of the world" root cellar. The kind of stow away that can hold a seasons bounty, some great wine and then some. Plus, they have their own grow room for seedlings to jump start their garden early.

All of this combined made me come home after these 2 trips to realize a couple of things:

1. I want to have backyard chickens, 4 would be good....

2. I want our existing garden to be much larger, even get rid of half of our lawn if needed..who needs grass!

3. Hang my clothes out on a line..the old school kind that goes from my house to the big tree in our yard...(Done!)

4. Learn to can vegetables, pickles, jams & jellies! (taking a class this week!)

5. Make my life more simplified..as well as getting my 3 sons and husband on board.

6. Make and sell handmade soaps (learned through my stepmom Linda!)

7. Be happy with less!

I'm very excited to start this journey and am reading everything I can get my hands on as well as online postings and blogs.

Chicken Coop pics will be posted soon! Chickens will hopefully come to live with us mid September!