Mommy Grow It

Come on over!

2011-03-11T15:17:00.002-05:00

It's really happening!
We're moving in 7 short weeks (very very bittersweet!) to the family farm.
From now on I'll be blogging Mommy Grow It style over on the farm blog. I plan to post about what is going on at the farm as well as tips on urban homesteading and not-so-urban homesteading.

Go check out the website - comments welcome!
And literally - if you're in Northern Vermont, we'd love to have you come by the farm for a visit!

Current To do list

2011-01-29T07:28:00.005-05:00

~~Find bees~~ - picking up April 30th
Decide on Turkey breeds and order
~~Order chicks~~ - 76 ordered (Murray McMurray)- 50 meat birds, 26 egg layers, arriving the week of May 2nd
~~Order seeds~~ - done (Fedco Seeds) and arrived
start seedlings as appropriate in Feb and prep the seedling trays for the rest
Order tubers
Find pigs
Get approximately 10 RI Whites (chicks) from person in Wrentham right before move
Firm up farm logo design
finish website

dreaming of seeds

2011-01-04T20:20:00.002-05:00

The blog has laid dormant but is having an early spring awakening! We're spending hours looking through various seed catalogs to decide on vegetables, herbs, and cut flowers.

I think the majority of seeds we'll get from Fedco with Johnny's and Seed Savers filling in any gaps. Hoping to get the order in by early next week - maybe even by this weekend!
What seed supplier do you use? Any "must have" plants tolerant up (or should I say "down"? Guess it depends if you're looking at a map or thinking of temperature) to zone 4 or even 3?

ps still up in the air where we will live exactly. I presume we'll pull up in the spring and be told where to rest our head that night ;)

a book tower

2011-01-04T20:19:00.006-05:00

We have collected a number of farming related books and more are always coming. We're a little addicted!
Here's a review roundup of the ones we have. This is a small portion of the books we've read - most we get from the library. If we love then we buy.

The first four books are bee related. They were given to us from Grampy Gillis's collection and I admit, I have not yet read these. Here's why: we're moving in two months (eek!) and right now we have an excellent interlibrary state-wide loan system at our disposal.
When we move to Vermont, I hear, the interlibrary loan situation is less than excellent. So I'm frantically reading every book I can get my hands on in the RI system. That reminds me, who requested The Profitable Hobby Farm? Just asking. When you borrow books from the library you get them for three weeks. This is usually more than sufficient. Except ... when you are also borrowing seven other books, transforming two rooms in your house-to-be, getting seeds started, going to conferences... and if someone has requested the book you're borrowing you can not renew it - that's fair, but means I need to get that book READ. It's due March 3.

Carrots Love Tomatoes - This is a go-to book for us. We use it mostly as a reference but I often find myself sucked in because ... well it's interesting what plants like to be near each other and equally interesting is the plants not to plant together. Here's a great online list of companion plants. (I LOVE Mother Earth News!)

Square Foot Gardening - This is another book I've dabbled in but haven't read from start to finish. My good friend Kate recommended this book last year after she discovered it and started square foot gardening. I know another friend has also does square foot gardening with great success. I don't know if this is practical on a larger scale - mostly because as far as I can tell, it seems like the built boxes are necessary? This is very costly and I'm assuming the wood boxes wouldn't last long with the abuse it would have to put up with in the garden. Note: this is all said without reading the book in full.

blue egg : cracked

2010-11-06T12:21:00.002-04:00

We got our first blue egg!!!
Ark Boy found it...

... and cracked it :(
That wouldn't have been so bad except he's so well practiced in the ways of green (like insisting that when he pees in any toilet - even public ones - that we don't flush!) that he promptly brought the egg to the compost.
Ren Man was sad. This cracked egg was still edible.
Oh well.
More have since come.
We think only one of the aracauna's are laying so far.

We started keeping track of how many eggs we were getting since the middle of October.
We're up to 50.
And it hasn't been too many!
We gave 1/2 a dozen to a neighbor who we've only given one 1/2 dozen to before.
We definitely haven't given away as many as we'd hoped - not for lack of wanting, for lack of production.
And now Ren Man wants a dozen and some bourbon to do some aged eggnog for a holiday party...

Red Cabbage

2010-11-06T12:18:00.001-04:00

How beautiful is this?

Only two more CSA pickups this year. This cabbage we got a couple of weeks ago. I cut into it and chose to cook it only really because I wanted to see the inside! I made cabbage soup and it wasn't bad.
Please please please! What other delicious cabbage recipes are there?!? Tell me!

"baby" chickens

2010-10-19T14:40:00.001-04:00

I recently posted on facebook that our baby chickens have started laying (and followed that up with pictures).
Someone recently said: "wow! I saw your fb status - I didn't know baby chickens lay eggs!"
Hmmm.... well, baby chickens don't lay eggs - our baby chickens have started laying ... meaning the youngest addtions to our flock.
No, they aren't chicks any more.
They've been busy growing all summer.
We brought them in to Ark Boy's preschool class when they were new-ish last spring and then we recently brought 2 back in to show the class how much they've grown. I didn't realize how big they had become until then.

This is one of the original birds - Dixie - and the top of the pecking order.

The other original bird, Lulu - she's our lazy layer and I think we should cull her but surprisingly Ren Man is not on board with culling her.

And the not-so-baby babies:
This is Dippy or O'Rien - we have two easter eggers that are identical so we can't tell them apart... we also didn't try very hard to make sure we distinguished them from chicks. They looked like chipmunks when they were chicks :)

And there's all four "babies" with Luna in the front, Soleil behind her, and the Dippy/O'Rien, and furthest back another Dippy/O'Rien.

Having chickens is the best! I can't wait to have a huge flock next year!
In the meantime Ren Man suspects Luna was the small egg layer and she is now molting so the egg production will slow down for the winter. I hear though that Orpingtons (Soleil) lay just as frequently in winter. We'll see...

Option C

2010-10-11T09:50:00.003-04:00

Option C was discovered when we realized that the farm house will be ours at some point in the future AND my inlaws have always assumed they would build a house one day.
So option C became: we will live with my inlaws while they build a house and then continue to live in that house until the farmhouse becomes available.
I'm excited about cohousing as I feel that bringing the child rearing village in closer proximity can only be a good thing. My inlaws have been very accomodating as we have difficult conversations (can we move the silverware? Who gets what bedroom? What about when my sister in law is home from college over the summer? etc.) about logistics.
And I'm disapointed to not get to use the knowledge we've gathered while intensely researching house building.
But I was disapointed when we thought we weren't going to get the farmhouse and would have to build instead.
So now we're back to our original plan (before there was a plan A or B or even C) and that's exciting.
We're both so ready to GO but know there are several compelling reasons to wait until spring. We're excited as we reconnect with old friends who are in the same area we will be in starting complementary ventures. For now we're focusing on the day-to-day and in any spare moments (not many this time of year!) we're dreaming, planning, researching ... everything farm.

pantry

2010-10-07T19:02:00.002-04:00

Our "baby" chickens have started laying. At least one of them has. I would guess Soleil (our buff orpington) because A)the eggs are typical in color (so that rules out the americanas) and B) she's the biggest of the babies. Here's an egg comparison: the smallest is the baby egg, the roundest is Dixie's (the Rhode Island White) and the longest is Lulu's (the Rhode Island Red).

And half of our apple stash from Vaillancourt Orchard in North West Vermont. These have since been turned into delicious apple butter. Yum!

I said we've been getting into canning. Below is our current stash of canned yumminess. These are the jams - plum made at home, plum/peach made with a friend, and peach made with said friend.

And then most of below is courtesy of Ren Man (because I have to share the fun some). He's done beets and most of the tomatos shown below.

I have been talked out of canning more tomatoes. I missed them so much last year and don't want to go without again this winter! Ren Man pointed out that his mom canned sooooo many tomatoes this year that there is PLENTY. But that means canning is done which is disapointing.

Jamboree!

2010-10-07T18:57:00.003-04:00

Oh my!
It's been a while - huh? And I still need to talk about Plan C.
Exciting things are happening this harvest season. We're canning for the first time!
It started with jam. Plum jam which lead to a jam-making-day with a friend making plum jam, peach jam, and peach/plum jam.
But here's the plum jamboree at home:

All those plums! From Hill Orchard. What to do with a million plums. A friend that we met at the orchard mentioned jam and that was all it took. I thought maybe we could dry some too if we needed to - and then Ren Man reminded me that that would be prunes and I'm not a prune type of person. There were very few left over plums and we gave those to my mom who is all about wine-making. So plum wine is in our future.

Washing all those plums. The recipe didn't say to skin the plums so we kept them in tact despite my skepticism. I later learned that the skin has pectin in it.

taking out the pits - I saved a lot of them in the refrigerator. There's a way to use them to grow your own fruit trees that involves refrigeration. I need to research that again to see what the next step is. I think they have to be refrigerated for a couple months first?

And then the plums are cooked until they reach a hot high temp and they need periodic stirring while they cook. No problem thanks to Ark Boy.

mmmm! The smell of hot sticky plum yumminess.

all the sterilized jars laid out ready to be filled

and now they are filled.

Yes, Christmas gifts we're thinking - although it will be hard to part with any of the deliciousness. I'm not a jam person AT ALL - but when Ledge Ends gave jam as a end-of-csa-gift ... I was hooked to homemade jam!

I bought The Busy Person's Guide to Preserving last year and have used it for jamming, tomato-ing, beet-ing, etc. It's awesome!
I'm sad because the canning season is almost done. Just a batch of apple butter is on the agenda. I'm excited about next year though! We'll have a tremendous garden and so canning will be necessary. Plus, our goal next year is to minimall buy anything from off our farm. Lofty, lofty goal. Doable though.

teeny tiny micro mini

2010-09-01T14:43:00.003-04:00

We're building right? (Not really, an Option C was discovered (options A and B)but let's pretend that we're still planning to build for the sake of this post and I'll update at a later date what Option C is - the current plan.)
I stumbled across Tiny House Blog which lead to Tumbleweed houses and ideas started flowing.
At first I was convinced we could live in a house less than 100 square feet. The secret?
The loft!

Eureka!
The kids could share the loft and we could....well, we can add a bedroom onto that little house. So maybe we could do it for 150 square feet. It's doable, right? Right?

Okay... so three rooms would really be better.
What about less than 1,000 square feet... Say 800-900 square feet?

I'm in love with the cuteness, the eco-friendliness (really? do we need 2000+ square feet? No, no we do not!), the potential for expansion if necessary, AND we know it's short term. Yes, short term could mean 10 years but as I said, there's room for expansion if needed but also a great challenge to live within a smaller space. Besides, as it is now, the kids are always in the room, preferably on top of us literally (their preference, not ours) so why would we need more than ~~one~~ 5 rooms?

reality check

2010-08-27T09:10:00.004-04:00

Many people are curious about our thoughts on buying vs. building after I posted asking for opinions on facebook. While we were in Vermont (seriously need to upload garden-in-process pics!) we got sucked into thinking about buying again. The housing prices are low low and mortgage rates are also low low. If we were ever going to buy now seems like a sensible time to do so. This would also give us space from the farm and some in-town presence for potential farm store in the future.
It also came out that we will likely be the family moving in to the farm house at some point in the future... we just don't know at what point. So we need something temporarily.
So buy? 200k.
rent? 1k/mos
build? 100k
trailer to replace trailer that is falling apart? 20-70k

Buy
... We can't afford 200k, we can't. And what if we couldn't sell it? And we're really home bodies so if we had a house off the farm we'd slowly move our projects to our house which we don't want to do.

rent
... we could do this but this has the same issues of having the off-farm house that buying does. Plus, rent at 1k/mos means in less than two years we'd have paid off a trailer. If we knew it was a 6mos wait until the farm house was available, sure. But it could be 2 days, it could be 10 years.

build
...hmmm, maybe we can't even afford 100k especially because we'd like to get a cheese make room up and running as well as a cheese cave. That should take precedence. And part of the build included a photo studio... do we really need that? Should we consider that in another building at a later date if we're missing it? And the 100k house also included space for future fostering of children. But we don't have those children now and if we can't afford a room for them maybe wait until we can add on or until we're in the farm house?

trailer
... I've been very anti this from the beginning. Would you invite someone over to your trailer for dinner? No? I don't really want to either. But we could do it... 10 years would blow but it could be doable.

So we look at trailers... well it looks like:
~~option a) 1977 model~~
~~option b) 50k-75k~~
If we could find a trailer that falls into an option c then trailers will be discussed again, I'm sure.

hmmm- couldn't we make a house for less than 50k?
Okay so maybe not a 2k square foot house but do we need that much space?
We're constantly in the same room - all of us. I'm sure that will change as the kids age but as they age we anticipate having money to expand small house and/or have the farm house. Plus we're anticipating being outside a. l.o.t! Farming=outside. How much space do we need to eat and sleep? And if a small house gets cramped -all the more reason to go outside to work, play and maybe even eat and sleep.

So I think that's what we'll do... same building materials, probably not octagon, much smaller (like half the size or less).

ps we have considered a yurt and it's not totally off the table but it's definitely near the edge.

ICF

2010-07-28T09:10:00.004-04:00

When I discussed shape choice I mentioned (again) that we're going to use ICF.

ICF stands for insulated concrete forms. The forms are made of two pieces of insulation connected by webbing. The two pieces of insulation remain in place after the pour (of concrete) to act as insulation for the structure.

When we first considered building and we were thinking seriously about a dome home we thought building an ICF basement and placing the dome on top made sense (I was insisting that a full basement is necessary in New England). We then started thinking about doing ICF for the whole structure. We briefly debated using SIPS but ICF are not as heavy to manipulate (in fact our children enjoyed pushing a form around the house that we were given as sample from AMVIC, the VT ICF company we are working with). This increases the aspects of the job we can complete ourselves - something that is very important to us.
ICF seems more "green" - AMVIC is a small local company shipping in very lightweight product, 2/3 of the concrete material is coming from VT or nearby Canada, and the resulting structure will be very very well insulated.

Tomatos! and detour explanation

2010-07-25T10:05:00.003-04:00

They are finally coming in! I've missed tomatos so much!! The plan was to have enough ripen at once to make tomato paste.
The tomato plans didn't receive that memo so they are staggering their ripening. Maybe we'll dry some. There's a bunch more green ones on the vines - maybe enough will be red at once to make a paste? We just know from experience that it takes A LOT to make A LITTLE of any tomato product.

Detour
Ren Man started the detour/distraction. He was looking up something (can't remember what) on craigslist in Vermont and came across an almost 2k sf home with a huge carriage barn for under 100k. This got us thinking... maybe it would be better to have a house that needed fixing up so we could do that and focus on the farm instead of building a new house and fitting the farm in to that.
So we looked. There were five homes were were very interested in.
After much discussion though (and fantasizing) we decided that being on the farm, building a house to our own specifications, and replacing the trailer that is currently on the building site made more sense.
It came down to this:
we could own a house and at least one of us work full time off the farm
OR
we could work on the farm and build our house with less expense to us (so more time to devote to family and farm)
While owning had it's appeals (that I won't detail because then it gets me thinking about it again!) I was having a very hard time imagining being off the farm and commuting (arguably minimally) 2miles to the farm.
So that was the detour.

All about shape

2010-07-19T09:50:00.004-04:00

Originally we were looking in to a dome kit. We read that round homes use 30%fewer materials. The price of building may end up similar to a conventionally shaped house because a round house is less familiar to builders/contractors/etc. We felt this made sense even if it didn't save us cash it saved using resources. We also learned that the more round the structure the more efficient heating/cooling is due to the structure's airflow.
We were debating between Timberline and Natural Spaces. Both options had their appeal.
We stumbled across icf (more on that in a future post, promise!) and decided that building the house completely out of ICF made sense for us for several reasons.
ICF comes with 90degree or 45degree corners. The 45degree lends itself to a octagonal shape. When comparing efficiency and material use with a circular house vs. octagonal the difference is minimal.
So after spending hours of designing a floor plan the second floor was still giving us trouble. Our aim was to incorporate passive solar strategies. One of the elements of passive solar is an east-west orienation with a long side of a presumably rectangular house facing the south and north. We wondered if we could elongate our octagon making the central area smaller and space on exterior walls (ie more windows) more available... but that would lessen even more the benefits we were seeking through building a round-turned-octagon-shaped-house.
Back to the octagon with an emphasis on the second floor design before figuring out the first floor while recognizing that it's all interconnected so you can't design one floor without considering the others.
So new floor plan that we're feeling confident with... but feedback is very appreciated. This whole house design thing is a lot of pressure. We don't want regrets!

The trailer is on a 14'wide slab and sticks out about where the random bathtub is... I really want the screened in area (which is probably going to be more a screened in patio) to be on the north side of the house because I envision us escaping out there during the summer and the north side would be cooler. The slab is in perfect position to be the outdoor patio... but in an awkward spot floor design/driveway-wise... I'm sure there will be an updated first floor (at least) plan at some point because of the sill slab factor. I asked if we could move it to where we want the patio (unfortunately not on the north side, but better floor plan-wise) but Ren Man doesn't know if we'd be able to level the ground enough to put it in place rather than pouring new cement/using slate.

chicks? What chicks?

2010-07-16T21:33:00.002-04:00

We're taking a house-plan detour... more details to come...
In the meantime here are our chickens!!

The above chicken is actually one of the original flock. She's welcomed the chicks with little to no trouble so that's why she's photographed because she was up with them, curious about what the excitement was about.

The "Babies" have gotten more friendly now that they've realized food is included when the run to us :) The "Big Girls" always come running!

Garden update on the home front

2010-07-16T20:56:00.002-04:00

Our current garden in suburbia (at least I think we live in suburbs) is bearing fruit. Beans and cucumbers have taken off like crazy and tomatoes are on their way!
We're also part of a CSA again this year. We went with a different farm this year which I regret, but it is what it is.
We have beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, radishes, squash, basil, sage, and nasturtiums. We tried to do a shade loving wild flower area again but it's mostly grass. Ren Man says teaches him for buying cheap seed. Oh well. Means less work to convert it back to front yard when we move.

1st floor House Plan

2010-07-16T07:40:00.003-04:00

I can't believe I haven't posted since we were in Vermont back in early June!!
We've spent every possible moment hammering out house plans. I've recently started pouring over blogs of those who have gone before us (200khouse, building green in vermont, Robert Swinburne... and open to more suggestions! Reading these blogs (and not finding more!) has inspired me to update and share our progress more regularly.
I'm finding lots of great ideas and inspirations and questions that I wasn't even considering (countertop, flooring, windows, bath/shower options, etc.).
So many decisions to make! The shape is a challenge but is so compelling because of the decrease in material use needed for the same square footage in a square house. We're also worried (more for the second floor) that we'll need more space. We've designed a 2k square foot house - not including a finished basement. Crazy to think this isn't big enough. So we'll keep tweaking the second floor.
For now, here's the first floor as we see it now. Anything we're not thinking of? Anything not clear?

We're using this really great free program called sketchup by google to draw out our designs.
I'll go in to details about flooring and countertops in another post, as well as details about the masonary oven and why we chose it. There was a comment on the previous entry asking about icf and why we're going with that option... so that's another upcoming post.
Keep asking questions! We have a little less than a year and we're feeling like there are a lot of layers to this project and we don't want to miss something (like, if you put a door there you'll block access to this hallway... or whatever).

Vermont house site

2010-05-31T18:50:00.002-04:00

We went up the road to take pictures of our future house building site.
It's good to get the site more clear in our heads. I'm a little sad that there is little to no backyard to speak of but when all the land you can see in these pictures is part of the farm... who needs a backyard?

This is the view from the road.

We're planning on using icf to build the whole house. We'll dig in to the hill to bury half of the basement and have half exposed. The two additional floors. The basement floor will be half studio, 1/4 utilities, and 1/4 guest room... at least that's the plan now. We spoke with the building permit granters and were informed that no architect approved plans are needed. That's nice. But the bank may not feel the same. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

We bought 11 fruit trees yesterday to put along the border of the front yard (that butts up to pasture). We brought 2 apples and 1 pear home. The rest we'll get in mid-August... the rest include 1apple, 2 pears, 1 cherry, and 3 plums.
Dreaming about spring pictures among the fruit blossoms, summer pictures in whatever hayfield needs mowing, fall pictures in a shaded grove behind the house that will be full of fall colors, and winter pictures along rustic fence lines. The ideas for awesome locations right on the farm... never mind the quaint store fronts in town... keep coming. And that's only talking about photography... saying nothing of the big farming plans!

We spoke with Ren Man's parents and presented a tentative 5 year plan. We made accommodations before presenting the plan to make the plan most palatable to Ren Man's dad - current farmer extraordinaire. We held off on lessening the herd size or changing up the breed until year three. We know there are several things to do before we really need to change the herd. His dad's response: why wait for three years?!?!
Very exciting!

Confusing to think that we aren't starting now when I feel we're chomping at the bit! This slow and steady pace will be beneficial, I'm sure. For now our brains are full of plans and we're thankful to at least have some things we can do this year (namely, plant the fruit trees).

chicken-not-so-little

2010-05-22T19:48:00.001-04:00

The babies are out in the run.
Dixie does not approve so Dixie does not go in the run with them... much.
Lulu doesn't care either way.
So the babies have an area of the coop fenced off for them and then are only in the run with the big girls with supervision.
For the most part they have seperate visiting rights to the run.

Sometimes when we know we'll be out for a couple hours the big girls run loose in the lower yard.
Unfortunately they seem intent on scratching in the recently seeded half of the lower yard.
Ark Boy got lots of practicing catching and carrying the big girls back to the established grassy side of the yard.

Can't decide if I'm more proud of the budding chicken keeper or the patient chicken.

Chick Fuzz

2010-05-13T17:30:00.003-04:00

The chicks are growing!
And this was from last weekend - woo! - you should see them now!!

They are so funny with their half-feathered look. I can't wait to get them outside with the big chickens!

Ark Boy still loves Luna!

Ren Man set up a perch for the birds and so far all four can fit up there - sometimes they don't let one up... they are figuring out their pecking order. It's not always the same bird so I don't think they have it figured out yet.

And in case you think I have forgotten about the "big" girls - here's Dixie and Lulu- they're walking in step - so funny. I'm so curious about their reaction to the youngers.

Early Garden Happenings

2010-05-08T16:52:00.002-04:00

It got warmer.
I put the peer pressure on.
Ren Man resists as long as possible reasoning that another cold front could happen before it's REALLY time to plant.
I reason warmer weather.
He finally relents and plants.

Two raised beds - yes, in the front yard.
What's the point of all that grass when we could grow produce?!?!
Oh, and the "trellis"?
That's from our boxspring that we took apart.
I have mixed feelings about this: pride (we were resourceful) and mortified (we have a box spring piece in our front yard).

And here's where the rush wasn't a great idea.
We (meaning Ren Man) transplanted basil and tomatos here and then covered them with hay to keep them a little more toasty.
And then last night.... it got c-o-l-d!
When I glanced out the front window this morning I was shocked to see a small baby quilt thrown over these plants! Then I realized they needed the extra coverage last night!

These guys were brought in last night too -
don't need any tomatos to suffer in the cold!

Yep! Yummy produce already! It's fun to see how far we can stretch the growing season using cold-loving plants.

Getting Cozy with the chicks- edit

2010-05-04T22:13:00.001-04:00

Just introducing our "get social" protocol for new chicks

I'm so impressed with both kids. Ark Boy is happy to hold the chicks (and the chicks are thankfully quick to cheep when they are being held a little too tight) and Farm Girl is a little nervous about holding them, but also gentle when she works up the nerve.

Adding to the flock

2010-04-27T18:22:00.001-04:00

We were hmming and haaing about getting more chicks.
We debated processing the two remaining chickens in the fall or possibly giving them to a willing friend.
Ren Man doesn't want to bring them with us next year.
Thinking about it more I thought it might make sense to keep the flock we have so it's one less thing on the to-do list immediately after (during?) the move, considering the house building project and all.
So that's the plan, or so I thought.
Ren Man started making noises today about ordering chicks next year.
Either way- I tracked down some Ameraucana from craigslist.
I wanted these so so bad because they lay green/blue eggs.
Ren Man wanted buff orpingtons (docile and he thinks their pretty - I don't).
The person we got them from also had some barred rocks which we both like.
So in the end:

One orp, one barred, and two ameraucanas.
These are sexed, last year we did 6 straight runs and ended up with thee roos so we're excited to know that we have three hens.

Their names are Luna, Soleil, Dippy, and O'Rien.
I realize next year we will not be able to name the new additions because I assume we'll get at least 25 and that's just too many names to keep straight!
Sad, but true.

This is Luna, the barred.

It's a fun tradition, it seems, that started last year. Right before Ark Boy's birthday, May 5, we get chicks. We (I?) plan to hang out with these ones as much as we hung with the chicks last year because our flock of two are very tame and so social. I like to take credit for that.

Moving on

2010-04-24T08:18:00.001-04:00

We're busy busy doing our urban farm thing but it's not enough.
We've been dreaming of working Ren Man's family farm the more we've learned about alternative farming practices.
We have plans that we've been cooking up since before we moved to Providence.
And really
my fantasy since childhood has been to own a farm, have a horse to ride around the farm with a faithful dog following behind.

So we do things here, in our suburban life.
We have a garden in our front yard.
We have chickens (and I've had to be talked out of getting goats or even a pig on more than one occasion).
We have a csa, we buy our milk from a farmer, we do what we can.
And now, finally, we're in a place where we're making plans for the final move back to the farm.

It's exciting.
We're thinking that we'll build a geodome and start with things that aren't directly related to the dairy side of things.
We have a house to build, after all.
And we're planning on gardening and having chickens that first summer too.
That first summer happens to be next summer.

And I want to have everything that is possible to do before breaking ground done.
I want seeds ordered
chicken coop made
run made (to size appropriate for garden beds so chickens can ready the beds)
building permits done
excavation arranged
store of indoor paint
The first set of fruit trees purchased and planted

and several other things, I'm sure, that I don't even know need to be done.
So that's the plan for moving on.

This blog was started to document the transition from urban to rural farming and I was discouraged because it wasn't happening. It was hard to write in the winter - what do you write about?
But seedlings are started both literally and figuratively and any feedback on plans from those who have gone before is appreciated!

Our first CSA pick-up

2009-06-18T13:22:00.001-04:00

Mmm, mmm, mmm.

I'm thinking/hoping we won't have to buy any additional produce this summer. It means we will definitely be eating in season and local. Exciting. Challenging. Yummy.

poor homeless chickens

2009-06-17T11:51:00.001-04:00

They've taken to hiding in the potato plants.
They need a home.

It's getting closer and closer to finish every day.

Before the chicks (ahem) chickens have even experienced their new digs the children have taken over the house!

Where Farm Girl is peaking her head out is where there are now nest boxes.
Soon, chickens... soon!
I just suggested that Ren Man make flower boxes to put under the windows...
he laughed at me!
It might be a next summer project... for me.

the coop beginnings

2009-06-10T09:04:00.001-04:00

We've been working on the coop every spare minute.
A couple nights ago dh went to check on the chicks before bed and this is what he saw...

Two of the four of them were up on a hot water pipe (wrapped in pipe insulation) with their heads brushing the ceiling.... so they flew up to roost and they flew up high! So dh put chicken wire over the top of the brooder and we continue to work on the coop as fast as possible.

... and then there were four

2009-06-07T21:33:00.001-04:00

In the typical style of this blog... I'm a couple weeks later than I should be but...
We had 3 roosters.
We knew it.
They knew it.
It was only a matter of time.
One of the roosters is the expected: Squawk who was joined in rooster-dom by Domino and Sharp.
We really really like Domino.
He's one of the most tame of the chicks we have.
So we decided to keep him as long as possible and craigslist the other two.
Thus: goodbye Squawk and Picky.

Stay tuned for coop-in-progress pics and maybe some pictures that shows how crazy-bad we need the coop to be DONE.

chicken run

2009-06-01T14:37:00.001-04:00

Once again, this entry is waaay overdue.
We have a run!

Noah is a fan, Del is not.

Now that the birds are almost completely feathered out they spend most of any warm day outside. It's so nice to be able to let them out for so long without having to sit with them to be sure nothing comes to hurt them or they don't wander off.

We have since given away two of the chicks... but that's another entry.

We've been busy!

2009-05-18T13:34:00.000-04:00

The warmer weather is making us so crazy ready to move back to the farm.
But we wait and console ourselves by doing valuable research while Ren Man finishes his PhD.
I keep tormenting him by telling him that it will take at least 3 years (and I really think it will); he's insisting 2... maybe even 1.5 (he only says that when he's really desperate to prove that he can do it quickly- I think it's impossible for him to finish in 1.5, I'll be surprised if it only takes 2 years...)
Ren Man has re-seeded the backyard (while I'm at work and he can't work on his school work)...

...and he's planted our seed potatos that we got at this fabulous farm called, White Barn Farm in Wrentham, MA. They are all organic heirloom potatos so I'm really excited about them- we even got a variety that is blue!

And the chickens... that's what you really wanted to see, right?
We think Squawk is a rooster.... s/he has been the loudest (thus the name) from the start and now s/he has the largest comb going on. Time will tell. We debated (ahem) culling it now but we assume there will be others too.

Here is Picky. S/he is feathering out the fastest. We were worried that we wouldn't be able to tell Picky and Lulu apart (the two reds) once they had feathers. As chicks Lulu is lighter... as they feather it seems that Lulu's feathers will be lighter.

Once again these pictures are about a week overdue. Picky has started getting feathers on her/his head! S/he is by far the fastest feather-er.
We've been researching chickens obsessively. I think if any of ours go broody (not that likely) I'd like to order some "Easter Eggers"- they produce blue to green eggs. If that doesn't happen this year we plan to add one or more Easter Eggers and Silver Laced Wyandotte. I told you we're chicken researching like crazy!

chick update

2009-05-11T20:17:00.000-04:00

This is overdue
for sure.
They've grown so much in the week since I took these pictures!
I'll try to get some more (and the other plant-related things we're growing) photographed in the next few days.
You'll be surprised at how much the chicks have changed- especially Picky.
Oh- and Dawn/Don has had a name change- Noah renamed the chick "Sharp" because it's nails are sharp.

Picky in front, Lulu behind

Lulu

This is Picky- see the crazy feather growth from a week ago?

Chicks!

2009-05-03T11:03:00.002-04:00

We hope to one day be grass farmers- which I think I've explained in the past. An integral part of that plan is chickens.
While goats etc. are calling our name... we think it would lead to our neighbors in our surburban neighborhood calling us not nice names.
So chicks are our next step in the grass farm journey.
We've had them for a little less than 48 hours.
We're researching like crazy.
We couldn't see how we could do it in our area so were resisting looking into raising chickens as we didn't want to make it too hard to wait on getting them.
Evidently we couldn't wait anyway...
so now we research- with cheeping in the background:)

They all have names already. The one in the pocket above is Dawn (possibly Don- the chicks are not sexed). The other 5 are Domino, Dixie, Picky, Lulu, are Squawk. There are 4 RI Whites and 2 RI Reds. They are currently housed in a box (see above) in our basement. We plan to move them outside in about 4 weeks. We need to start working on a coop!

What's growing?

2009-02-17T17:21:00.000-05:00

At the end of the summer we decided to increase our local consuming and decrease buying in general, but particularly food that wasn't local.
Note: deciding to start this in Sept is not the best course of action.
But we persevered.
Often unsuccessfully.
Knowing citrus is out I was thrilled to discover this little lemon/orange hybrid that can grow in a container.

It recently started blooming!

I also want to try to grow peach trees.

Last night we split open the pits (no easy task- in the end we smashed them with a sledge hammer on the basements concrete floor).
Then they soaked in water overnight.
Here are two cups with 6 seeds between them.

They have to be stored in the refrigerator, apparently, for a couple months before they sprout.
Here's hoping.

It's February!

2009-02-16T11:07:00.000-05:00

Time for the seed catalogs to start coming.... and yes they have in larger quantities than I expected. We have a stash of seeds somewhere but Ren Man has stored them somewhere and I can't find them...

In January we set up the aero garden my dad bought us last March.
Ren Man has read reviews that the lights lose their growing power over time. Obviously we can't comment on that yet. We're growing herbs and this is what we have so far:

We had a February thaw which has been nice.
We were able to get a peak at our strawberry plants that have been burried in snow for the last few months.
(More snow is predicted to arrive this week.

We plan on growing corn behind the strawberries, wild flowers in the other half of our back yard (I've been begging for wild flowers since before we were married), and containers along the driveway. Our south facing side is the driveway, unfortunately, and last year we didn't do so well trying to grow things (like tomatoes) in partial shade. We've also purchased a CSA share from Ledge Ends Farm that we're very excited about.
It's our first time participating in a CSA.
And this is our compost in it's winter state. We've still been adding to it, usually, if we stand it, we try to wait for a milder day to add to the compost.

More is coming...

2008-08-08T19:08:00.001-04:00

We have beans. Ds was not interested in the beans at. all.
at first
I would offer him one
he'd put teeth marks in it
and throw it on the ground.
I'd quickly pick it up
dust off the dirt
and eat it up.
By the third day of doing this
Ds started scarfing down beans
and begging for more.

and cucumbers
I keep thinking we can make pickles
but then the cucumbers get eaten up
and there don't seem to be enough at one time anyway

and eggplant
I think they are so amazing hanging there with their surprising color- but no, they don't grow sideways.
Some lazy (or busy?) person didn't (forgot?) to rotate the picture.

and peppers
Yum!
This year has been tricky because we started the garden late-ish and without a plan. Even so the crop has been very exciting so far.

Fruiting!

2008-07-11T13:04:00.003-04:00

Things are popping up quicker than I can keep up with picture taking. It's very exciting.
Here are the Nastrtums. I continue to be disapointed that they have yet to flower but the leaves are yummy while we wait for the flowers.

The dill is super yummy and going crazy growth wise. Should think of more recipes that include dill. Love it.

Our first 3 tomatos! I'm so excited. This year I want to make our own ketchup as well as the usual canned tomato products. Some cherry tomatos have started too. I love cherry tomatos.

And here is our pleasant surprise. We have 3 very annoying holly trees that we're trying to love in our backyard. The reason we find them annoying is because their leaves hurt SOOO bad when you step on them or even touch them once they've fallen to the grass. We prefer to go shoe-less and the holly leave deter that habit, unfortunately. Behind the three holly trees though is a boisenberry tree! We've never had boisenberry's but so far so good. I'm not sure how much we'll really be able to harvest because the squirrles and birds seem just as excited as we are about the small black fruit. That's okay. We can share.

Lemon Tree and 2009 plans

2008-07-05T17:39:00.002-04:00

I ordered a Meyer Lemon Tree for my container garden. It won't be shipped until the fall though.
The Meyer Lemon isn't actually a lemon- it's a lemon/orange hybrid. Apparently it fruits frequently and the fruit is not as pointy-ended as lemons and has a sweeter taste. I can't wait.
I also recently read an article in Mother Earth News about growing a peach tree from the pit. I plan to attempt to find peach pits when they come in season here.

I'm also organizing my thoughts around what I want to plant next year. I want to focus on herbs. I'm interested primarily in their medicinal uses with their cosmetic and culinary uses being a secondary concern.
I plan to start with Rosemary(stimulates circulation, aids digestion of fat, antiseptic mouth wash), Sage (aids digestion, soothes coughs and colds, treats irregular menstruation and menopause), Thyme (antiseptic, increases white blood cell count), and Chamomile (sedative, eases sun/windburned skin). (All info gathered from The Complete Book of Herbs by Lesley Bremness)

I'd also like to look more into edible flowers. I'm interested in growing a rose but I've heard they're temperamental so maybe I should wait until I feel more confident in my gardening expertise. This year we're growing Nasturtiums and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that they are edible. Dh and I each sampled a leaf (there are no flowers yet, much to my disapointment). The leaves have a wonderful pepper-y taste.

compost

2008-07-03T16:49:00.002-04:00

I've bee doing more research about compost.
It's not supposed to attract flies.
Ours does.
If you have the right mix of kitchen scraps and yard waste there will be no flies.
Or so they say.
So I've been researching how and where to get more yard waste because we don't have enough.
Dh is planning on mowing soon.... but then our landlord came today and mowed... and I see no grass clippings.
On a walk to the library with the kids I saw someone doing yard work and filling those paper bags you put out with the trash.
I wiped the drool from my mouth before asking if he planned on just throwing away his yard "waste"
He said he was but if I wanted it he'd leave it for me at the end of his driveway.
I'm going to go over tonight and get it:)
Hopefully that discourages the flies somewhat.

Getting Started

2008-06-30T10:42:00.006-04:00

Dh has always been into gardening and the more crunchy side of life. I think because he's ummm frugal.
My dad has always been into gardening but as my mom says- he's not very good at sharing projects so I wasn't invited to get dirty in the gardening process at home.
My dad has always called me a hippy.
I always looked at him like he was crazy.
Yeah, I like daisies.
Yeah, recycling makes sense.
Yeah, I prefer country living.
But I didn't really think of myself as a hippy.
Then I had kids.
I still don't think I'm a hippy but I'm definitely crunchy and becoming more ummm frugal.

It started with natural birth, cloth diapers, babywearing, and breastfeeding.
That all exposed me to more natural living practices in general.
I read the Omnivore's Dilemma.
I read Nourishing Traditions.
I read Container Gardening.

We recently moved to a new place that includes some grass.
So dh dug it up.
And now we have a garden.
I've been maintaining it as much as I can as he's recently started a job that demands way too many hours a week.
But my "maintenance" has included the killing of two bean plants while weeding. Oops.
Dh was upset.
So while I'd like to continue to help with our family garden I want a project that's mine.
Maybe I'm too much like my dad....

I think I'll start small.
With a container.
I want to start now.
But July starts tomorrow so maybe this is more plans for next year.
I'll document what I'm learning and what my plans are.... in between caring for an infant and a toddler.
Doing all this to increase our level of self sufficiency.