Beginning of summer means thinking about plans for the winter ahead. What will we put up for food and heat? Wood splitting and piling (Hubby is building a wood shed this summer, so no more ugly tents, hooray!) and pickling and drying and picking in the garden. These long days are busy and wonderful days. I do wish summer could last all year but I think if it was for real I'd burn out fast, no joke!

I was thinking about all the things I've learned this past year about gardening and animal husbandry etc. and wanted to update you and share some tips, so here goes....

Rabbits in the Greenhouse: While it gave them a nice place to cozy up this winter it didn't heat the greenhouse enough to start the plants as early as I want to so Hubby (my engineering guru) is going to make a drum wood stove to heat the greenhouse this coming winter. Rabbits make a huge pee mess all over the greenhouse and the hay they eat and fly everywhere make for seedling trays full of weed seeds...horrible mess to clean this spring! So in conclusion I do not think rabbits belong in my greenhouse. They have nice cozy hutches that they will be in this coming winter, outside!

Vermicomposting: This is working out great to create rich compost for planting. Unfortunately, it also doesn't create enough heat BUT it's coming along great; my worms are munching away happily under cover (so they don't get too hot) and the bin I started them in is almost all decomposed/munched!

Chickens in the Garden: They are wonderful cultivators and bug/pest eaters BUT you must protect baby seedlings, direct sown beds and they love any fruit that is highly colored and will peck and destroy it before you can harvest it. Last year I found that laying chicken wireand hardware cloth on new beds until the plants got big enough to withstand a little hen scratching worked great. Seedling I set out were surrounded with small 6" sticks so the chickens didn't' disturb them either. Once the plants got big enough you didn't even see the sticks anymore and they composted into the soil over the winter (mostly). The chickens did get to the tomatoes a bit (before I surrounded them with chicken wire) so this year the crops I know they like to go after will be protected with a bird netting 'cage' when they start to fruit. This way I can still have the help of the chickens with none of the destruction they can cause in my garden. NOTE: This year my wonderful son in law gave me some plastic fencing and this is so much easier to work with than chicken wire and hardware cloth when covering seed beds!

Dehydrating crops: Cherry Tomatoes, strawberries and large leafed herbs can be dehydrated great with a dehydrator but the herbs take up too much space so this year my greenhouse will be employed as a giant dehydrator. I will be hanging large paper bags full off the herbs in the hot house and running  fan hung from the 'rafter' so that I can save larger batches at a time. Oh! and Onions and Garlic...they say to put them in a dark place to dry and cure...well, the onions I put in the garage tended to rot but the trial ones I laid in the greenhouse dried awesome so I will be putting them in paper bags to dry in the greenhouse as well! Who knows, maybe I will also experiment with some veggie dehydrating....

In conclusion I want to mention using the old chicken tractor as a rabbit tractor has been working great to raise babies in and save on feed costs. Just be careful that a few weeks before you put them out that you gradually start feeding them grasses and greens from the yard so that when you put them out they don't get the runs from pigging out....AND that only babies and Momma are together otherwise Momma will kill any other adult you put in there!

So, don't be afraid to experiment on your little homestead, it's all part of the fun!

Good Morning,

I finally see the light at the end of the tunnel for the crazy train I've been on the past couple months. Gardening chores are coming to a close (except for greenhouse prep), my daughter's wedding is over, my other daughter just about has her car on the road so she won't have to rely on my help getting to her jobs and doctors etc. and after going to Maine for my sisters wedding next week I can finally button up everything outside and find a little more me time.

I hope to get in a bunch of fall hiking, take my kayak out one more time and get in baking and canning and crafting for gifts at Christmas and of course to eat! 

We'll be putting an ad in the Mountain Pennysaver to generate a few more jobs for my daughter. I want the same stability and freedom for her that Chantelle's GREEN Cleaning Service has given me. Her success is mine as well. My other daughter plans to go back to school and if she needs some extra cash I would hire her on as well. So my company will grow! Exciting ....

I'm really looking forward to setting up my greenhouse with Rabbits & Vermicomposting for heat. More to come on this fall/winter project on my mini farm.

So for this week I leave you with a question: What does freedom mean to you? Is it personal, patriotic, both? How can you find more of it? Comments or questions are welcome!

Hard work in the yard with the sun shining and loud angry music playing on my ipod...great cures for frustration...gotta love it. Just being outside with my hands in the dirt is soothing. There are actual studies now telling us about minerals etc. in the soil and how 'playing' in the dirt is good for us. But as a gardener, I've know this all along. So the long and short of it is that my quest for freedom will also make me healthier. Hooray!

Where am I at in my freedom quest? Well lets make a list:

1. Work for myself; check
2. Grow or make my own food; semi check (I've made more strides towards that this year than last and will continue to improve on this as the year closes. I am making plans for my greenhouse w/Rabbits and Vermicomposting as a heat system to help me grow some cool weather crops over the winter and start my veggis earlier in the spring)
3. Make as many other products as I can to reduce my need for corporations like Walmart and to sell and make more money with; still working on that one.

Well, that was just a little check in but today my biggest contribution to my freedom is to take a hiatus from FB; the ultimate spy and time waster of the public. I will be writing here more, working on farming and business strategy etc. and making things to sell or wear or give away or use. I will find time for prayer and church and bible reading to help me with my spiritual freedom from worldly pursuits. I would like to minister to children or the elderly someday so I can research that with my new found time I am bound to have without the FB chain too! So for now I say have an awesome Thursday and I will be chatting soon!

So far those goals have been pretty hard to reach but my freedom have vastly improved. I now work only for myself! No more working the grind for an employer. I have my customers and my farm...such a freeing feeling. Now I will, hopefully, have more time for the homestead. I am researching selling my chicken meat and rabbit meat as well as the eggs and this will generate more income. I am also going to be vermiculturing (growing and selling red wigglers) and growing mushrooms plus researching selling breads, so I hope to have a stall at a few farmers' markets by next year. I am concentrating on catching up, buttoning up and keeping things simple this year. It's been a cold and wet spring so I am getting all the seeds planted this week and next week will be planting the plants I will buy from a local lady. We are setting up the greenhouse with electric and lights etc. so hopefully next year we won't have to buy any garden plants. Now to review those New Year goals, set some second half of the year ones and keep stepping up to FREEDOM.

Happy New Year (almost) 2014

I thought it was high time I write about where I'm at now with my freedom plan. Well, first off...I'm not so good at writing this blog! I will get there to consistency, New Year's Resolution? Maybe but there are so many to choose from. I have made progress though.

In the past year, I did plant a garden and put up a lot of tomatoes, beans, pickles and a few other things but I wouldn't say I could live on what I put up. It DOES make a huge dent in my grocery bill though and that is exciting! I did restock my laying flock for a great supply of eggs and I now have a rooster so I can hatch my own flock right here at home. I did slaughter half of those chicks I ordered and they are at freezer camp. Well, the ones we haven't eaten. I do have on litter of rabbits to slaughter (next weekend I think) and I have one doe that will be culled because she has now failed to produce two times. I may keep one of the babies but I am undecided on the rabbits as they DO effect my allergies and asthma so I'm not sure I can be a rabbit keeper.

I have also gained enough customers for the cleaning service to only have to work part time for someone else and I am considering cutting those hours yet again as I've just gained another couple customers. That is VERY exciting!!

What have I learned? Slaughtering your own food is hard emotionally but satisfying as well. I definitely have had days where I wonder if I'm doing the right thing for myself. This is NOT an easy path. It is however, spiritually uplifting when I look up from the grind of daily chores and headaches and realize I DO have a lot more freedom now than I did a year ago.  I learned that the raised beds I used to grow in are great but I don't really need them here as I have great soil so I plan to buy a tow behind tiller for my lawn tractor and I want my own milk. I drink a lot of it, I can use it for my livestock and pets and I can make so many products that I eat from it. I think a small Jersey will do well here as long as I supplement the hay I will have to buy elsewhere with root crops etc. and she will also provide me with a calf to slaughter for meat and lots of manure to fertilize my land for more crops. One cow will provide me with all the milk I need and I don't need a lot of fencing for her either since cows CAN be tethered.

So now with a years experience and taking small steps to freedom I feel confident that as long as the good Lord wants me here doing this, that I will continue to succeed on this path to freedom and with that freedom I can help my children and grandchildren more and as I gain more freedom I can help my community and praise God every day that He put me here.

Bring on the New Year! Cheers!

Permies: a big crowd of permaculture goofballs

Permies: a big crowd of permaculture goofballs

Just found this today...looks like an awesome site full of VERY useful info on ways for me to learn more about being FREE!

Saw this 1 Acre plan on Mother Earth News and I thought I'd write about my plan too. This one has some interesting features and ideas but I'm not wanting to do the cow thing so my plan is a little different.

I will sketch out my design and post it at a later date but for now just picture in your mind my one acre. The house sits in the front left corner say in the middle of the wheat field pictured here off to the right. Then you have my driveway to the right of that and behind the driveway is the garage and shed both turned barn :) Ok and to the right of the garage is the greenhouse. Now the rest of this is pretty much land for me to a) Grow Veggies b) Raise chickens, rabbits and goats (no goats yet) as well as pigs (those will come later as well). I plan to use tractors in the summer months for the chickens and rabbits. c) A small orchard. d) Some area to live, let the dog run and have picnics etc.
So lets start with picturing  the living area, it's behind the house from the back corner of the house, to the back corner of the shed (probably about 1/16th of my acre. Behind this area will be the large vegetable garden (for canning, freezing and some market veggies too). To the right of the driveway will be the orchard. In the far edge of the field in back behind the house will be raspberry, strawberry and blueberry bushes. So that leaves quite a large area for animals and more gardens. I'm also thinking about growing buckwheat to the left of the house and the little bit of front yard which is very shady will have some patches for lettuce, peas etc. as it stays cool there.

More later on how this can be just as sustainable and self sufficient as the cow plan featured on Mother Earth News!

Until then, I'll be planning, praying and dreaming!