Between the burning this summer and fall and the chickens browsing in there all winter, my garden is reasonably flat at the moment. More burning will ensue when the weather warms up a little. It’s 23F out right now which is a little to chilly for me to want to stand out and tend a fire!
This is a picture of the new, predator-resistant “cage” we bought from Tractor Supply to keep the chickens from constantly becoming dinner for the local carnivores.
This is a picture of the coop in its new (as of July 2020) location, with the temporary run we put in before the cage was added. You can see my sad, sad garden. Currently, however, the chickens have access to the garden via a connection from their cage. They have been spending a lot of time in there eating bugs and weeds!
We worked hard during the quarantine cutting back trees and bushes and then, lately, burning them in the garden, so the chickens have an open spot (see the pile of branches near the back corner of the “garden? That’s gone now.) in which to forage.
This is Claire. She just turned 3, having joined the family in July 2019. She’s very happy to help us locate lost chickens and generally just be with us wherever we go, She (usually) doesn’t even get car sick anymore!
Next spring we plan to burn the weeds (again) and encourage the chickens to eat any that grow. I want to plant squash and tomatoes at the very least. We’ll need to block off the plants from the chickens but that should be doable. Husband wants to reduce the size of the garden. We’ll see if that can happen but right now it’s so full of weeds that the fence seems connected permanently to the ground. I’m looking forward to starting this homestead experiment again!
i have no idea if anyone is still following me, but my blog at electronichomestead.net is… messed up. No idea why. I am aware of it, I’m still alive, and I’m planning a hay bale garden this year after having a non-gardening year in 2016 due to Lyme disease and anaplasmosis. PLEASE WEAR YOUR BUG REPELLENT if you live in a tick area!!
Love,
Laura at the Electronic Homestead
It’s harvest time at the Electronic Homestead. You should come see what’s in the canner!
I have a new post up at The Electronic Homestead’s new site. I’d love it if you followed me to my new home(stead)!
There’s a new post up at The Electronic Homestead‘s new home(stead).
I have a new home for my blog! Or should I say homestead? My husband and I worked very hard and built it almost from scratch. It’s very similar to this one, but it’s on my own domain. I would be honored if you would follow me at this new home. You can find it here:
Thanks!
My posts up to this point have been mostly about what’s going on in the ground, in the garden, in the coop, and in the medium-term-planning cogs in my brain. I have written very little about myself here, for no real reason. But over the last few days, I’ve been feeling more introspective. Maybe it’s because of the weather (distinctly fall-like), or the noticeable decrease in daylight (I am seasonally affected), but I’ve been turning inward a lot lately, trying to define my values, and see if my current life is aligned with them.
What’s important to me? I want some land that I can work, and teach my children to work, so that we do not ever need to be dependent on government for food. I want to live somewhere that it at least seems that the government represents my beliefs in individual responsibility, hard work and less government intrusion, and maybe where more of the neighbors share those values.
I’m frustrated with the way my country is being run, and I feel powerless to do anything about it, so I’m trying to accept the things I cannot change and thinking of changing the things I can.
This will probably involve a move. I’d like to stay in New England, and politically, New Hampshire seems like the best fit for me. Property taxes are generally higher, but land is affordable.
My faith is very important to me too. I miss praying with a community, but the local synagogues are so full of liberal secular-humanists that the prayers they offer no longer speak to me. It is important to me that my children are raised as Jews, but I can’t teach them the Hebrew they would need to pray in a traditional manner. The density of active Jewish communities decreases the further you travel from city centers. There are basically no Conservative synagogues in New Hampshire. What would that mean for me and my family? Can we move far enough away to be rural, but still be close enough that the kids can keep attending their Jewish day school? Because as aggravatingly progressive-liberal as their school is, it has taught my 10 year old well enough that she can speak Hebrew with Israelis that she meets, and that’s something I want for all three of my kids.
As far as bringing this all down to the material plane, I had a Realtor over this past week. Seven years ago, she helped us buy our current house and sell our old one, and I consider her an ally, and a business-level friend. She and I walked around with a critical eye, and I realized just how much work our house would need in order to be sellable. My job is in the Facilities office of a bank, so I know several of the contractors (again, business-level friends.) One of the guys told me, when I asked, that he would be happy to paint, repair gutters and re-shingle for very little money. So maybe getting our house in shape for selling isn’t as far out of reach as I had feared.
More on this as time flows by, I’m sure.
gardening in the North Carolina piedmont
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