Our first egg!

Many of you have been joining us in our experience of beginning a new life of farming and growing livestock.  We are happy to announce that after many months of sacrificing our basement, our time, our energy and our sleep (thanks to our rooster) our chickens are starting to do their job!  Please, please, hold your applause!  Seven days ago we received our first egg.  It was small and blue.  Awesome!  Raquel was insanely excited about it...so excited in fact that it slipped out of her hand and broke on the floor.  She was devastated.  She cried and cried and kept saying that she "wanted the egg scrambled."  She recovered, however, the next day when there was another egg waiting for her!

This is it people.  This is a sustainable, real, intensely satisfying lifestyle.  This is the way we were supposed to eat.

What a Whirlwind!

The last month has been pretty exciting, pretty exhausting, pretty intriguing. Yeah, I know that last one doesn't begin with an 'e,' but it at least has the first letter sound... Yeah, I know that I missed the 'x' as well... Okay, I'm not perfect. Sorry I even tried!

Now that I'm done with my self pitying rant, I'd love it if you'd sit a spell and allow me to fill you in on all the goings-on of the past while. First, I'm pretty sure that I mentioned something about some rock-solid apprenticeship at Habersham Farms (name soon to change.) It all started on a cold and windy night... middle of the day...

Habersham is this super-hip, nationally renowned, award winning new urbanism-designed community in the Burton area of Beaufort. They have a downtown, with some restaurants, shops, apartments/condos, and a full host of amenities. They also have, in their long-term design, a 9 acre organic farm, which has, until an upcoming date as yet to be determined, been called Habersham Farms.

Well, the neighborhood and the farmer had a falling out, and decided to break ties, and instead of an apprenticeship being on the docket, I have a farm. 9 acres. Farm. It's going to be mine, sometime... we still have to work all of that out. Needless to say, with a farm comes a great deal of responsibility. Not only do I have to be present virtually all of the time, I also have to produce produce. Did I mention that I'm going into it with nothing besides a well and some pipes in the ground? Yeah, it needs a bit of work... and I need a bit of equipment, or a bit of monetary windfall... anyone have $10 grand they'd like to give a brother? That'd buy a tractor with the appropriate implements, fencing, irrigation, and some hand tools. And, nothing else.

Long story short, and by long story I truly do mean long story, which I may write more about in the future, or maybe not... I just gave up on that sentence- it was running on. Long story short, I'll have a farm, and I'm in the market to re-market the farm under a different name. Any suggestions? I'm looking for something clever, distinguished, and hip.

I'm also looking for a tractor!! Come on people! You can't possibly need all that tractor in your life!

Next time I'll write about Georgia Organics, and how stinkin' awesome it was.

Fortify our city

WARNING:  What you are about to read is not appropriate for children.

A tragedy struck our chicken hotel last week.  The chickens got left outside in their run overnight and an animal, which will remain nameless, got in and killed one of them.  It got the one which was the most protective of the flock and we think she might have been a rooster.  We were sad.  She/he was one of our favorite chickens and we were extremely sad that she/he became something's supper.    That day, when I called David he said that he was out tracking a you-know-who, but with no success.  We heard a cry that day from the coop..."Fortify our city!"  and "For goodness sake, don't leave us out at night!"  We are obedient humans and have been faithful to put the chickens away at night since.

Until next harvest

2011, not a new decade.

I feel like, as we roll into 2011, we're beginning a new decade. I don't know why I think that... clearly last year we started a new decade. I suppose it seems that way because of all the new direction that is driving my life. Last year was a year of endings, it felt like. I ended my job with the Beaufort County School District. I ended my senseless working for money, instead of working for God, doing what He has sent me to do. I ended being afraid, although it is a constant battle. Maybe I just ended losing the battle to fear.

This year, though, is a year of beginnings. I have already begun placing my trust in Him, in His sovereignty, and in His provision. This year I begin in earnest as a farmer. There are some really excellent parallels between farming the earth and spiritual matters. First, there is the the entire farming metaphor- you put healthy inputs into the earth, you plant seeds, you tend them, and great fruit develops which can then be harvested. On a spiritual level, you nurture other people, help them know God and develop their relationship with Him, and then He "harvests" them as His own.

Important, indeed. I can't forget that God created the earth for us, for me. When I am out, working in the dirt, working the dirt, I can sense God in a more direct way. I've always seen God in nature- so much beauty must have a beautiful creator; I'm ecstatic to spend 2011 experiencing Him in His creation, working as a co-creator of sorts, albeit on a much more base level.

In pure reality, unaffected by societal pressure or coercion, 2011 is all about surrender. We can maintain a clean conscience because we are surrendered to God. Freedom comes not from following our own desires, nor from denial, nor from the perfection of the self, but from God and God alone. Freedom from our vanity, pride, perfectionism' guilt. Guess what- that freedom that only comes from God enables us to be greater than we ever could by ourselves, and we may not make any fewer mistakes.

Here's to you, in 2011. The new year is a time to refocus and begin with a clean slate, and that is a beautiful thing, full of hope and promise.

A blessed new year...for the chickens

David and I were so excited on Friday when we were able to finally move the chickens to their new home...outdoors.  We worked feverishly for three days (by days I mean from about 10am to nightfall).  I definitely didn't think that it was going to take us that long, but we were constantly having to use our noggins to figure out the best solutions for the constant problems that we faced and we were constantly realizing that we didn't have the right tools for the fixes that we needed.  Our most frustrating/annoying part of the whole project was attaching the hardware cloth to the 2x2's that we used to create the run.  Towards the end we said, "forget it!  let's just use cable ties".  Neither one of us has much experience with construction or what chickens need, so all-in-all, I think that our semi-finished product is pretty darn good.  At least we know that chickens don't have much a brain, so they won't go on strike if their nesting boxes aren't exactly 6 inches off the ground.    Now that they are in their coop, I am realizing how low-maintenance they really are.  The food and water hangs off the ground now, so I don't have to clean poop out of the water every morning and afternoon.  Yipeeee!  I don't think that enthusiasm was quite enough to capture my joy.  Let me give it one more try HOOOORAAAAA!!!!!!!!  There, I think that does it.  Now all there is left to do is wait.  Eventually, they will lay their first egg and all the struggle will be worth it!  Videos and photos to come soon.

Until next harvest.

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

This year is different.  David, Raquel and I are not travelling for the holiday.  It is our first Christmas together at home.  It is wonderful.  A few days ago, we made our environmentally conscious Christmas tree purchase.  We drove a few miles down the road to the Christmas tree farm and cut down our Christmas tree.  That's about as local as you can get, short of growing a tree in your back yard, which we tried to do (thanks for the tree last year, Dad, it was doing good until about three weeks ago and it started to die :(.  We walked/ran around the field of trees.  David said that Raquel was going to choose the tree, but what he really meant was that she was going to say "I want that one" and we were going to say, "I think that one is too big".  It was a joyful time and no one got hurt with a hack saw!  It helps that the trunk of the tree is only about 4 in. in diameter.  I have to say that I feel good about our purchase.  It doesn't smell as good as the trees that we had growing up in Minnesota (said with a Minnesota accent), but it is beautiful.

Another thing that I am trying to do this season is bake.  I love to bake.  I love the feel of the dough in my hands.  The only problem is that I am trying to bake "healthily".  (Is that a word?)  I made an exception to my healthy baking kick when Raquel said that she wanted to bake ginger bread cookies.  Actually my first thought was "No way!" because who actually eats those things!  But then I said, "Ok" because I love her and I want her to be involved in the holiday traditions.  I got my recipe ready, all the ingredients out and little one in her helper position on a chair next to me.  All was going well until I put in 1.75 teaspoons of cloves in the mix instead of .75.  Now, I have never made ginger bread cookies before, but I smelled that cloves stuff and I knew that either it would be fine, or it would taste terrible.  And let's face it, ginger bread cookies taste pretty terrible to begin with.  After an internal fit of frustration, I put R in front of Netflix and started over.  Who knows if the cookies would have tasted terrible or not, but I wasn't about to go through the whole rest of the process to find out.  I am not a "trial and error" sort of person.  I want to get it right the first time.  One final thought about baking ginger bread cookies is that molasses is a bit disgusting.  It smells gross, it is incredibly difficult to clean up and maybe it is the reason that I don't like ginger bread cookies, although I can't be sure.  After R's nap, we are going to roll them and bake them so maybe my mind will be changed about these cookies forever.  Finger's crossed.

Until next harvest.

Pictures from the work day