OMG! Where has the time gone!

So, in case there is ANYONE OUT THERE in cyberspace who is actually reading my blog...I've been busy. Life has really taken over and my little farm has been patiently waiting for me, out there, all alone. [sniff!]

But no worries! Patience is a virtue that I possess, along with a strong will and the determination to complete a task!

Let's see, what has taken me away from my little Utopia? Well, I lost my stay at home job and had to pursue work out of the home. Full-time. This, on top of my daughter's keen interest in Cheersport has kept me rather busy. My husband is not being very helpful with regard to helping me get the two last trees down, so I'm about to the point that I will have to get in there and get those trees down by myself, although I will need assistance with one.

My plan is still to plant the one bed and begin a new bed for next fall. I still plan to plant 1 - 2 tomato plants, beans, cucumbers....I don't know. What else would you suggest?

Squirrels are a problem on my lot. Our lot is covered with acorn, sweet gum, pine and hickory trees. The squirrels have created a multi-generational tribe on my property and I'm afraid that they will attack my garden. Then there are chipmunks, or ground squirrels! We have so many holes in our backyard! We love wildlife, but I'm afraid that the squirrel population is too dense for our little haven.

The cool thing, at least to me, is the fact that we have a thriving family, or pod, of flying squirrels. We plan to build a feeding station so that we can watch them in the spring and summer during the evening.

Waiting for Fall

So, I've become a "slacker gardener". But for good reason! After the last post we recieved a call from the AL DHR that they needed an emergency placement for a 5yo boy. "We should be able to find his permanent foster home in a few days" was what I was told. Well, after 3 turmoltuous (is that a word?), exicting, and exhausting months, our little FS (foster son) was placed in a wonderful home with his sister. WHEW! I lost about 8 pounds during that ordeal, so I really can't complain. :-)

You see, we are in the foster-to-adopt program here in Alabama. We adopted our daughter 8.5 years ago and have always wanted to adopt another, but, well, Life had other plans for us. Now we are settled into our new life and want to continue achieving that goal. Besides, our daughter desparately wants a little sister!

So, that being said, the foster son experience that is, my garden is still sitting out there. But! I have started pepper plant seedlings and a few herbs on my back porch. I have placed garden soil in the one bed that I created, and I chopped down one of the trees that are shading my pica farm. My husband has still not provided me assistance to cut down the other two trees yet.

Summer is here. Full blown summer with all of the heat and humidy of a Southern summer, so I'm going to plant a fall garden. A Fall Garden! No working in the heat! I'm pretty excited actually. :-)

broken camera woes!

So, I had taken pics of all of the seed packets that I have and had planned a wonderful story that go along with my mega-coffee can of seeds for my next post. My daughter used the camera the next day to take pictures of various things and was on the way downstairs to the office when the camera slipped out of her hand and bounced down the stairs. UGH!!

But then I thought, "The memory card should still have my photos! I'll just download them now." Boy! was I ever wrong on that one! The memory card is shot! Something happened when the camera dropped. We've lost all of the photos on the card. ARGH!!!!

So, we'll have to wait another week for the "ton of seed packets" story.

One advancement is that I was able to chop down one the trees in my proposed garden area a couple of weeks ago. I was able to use my husband's battery-powered reciprocating saw to remove the various branches growing out of an old mimosa tree stump.

Two more trees to go.

I'm getting my courage to use my husband's chain saw these days. I used it today to chop down a small, scraggly tree that was growing amongst the azaleas in my front yard. I chopped that baby down and turned it into firewood! Im waiting to hear whether he'll be proud of me for taking the initiative, or be upset that I used one of his tools without his permission.

Garden plan and Great Urban Homesteading website

So, I had to take some bereavement time to get over the fact that I can't keep chickens in my town, although I know of 2 homes not far from my home that do!

Back before I was handed the bad news, I took pics of my garden spot and dreamed about where I would place things. First the beds.

This picture shows you my idea of how things will look in the near future. So far I have the beginnings of the bed on the left (green area). The brown area is the walking/working path. I'm going to compost in the bed to the right.

I've also X'd out the trees that need to be removed before spring. Can you say "Honey-do list"? Hubby won't let me play with tools just yet. There is a reason why I'm referred to as Lucille Ball sometimes. :-)

While reading a blog by Paul Gardener that was linked from the Grit Magazine web site I found an awesome link to an Urban Homesteading page - Path to Freedom. Both pages provide a lot of information for those of us just starting out journey to being as self-sufficient as possible. I think it's interesting that having a little farm and growing my own food has been a little dream of mine all along, and now with the economic times a LOT of folks are getting into this. So for those of us that are new to urban farming, there is a plethora of information out there to get us started!

One more note before I sign off. I have friends in Kentucky who have lived this way all their lives. They tried it on their own, away from family, for many years. But having kids and getting them to and from school and then the fact that both parents have to work (he works full-time and she works part-time) made it very difficult to live. So they've recently moved to her family farm and are so happy! We visited them over the Christmas holidays and all 5 of them were so jubilant! They are my models for my little farm. You can visit their farm web page to see what they are up to. Their farm is called Atwood Village Family Farm.

Next topic: What to plant? Hmmmmm......

No chickens!

ARGH! You know, for once I wish I wasn't such a "goody two-shoes"! I just HAD to ask the town's zoning ordinance officer about having chickens as pets within the city limits.

ARGH!!


Here's her reply to my query:

Your address is within the livestock boundary. Unfortunately, because you are within the livestock boundary, you will not be allowed to maintain chickens on your property. I have attached a map of the livestock boundary, just for your information.

If you have any questions or would like further information, please give me a call or email and I will be glad to help.


K. R.
Zoning Enforcement Officer

I think they should rethink the title of this zone. One would think that if you lived within a LIVESTOCK BOUNDARY that you would be ALLOWED to have livestock and not the opposite!

ARGH!!

I need to get a nice cup of tea and relax. I can still have a pica-farm without chickens, but it's the principle of the thing. I will have my chickens some day. I just have to keep the faith.

Anyone have recordings of chickens? I could use that to help me relax.

NOTE: It is always a good idea to check with your local ordinances about anything you want to do. Many ordinances are created to help the economy of the area by maintaining a certain feel or look to a community. Others are created for safety reasons. I for one support my community even though I disagree with this one, just a little. But I do realize that not all chicken owners would be as diligent as I am to make sure I did not have any roosters to upset my neighbors.
I'll be a good citizen and abide by the ordinances even though I don't want to. It will be good opportunity for me to be a good role model for my daughter - at least that's how I'll try to make myself feel better about all of this!

Pica-farming?

I know, I know. It's probably not even a legitimate term. But I felt that it described what I'm trying to do. You see it's kind of a dream of mine. My father's parents had a farm out in Indian Bayou, Louisiana. My grandfather was a farmer and the local high school English teacher. Grandpa had chickens, a small fig grove, pastures for horses, and acres upon acres of rice paddies that were alternated with crawfish ponds.

I loved to visit Grandpa's chickens. I loved their purrs and coos. I would just sit in the grass next to the pen and watch them until I was called in for dinner or just called in (because I think my family thought I was crazy!).

All my life I wished I grew up in the country. The only person who heard me say that and NOT laugh at me was my husband. He always wanted to be a country kid too. He grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio and even worst, in the suburbs! But at least his parents tried to raise chickens for awhile. I grew up in a small city in Louisiana with a mom that also grew up on a farm. She grew up during the end of the depression and those years really formed her personality and how life was conducted. We never had a garden at home, but did have fig trees and pecan trees. Once I graduated from high school I attended college and pretty much endured 13 years of college education to obtain my PhD. I knew that if I worked hard enough during my early years I could reward myself with the life that I really wanted. I hung on to my dream of living in the country and raising food and chickens. It's what helped me make through the low points in my young life. Well, that and a lot of beer and good friends! LOL!

Currently, my husband and I are in one of our "final stages" of our life. We have landed in an area where we plan to live until at least retirement. We live in southeast Alabama where there are lots of small communities and open land, but unfortunately, we had to purchase a home in one of the larger towns due to the fact that we have a daughter and deeply love her. The school systems outside of this town in the countryside are, well, inadequate. So we purchased a home in town and gave up on our dreams of owning a little piece of land in the country. The good side to this story is that the home we purchased is on a double lot and will allow for a nice garden area and (this is the good part!) I can raise up to 5 chickens in my backyard according to the town laws. [NOTE: The "up to 5 chickens" rule was told to me by someone in town that was raising chickents.] The other good side to our home is it's close proximity to a lot of locations. My husband has a 7 minute commute to work and I can walk to the grocery, drug store, video rental, exercise gym, and my daughter's school.

The area that my "farm" encompasses is a space that is shaped like a triangle. The dimensions are approximately 25 ft X 50 ft X 15 ft. We have a lot of trees on our property and this little corner of our property has the best sun. I know this because I've been watching my yard for the past 9 months and this little spot gets at least 6 hours of sun each day. The sun is shining from the south on this spot as well, so there is plenty of sun. I also think that living in the South with the very hot summers, that the shade of the surrounding trees will actually help keep the temperature down on my little garden during the hot months.

I figured a spot that is 25 ft X 50 ft X 15 ft doesn't even come close to the definition of micro-farm. I don't even know if there is an official definition of a microfarm with regard to dimensions. So I thought, "What's smaller than a micro? Pica!". A pica is 1/trillioneth of a whole.

Ok. So, like, my little space is probably a little bigger than 1/trillionth of an acre. I like the sound of it anyway. So I'm sticking with it.

It's kind of catchy. Snazzy! Keeps me interested and that's the most important part!

So stay tuned. I'll let you watch my pica-farm unfold and grow. I hope to be eating from my garden this summer and in a year or so, get my little chicks and enjoy life!