In the begining........

Lane

It started out so simple. My husband Lane and I just wanted to make the family farm live again, but this time in a sustainable way...a natural way....off the food grid...with a name maybe...before it became the "green thing" to do. This was a part our dreams since we bought the family farm from my youngest brother in April 2004. Being an avid gardener,I put in a small veggie garden the following spring and continued to enlarge it every season. Then my youngest sister, Faith wanted to join in the festivities  a couple springs later. She and I would often talk about how it would be nice to have a few chickens around...just for the fresh eggs. Thus it continued until last fall when a major event changed everything. My youngest sister and her family lost their home to a fire. We offered them a place to stay and the rest is history.

Beci (me)

 After the Christmas holiday festivities passed and the the icy New Year
slid in....we set about planning....well everything. We discussed what veggies and fruits to plant and totally agreed on raised beds being the answer to weed control. It was like magic....raised beds filled with topsoil and planted with all types of veggies started appearing everywhere this spring. There were even blueberries, strawberries, and elderberries in raised beds.
Ooooh...ahhh! MAGIC!!!

I'm still not exactly clear what happened next; it's still kind of fuzzy. At first it was... we would just get a few chickens. We could use the eggs and let them run through the garden for pest control during the summer. We goggled for coop plans...something simple we said. Next I ordered a kit to build a small storage shed that we could morph into a coop. Meanwhile Faith and I are pouring over Murray McMurray catalogs, making lists, remaking lists. Finally late spring it started to happen. Lane ,my husband (aka Super Genius) , Chris, Faith's husband, Faith and I unknowingly started the "The Chicken Drama". It was wonderful to see the coop slowly rising out of the pile of lumber. However when the weather turned 90+ degrees; the construction ground to a halt. With the heat, I barely made it out to water and harvest the crops every morning and almost every evening. ( Next year irrigation is a must!!!!!!) Brave Lane decided ,towards the end of August, to tackle the shingling the coop roof with the help of my 78 year old father. Forgive me for this bit of texting....but.....OMG!!!!  We could start to see the completion of the hen house!!!! By now we are in the beginning of September. The spring flock now turns into a mad dash for autumn pullets.  Faith started scanning Craig's List as did I. She is partial to Americuna poultry and I am really liking Wyandotte.....hummmm. This what we ended up with in the span of two days over the Labor Day holiday.....a mostly finished hen house; Chantilceer, an Americuna cockerel, 14 hens of various breeds,  and a second Americuna cockerel that was living in a rabbit hutch until last night. We took most of yesterday and put together a "sugar shack" coop and run for Steve, our second Americuna cockerel. This of course means there is need for a second coop for the second cockerel, more hens to make the flock of the second cockerel, and well......see how this just keeps going and going. As of last count, we are collecting 9 eggs daily. Some time before all of the "Chicken Drama" there has been a small fall veggie crop planted in several raised beds, other beds are being readied for spring, the pumpkins, sweet potatoes, peppers, eggplant, some tomatoes, and hops have continued to prosper; they're getting close to harvest or being harvested.

What a fabulous transformation since the beginning of the year!!!!! I have loved every moment of it....okay.....most of the moments. Plans are already in the works for next year's expansions and re-allocations of garden spaces. Looking at adding more garden space, an orchard, pigs, milk cow, beef for the freezer, goats, and oh yeah...a small flock of Old English Game Bantam chickens for the 'Banty Shanty' in the pumpkin patch. This rooster will be named Jack...you know...Jack the Pumpkin King (of Red Fox Farm).

For entertaining moments about our chickens..please read the "Chicken Diaries-Red Fox Farm" blog by my sister, Faith Peck. I will be adding farm pictures in my next blog. See ya!!

P.S. A cockerel is a rooster that is under a year old. Just a little poultry trivia.