A Little Work Around the House

I feel so much more settled knowing that we are going to be living in this house for another three years.  For the last two or three, we'd look periodically, and semi-seriously, through the real estate ads in our community and in and around Charlottetown.  We'd decide we really wanted a different house, and we'd be ready to make an offer.  We'd think about what we'd have to get done if we decided on the spur of the moment to put our house up for sale and move elsewhere.  And then the next morning, or the next time we went to see the house, we'd think, "No, that's not for us."  So for someone like me, who likes planning and security, it wasn't really the ideal way to live.  We didn't really invest ourselves and our desires and our personalities in our property because we were never sure how long it was going to be ours.

But now we know that we'll be staying here.  And it is a little squished, sometimes, and a little more space in the bathroom would be nice, and a little more sun in the backyard would mean better growing conditions.  But this home is ours, and we're staying for three more years, and we like it here.  This is the first house that we moved into together shortly after we were married, the home that we brought our two beautiful babies home to, the property that gave me a tough lesson in perennial gardening, the house that is about a seven-minute walk from my parents.

So little by little, over the last few weeks, we've been cultivating our pride in our property and we've been opening our hearts a little to it.  We've been accepting it for what it is and enhancing it in ways that we can manage, that serve our needs right now, and that will make it more attractive.  We've been ruthless in tearing out perennials in favour of native shrubs and (gasp!) more grass (and dandelions, and forget-me-nots, and stitchwort, and whatever else is growing in our lawn).  It was sad to see the poppies and coreopsis and pinks and especially the blanketflower go, but it feels so much better to know that our untended, wild, massive perennial beds will no longer be the shame of the street!  So to show you a few of the touches we've been making to our property as we progress through spring and as we find a few minutes here and there, here are some photos.

Those chives were in a container on my deck last year, and came back thicker than ever.  The oregano was divided from a friend's garden.  (Thanks Pam!)

Lovely Pam also gave me seven strawberry plants.

Here I planted a bunch of yellow bush beans.  The soil looks dark because of the compost I mixed in.

Freshly applied wood chips. :)

I raked up the old mulch that was here when there were shrubs in this bed to make a little path to stand on so I don't compress the soil every time I look at my little plant friends.

Overkill?  Maybe, but I love those happy marigolds (I have since moved them away from the beans, those of you who know that beans don't like marigolds--I didn't know that until later).

Sweet millions tomatoes on our deck.  They aren't looking as happy lately, though, so I hope they're ok.

I want to plant some sort of squash or melon here.  Cucumber? Loofah? Canteloupe?  More pumpkin?  We'll see what hasn't drowned in the seed starting tray left out in the rain. :S

I think everything looks better in the rain, at least when you get up close.

Hello, beautiful.

We bought this five years ago and never bothered with it.  This week, out of the blue, Craig started working on getting it set up for me.  He did a beautiful job and I think I fell just a little more in love with him.

Container-planted Swiss chard.  I love those red veins.

I've been randomly sneaking leaves here and there just to snack on when working in the yard, and I honestly think that this is the best spinach I've ever tasted.

Shared with Homestead Barn Hop #65.

The Most Basic Compost Pile in History

I'm new to this homesteading stuff, and I don't have a big budget to spend on things like fancy composters.  That doesn't mean that I don't want a nice, free source of compost for our garden though.  So I decided to start my own compost pile.  And it took me about an hour.  That is because I had to first rake up the piles of material that would make it up.  So really, it took more like ten minutes.

I first cleared out an area in the bottom corner of my yard, which is surrounded by shrubs, is the furthest common point from any of the surrounding houses, and is sort of ugly anyhow.  I'm just going to warn you now that I would not be graciously given any photography awards for these photos.  They are pretty blurry, bland, and in general poorly lit.  But they illustrate what I did, so bear with me!

The bare corner in our yard about to be transformed into a marvel of aerobic decomposition.

So I had this awesome idea (and I thought myself quite brilliant) that I would put the sticks at the bottom for three reasons: (1) they would take longer to break down, so I wanted them closer to the ground where my little decomp soldiers are hanging out, (2) they would prop up the compost pile and aerate it from underneath, and (3) they would help with drainage because this is a rather damp corner in the spring.  After checking a few websites online that dealt with an actual pile and not some fancy rotating drum, I came across one that said "lay your twigs down first to help with drainage and aerate the pile".  So I felt quite validated and confident in my compost decision making.

The bottom of the pile.

A wiling young helper carrying sticks never hurts the success of your compost pile, either.

So then I started taking the old leaves and little twigs that accumulated in our yard over the winter (I swear we did a good job raking last year and had loads of bags for fall clean-up!), and putting them on the pile.  Two things that made this easier and faster:  I had done most of the raking on March 22nd when it was 25 degrees (what?!?) and we were thriving in the sun, and I used our brand-new-to-us wheelbarrow that my mother-in-law generously gave me and her wonderful brother drove up to Summerside to deliver (he also brought in our waste cart).

Not quite finished yet, but it was geting late and I didn't know if the camera would work when I finished.

Here is my "finished" compost pile; I now have a very tidy backyard and a wonderful start to composting excitement.

So I am aware that everything that I put in my pile today is "brown" material, and I need to layer it with "green" material.  I just wanted to clean up our yard and get the pile started.  Before I came in, I watered it to dampen the material.

Side note: is anyone else worried about how dry it is this spring?  The clouds of dust coming up as I was raking this stuff were crazy!!

Anyway, as I collect vegetable scraps and whatnot I'll take them out and layer the compost and sprinkle water on it and turn it and cover it to warm it up and love it in general.  Now this is not the most sophisticated compost pile in the world.  It doesn't have walls, it doesn't have a sleek round body with hatch and turn-crank, it isn't even a barebones structure made with pallets.  But for the moment, it will provide habitat and cover in our backyard, it will eventually decompose, and it provides an out-of-the-way place to store our yard waste (and soon to develop chicken poo!), and I'll be able to use it, some day, to feed my lovely veggie plants.

I like it.  Make your own!

This post is shared with Homestead Barn Hop #59 at The Prairie Homestead.

Signature obtained!

I just (as in 5 minutes ago) obtained the last signature needed for my permit application.  I'll get that all together tonight and hopefully officially submit it tomorrow!  Keep your fingers crossed for me that some fine feathered ladies will soon be ours!

Chicken Update

I've been rather absent the last few days because it was a crazy week for us, with my husband away, planning for birthday celebrations for our boy, going to meetings for the community garden, and taking care of some other responsibilities.  But I'm back, with a quick update on the chicken front.

I am really hoping to get my application in this week.  I left it for a few weeks after first meeting with our police chief but as spring approaches, I want to take care of the paperwork and red tape and start figuring out where I am going to get my hens.

As I mentioned in my previous post about the chickens, I need to get the signature of every neighbour within 200 feet of our home.  I was worried that this would be difficult, because there has only ever been one other applicant so it isn't as though this is something that suburban residents are regularly requested to give their opinion on.  However, it has been immensely easier than I thought.  Almost everyone has been very positive about it, with one woman living nearby thrilled and actually asked if she could have eggs, another man told me that I could keep a cow in my backyard if I liked and he'd support it, and someone else said that as she grew up in the country she loves the thought of chickens living up the street.  The two homes where the owners were a little leery came around very quickly when I respectfully addressed their concerns, answered their questions, and gave them a modified version of this great handout from Little House in the Suburbs.  I just have one more signature to get, which is proving to be the hardest as I have now gone to this house five times without once catching the owner at home.  But I'm almost there!

I also have to submit a plan of the chicken coop that I hope to build and I have settled on this one:

I got this free hen house design from Purina, and the link to the handy pdf with a materials list and more details regarding building is here.  A great resource is www.backyardchickens.com; this is where I found the link to this design and a whole thread on the message board with comments, changes and modifications made to this plan, and photos of the end results of different chicken aficionados.  Since the chickens have to be contained for my permit application, I'm hoping to put this in some sort of modified outdoor kennel type enclosure with wire on top, so that they can come out, peck and scratch around, and go in at their own leisure without getting loose or being at the mercy of the neighbourhood foxes.

I haven't yet typed up the formal letter of application, but the chief told me I can pretty much just doctor up the original email I sent him:

Good afternoon Chief _______,

I am getting in touch to ask about the possibility of applying for a permit for 3-4 backyard laying hens within city limits.  A few months ago I contacted City Hall and police services and was instructed to contact you directly regarding this request.  I put it off for a little while as I feel sure that you have more pressing issues to attend to, and that my request to apply for this permit would fall pretty low on the priority list.  As it gets closer to spring, however, I wanted to make sure to get in touch with you in plenty of time for this spring season when I hope to obtain the hens.

I live in the ____________ subdivision in Ward 8 (Wilmot), and would like to build an attractive and secure coop in my backyard behind my shed where the chickens would be out of sight and protected by trees and shrubs.  I have no desire at all for a rooster, so there would be very little noise to be heard by the neighbours.  I have good relations with my surrounding neighbours and plan, if all goes well, to deliver fresh eggs a few times a year to the households immediately adjacent to our property and offer compost to those who garden in order to keep up a friendly and positive outlook regarding the hens.  We currently do not own any other pets.

I am not sure whether or not I obtain the permit application from you directly or if you have to help me apply, but I wanted to make sure to be above board in this pursuit and I really hope that you will be able to help me and that City Council will approve my request.

If you could please advise me as to which steps I need to take from here, I would very much appreciate it.  Thank you for your time, and for any help you can give me in this regard.  Sincerely,

Rosalyn  ______________

I'll play around with that tomorrow perhaps.  So I think that will cover the paperwork needed on my behalf, and I'll have to wait for city officials to do their inspection of our property.  I plan on putting the compost pile, as I mentioned in this post (where I coloured with crayons), in the back corner of our property hidden in the shrubs.  I don't think it will bother anyone there at all.

I've already started getting excited about my hens, and I want to have three.  I'm considering getting one each of three different breeds, because I think they'd look pretty in their feathered diversity, depending on whether they are all locally available:

Barred rock: has been my favourite since I lived with them in Costa Rica

Buff Orpington: who could resist this lovely strawberry blond?

Rhode Island red: perhaps not quite as lovely as the other two in looks, but a pretty colour nonetheless and a great layer!

I'm hoping that I can have an update soon with a picture of my permit! 

Shared with Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways #19 and Simple Living Wednesdays.

Cleaning Up

For the last couple of years, my favourite cleaning product has been a cleaner that my mom makes for me and that we imaginatively call "Green Cleaner". It smells lovely as it has peppermint essential oil in it and works great on pretty well all surfaces. Just lately, I've been spending a little more time on Pinterest and finding all sorts of awesome ideas for do-it-yourself-pretty-much-anything. I'm especially interested, though, in homemade cleaning products and homemade toiletry items. So basically, things that will clean your house or clean your body. If I can make these items with ingredients I already have in my house, so much the better!

I saw this recipe for a homemade cleaner that uses citrus-infused white vinegar. Now, I have battled with the idea of using vinegar as my main cleaning agent for a few years. I know that it is a great cleaner, is easy on the environment, is inexpensive, and if my children got into it, it wouldn't hurt them. However, it doesn't smell nice. At all. I used to use it a lot at work when I worked for an environmental non-profit organization and, when I think of our office in that old train station, the scent of vinegar emanating from wash cloths long past needing to be bleached (!) will forever come to mind. Yuck.

Enter the orange peel! How awesome is it, first of all, that you can make this cleaner in about two seconds after you enjoy a healthy, vitamin C-rich snack? Because I didn't want to peel fruit just for the sake of making a cleaning product, but rather, I wanted to use my scraps for something more, I just made it in 250 mL jars, one at a time. I had three oranges, therefore over the course of a couple of days, I started the preparation for 3 jars of cleaning product. I took a few pictures of the final preparation, and had my three-year-old help me in the process (he's a great do-it-yourselfer!).

This is all you need.  (I'm assuming you have a convenient source of water!)

Don't mind his blue-stained fingers, we were playing with markers right before he helped me with this project!

So here are my three 250 mL jars, after letting them infuse for 2 weeks.  There's a small Fisher Price tractor in the background for good measure.  The boy left it on the counter, and I left it in the picture because it made me smile.

So pour the contents of the jar through a sieve into some sort of container, I used a 4-cup Pyrex glass measuring cup. *Note the strangely waterlogged/spongey/pickled texture of the orange peel.  It reminds me of something out of a bucket of formalin during Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy class at UPEI.

I got about 1 1/4 cups of the orange-infused vinegar from the three jars.

So fill your container roughly 3/4 full with water, then top up with the infused vinegar. (I was lucky that I had the perfect amount to fill the bottle up the rest of the way.)

The final product.

And there we have it!  Orange-infused vinegar cleaning solution.  Now I couldn't post about this on the blog before actually trying it out, right?  So I decided to give it a test, and thought of one of the yuckier substances it would need to clean on our kitchen counter:

Peanut butter.

Now I occasionally eat peanut butter (in fact I did tonight which is why I thought to use it to test out this cleaner!) but I also find it an extremely offensive substance.  It's greasy, it's sticky, and it smells very strongly.  Not something I want on a surface anywhere, let alone the counter.  So I smeared some on (then promptly washed my fingers!) and give it a few squirts.

The cleaner did a great job cleaning it up, no residue, the vinegar cut right through it and left the counter lovely and clean with a fresh-ish scent.

Yes, the scent.  There's no denying that vinegar is the base of this stuff, really, you can't hide vinegar all that well.  But it has a nice, fruity, orangey overtone that makes it a lot more pleasant.  My verdict?  I like it.  

This post is linked to the Homestead Barn Hop #52.

My Custom Homestead-Day 4

Day 4
So today's home(stead)work is to lay out my plans for the next year, five years, and ten years.  Obviously these are tentative at best because I'm just beginning and I really don't know where life will take us 10 years from now.  Also, as I'm sure my parents, sisters, husband, friends, etc. will attest, I'm a bit of a dreamer.  But I'll put these out there anyway: the hopes and dreams that I have now, when I look to the future.

Within one year, I hope to:

• Get (at least) the support, funding, and basic infrastructure in place for the Lefurgey Community Garden and Food Pantry (think of a snazzier name for it too!)
• Submit my complete application and gain council approval for my permit to have laying hens
• Build a comfy coop and roomy pen for laying hens
• Acquire said laying hens
• Grow an awesome bumper crop of tomatoes (and do well with my other veggies!)
• Increase my stock of preserves, particularly jam
• Learn to make soft cheese
• Attend at least one meeting of the PEI Beekeepers' Association

Within five years, I hope to:

• Establish myself in a stable career that will allow us to purchase a rural property and build the home we're hoping for (yes I picture myself "working" hiking down by the West River)
• Find the property that is right for us, and build the passive solar plan we have picked out (I don't actually plan to build on the French River lookout, I just wanted a photo of a typical PEI country scene!)
• Plant large strawberry and raspberry patches
• Develop a large raised bed vegetable garden on our new property
• Learn to make hard cheeses, such as cheddar
• Buy a Le Creuset 5 1/2 quart French oven (a girl can dream!)

Within ten years, I hope to:

• Build a barn on our property
• Purchase a Dexter milk cow
• Establish a honeybee colony
• Plant a small apple orchard
• Obtain a Belgian gelding (for work? to ride? just to hug? it's all the same!)
• Find a way to work part-time so that I can actually have time to do all of these things I hope to accomplish!

Any advice out there on how to accomplish all of this?  Things I have left out that I totally should have included?  Pipe dreams I'm better off forgetting now?  Let me know!

My Custom Homestead-Day 3

Day 3
It's time to turn my motivations into a statement of purpose for this walk as I move forward.  I'll print it out and put it in my binder, and I may post it in a visible spot in our home to remind myself daily to keep reaching forward toward these hopes.

Statement of Purpose
"To find a stronger, truer connection to God and this beautiful world he has given us by being careful stewards of the earth, plants and animals, and to strive to provide our family with good, healthy, organic foods, education, time, love, and faith."

My Custom Homestead-Day 2

Day 2
Today I write down on paper my motivations for homesteading.  Why am I going to do this?  What makes this seem like the right life for me?  I decided that this page in my binder should be hand-written, even if it is a little messier.  It seems so much more personal that way. I can jot down new thoughts or cross out old ones if they change.  I dated it, so that I will remember when it was that I felt this way.  I just filled one sheet, but I was trying to be succinct--I can be as wordy as the best of them and could probably fill a book with my motivations!

Here they are, my tentative first attempt at putting pen to paper and jotting down these motivations:

Self-Sufficiency and An Organic Lifestyle

• rely less on commercially grown and prepared foods
• learn to do more with my own two hands
• satisfaction of knowing that these foods that my family is eating were lovingly grown, harvested and prepared by me, and I know that they are healthy

A Different Way of Life for my Children

• I want my children to know what their food really is and where it comes from
• I want them to learn how to take care of themselves, and to derive pleasure from it, from these practices
• I want us to spend time together doing something productive, that helps others and brings us closer together, and reminds uf of what is important and what to be thankful for

Ecological Balance

• taking the path that leads away from the practices that are harming my beloved island
• using resources that are produced organically and close to my home
• finding a balance on our property between providing for our needs and providing habitat for wildlife

Spending Time Doing What I Love

• I love plants and animals, cooking, baking and preserving
• I get excited over finding ways to be frugal and do more with less
• Above all, I love doing these things for my family

My Custom Homestead-Day 1

One of the blogs that I've found recently that has an amazing amount of helpful information is The Prairie Homestead.  I initially discovered it while looking at whether or not to wash eggs after I got into a conversation about it with friends--they wash them, I had been buying farm fresh eggs at our farmer's market and never washing them.  Anyway, this blog, written by Jill, has lots of other great tips, like an easy way to bake pumpkin for use in baked goods, recipes, information about keeping goats, etc.  And all written in a way that makes me feel like I can totally relate to the woman who is writing, like we're sitting down having a conversation about homesteading together over a cup of tea.

She has also just recently released an ebook called Your Custom Homestead: Awakening a Fresh Vision of Homesteading, which I purchased last week when she had a great 20% off promotion.  I read it early in the weekend and thought that it fit extremely well with a series of posts I wanted to start anyhow.

The ebook I recently purchased.

Photo of Jill from her blog.

I have already posted a little about the beginning of my homesteading journey here and here.  I wanted to continue to explore how I came to be at the beginning of this road and work my way through what my goals and inspirations are as I continue to write about some of the things that I'm pursuing at the moment, such as the community garden and my application for a permit to have laying hens.  Jill's book basically walks you through the planning procedure and is helpful for those of us who, like me, love to plan and might continue to dream and plan infinitely without taking the plunge into actually doing something.  It's also great for those of you that might be prone to purchasing a milk cow off Kijiji without stopping to consider that you don't know the first thing about cows.

So I am going to work through her book here on my blog, hopefully not giving too much of it away but following the guidelines she sets out as steps to follow to turn my dream into a reality, one that fits my life situation at this time.  I'll progress through twenty-one days of small steps, and reflect on them here.

Day 1
I've today started a homesteading binder.  This will be where I keep all my thoughts, plans, and hopes organized in one place.  Tips for growing watermelons in our climate?  Look in my binder.  What goals do I have for the next 5-10 years?  Oh look!  It's in my binder.  My childhood neighbour Hazel's recipe for delicious mustard pickles?  You've got it, in the binder.  And the articles that I will be cutting out of the magazines I mentioned the other day?  What better place to keep them organized and ready to read in years to come than my new, sturdy, Canadian-made, 2-inch ring, binder.

Right now my binder is empty except for some organizing tabs.  But as I go through the next few weeks, I'll begin filling it up with everything I mentioned above and more.  Maybe some of you can follow along, or go purchase Jill's ebook for yourselves!

Here is my binder, full of promise.

*Note the sweet potato vine in the background.  I thought it made my instagram picture (which I use because I am no photographer and I find them to be quite forgiving) a little more colourful and artistic and homestead-y looking.  That's my little confession.  Also, while I'm confessing, that poor thing was living in a jar for about 4 months and I only planted it in that (eco-friendly) pot this afternoon, so I felt the need to showcase it, even if it isn't in the best shape because of being in the aforementioned jar.

I'll be back tomorrow with my next step in building my custom homestead.

Summerside Up

So the above title is a pretty brutal play on "sunny-side up" that honours my father's ability (or inability at times) to make us laugh with dreadful puns.  Of what do I speak?

The very exciting possibility of getting laying hens in Summerside, Prince Edward Island.

The backyard chicken movement is becoming pretty hot in some cities (see this article), with lots of suburban homesteaders raising happy hens to produce their own eggs, right in the comfort of their backyard.  A lot of municipalities will allow up to six laying hens, and I suppose each town or city will have varying requirements on the part of the owners in terms of care, housing, etc.

This is a pretty new trend in Prince Edward Island with only one case of note in the last couple of years in Charlottetown.  I'm not sure if that positive story inspired other backyard chicken aficionados in Charlottetown or not, but in Summerside the pleasing prospect of petite property poultry... capers (sorry, lost my little streak of alliteration) is all but unknown.  Upon looking up the by-laws in Summerside, it would appear that chickens, as well as a number of much more questionable members of the animal kingdom, such as bulls, donkeys, wolves, and lizards, are permitted within city limits as long as approval is granted by City Council.

When I contacted my city councillor regarding my desire to apply for a permit for backyard laying hens, he said I'd have to get in touch with police services.  I was a bit confused.  The by-laws said to speak to the animal control officer, which I assumed would be under technical services with City Hall.  But I did as instructed and contacted police services and asked who I should speak to.  The person who answered was unfamiliar with requests for poultry permits and said I should contact City Hall.  I did, and got bumped around from staff member to staff member, until the phone was picked up by a very helpful man in technical services who said I did, in fact, need to be speaking to police services.  However, not just anyone at police services, but, amazingly enough, the chief of city police, who would help me with the paperwork.

Really?  The chief of police was needed in order to fill out an application for a permit for three or four, dust-bathing, happily clucking, yummy egg-laying hens?

Surely he must have more important matters to attend to, such as prevalent drug issues, children breaking into construction sites and stealing vehicles, and young men crashing their cars into public institutions, such as the Rotary Library.  However, it seems that animal control responsibilities also fall onto his desk.

Needless to say, I was reluctant to contact the police chief due to the fact that such shenanigans, as mentioned above, must come (appropriately) at the top of his priority list and homestead hopefuls wanting backyard hens, probably somewhere near the bottom.

However, as spring approaches, I want to get this process underway so I bit the bullet and sent him a letter explaining what I wanted, that I was directed to contact him, and that I wanted to know what steps I should take to get the ball rolling on the permit application.  He emailed me back the same day, was super helpful, and set up a meeting for this afternoon, which I happily attended.

Apparently, there's only ever been one other application for backyard hens in Summerside, a number of years ago, by a man who actually already had a flock of Cornish hens on his property but was told he needed a permit.  So that is the only precedent that has been set in our community for this issue.  I believe he may also have been the same guy who had bantam roosters that were upsetting the neighbours, thus creating a slightly negative view of backyard chicken-keeping in our fair city.

So I went to police services, got buzzed in past the heavy security doors, and was taken to Chief Poirier's office to discuss the matter.  He had already done some of the paperwork for me, and had unearthed the other sole applicant's file to show me to shed some light on how approval is granted.  He had already made photocopies of forms that I need, asked me a little about my intentions, expressed his concern for the care and comfort of the hens, and sent me on my way with my homework.

All in all, it doesn't seem overly taxing, given the fact that they don't generally embark on this process.  I have to:

a) get the signatures of every neighbour within a 200-foot radius of my home, saying that they have been notified and are ok with me getting the chickens

b) write a formal letter to the police chief, outlining my plans and explaining why I want the birds

c) submit a plan of my chicken coop and housing/pen dimensions for review

d) have photos taken of my backyard, including location for the coop, trees and fencing available

e) outline my waste disposal plans for the manure generated by my (tentative) flock of lovely ladies

f) be subjected to a property inspection before approval, after one year of owning the chickens, should my permit application be approved, and then every two years after that

g) not be heard from again (i.e. do not allow my chickens to terrorize the neighbourhood).

Then the police chief will put together all my paperwork, contact the Department of Health to ensure there are no problems currently with avian influenza or any other communicable chicken diseases, and present my file to city council for approval.  It's really very good of him!

In the meantime, I am pestering my long-suffering father with chicken coop/pen/tractor ideas and how best to incorporate them into our small backyard.  I already have one signature on my sheet and haven't even gone door-to-door yet!  If all goes well, then hopefully this coming spring our backyard will be home to someone very much like this femme fatale:

Wish me luck!  If anyone has any comments on gaining approval for chickens within city limits, I'd be happy to hear them!

Winter Reading for a Hopeful Homesteader

In general, I love reading novels.  I would curl up reading novels every night were time to permit it.  However, I also love reading about homesteading, gardening, looking after livestock, cooking the bounty of a garden, making bath and body products from an abundance of herbs, etc.  Not only is the topic fascinating, almost every page gives me inspiration for new ideas to pursue, plants to grow, projects to undertake, and perhaps most importantly, a sense of confidence about these endeavours.  The confidence comes from the fact that I see other people out there with similar interests and desires for a self-sufficient lifestyle.  People who hadn't really spent much time tending houseplants let alone expansive vegetable gardens are now growing bushels of heirloom vegetables, extracting honey from their own hives, making cheese with the milk generously provided by their very own cows, and tapping sugar maples to make their own maple syrup.  If they can do it, armed with information and passion, then why couldn't I as well?

In recent cold winter evenings, I love to read and imagine and plan for what will come.  And these are a few of the books that have been good friends and wise givers of advice as I begin down this path to a homesteading lifestyle.  In each case, the books are easy and enjoyable to read, informative, and offer resources for further research on topics of specific interest to readers.  Perhaps some of you may be interested in them as well!

The first one, that I bought a few years ago, is:

Barnyard in your Backyard - This book has given me great ideas about how to start out with the development of a hobby farm and the necessary information to choose, house, and care for livestock.

 Definitely worth a read!






Next, I bought:

The Backyard Homestead. I LOVE this book.  I have already read it cover to cover at least three or four times.  It's broken up into sections about growing vegetables, raising livestock (not as comprehensive as the book above but still helpful), foraging for wild foods, and using the resources at hand to produce all the food you need on a quarter acre of land!  

It's great especially for homestead hopefuls living in urban or suburban areas, but the information is still definitely valuable for those with rural properties as well.

I then borrowed the following two books from a friend with a common love of vegetable gardens (I look forward to many more chats about this topic Pam!):

Both are great books, especially for those of us who've grown a little but are really starting out with a newly established (or re-established) interest in vegetable gardening.  They are written in a very easy-to-read, fun style, and I love that the author is a Canadian who also has an awesome website (You Grow Girl) where you can find tonnes of information.  

The first one, You Grow Girl, has pretty much all the basic information you need to get started gardening, including building the soil, choosing plants appropriate for the site you have access to, how to promote good bugs and deter bad ones, and some super fun projects like growing your own loofahs!  How great is that?  

I read the book cover to cover the first evening I had it!

The second book, Grow Great Grub continues the lesson with a focus on (mostly) vegetables and herbs, looking at each major group of popular vegetables and outlining their needs, companion plants, and things you can do with your bounty!


I'm always on the lookout for new books on this topic, so if you have any recommendations I'd be really glad to hear them.  Perhaps you could try a few of the ones I listed above, and then maybe like me, you'll be hooked too!

Why I Hope to Homestead

I've always been a bit of a romantic when it comes to imagining my ideal lifestyle.  Softly edged images, like watercolour paintings, have floated through my imagination since I was a girl.  These are not at all a new occurrence, but desires woven together from experience in my own home growing up, settings in favourite novels, and the lives and properties of friends and family.  Some of the images that come to mind now but that have been a part of me for years include:

-a silver tabby cat (preferably with six toes on each foot) sitting on a windowsill surrounded by African violets in a warm, gently lit kitchen, looking out at the frosty winter evening

-the smell of homemade gingerbread baking in the oven while you sit in front of a fireplace under a handmade quilt reading a novel, or the Bible, or writing in a journal

-the adorably nasal sound of a red-breasted nuthatch foraging in the conifers off to the side of your property while you stroll through the trees

the bright red stain of strawberry juice on your fingers as you hull pound after pound of the delightful morsels in order to make strawberry jam, or pie, or shortcake

-the warm scent and peaceful, welcome sound of horses munching on hay in a quiet barn in the evening

-the burst of flavour and juice in your mouth from a cherry tomato freshly plucked from your own plants

I could list these forever.  Now that I have children, I have even more images in my head and my heart, such as:

-the expression of wonder on James' face as he holds a fluffy, yellow, day-old chick in his own small hands

-Susannah's laughter as she watches the antics of young goats playing, or hens having a dust bath in our yard

-the glint of sunlight off their hair as they run through a sweetly smelling field of red clover under a blue sky

-the learning and valuable experience that would be theirs, knowing that they can grow their own food and help me prepare it in the kitchen.

Some of these images can easily come to life without actually actively seeking to establish a homestead.  But how much more satisfying would that strawberry jam be, if we grew and picked the berries ourselves? Would the frosty winter scene outside the kitchen window be even more beautiful if the snow dusted a barn, and fence posts, and lovingly planted fruit trees as opposed to the parked cars of our suburban neighbours?  For a romantic like me, who grew up in the country, the answer is yes.

Having grown up in the country, and having had big vegetable gardens and a Belgian gelding to look after and having done some preserving on my own already, I know that the experiences aren't always magical.  They can be dirty, they can be exhausting, they can be frustrating.  I didn't love weeding my parents' vegetable garden.  Anything but, in fact.  That handsome gelding created hefty quantities of manure that needed to be cleaned out of the barn (I didn't mind that chore at all though, although it was an awful lot of work!).  Preserving can be hot, frustrating work when you're hulling pounds and pounds of berries in the heat of July while your entire family goes to the beach and leaves you with them by yourself (sorry about that day, Mamma!).

But as I've grown, I've experienced educational institutions, the simplistic but beautiful life I had in Costa Rica, the frustrations and satisfaction of various jobs, the on-going joy of motherhood, the pride and the disappointment in the way our society is governed, and the financial responsibility of owning a home and raising a family.  I've come to crave that ability to sustain a family while bringing each member closer to the others, of growing food and growing hope and love and confidence and thankfulness, of caring for my loved ones and caring for the earth.  A life of raising strong, loving, responsible children who respect the world around them and are aware of and thankful for their food sounds like the most rewarding life I could imagine.  Sharing that with my husband and providing for all of them while doing what I love?  Spending my spare time with plants, with animals, with fresh produce grown steps from my own kitchen?  Seeking to better understand the natural world and our place in it?  Teaching my children self-sufficiency and respect for others in a setting where they can practice those skills every day?

It seems impossible not to strive for this life.

This post is linked to Homestead Barn Hop #51