We’ve been busy, friends…so busy that blogging has fallen by the wayside. Since the last time I actually updated this thing, almost 18 months have flown by. Jeeze, Louise! In that time, Makeshift Farms has started put down some roots.
We’re composting–both the regular kind in the backyard pile, and the worm kind under the kitchen counter. Last summer, we finished outfitting the chicken palace, and bought 9 lovely chicken gals to live in it. We’ve managed to keep 8 of them alive, and they are keeping us very well supplied with fresh eggs. Their poop has been a great addition on the compost pile out back, and they cleaned up the garden scraps like a bunch of champs this fall.
The garden was a good learning experience, and successful in that we really were able to cut our grocery bill a smidgen. And there is nothing better than food we grew ourselves, in our backyard. The only real hitch in the giddyup was a minor (ok, so it ruined the entire summer…) little sciatica flare up in my left leg. I think we would have had way more luck in the garden if I’d been a little more able to weed the beds and piddle around with the fertilizer a couple more times. We figured out the things we want to grow again, and the things we’d rather just pick up at the grocery or the market. Our new seed catalog came in the mail a couple of weeks ago–they even sent two copies so we don’t have to share–and we’ve started working on our list of what to order and add.
Today, we ventured out to the Big Box Home Store (the Blue one…rhymes with SLOWS or BLOWS or GOD WE ARE GOING TO DIE IN HERE I KNOWS…) to buy the lumber and gutter pieces and roofing panels we need for our rabbitry. For meat rabbits. Go ahead and ask all the questions you need to…we’ve been reading about them for a while, and I’ve even learned how to cook rabbit a couple or five different and pretty tasty ways. Yes, it’ll be weird…and I will probably cry and gag a lot at first, but we’ve chose to eat food that also has a face, and if I’m going to have some integrity about that, this is part of the deal.
We’ll be enlarging the garden this year, and even though it is currently in the low-20’s here, I cannot wait to get back into the dirt. We harvested 28 gallons of black walnuts, in addition to the vegetables we grew this summer. I’m still working on soaking and scrubbing the leftover bits of hull on them. My fingers were stained for about three weeks after the hulling process, but honestly…it was kind of fun.
D.W. has been busy setting up his wood shop. He’s been sorting and storing and plotting and planning. He also reinforced the loft out there and ran an electric line out there. Additionally, Mr Jones also fabricated a genius water-warmer for the chicken palace. Also, did you know that chickens are not fans of cold weather? We’ve only had measurable snow one day, so far, and they were having none of it.
We’re winding down 2017 with full hearts and excited about our second growing season. We’ll be laying down weed sheeting in the garden in the next couple of weeks, so we can expand our area and do some more work on building healthy soil for healthy plants. Onions and herbs will be started in the seed nursery in the next week or two, and we’ve got to order seed potatoes. We’ve got vet visits for the cats to be altered, and our dog Clem needs her special lady surgery and shots, too. Our darling Hattie The Dog crossed over the Rainbow Bridge in September, and a tiny little whirlwind of kitten named Carrie Fisher showed up help us not miss Hattie so much.
I promise to try real hard and update this more often, for our families and friends and all the randos who love us to see what’s going on.
We love it here. We’d love to you to come hang out and play!
Love,
R&DÂ (and Clementine The Dog; Jinx, June Carter Cash, Patsy Cline, and Carrie Fisher Cats; 500 red wiggler worms under the kitchen sink; Sandra Day O’Clucker, Elena Kagefreehen, Soniegg Sotomayor, Judge Judy, Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, Florence Ballard, and the Libyan Sybil the chickens…RIP Ruth Bader-Ginsbird)
makeshiftfarms 