Ahhh, the sweet smell of manure. Tilling soil, pulling weeds, planting seeds and watching them grow, collecting fresh eggs each morning as I say hi to the ladies who laid them- now that’s living. I’ve decided to start living off the land…sort of. I have to begin somewhere so I’ve built a raised garden bed, planted some kale, arugula, carrots and have literally been checking several times a day for those little green sprouts to rear their organic heads out of the earth and up towards the sun. It feels like Christmas Eve waiting for Santa to arrive with presents!
Spring has sprung (see the tiny green sprout)!
And now I’m researching back yard chicken coops and how to raise hens. I’ve learned that the more comfortable and happy the ladies are, the more eggs they’ll lay. No problem, I love animals and can’t wait to get the hen house all cuted up and comfy cozy so they’ll enjoy their home and bust out a plethora of fresh eggs.
City Girl Farming’s top reasons to raise chickens:
- Fresh eggs!
- Fresh fertilizer!
- They’re Organic Bug Killers!
- Unlike your children, they never get too big
- They’re cheap (no pun intended)
- Free entertainment
This is the first step of my farmette (I’d like to call it a yokelet but that would mean “requiring but one yoke of oxen to till a small farm.” Alas, I have no yoke and not even one ox). I thought I had made the word farmette up but apparently somebody beat me to it and even added the word to Wikipedia. The entry states, “Farmetters usually rely on their tractor to plow or snow blow their driveways during the winter.” I, on the other hand, will still be using a snow shovel next winter (and let’s be honest, I’ll probably have to break out the shovel again this Spring because thats how the weather rolls in Colorado) but that won’t stop me from making my farmette dreams come true. One raised bed and a lot of chicken coop research under my English Retreads belt, I guess that officially makes me a farmetter. Yee haw!
–Ms. English, The Bag Lady
