gardening 04 Mar 2007 09:16 am
A Garden Journal Entry.
My fingers are about all I can move this morning without hurting something on my old-before-its-time body. I don’t think I even shifted positions in my sleep last night.
Yesterday was a high, blue spring day blown about by gusts of wind strong enough to blow jeans off the line and knock down toddlers. Several times we heard cracks in the trees behind the house, causing us to look up and stand still until the force died down and it felt safe to walk beneath them again. David worked on getting the fencing attatched to poles placed a week ago on the new chicken yard, a task that proved incredibly difficult and led to the discovery that the new posts all need braces for support. I laid seed on the bare spots of the yard, composted the garden beds, cleared a section that is going to become a sunflower garden, and moved bucketloads of rock from places on the big hill down to the garden beds, where they became edging.
Since one of my passions is supporting and encouraging suburban-sized homesteading, and since despite it’s rural location, my yard is currently a normal-to-large sized suburban lot, I am designing my garden here so that it’s applicable to that kind of setting. So the garden may look more like “edible landscaping”, I’m paying attention to boundaries where fences would be, the orchard trees will be dwarf varieties, and the intial chicken set up is a “city chicken” model. Granted, the new one will not be; more eggs and meat won out and most city people can not keep 25 birds. But for the past year I’ve kept 3 in a very city-friendly manner.
When the kids came down today and said it was snowing I thought they were all lying. But the joke is on me….over an inch of white stuff is on the ground this morning and it’s still falling. Big, heavy, totally-unforecasted, flakes are lazily making their desent. I dreamt of tomato varieties last night; guess the snow is telling me to “cool it” on the spring fever a bit. As if my aching body wasn’t already screamin’ it. 
on 04 Mar 2007 at 1:57 pm 1.arnold-the-methodical said …
I had a good laugh at the ‘city chicken model’ you mention. Silly ideas about chickens having Mayors and sheriffs. Will it be a gated community or ghetto? Anyway now I have shown my ignorance let me know what you meant if you have time, with that big project on your weary hands. I have plans for chickens myself and try to garner information from wherever I can.
on 04 Mar 2007 at 2:19 pm 2.Tia said …
Hi Arnold! Nice to meet you. By “city chicken model” I meant that there are ways to keep chickens in the city; most people assume that if they live in town they can’t do it. But hens make really good pets! They are less noisy than some exotic birds. Most city ordinances allow for hens but not roosters though they are worded in so many ways that there is often confusion over that. While not everyone can move out to the country to “grow their own” there is MUCH the average town dweller can do to take a little more charge of their food supply and city chickens are one of them. Gated communities usually are the only true exception. Care needs to be taken to allow for visually-pleasing housing and adequate fencing; also there are still predators in town to watch out for. With gardening, most people are working with smaller sized yards rather than rural farm fields for gardening, but much can still be done. For more info, let me refer to my side bar. Click on the “urban homesteading” link and check out what Path to Freedom has accomplished on an urban lot that is 1/10th of acre!!! In short, city chicken keeping is different than country chicken keeping but both have great rewards!
on 04 Mar 2007 at 9:51 pm 3.Fatherstephen said …
I wholeheartedly believe in chickens as pets. My younger brother had a pet chicken - the result of a class “science experiment.” She was marvelously tame and a faithful producer of about one egg a day. My mother named her “baby.” She was tame enough that you could pet her and pick her up. Much better than a cat, not quite as good as a dog.
Sorry to hear about your snow. There were trace amounts on my car this morning and I wondered if you had had snow up the road. Last Sunday in Minneapolis, we had 20 inches - but everyone still went on about their business - including the services I was scheduled to preach at. Good to be home. See you soon!
on 28 Apr 2007 at 9:14 am 4.HelloWorld said …
Peace people
We love you