FeltiFarm 2015 Part 1

 This year is big. I mean like, huge. I have a few personal fires burning or smoldering rather and I do this thing every spring where I full on pour my heart and soul into my garden instead of stress. Winter can suck it. It's spring!! And it's on like donkey kong. I would like to take a moment to review the evolution of this epic food growing journey thus far.

Before it all began.

  Another little blast from the past, Chickenlandia at the start.

Handmade with so much love. This yard has been one of my most cherished challenges and my proudest work in progress, Always growing and exceeding my ideas. I am a very lucky girl for all I have. Today I will go out and get my hands dirty with a wide smile. I need you all to see this amazing reveal for this years beauty. It's incredible if I do say so myself. Farm photo update as soon as things are ready.

Cha-cha-cha-cha-cha -changes

  This morning I cracked open the laptop for the first time in god knows how long. This old beast has been crashing on me lately so I choose my time spent interwebbing wisely if I need anything without mobile ease or accessibility. While I can do a nice long blog entry via voice text on the apple contraption, this feels like blogging. Also, I am currently here in my sweet new space called the Mom Den. A redecorating project of love and joy and also sadness because it was the room my sister lived in for the last few years ( since we bought the house ) and I miss her something fierce. She didn't die, she moved to Nashville which is exactly 1,976 miles away. This room had to change immediately because a cold empty void probably would have depressed me to no end and Aidan would have been a wreck. Thus, the Mom Den was born out of so many needs. One being my own zone which I truly feel is important to a Mom. We can't even pee without company. So any area of escape if possible just for a few moments of silence and alone time is like the most cherished treasure. Not even joking. Moms you feel me right?

 So, I opened up my social world this morning and saw three different messages that caught me one after the other and sent me into a full blown ugly cry of overwhelming love and appreciation. I do not cry. But the words from these few, perhaps even in the order I read them, touched me so deeply I had the lump in my throat and the hot tears flooding my face. I am always a bit proud when it comes to my kids. And Aidan especially because of all his issues and um.......facets? He is multifaceted. Let's put it that way. But a fellow Mom from the trenches of special needs parenting was one of these voices and she full on fucking gets me. I send her all the internet high fives today because she has dealt with her grab bag of bullshit mixed with joy for 20 years!! I applaud that because Aidan being 20 years old seems like eons away right now. You are my hero too. Another friend from IG sent me love and kindness this morning after reading my blog, which led me to check my blog which led me to the above gal which made me want to update my Facebook status and I was left without a proper set of words to describe feelings which led me to a FB message of love and kudos which made me come back and blog it out. ::sigh:: I feel like I really needed this right now at this exact point in time. I keep swimming and keep up "normal" as best I can. I don't expect any pats on the back for doing what I am supposed to be doing. That is life. You just get your shit done and live. But every once in a while if somebody says "good job" it does make me weep because this is really fucking hard you guys.

 I have not done the lists in a long time but I think it's a day for it.

 The Shitty Stuff

•   I miss my sister so much.
•   My Dad is sick again. Worse than last time.
•   I wish I could buy Aidan age appropriate imaginative toys for a 4-5 year old instead of sensory toys to combat stimming.
•  Some lady in our HOA is trying to make us get rid of our Chickens.
• I put a few stress lbs back on 
• Money is the root of all evil.

The Good Stuff

• My sis is with the love of her life and her awesome future is in full swing.
• My Dad can still wrestle Aidan
• I am the wizard of craigslist and my redecorating project for the whole downstairs cost me less that 50$ 
• I am healthy. My Husband and kids are healthy.
• Most people are still generally good inside with good intentions. Most. 

 Also, I will be damned if anyone has a say in my chicken keeping. Good luck to anyone attempting to change my awesome Feltifarm. My flock, my business. 

Things that are free are always cooler.

 I am more excited this year than last year I think and I'm not sure how that's possible. I have been feeling great and the sun is shining. Getting out in the fresh air with a plan is seriously my absolute favorite way to spend my day. And yesterday I made a Thursday feel like a Saturday and made it my bitch like it was a Monday.

 Being a massive salvage junky and a recycling addict, this is probably one of my best scores so far. I am amazed at how much I can find for free or nearly free between craigslist, Freecycle, and ReStore in Beaverton. My yard is made up of so many things from these places it would blow your mind. Sure it's more like a treasure hunt to find exactly what you are looking for but if you are somewhat patient and keep your eyes pealed you can find gems. Ok in most cases rocks and you turn them into gems. Like this for example. I found these fence panels on feet!! On craigslist for free!! They are untreated cedar and perfect. I was figuring I would have to spend a pretty penny on lumber and fence wire to make this happen. I paid nothing. And made a ton of stuff with it! Check it out.

   This fence was really important for me to build because it keeps the chickens out of the planting beds but it is also in easy to move sections. I wanted to maintain the chicken space in different shapes and spaces every few weeks to make sure the lawn doesn't get depleted in one spot. It gives the greens to the birds and refreshes the lawn with fertilizer and aeration. So switching it up in rotation is great for both! Plus if I want to just fence off the Garden and let chickens roam for a bit I can do that too. It's really nice to have lucked out with panels randomly. What are the odds?

 I only needed the frame part for the fence project but after removing the inner planks I found uses for some of them. They combined with a free shipping crate to make a 4x3 raised bed.

  And a table top for my planting bench. Also from a 2$ cabinet from ReStore. Needs a paint job then its all set.

 

   Don't worry, all of the building was of course overseen by an extremely watchful foreman.

  The next FeltiFarm post will be plants for sure. We have already started the leafy greens that are cold hardy and I am sprouting seeds next. So excited for this season.



**We are still taking donations for our Farmers Market goal until May 1st if you are interested in contributing you may do so here --> http://www.gofundme.com/Farming-for-Our-Autism

Who you callin' chicken?

 I have wanted a small flock of yard birds for a really long time. Always a girl with a farm and/or zoo in my heart, I would adopt massive amounts of animals if left to my own devises. Thankfully my hubs is more rational when it comes to an Ark worthy collection of beasts. Three years and a much more reasonably sized backyard later, I have my hens. And though he gave me an impossible challenge ( "we can get chickens if it doesn't cost me anything") I nearly complied.

 I researched all the cute breeds. I googled all the things about all the things. I weighed the pros and cons of chicks vs pullets ( chicks not yet of laying age but not in need of heat lamps and baby care). I read all the fun blogs from The City Chicken to Chicken Blog to The Chicken Chic ( non of which asked me to link anything, I just do because I liked them). While learning more and more about the awesome things having chickens can bring to my garden/farm, I just solidified my conquest. The next step was the coop.

 Coops are insanely priced. I will be super honest about how stupid I think that might be. NOT saying some aren't really cool looking. Just saying a coop for chickens had better not look cooler or be more well built than my kids play house. Nor does it need scalloped trim and shutters ( I was all "squeeeeeee shutters!!!" and then I was all, STFU it's a hen house!"). I realizes pretty quickly that building one was way smarter for my "not costing anything" goal. Because $349 costs a bunch.

 We have a local place that is wickedly awesome!!! It's called ReStore and everything about what it stands for makes me want to remodel my home and help others at the same time. If you have one of these locations near you I can pretty much guarantee you will walk in and wish you had always known it existed. I fell in love after a friend brought me. That friend and I walked the aisles in search of the perfect cabinet or hutch to convert into a recycled hen house. Deep in the kitchen cast offs we found an unfinished, solid pine project. Combined with the free pallets also collected from ReStore, I made this.

  Next I went all DIY crazytown and built a run from salvage wood bought for 12 cents a foot from the same beloved store. And the final home pen was completed.

 We got our laying hens from a neighboring town with much farmland. A chance happening where you make a connection you hadn't seen coming at all. This gal was a momma to a ten year old 4H chicken wrangler that looked like a teeny tiny Taylor Swift in Chicken mucking galoshes. Mom had posted an ad on craigslist because the eggs she had from her hens, plus the eggs she got from a hatchery, plus the eggs she acquired online all yielded ladies when they hatched. She had counted on the amount of roosters being greater and thus she wanted to unload some hens. Did you know that birds from one clutch of eggs will flock with themselves? And each group of eggs she got made a mini flock. Instead of combining, they kept with their own. I found that pretty interesting. Anyhow, we adopted four of her feathered girls and as we were leaving she pointed out that one was smaller than the other three. After explaining pecking order to my ten year old and then deciding that two little would be better than one  she went back into the hen house and brought out a pretty little silver girl with blue feet! Also small. And she came home us too. She is named Lady Rainicorn as per our sweet little 4 year old friend. She made five. Five lady birds in a chicky condo about a month or two from laying age. Perfect amount of time for them to get comfy and free range the yard before they start making us eggs.

 So far the chickens are happy and my kiddos couldn't be more into it. The ten year old loves to feed them new treats like fresh peas or blackberries and watch them go crazy. They are not as hand tamed as they might have been from chicks, but I'd say they like us quite a bit. I especially like how the follow Aidan around at a safe distance, curious of his every move. He is starting to hand feed them too and sing Old Macdonald had a Farm. Every E-I-E-I-O makes my heart flutter. I am so grateful for these new friends for so many reasons. I am sure there will be more stories but I will really try to keep the Crazy Chicken Lady stuff to a minimum.

  Also, you can't have a chicken and not name it Beyonce.

Lady Rainicorn, Queen Elizabeth, Buffy and Beyonce.

 

 Oh, and the whole chicken mission was nearly free. Nearly being less than $60. Once these hormone free free range eggs start appearing I think hubs will feel like $60 pretty much cost him nothing.