Urban Farming/Homesteading

Last week I had the opportunity to speak, at great length, with my parents about homesteading.  They have purchased a few books on the subject and nicely lent me two of them to read.  I am completely hooked on the concept.  It has always intrigued me. 

My father came over the other day to take a look and help me decide if I had the room for a chicken coop.  It turns out I do and as a result we have already moved forward on that.  We are allowed to keep up to three chickens within city limits and they are currently working on raising it to six.  Two of my neighbors have coops right now.  Growing up my parents kept a large coop and I always enjoyed the chickens.  My brother couldn’t stand them and hated everything about them, especially cleaning the coop.  We only raised them for eggs.  As a family we couldn’t get into the whole butchering scene which was weird since we all hunt and fish.  Chicken butchering just really grossed us out. 

We also looked at ways to make my garden area more efficient and ways to expand it and make it better.  I know I can plant more than I did this year and put some things a little closer together.  Also I am looking into going vertical and making additional space that way.  Another thing on my list is to construct a greenhouse on the lower portion of our deck. 

My parents own acreage and are seriously looking at putting in a much larger garden and raising chickens next year; far more than my three, I suspect.  My lot is 1/8^th of an acre and is long, narrow and has a lot of angles which makes the whole urban gardening a little more of a challenge, but not impossible.  I also have a lot of large shade trees on my property.  Still, I am serious about making it happen. 

We also talked about going elk hunting this fall and fishing more this summer.  I need to get a license and a new pole if I am to get serious about this.  The last time I went hunting I was in my early twenties so it has been awhile.  I haven’t fished in the last five years and that is unfortunate because I really do enjoy it. 

I think anytime we can take the opportunity to become more self sufficient and sustainable we owe it to ourselves to do so.  Not everyone is a hunter or a fisherman (person) and I recognize that, but I do think there is a multitude of different ways to be more sufficient and gardening is definitely one of them.  Carefully choosing what we plant in our yard and tending to it so it produces well is key to that.  It does take time so in order for us to make it work we all have to be involved and make it a family affair. 

We are learning a lot and learning a lot about ourselves and each other in the process too.  My girls are having a great time and, as a result, we are spending more quality time together.  That in itself makes it all worth it.