My Muse …

Leonardo had Mona Lisa, John Denver had The Rocky Mountains, Francis Scott Key had the Battle of Baltimore and Fort McHenry. Me? I have stress and aggravation. I know what you are thinking … awesome! Right? I mean, at least it is self-sustaining, which is what homesteading is all about! What if Mr. Denver was in the middle of writing Rocky Mountain High and the mountains fell over? Yeah, exactly … that is the kind of trouble you just don’t borrow!

Flaky, flakes …

Ok Colorado … you made your point …

After last week’s snow and subsequent thaw, I thought … I hoped … nay, I dreamt of a day that I could begin staking out the summer garden, plan where those durn’d chickens would live, and perhaps, just perhaps, work out that whole time travel thing.

And it sort of happened … without the time travel thing. Once we determined the soil was indeed dry enough, and not soupy, Deena and I slapped on our boots, stepped out onto the decimated and slightly soggy landscape, went out to make history, and began staking out (literally) the future vegetable garden. Was it really history in the making? I thought so. I even started a Wiki page on Wikipedia, concerning my awesome contributions to the world (you’re welcome by the way). Well, needless to say that didn’t go so well. (I think I fell somewhere between items #29 and #30)

However, I digress … in short, we did a lot of walking on the property, trying to determine where the Orchard, Chickens, Bees, Goats, etc. will go. We decided the middle of the property for the chicken coop (more on this later), for protections sake, and wanted to ensure that the garden(s) would be close by, since the chickens will free range in the off-season garden. (More on this in another post).

So, we staked out the area:

Staking the Garden, Day 1.

Two days later?

Doh!

O’ ye foolish mortals! Don’t get me wrong, we need the moisture … but I am already horribly behind in ramping things up around here. /sigh

O’ how I LOVE chicks …

Actually, I love chickens and eggs, the cooked variety. I have no idea if I am going to like live ones. Normally when I meet a chicken, it has just finished tanning itself in our oven at 350 for one hour, and is splayed out seductively on a smokin’ hawt bed of sticky rice, beckoning me to come and play, with my truest friends, Fork and Knife. But the live ones, well, they kind of freak me out with those beady, accusing chicken eyes, that seem to say “Yeah, I know you have eaten my family and friends [poor Nana chicken, God rest her soul] but not me puny human, not me!”. They also have a whole list of needs that I know nothing about. Yes, there are books and I have mostly read them, well, some of them … two of them … but still … freaky.

However, we are forging on. So we are in the process of designing the coop (apparently that is chicken speak for “chicken house” … we can’t just say “chicken house” cause all the other homesteaders snicker at you and throw worm poo, called “castings”, at you. So weird.) and trust me, there are all kinds of things you have to consider for the coop.

(DISCLAIMER: I have read that the coop isn’t that hard, but for me, the kid who had to draw up floor plans to rearrange his bedroom as a teenager, I assure you, it is a big deal.)

We are also looking at the various breeds, taking into account where we live, our needs (layers first we think), hardiness and temperament, cause we definitely don’t need any grouchy chickens running around spouting hurtful words. Ridiculous. We will definitely post something more concerning the chicks, once we get closer to acquiring them.

In conclusion …

Yes, I am stressed. Combing through our seeds and ordering more, determining what gets started indoors, what gets directly sown, the size of the beds, their design, testing our soil, what we will amend the soil with, etc. I hope next year I look back at this time and shake my head at stressing over these things. I mean, there is a lesson here … wisdom dictates that this is supposed to be a fun experience, that the journey, and not the destination, is what counts …….. but since I don’t subscribe to such hokum and nonsense, I see a LOT of stress in my future.  🙂