Turkeys Participating in No Shave November

I know we haven't shared much about our turkeys, but I wanted to write a quick post about them since they will be getting ready for Thanksgiving tomorrow. We will be sharing more about that later.

I went out last night to shut the door on the barn and noticed something a little strange on one of the turkey's chest. It looked like a bushy weed got stuck in its feathers. I wondered if any others had the same thing and so I checked them out. One of the other Toms did. This is what it looked like.

(Sorry the pics aren't the best. I took them this morning when I let them out and I didn't want to fuss about trying to get good lighting for a picture of the turkeys at 6:30 in the morning)

When I got back inside I consulted my expert that knows everything (Google) and found out that it is a "beard". I had no idea that turkeys grew beards! Granted I did not grow up in a hunting family or on a farm, so I was never expose to a live turkey. I guess that they decided to not shave them this month for No Shave November.

Some other things that you might not know about turkeys.

• Turkeys can fly - The domesticated turkey that most people eat for Thanksgiving can't because it is bred to be so big, but wild or heritage breeds can.
• The "Butterball" turkeys that you find at the store have been bred so that their breast meat is much larger. As a result of this they can't mate on their own and have to be artificially inseminated. Not the way nature intended it to be which is why we chose a heritage breed.
• Ben Franklin has been quoted as saying that the turkey should be the national bird. This is not entirely true. He wasn't happy with the Bald Eagle because he said that it wasn't a respectable bird and the turkey was more respectable. smithsonianmag.com has more information on this.
• Supposedly their gobble can be heard a mile away. I am not sure ours are that loud, but it is loud. And fun to talk back to them when they are doing it. Our neighbor kids would get them going from their yard.
• When you say a kid is being a turkey because they are getting into trouble, you are spot on. Turkeys are curious creatures (a lot like kids) and they like to jump over fences, jump up on anything they can and peck at anything new. Ask Nicole about this.
• Turkeys aren't dumb. I want to preface this by saying that I don't really think any animal is dumb. Animals are all smart in their own ways. After watching a completely domesticated hen hatch a chick and raise it without ever seeing it or being taught how to do it, I realize that animal have much better instincts than we do in some ways. Back to the turkey. The typical Thanksgiving turkey might be dumb because humans have bred any intelligence out of them. But heritage breeds and wild turkeys are intelligent. 

Stay tuned for how we turned these beautiful birds into a delicious Thanksgiving dinner.

The things we do for our chickens

Last night we had quite an interesting experience with one of our chickens.

Sam went out to tuck everyone in for the night and only counted 22 birds (we have 23 birds total). After looking around for a minute he found this:

One of our chickens had nuzzled its way into the middle of some welded wire we had laying around (which was on the side of the barn they supposedly do not have access to, by the way) and was stuck. Her tail was sticking out but we couldn't pull her out and were afraid we would cut her up if we tried. Sam tried to push her through to the other side but, as you can see in the picture, this side was pinched and the hole was smaller, too small for her to fit through - I had run over the welded wire a little when it was in the driveway a while ago - oops :). 

Our only solution was to unroll the ENTIRE thing in the dark... in the FREEZING COLD.

This whole scene was sort of hilarious to me so I took a couple pictures because it just HAD to be documented. Just picture a chicken's little head poking out going around and around while we unrolled and unrolled and unrolled... seriously funny! I mean, it was a little sad, but mostly hilarious since we were 98% sure she wasn't hurt at all, just stuck.

Towards the end we had to be careful unrolling the welded wire so we would not to bend her feet and break something since her feet were all tangled in the wire.

Once she was free she seemed a little in shock. We held her and pet her to let her know we were just trying to help and then we let her walk around for a minute to make sure nothing was broken or hurt before sending her off to bed with the rest of the flock. She was totally okay by the way, just a little confused.

Sometimes chickens are quite smart and sometimes they are really dumb (in this instance, for example). Nonetheless, it is ridiculous and quite funny the lengths we go to keep these chickens safe and happy. They are crazy but we love them!

Bye Bye Birdie

We are sad to report that our poor cute rooster is no more...

As I mentioned before, we put the rooster in the brooder for a couple days so he could adjust to his new home and all the other animals around here. He seemed a little stir crazy in there so we let him out a couple times for a short time when we were able to supervise. And every time we did the turkeys (and a few hens) wouldn't leave the poor guy alone... which kept the rooster scared pretty much all the time. 

Friday night we thought we would let him out into the barn at night so he would already be there when everyone woke up in the morning. Ironically that night, we went to "tuck in" everyone and the rooster had already gotten out of the brooder (he knocked over some boards which had to hurt) and was just sitting on top of it. Made our job easy! We decided to do this Friday night so that we (I'm using this word loosely, by "we" I mostly mean Sam) could be out there Saturday morning to supervise without having somewhere to be. Sam went out and checked on the rooster in the morning and he was still in his spot on the brooder (we assume he felt safer there) so we just let him stay there. 

We had planned to play pickleball with some friends that morning so Sam checked on the rooster again right before we left and he still hadn't moved from his spot on the brooder. We figured he would be fine there so we left and played pickleball for a couple hours. Then we went to our friends' house and had brunch and picked raspberries... so by the time we got home again about 4 hours had gone by.

When we went into the backyard we couldn't find the rooster anywhere so we figured he jumped over a fence somehow and we got ready to go on a rooster hunt (I was used to this with having to chase down a few mischievous turkeys in the past). We couldn't really see or hear him but then Sam looked more closely into our neighbor's yard just to the north of us and saw white feathers alllllll over... never a good sign. Especially when that neighbors has two really big dogs. The poor rooster unfortunately became one of the dog's morning snack. :(

We assume the rooster got brave and decided to venture out of the barn but was being chased/bullied by those blasted turkeys and jumped over anything it could to find refuge from those dang turkeys. Unfortunately, of ALL the yards he could have jumped into (we have 5 different yards that meet up with ours) he jumped into the WORST ONE!

We are sad about our poor rooster but there is not much we can do about it. Even though having animals is mostly a lot of fun, death is something you have to deal with too, especially with these kinds of animals. It is never fun to lose an animal and I still have a hard time with it, no matter how many times it happens.

We hope to get another rooster in the future and will keep you posted, as we don't know when that will be!

P.S. Our turkeys are driving me crazy and even though this is probably terrible to say, I think I will be happy when they will be gone next month!

Help us name our rooster!

Last night we acquired our very own rooster! 

We got it from Sam's friend who lives a couple miles away. The rooster would constantly peck at his kids' feet and since the kids are the ones who take care of the chickens, they decided to get rid of it. 

We have been talking for a while now about how we want a rooster so we were excited to pick this guy up!

Here is the deal with roosters (in case you don't already know) - they can be a bit aggressive. And loud (which doesn't bother us). But we were always hesitant to get one because we heard they can be really mean to people. Some people who have them have told me that they have to distract their rooster while they go out to collect the eggs because otherwise the rooster will become aggressive trying to protect the eggs. The stories go on and on. But then again people told us how mean turkeys can be and so far we haven't had any problems with them trying to peck us! Not one! So who knows...

The COOL thing about roosters, though, is their protective instincts. Roosters are actually good to have around because they protect their "girls" from any predators that might come their way. And they make it so we can hatch our own chicks!

I think the level of aggression depends on the breed and just the individual rooster. Last night when we brought this guy home we let him out in the run to see what would happen between the rooster and the hens and turkeys. The hens seemed a little curious but most didn't seem to care much. BUT THE TURKEYS! Holy smokes, they were not having it. Those turkeys of ours can be bullies. They started puffing out their feathers (a post on this to come because it is quite hilarious and also seriously cool) and going after the rooster like it was their job! They wouldn't leave the poor guy alone. We were chasing the rooster around trying to protect it/catch it. Let me tell you, this rooster is definitely stronger than our hens. He is not an easy catch, my friends. We were also a little nervous he might peck at our hands during the process (hence the gloves in the picture below) but he didn't go for them once. (He did go for Sam's feet a couple times when we went to pick him up). Once he was caught I took him for a nice tour of the yard and held him a lot so he would get used to me. He hardly even tried to shake free from me! Very surprising considering when we pick up most hens they are uncomfortable and try to get away pretty much the entire time.

The rooster is currently separated from the rest of the flock and is being held in our brooder in the barn. The rooster can be seen by the rest of the flock while in the brooder but is protected from them completely. Introducing a new member of the flock takes time and the flock will not accept it right away (which was quite clear with the turkeys last night). We are going to keep him in the brooder for at least a few days so everyone can see each other and get used to one another. Then, from what we have read, we are going to let him out at night once all the other animals are settled in their spots and cannot really see the rooster. People say having the chickens wake up and having the rooster already there helps with acceptance. So we are going to try it!

Also, this is all an experiment to us but we are going to see if we can get the rooster to stop pecking at peoples' feet. With roosters (and hens) you always have to make sure that they know YOU are the boss, not them. So if they try to peck at you, you give them a little (not painful or mean) kick or swat to let them know that is not ok and that you are the boss here.

We are going to try all this and see what happens! Hopefully it all works out! We will keep you posted!

OH AND PLEASE HELP US NAME THIS GUY! Survey found below :)

The Newest Member of our Family

Introducing...

Pepper!

In the last post I mentioned that one of our chickens, Zelda, had gone broody. (If you need a reminder of what that means, please refer to the last post). Luckily we have some great neighbors who have roosters (and thus have plenty of fertilized eggs) and were willing to give us some. We put 10 eggs under Zelda a couple months ago and then just let her do her thing! 21 days later Pepper was born! There were a few other chicks that hatched as well but ultimately didn't make it.

It has been so fun to watch the interaction between Zelda and baby Pepper. Pepper just follows mommy Zelda around 24/7 and Zelda protects Pepper from the other chickens, turkeys, and us too. It is so incredibly cute to watch!

We do not yet know if Pepper is a boy or a girl but we are excited to watch him/her grow up under the protection of Zelda!

It truly has been an amazing experience watching Zelda hatch and take care of Pepper... we hope to get a rooster in the future so we will be able to hatch more chicks ourselves!

Our children... I mean, our chickens

We are here today to convince you that chickens are the coolest animals ever. And the easiest "pets" that ever lived. You ready?

We got our first round of egg-layers in March 2013 after deciding to jump on the backyard chicken bandwagon along with the rest of America. Best decision ever! Unfortunately a raccoon decided to attack our 8-week old chickens and only one of the six survived. So we got six more and tried again.

Chicken-keeping lesson #1: Their main predators come out at night so they need a very secure place to sleep that will not allow for any predators. We thought our coop was totally secure but learned this lesson the hard way.

Now, we have 17 chickens... 7 that are currently laying and 10 more that we got in April/May.

Chicken-keeping lesson #2: Chickens start laying eggs when they are between 4 and 6 months old. Then they lay really well for about 2 years and then egg production declines after that. Egg production also declines in the winter when the amount of sunlight decreases. Chickens need about 14 hours of light per day to lay well.

So without further ado, here are our chickens (which are also like our children for the time being):

Rhode Island Red

These are hands-down our favorite breed. They are super friendly, good layers, and just great all-around chickens. And they are pretty! We have 4 of these, 2 that are already laying and 2 that aren't.

This one is Cinnamon. She is the boss. And the favorite... because she is the friendliest of all the chickens. She also is good at getting into trouble since she has to ALWAYS be where all the action is. The angle of this picture is a little weird because she was right at my feet. She always has to follow us around to see what we are doing.

Chicken-keeping lesson #3: Chickens always establish a pecking order. It is just what they do. There will always be a numero uno. In our case, it is Cinnamon. If you want to see who is in charge, just watch how the chickens act when they eat... usually chickens will move out of the way when a certain chicken (or chickens) that is "higher up" comes to eat. Sometimes they will even go do something else until the boss or other "higher up" chickens have finished eating and will come back later once those chickens have left.

Ameraucana

This breed is awesome! They lay the blue/green eggs which are pretty much the coolest things ever. This breed is relatively friendly and fairly good layers. We like these ones because no two birds look alike, they all have their own features that distinguish them from the others of the same breed. We have 5 of these, 3 that are laying and 2 that are almost 10 weeks old.

The bird above is Zelda, she is the one who survived the raccoon. Fitting name, don't ya think?

Chicken-keeping lesson #4: Chickens seek for the highest place. If they can look up and see something to land on they will usually jump up to it. And continue doing so until they can't see anything else to jump on... or decide something is too high. Hence the reason Zelda (above) found a shoulder to chill on.

This is Coco... she is also an Ameriaucana. We think she is the prettiest of all our chickens (so far). Don't tell the others we said that.

Buff Orpington

I love this breed because compared to the others they look FAT and FLUFFY. Turns out it is mostly just feathers that make them look fatter. They are friendly and are also good layers. We have 2 of these - Princess and Leia - need we say more?

Barred (Plymouth) Rock

Now begins the breeds we have not had before until this season. We really just wanted to try out this breed because they are awesome looking with their black and white stripes. They are a cross between two breeds (can't remember which ones) but are supposedly very cold hardy and good layers! We have 2 of these, they are about 7-8 weeks old. So far they don't like us (they run away when we try to pick them up) but we will keep working on it.

Chicken-keeping lesson #5: Chickens, hens at least, are very nice animals. We have had many people come over and act afraid of our chickens, but the reality is they are more scared of you than you are of them. They usually run away when you try to pick them up (except Cinnamon, which is why she is the favorite). Also, it is best to play with them as much as possible when they are chicks (even though they hate it) so they get used to you and won't be so afraid of you when they grow up. 

Golden Laced Wyandotte

This is not the best picture but we chose to try out this breed because they are supposedly very easy going, cold hardy, and good layers. And they are cool looking. Are you starting to see a trend here? We have 2 of these and so far they are great! We named them both Goldilocks... we are really original. Our original 7 are named but once we kept getting more we couldn't keep up. Mostly because we couldn't remember the next day what we named them. But names that go along with their breed seem to be working so we are going with it.

Blue Laced Red Wyandotte

This is supposedly one of the rarest but prettiest breeds... which is why we decided to try it out. When it is full grown it will be blue, red, orange, and brown. Her name is Blue (shocking right?). She was a little blue puff ball as a chick and we cannot wait to see what she looks like when she is full-grown! She is the only blue-laced red wyandotte we have... for now.

Speckled Sussex

This is Susie the Speckled Sussex. She (and Blue) are going to give Coco a run for her money on being the prettiest chicken. She is mostly brown on top but her chest is speckled and if she puts out her wings they are white on the very bottom. She is our only speckled sussex and she still just runs away from us when we come near her but when she is full-grown she is going to be a beauty!

This is the chickens' food and water. Sam made the feeder out of a rain gutter and wood. We ordered the waterer which is hooked up to a bucket so we don't have to fill it as often as we were with other waterers. We feed the chickens 20% lay mash, which gives them the best nutrition for when they are laying. When they are chicks, however, they are on starter feed for the first 2 months. The starter feed is just smaller pieces and makes it easier for them to eat and digest.

Note: Cinnamon in the background... proof that she always has to be where the action is!

Chicken-keeping lesson #6: To take care of chickens, they pretty much need food and water and that is about it. They are easy peasy!

This picture is a tad blurry but these are the roost bars. Sam built these from 2x2s. Chickens love to roost and this is where they sleep. They all fight for the top roost bar, as expected.

These are the nest boxes Sam built. Good thing he is handy! The chickens haven't fully caught on to the fact that they are supposed to lay their eggs in these. Some days they do, some days they don't.

That would be Zelda in there. She has gone broody, which is a chicken instinct where a chicken sits on the eggs all day trying to get them to hatch.

Chicken-keeping lesson #7: Most people asks us how this works all the time (we didn't necessarily understand this before we got chickens) but hens are female chickens and roosters are male chickens. Hens can lay eggs all the live long day without a male (just as human females do once a month... not trying to go THERE but it is important to understand how that process works) but they need a rooster to fertilize the eggs in order to be able to have baby chicks (just like humans... don't worry, stopping there). We do not have a rooster - that we know of, any of the little ones could be - so we do not have fertilized eggs. So unfortunately, Zelda is sitting on the eggs in vain. And when we try to go get them, she tries to bite us. It is totally a cool instinct but is not ideal right now since we know none of the eggs are fertilized. One day we hope to have a rooster and hatch our own baby chicks!

This is the brooder, once again built by Sam (well, I helped too). It is made out of 2x2s, cedar 1x4s, and hardware cloth. There are two compartments separated by a gate (that is able to open) in the middle. This is where we put the chicks. Chicks need to be kept in an environment that is about 95 degrees when they are first born, which is why there is a heat lamp. Then, each week you decrease the temperature by 5 degrees. We built this to have two compartments since we are doing egg layers and meat birds (remember that meat birds grow way faster than egg layers). We also built the brooder with hardware cloth on the front so that the chickens outside of the brooder are able to see the chickens inside the brooder. It can be a challenge to introduce new chickens into an established flock, especially when you just try to join them together out of nowhere. This brooder has helped a LOT with that problem. This way, the outside chickens are able to see the other ones the whole time and it is not such a shock when you let the little ones out. The big chickens still sometimes peck at the littler ones to show them who is boss, but they aren't trying to attack them like we have seen before.

This is the barn - aka the garage that we turned into a barn - aka the chicken house/coop.

The chickens have a really large area to roam in, which is great for them. They have tons of access to fresh grass, weeds, bugs, etc. - they LOVE it! You'll notice during almost every season except winter that the egg yolks of a free-range chicken are dark orange. That is due to the beta-carotene in the plants they eat. Humans typically get beta-carotene, a pigment (which will turn into vitamin A), in our diets from yellow-orange fruits and vegetables... hence the reason the yolks turn orange when the chickens get more beta-carotene in their diet! So you can actually get vitamin A from eggs! 

Aren't those so pretty? Eggs are also a source of riboflavin (vitamin B2), pantothenic acid (vitamin B5), biotin, vitamin B12, vitamin K, vitamin D, iron, zinc, phosphorus, sulfur, choline, and protein!

And you can use the shells too! You can feed them back to the chickens for calcium, grind them up and put them out to kill unwanted snails, or put them in your compost!

That is all probably more than you wanted to know about chickens but we hope you have a greater appreciation for these amazing creatures and are maybe thinking about trying to raise some yourself!

Meat Bird Processing

Sam and I spent last Saturday processing our chickens we were raising for meat. 

And when we say processing, we mean slaughtering, plucking, eviscerating, and cleaning the chickens. So we can eat them.

This was our first time raising chickens for meat. We have had our egg-layers for over a year now (and LOVE them!!!), but since we moved to a larger property we thought it would be the perfect time to try raising chickens for meat.

The standard meat chicken is called Cornish Cross - this is what you buy at the store. They are a hybrid chicken (not an actual breed) and have been selectively bred over time to get big, FAST. As chicks, they are cute, fluffy, yellow things...

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By 4 weeks they look like this...

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And at 8 weeks you have a 5-6 pound chicken that is full grown and ready to eat... crazy!!

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Since these chickens have been bred to get big so fast, they often have leg problems or will die of heart failure if you let them live too long past the time you would slaughter them. They are very lazy birds and do not like to move very much. 

Sam and I decided to start with 10 Cornish Cross chickens since this was our first time raising chickens for meat. We made -- and by "we" I really mean Sam -- them a pen (to protect them from predators) and raised them on pasture for the last 3-4 weeks of their life, once they were big enough to be outside and could keep themselves warm at night. We chose to put them in a pen outside instead of letting them stay in the barn with the other chickens because they would have stayed in the barn all day and would have only eaten chicken feed (because they are too lazy to move very far). By raising them on pasture, they were able to have access to bugs, grass, weeds, etc. that they would not have gotten otherwise. Grass-fed meat has been shown to have less saturated fat and more omega-3 fats than purely grain-fed meat. (Hey, I'm an almost Registered Dietitian, I have to throw nutritional information in there every now and then...)

Unfortunately, 2 of our chickens died prior to processing day, so we only processed 8 birds. And boy, what a long day of processing it was! In all honesty, it was a rough but good experience. It is never fun to have to kill something, especially something you have taken care of for a good chunk of time, but we thought it was important for us to be able to raise our own meat and to be able to know where our meat came from. Truth be told, Sam had to be the one to actually kill the chickens because if it were up to me, they would still be outside right now. Together we plucked the chickens and I did most of the evisceration (removing all the internal organs)... which was actually kinda cool. We watched quite a few YouTube videos on how to do all this and then just went at it! And I think we did a pretty dang good job if I do say so myself!

This was our final product... minus one chicken (not sure where it went, in the fridge maybe?). Once all of the chickens were done, we put them in these nifty shrinkable bags! For the bags, you put a chicken in a bag, zip-tie it shut, cut a small (like 1/2 inch or so) slit in the bag, submerge most of the bag (at least up to the hole) in ~180-degree water, and the bag just shrinks! Then you put a label over the slit and voila - you have a chicken ready for the freezer. We ordered the bags (they come with the zip ties and labels) from Herrick Kimball.

Sam holding the finished product!

My I-can't-believe-I-just-did-all-that face.

After all was said and done, we were exhausted. We were originally going to do another batch of chickens and sell some to those who were interested, but after all the work we did (and because it is not terribly fun to kill chickens) we decided to keep the chickens and hold off on raising more for meat until next season. So, if you are interested in farm fresh meat, we will be raising more next year and may ask that you come help with the processing... to make it go quicker and also to help it be more cost-effective to you! And let me tell ya... speaking from experience, the chicken is MIGHTY tasty :)

Welcome to our Garden

We'd like to introduce you to our garden!

Our garden began as a large patch of grass... actually weeds with a little grass.

But then we tilled it up!

And sectioned it off into 4 rows with walking paths in between.

Seeing as we had such a large area to plant (25 x 100 ft) we planned out where to plant everything using the Mother Earth News Vegetable Garden Planner. It really helped us to plan out our area effectively and know exactly how much room we had for each variety of plant. It was a lifesaver!

Around the first weekend in April we planted cold weather vegetables like kale, lettuce, cabbage, brussels sprouts, carrots, peas, spinach, and parsnips. We have been planting different things every week or two since and are finally almost done planting!

For the first couple weeks we had to water everything by hand since we didn't have a sprinkler system set up yet... which was not very fun.

But then we finally got drip tape, which made our lives much easier! 

Drip tape is very similar to a regular drip system, but it is less expensive. There are little 1/4" slits along the entire line of drip tape where the water is able to escape. It works great!

This is the current state of our garden...

Since this area used to be grass and weeds we have been fighting both ever since we tilled it up. A lot of what you see is both grass and weeds... but don't be fooled because everything we have planted is actually doing quite well! We have to weed the garden quite a bit and as you can see, we tend to fall behind on weeding (since we also have many other things going on). However, we know that even though this gardening season might be incredibly frustrating, next year and every year after that will continue to get better and better as we persevere and keep fighting the good fight!

Side note - the covered spot on the right is tomatoes... they experienced some sun shock when we planted them outside so we have given them some temporary shade to help them recover.

All in all, we have a LOT planted... tomatillos, tomatoes, yellow onion, red onion, garlic, kale, bush beans, 3 kinds of potatoes, green cabbage, red cabbage, squash, zucchini, brussels sprouts, leeks, eggplant, radishes, spinach, romaine lettuce, mixed salad greens, broccoli, cauliflower, soybeans, cucumber, pickling cucumber, green peppers, red bell peppers, yellow peppers, orange peppers, purple peppers, jalapenos, banana peppers, anaheim peppers, serrano pepper, corn, peas, carrots, beets, parsnips, raspberries, gooseberries, watermelon, cantaloupe, and grapes. We hope to plant some more corn, pole beans, pumpkins, and strawberries this weekend.

We also have a small herb garden, which includes sweet basil, cilantro, tarragon, oregano, italian parsley, sage, thyme, dill, chocolate mint, spearmint, and rosemary.

We hope our garden does well so we can eat some delicious food... because nothing tastes better than fresh fruit and vegetables picked from your own backyard!

Which came first, the chicken or the egg...? It was the chicken for us.

Our journey toward homesteading…

Ever since we got married we have had a passion for food. We are always looking for new recipes and ways to make delicious (and nutritious) food. Since Nicole received her Master's degree in a field that revolves around food -- nutrition -- we know how vital food is to our health. Many of the health issues that we are facing today stem from poor dietary habits. Over the past year or so we have been able to learn a lot about our current food system in the US and where exactly our food comes from. As a result, we have gained a great desire to have more control over our food. Last summer (2013) was our first summer in our own house and we decided to plant a garden with a wide variety of vegetables and some fruit. Our garden had 3 raised garden beds as well as a few flower beds that we turned into garden beds. It was fun to plant the seeds and watch them sprout, grow and bear fruit. Since we each such a large amount of fruits and vegetables we wanted even more growing space. Recently, we moved up to Roy due to Sam's job change and we now live on a half acre, which means much more growing space for us!

During the winter of 2012, Nicole had the idea of getting chickens. Sam had never really thought about owning chickens but was open to the idea. Seeing as he is the type of person who finds a lot of information from online sources, Sam researched what it would take to raise chickens and discovered that it was (supposedly) pretty easy. Sam then set out to build a chicken coop and we picked up our baby chicks. Even though there were a couple bumps along the way, we loved watching them grow and when they first started producing eggs we were so excited you would have thought it was Christmas morning! The eggs were better than any eggs we had ever eaten - they had huge, dark, creamy yolks and actually tasted like something! This experience convinced us that controlling our food supply meant we would have higher quality, better tasting food. And, fortunately for us, we had a fun time doing it!

In our research of the current food system we have come across many videos and images of animals that are being raised in a way that is completely unnatural and contrary to the life and purpose we believe God has for these animals. Many of the practices of food producers cause animals to be raised in harsh environments that put us at risk for many food-borne illnesses. Also, many practices allow animals to be mistreated and require harsh living conditions that are entirely unnecessary.  We do not like to support these practices and we believe we should be stewards over this great earth that God has given us, so we try our hardest to only eat meat that we know where it comes from and to give animals the good life that they deserve.

It seems the more we learn about food the more we realize there is still so much to learn!! Our society today is very far removed from where our food comes from and we would like to help people gain a greater appreciation for food and what it takes to grow/raise food. We are excited to begin this journey of food independence and this blog will be a way to document our homesteading experiences and share what we have learned... to hopefully inspire you to either start growing food yourself or even to simply cause you to pay a little more attention to where your food comes from. We hope you will join us!