This City Girl Longs for a Different Life

I stopped at a local Tractor Supply store on Friday. I heard they had baby chicks and I just wanted to take a peek. I was so tempted to bring a few home but you had to buy six and I just couldn't see surprising my hubby with that many chickens.

Instead I picked up a few magazines about chickens, goats and gardening/farming. I figured even if now is not the time for purchasing chickens I could at the very least learn about them, and of course look at the cute pictures of baby chicks.

Over the last few days I have read a lot about chickens and I still want my own flock of chickens. I just don't want them right now. I wouldn't mind having them now but there are quite a few preparations to make and then it is the question of how we would deal with long harsh winters and extreme summer temps.

Not to mention the fact that we rent this house and would have to ask permission. I think the one that screams no is that we have a dog that would not like to share her tiny back yard with chickens. She is not much for catching animals but she would be chasing them all over all the time. If she didn't accidental kill some chickens by pouncing on them or trying to make them play like a dog she would give them heart attacks. I would need a place where I could have a designated area for the chickens and preferably a large area. I would want my chickens to have a good sized spot for grazing.

What I would really like is a farm of my own. So here I am going to outline my ultimate dream home for you. Well at least I think it is what I want. We would probably be building a home on at least five acres of land. I would want to find a way to build the home so it was not entirely reliant on gas and power companies.  The problem is finding a great deal on land so we can afford to put a house on as well as out buildings and fences. I would also like a pond stocked with fish. I would like to have plenty of room for grazing animals and an organic garden.

What I really want is to live with less dependence on  other sources for survival. I would like to learn everything I can about making my own.....well everything. I keep saying to myself I guess I could live without....to save money here and there but it all comes down to living my dream or not.

I am guessing that I would have a lot of fun stuff to write about if I lived on a farm. I would have a lot to do as well and it would be like a mini vacation to sit down and write.

My hubby isn't to vocal about anything but he always talks about wanting goats. I am not so sure I would enjoy them the way he thinks he would but they have the potential to be very useful creatures. So I guess I should get him to sit down and we should discuss what we want and where we want to live. We are not even sure we want to stay in this area (another good reason not to buy animals now) so what we really need to do is work on a plan.

Gardening Trials and Tribulations

So we planted our garden and we started strawberries last year. We have broccoli, cucumbers, green onions, garlic, and a variety of peppers and tomatoes. Things are going well with most of the plants right now but they didn't look so good the first week we took them from in the house to the designated plot in the back yard.

They were wilting and soon after they were planted some bugs seemed to attack them. With some rain water and bug spray most of them are doing well now.

There are a few plants that don't look like they are going to make it and the strawberries are looking great except for the RACCOON   damage. I need a night watch to keep them away. We have reinforced the fence to the veggie garden so they can't get back in there but we can't seem to keep them out of the strawberries. They break the branches and kill sections of the plants. The birds steal berries but they don't do much damage to the plants. There is enough to share with animals so I don't mind the birds so much but the raccoons must go. The strawberries are also attracting some bugs that I have yet to identify and I am not sure how to get rid of them. They seem to just be in certain sections of the strawberries and I am not sure why. There are some slugs and something that looks a little like a slug but is much faster. I don't think traditional bug spray is going to work but who knows guess I will be researching bug control. Maybe I should not worry too much about them because they are not actually eating the plants they are just gross.

I have tomorrow off and I have some errands to run but if it is dry I need to weed the veggie garden and pick out the murdered by raccoon strawberry plants. If it is not you I will have to work on cleaning the house and sewing.