2008/01/10

A garden and some chickens?

"You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do."
Henry Ford

"Potential just means you ain't done it yet."
Some homespun yokel whose name I cannot recall

I'm not really too concerned with my gardening and "sustainable living" reputation, but I've got a lot of potential. A revival of the abundant garden is in the works. We had one - a couple of 'em, actually. This year I want to do it again. (But it's easy to talk big when there's snow and slushy coldness on the ground out there, preventing me from having anything but potential.)

Chickens too - I've been reading a really enjoyable and fascinating book, and all my Inner Earthmamma urges are waking up and singing the siren song of "garden, tend, feed, and harvest ... garden, tend, feed, and harvest ..." They call me every year, and usually I can ignore them. This year, though, I just might join the choir. Phrases like "companion planting" and "green manure" are starting to rattle around in my brain box. And there are questions, too. What, for instance, would I feed the chickens? Or bigger than that, HOW, for instance, did I become someone who would even consider for a nanosecond the very idea of slaughtering and butchering my own animals? How did THAT happen? (Today I'm blaming Nina Planck.)

1 comment:

Genuine Lustre said...

I think it would be wonderfully economic if every household had a few chickens. They are so easy to own, and so entertaining. They don't eat much - a couple handfulls of grain and the kitchen scraps. If you let them out they forage for bugs all day and return to their roosts at night, at which time you can just shut the door if predators are a problem. Two things I have learned: A. -chickens won't wander more than about 150 ft from their roosts and B.-the wonder of finding free food in the nest box never ceases. If the world heads south, you can still eat an omelet. ps - you must get a rooster because they're very funny to watch, and they help keep the hens rounded up. Plus you might be rewarded with baby chicks.