What We've Got So Far

Currently my husband and I live in a 900 sq ft house that has 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. We have a single car garage that has been added on at the back and the side so it allows more storage. Our backyard is a pretty good size but it's not what we're used to, at least half an acre. I think our whole lot is about 1/8 of an acre. We don't have any kids as I have health issues that have ixnayed my fertility. We do however have two amazing dogs - Princess, who we took in after she spent her first 6 years with my husband's sister, and Ringo (as in Johnny Ringo from Tombstone) that we have had since he was 6 weeks, he will be 5 in June. They are both Queensland Heelers which are known to be working dogs that have to have a job or they tend to be destructive. They have also been amazing guard dogs for us to the extent that it is hard to have visitors that they don't know.

Princess in front and Ringo in back

We have three garden beds in our back yard, two are 4' by 4' and one that is 10' by 2'. I planted a few things in the fall and only had my pumpkin come up, which died with an early frost. I already have most of my other vegetables coming up but a few are thin so I'll be seed starting a few of those in the house here shortly. I have a chicken coop with three lay bins and a full 10' by about 3' of running space for them when they are not free-ranging our back yard.

We went last year to a couple local feed stores and bought chicks; our first batch was five bantam (smaller breed) chicks and when we realized at least two of them were roosters we checked out a different store for silkie chicks which we were lucky enough to find two left. When we got them home it was super nice out so we put them right out in the chicken run with the other chicks that were about two months older. We went out every half hour or so to check on them and make sure nobody had escaped when we saw one of them had just died. It was incredibly heart wrenching so we quickly brought the other chick in the house, set her up by herself and went out to find more silkie chicks. We couldn't find a single chick under a month old so we took the youngest we could find which happened to be a full sized breed rather than a bantam breed; thankfully she was about a month old and quickly took to our little chick to help her along and acclimate with the other chicks. About a month later I went into the feed store where we were able to find our silkies and found they had a large amount of them but a significant amount (at least half) looked to have some sort of infection so I quickly grabbed two that were healthy and surprised my husband when I got them home... both turned out to be roosters.

We are now down to five chickens total with our rooster being a white silkie, we've got Fluff Muffin our silkie survivor, Momma that is our full sized hen, and Minerva and Hermione that are the two that have remained from the original group of chicks. Initially they all had names of characters from Harry Potter but then we started butchering roosters and it went down-hill from there.

Fluff Muffin standing in the front with Momma standing behind her

Homestead

0

Starting Over

So since I was 16 I have worked a full-time job and either been a full-time wife as well or went to school, or even for a bit, all three. I have been a dreamer all my life and so when my dreams felt crushed at my most recent job I decided it was time to start over.

My jobs started as a receptionist at a veterinary hospital to working in retail or at grocery stores for a while until I decided I was staying where I was at for a while. I then worked at a few veterinary hospitals again, five to be exact with three being sister hospitals in Seattle and two being sister hospitals in California. I worked to transition the hospitals from paper records to digital and everything that went along with that from appointments to inventory to creating documents for doctors to use for their appointments. I loved working in the hospital but it was an incredibly stressful sort of position where the personalities within the business can already be conflicting between receptionists and technicians for example. Receptionists tend to be more personable and prefer the one on one contact with people whereas technicians love the pets to an extent where they are happiest when not working with a client... as terrible as that sounds. They love doing the medicine portion of their job and that is the most important part when you have a doctor that is great at educating the clients. But I digress.... My job was seen as something that no one could see a difference with until it was a drastic change and they were not happy about change - who is when you have up to 35 years of writing your medical records one way and then some 20 something year old comes in and throws a wrench, I get it.

I would love to have a business as a veterinary consultant during those transitions or even to specifically focus on inventory management because (call me crazy) but I love the numbers and trying to figure out where items are "vanishing" to. The problem is, there isn't much market for it in my immediate area so rather than forcing myself to drive over 100 miles to the Los Angeles area where I could find plenty of work, I have chosen to become a house wife and focus on our little homestead as we call it.

My husband and I are both from small town, he from California and I from Wisconsin followed by Colorado where we met in high school. I have always loved working in a garden with my mom or my grandpa and decided it was high time to quit wasting money at a store on our vegetables we eat most often and try to grow them myself. My husband does go hunting for elk or deer in Colorado every year, it is our primary source of meat and we do not buy any beef from the store. His parents usually raise a hog or two (or seven) every year so we are lucky enough to get fresh pork when we go back about every six months. That means really the only meat I buy at the store is lunch meat or chicken - which I am currently working on reducing those numbers as well.

This blog will be a place for me to post all my crazy ideas that I have and anything we are researching to implement on our lot. I will warn you I am a woman of many hobbies so this will be a place for me to share not only our homestead adventures but also some of my quilting or knitting perhaps.

I would love to hear from anyone that is reading my blog - I'm just starting out so would love for you to follow me or subscribe to my posts.

Take care and talk to you soon!
            -Hannah

Housewife

0