Aw Rain....

The rain started last night, and we do indeed need it.  The pasture and barnyard are a sodden quagmire of mud that will suck the boots right off our feet.  I'm not complaining, because we really do need the rain - but it has made for a sleepy day and I've been too busy to take advantage of it for more than 30 minutes before the evening feeding took place. 

And we discovered the barn roof has a leak right above the milking stand.  We'll get this taken care of, and in the meantime ... well, I'll leave the hood up on my rain jacket. :) 

I do love the soft sweet smell of a rainy barnyard!

Self suffiency

My husband and I often talk about how great it will be when we can be be self sustaining, off the grid (as much as possible) people.  It's an admirable goal and we're willing to work hard to make it happen, and sometimes that still means taking baby steps to get there.  That's ok - as long as we get there. 

That discussion always brings up the question of where do we want to live to do this.  Do we want to stay in Texas where the growing season is long?  Do we want to go to another state that has better soil but a shorter growing season?  (That one always brings up the discussion of how we would move all of our animals to a new farm far away.  A daunting thought, without doubt!)  Or will we come up with a new plan for where we are and try to buy more land from our neighbors?  I'm not sure we'll have the answer to this question until that day comes, and in the meantime we keep taking our little steps with our little farm.  

A recent discussion of this with my mother was so much fun I was nearly ready to pack that day!  (You'll note that I talk to her about these things a lot.  Again, she's a wise lady and full of insights.)  Think hard about what you Really need in your life.  You need food.  You need clothing.  You need shelter and appliances.  You need insurance and proper medical care.  You need enough income to be able to pay your taxes, and enough income to have a few things you can't make or grow yourself.  And retirement is an absolute must.  The point is that if you can be mostly self reliant for your day to day needs, then income can be put toward those important necessities that you cannot create for yourself, and retirement.  (Though most people never retire from growing a garden.)

Now, think about how much of your budget you spend on groceries every month.  Try just a week.  Now imagine this... if you were able to grow your own vegetables each season to stock your freezer and pantry for a year, how much would that save you?  At least $40 a week, on the conservative side, right?  That’s $2,080 a year in vegetables if you aren’t a vegetarian or vegan.  For about $400 you can get enough seeds and amendments to have one heck of a garden.  Less if you use compost you’ve made yourself, to produce the bulk of your vegetation for a year. 

Now what if you could raise a beef cow and have it processed?  One beef cow will average 1100 lbs.  After processing that equals about 550 lbs of meat.  That's about 10.5 pounds of beef a week!  How much would you pay each week to get 10.5 pounds of organically raised, chemically free, grass fed beef?  Depending on where you live in the country that price will range from $4.70 - $7.00 per pound, and you’re only guessing at the veracity of the seller.  Even if we split the difference, that comes up to 5.85 per pound or more than $61 per week, and more than $3,100 per year. I can guarantee that is more than the cost of feeding a single cow for and having it processed.  The cost of raising the cow is less than $1,000 per year – less if there is enough pasture that hay costs can be kept down.  The cost of slaughtering and butchering will run about $500.  Even combined, that’s still less than half of what you pay in the store, with the added bonus of knowing that your meat is clean and healthy and chemical / hormone free.  Peace of mind and peace of pocket book.  If you get the fat as well, that can be rendered for use in making soap.  (Which in my case would be sold as part of Zentopia Acres goat milk soaps!)

What about chicken?  If dual purpose birds are raised on hormone and chemical free rations, plus pasture and all the bugs they can find, you can get eggs and meat out of your flock.  Let’s say you want to account for a chicken a week out of dual purpose birds.  Do keep in mind these are not mutant sized chickens like you see in the grocery store!  52 dual purpose chickens will start laying eggs at about 4.5 months of age giving you more eggs than you can stand to look at, and you’ll need to sell some.  Let’s say you have a 65% lay rate between 4.5 months and 12 months.  That’s 884 eggs at about 34 eggs a day. A family isn’t going to eat that many eggs – Let’s say on the high side you go through two dozen eggs a week because you like them with breakfast and you do a lot of baking.  That still leaves you 214 eggs (17.8 dozen) that you could sell.  Provided you can cultivate the market for your organic eggs, if you sell 17 dozen for  $3 per dozen, that’s $51.  Feeding that many chickens at a time will cost about $35 per week.  The extra $17 covers what they cost to raise for the first 4.5 months before they started laying eggs.  Chickens are a win / win situation.  Slaughtering and processing chickens at home is easy and fairly quick.  And again, peace of mind that you are eating healthy protein that you produced on your own land.  Financially, organic eggs sell for about $5 per dozen and organic chicken can sell for up to $10 per bird.  That’s $520 a year in chicken and $520 a year in eggs, using the above estimation of two dozen a week.  $1040 per year in chicken products! 

(Slight digression here: Realistically you may want to stagger the raising of your flock so that you have perhaps start with one dozen chickens, then two months later get another dozen, etc. so that you can process a dozen at a time once they reach a year old.  Band the legs so you know who is ready for slaughter at each time.) 

On the subject of milk you know already that I am a proponent of goats.  As far as a feed conversion ratio goes, mini-mancha and mini-nubian goats are worth their weight in gold.  They don't require huge amounts of feed and each will average a little over half a gallon a day.  This is used for milk, cheese, and soap making.  At a cost of about $45 a month to maintain three mini-dairy does in milk, they are really quite economical to maintain.  If you purchase a gallon of milk a week, and a pound of cheese a week, you're already spending $11.75 on dairy products at the store per week, that have more than likely been treated with bHg for increased production.  If you get organic milk, that will run about $6 per gallon increasing the cost to about $14.75 a week or $59 per month or $708 per year.  Milk used to make soap is sold and creates a profit margin making the goats help pay for themselves.  Let's be conservative and say they only pay for half their feed.  That makes them cost about $22.50 a month to maintain, plus annual vet visit.  Let's call this $390 a year.

That leaves few things to purchase at the grocery store: Baking supplies.  Fish. Pasta. Yeah, that about sums it up.  So in essence you would trade spending approximately $7,500 a year (not counting the fish, pasta, bread that you aren't making or growing yourself) for foods that you cannot guarantee their source or health or safety, for

So we are looking at spending about $2,290 a year investing in growing your own food.  Let's round up to $2500 in case of unseen circumstances that require you to invest a little more.  You could spend up to $50 a week on miscellaneous groceries that you aren't producing.  $400 in veg, $1500 on a cow, feed and processing, the chickens come out even if you are able to sell eggs $0, and about $390 on dairy does. Plus a little $210 cushion.  Add $2,600 for the miscellaneous groceries you are not providing yourself. This gives us a grand total of $5,100 and the peace of mind that you have clean, healthy, organic food to feed your family.

To purchase everything you need at the store with conservative prices for your purchases you'll spend about $2080 in veg, $3100 in beef, $832 in chicken, $708 in dairy, and approximately $2600 in random supplies.  This comes up to $9,320. 

That is an annual savings of $4,220. Plus, you don't need a gym membership since your workout will be provided in growing and processing your own food. 

*Note: According to the USDA, a family of four with a moderate food purchase plan will spend $218.90 a week on groceries, totaling $11,382.80 per year.  I'm a little more conservative in my shopping habits :-) http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/Publications/FoodPlans/2010/CostofFoodOct10.pdf

Are You A Farmer or Not?

Now forgive me if I ramble a bit - I've been pretty sick for the last week plus, and this morning is the first that I've felt marginally decent. It's also the first cup of coffee (decaf) that I have had in two weeks. When you're sick, coffee just does not appeal.   

This morning, after feeding and milking by myself for the first time in a while (again - see illness above) I sat on the steps of the deck with a book and a cup of hot coffee in the then 62 degree air and smiled.  A true and genuine from the heart smile.  I watched the dogs play, and pushed their nosey furry faces out of my coffee cup and closed my book.  I looked out over the pasture and watched the now nearly adult kids play and pounce at one another, butting heads as they do.  Gerie was laying in the morning sun next to the duck pen, and the donkeys were nibbling at the low green grass out in the pasture.  The chickens ranged over the entire pasture with a few in each area. 

This is what life really is. 

There are events in daily life that set off a series of thoughts, sometimes very introspective.  It's no secret to some that my husband and I are no longer happy with our jobs.  We are working at resolving these situations, but options are still pretty limited.  Both of our incomes are still highly necessary. 

We are not yet at a financial point that we can jump off the bridge to being full time farmers, but something my mother said to me recently came to mind.  We had been speaking about what hubby and I want to do with our little farm, and my plan for how to grow and develop this into something profitable.  Now let me say this little tidbit about my Mom - she's fantastic and practical and if I want or need advice on our animals and farm she's the first I call.  We are good friends as well as mother and daughter, and I take what she says to heart. 

I digress.  During this conversation, I told her about what we plan in springtime and how other events in our life are going to take a serious back seat.  While those things are important to us, this is more important.  I could just about hear the smile in her voice when she said "Well, are you a farmer or not?  Cookie, you've wanted this all your life and this is your priority so be a farmer!" 

This morning, looking out over the little bitty farm that we have and thinking of all the troubles we have to deal with in day to day life I know more than ever that this is what I really want.  Nothing gives me the deep satisfaction like working with our animals and making something wonderful out of what they produce.  It feeds my soul and fills me with a happiness that there aren't words for.  It also lights the fire to continue to improve our production methods and pursue this dream with vigor despite obstacles. 

As to whether or not we are farmers, today the answer is yes. This is our piece of zen - Zentopia Acres.

Chicken Tractor

No, not "Chicken Truck" for any Mel McDaniel fans out there.   

This is for my beautiful friend Colleen, who now has the coolest chicken tractor in town as far as I’m concerned!  (My husband and son and I built it, so I can say that.) 

Except for the roof, the structure is made of reclaimed materials.  A fort that my husband dismantled and got the wood for free… pallets that we got for free… and an old porch swing of mine that I no longer had a place for (and it was falling apart in some ways.) 

We dismantled pallets.

We built the base and the nesting box.

We put that all up on legs / frame and added more walls.

Then we took it to her house, which is also the home of 3 little hens.

And we hung the doors and added the roof.  No, we added two. (The laying box has it's own roof to make it easy to get the eggs.)

Then their run was attached.

And last she’s fencing it in. 

The only thing left is to add wheels and roofing tiles, paint it white and make it cute!  The girls are safely protected, it’s mobile (once the wheels are added) and easy to maintain.  A little inspiration can go a long way!

A Tractor!

No, not that kind of tractor!  (Though that is high on my wish list!)  This weekends’ project will be to build a chicken tractor for my friend to whom I gifted 3 hens.  They are helping with her flea problem and feeding her decently already, but these little girls are too adventurous for their own good.

My friend lives in a normal neighborhood in a town that will allow up to 3 back yard chickens in her well fenced back yard.  This is exactly what she has now, with one pretty red Red Star hen, one fluffy white White Giant, and one sleek black Black Giant.  Her little dogs (a Chihuahua with more names than you can shake a dog bone at) and an Italian Greyhound who is so damn ugly he’s cute, have learned to be respectful of the girls.  They are each outweighed by even a single hen, so they have reason to be respectful! 

It isn’t her own sweet little dogs that pose the threat.  It’s the adventurous spirit of Lucy, Ethel and Jemima. This adventurous spirit has landed Jemima in the neighbors’ yard without dogs, and Ethel – poor Ethel – she found a secret chicken portal into the other neighbors’ yard with hound dogs in it.  (It’s amazing how all animals seem to find secret portals into their own universe – or at least the wrong place!) 

Ethel did come out of the scrape alive, but a little worse for wear.  She was bloodied and lost some feathers and had to spend a couple of days in the chicken hospital (a crate in the bathroom, which I am assured now smells like a hamster cage) getting Neosporin on her wounds.  She is back with her flock now, but already looking for new ways to explore uncharted (to her) territory.  Our answer will be a chicken tractor.  It's moveable, and fully fenced even over the top so they can't get out and marauders can't get in!

Pictures to come when this adventure in recycled wood starts!  We will be using recycled pallet wood to create this new hen hut that will protect the girls from themselves and marauders!