anotherkindofdrew blog

Hello, My name is Rachel, and I have so many things to say about the “green” machine, I am losing focus. I’ve started/deleted, started/finished and then finished/deleted this post at LEAST five times. Instead of recapping what I’ve already said on my own blog, or trying to fit too much into too small a space, I’m asking you (if you’re interested) to visit that post ON MY BLOG.

Here on Andrew’s blog, I thought I’d share about my chickens, and how they are a part of my Chewy Living.

Before our recent move to the country, I had a small city flock of chickens. They lived in a chicken tractor. I had read about battery hens. The ones that lay your eggs if you buy them in the super market. Their life is NOT a nice one. I decided that hens would be a great addition to our family. MY chickens would have a better life and thus provide me with better eggs. Since you don’t have to have a rooster to get eggs from chickens, and we lived in the city with neighbors close by, I chose to have only hens. I should just warn you now. If you get chickens, you’ll be hooked. If you’re anything like most of us crazy chook people, you’ll always be looking for ways to grow your flock and manage them. How can you NOT?

All I can think when I see that photo is “GUESS WHAT?!?! Chicken Butt”. Oh yes. I’m THAT classy. Moving on.

Now that I live in the country, I have more options as to what I can do with my flock. I decided to start by getting a rooster in order to allow my hen to raise their own chicks. (Hens to a MUCH better job raising chicks at a much lower death rate and with much less WORK than we humans. MUCH.) Rather than start having chickens all over the place, I created a flock management plan that will allow me to maximize my hen’s laying years, sell eggs to neutralize the cost of feed, butcher some chickens for meat each year and still maintain a smaller scale flock. I wanted to have my flock in rotation in a way that would allow me to have a full and productive flock in a cycle that would never stop. Here is what this will look like:

• I will add to my flock in groups of 3-4 each year until I have 18-20 hens.
• I will be allowing my hens to hatch and raise chicks starting next year. I plan to allow them to sit on about 12 eggs.
• I will keep 3-4 of the pullets and butcher any roosters and extra pullets I have from the hatch. When I have a full flock (20 girls), I will also cull the oldest batch of laying hens that I have. This way, I will have 12 or so laying hens in varying stages of productivity at any given time, and a fresh batch of soon to be layers coming in.

My flock should be full and in rotation by 2012. At least that’s the plan.

Getting chickens seemed like a huge leap, but we LOVE our chickens! I can’t imagine ever NOT having them now. They were a great decision, and I love knowing that our eggs come from happy content chickens, who frankly, live it UP here in the country. Free range pastured chicken life? yeah. They’ve got it good. I also like knowing that when the time comes to butcher, they’ll be treated with the dignity and respect they deserve, and an appreciation that I’ve learned can only come when you truly know your food.

So tell me. What leap did you take toward a chewy life that you can’t imagine living without?

I’m sure each of you has a person or two that you have met online and just can’t remember really how or when or even why. They seem so integrated into your daily life that you can’t imagine them not being there. Such is the case with whetzelmomma.

Rachel is a farm gal who currently lives in Oregon with her family – which at last count included a husband, 3 boys, some chickens, a dog, etc. Her blog Memories of Mine to Thine is a great read with updates almost daily. Wait. WAIT. That’s how I met her. I was on Twitter one morning and asked about Portland and she spoke up. She was working part-time at a little coffee shop and being a chook farmer during the day. It was an instant connection and I only became more enthralled when I saw her doll making, her photography, and her thrift store crafts!
Lately though our conversations have turned to a more disgruntled place both showing disgust and weariness about the greenwashing of America by “the man.” I have to warn you though. She is much more feisty than me!

And just to show you I have asked her to be a guest blogger beginning on July 29th. I can’t wait to hear her take on the situation and see how she encourages and challenges even the most hardheaded (myself included) to be more conscious of how we live and how it effects the world around us!
Before she talks is up over here make sure to read up on her and fall into her free spirited world the way I did some months ago!
Oh! And did I mention I was going to be talking it up over in her world starting the same day!

C’mon. Make up your mind! I live in middle Georgia. While I live in a city it is little more than a county seat with less than 11k people. We have two grocery stores (one a franchise and one independently owned). We have a movie rental store. We have three drugstores. It is a rather quiet existence 25 miles removed from the closest strip mall or office complex. The downside? Boredom. Because I grew up in the city and I spent a large part of my life in the creative arts world I often find myself missing theatres, museums, galleries, and the like. I miss French food and pubs that specialize in Ales. My life now is so different from just barely over two years ago when I lived in the middle of Brooklyn sandwiched between a Dominican neighborhood and an African-American one. Some days though, I am not sure if I want it to be.

I’m confused. Do I want to live on a hobby farm surrounded by acres of pasture, growing my own food, and sleeping by the suns clock? Do I want to continue harvesting rainwater, experimenting with solar energy, and longing for dairy goats? Or do I want a brownstone in the middle of ethnic diversity so rich the air smells of Bahamian beaches and Ukranian bakeries? Do I want absolute silence as I go to sleep or do I want the security of paramedic sirens and fire horns? Which lifestyle makes me feel more alive? Which do I truly want? I enjoy aspects of both and when immersed in one, can’t even imagine the other.

Is one more simple than the other? Six of one, half dozen of the other, I think in regards to which is more simple. Life in the city makes things more accessible; more evident. You can walk, ride your bike, take public transport, etc. You can enhance your life with cultural and artistic stimulation and you probably don’t have to go far to find a friend to spend time with. But out here in the county there is more time to reflect on life. There is better access to God’s creation, a stronger sense of “self,” and a plethora of quiet time to ease the stresses and strains of the day. The downside? Separation. I don’t need a crowd around me to feel good. I don’t need to be in the thick of things. But I do need to connect and I do enjoy a cold beer with good friends and that just doesn’t happen in the milking barn at sunset.

I have never been a lukewarm person though and I don’t intend to start now. I can’t live in suburbia. It’s a nightmare to even think about and I’m either staying out of the pool or I’m diving in the deep end.

What about you? Where is the life that late you led? Where is it now? And more importantly, where do you think it should be?