AROUND THE URBAN HOMESTEAD pt 3

Well, what you say we do another pictorial post?  Huh?

If you tire of this photo tirade, not to worry this will be the second to last installment of “a day in the life of an urban homesteader.”  Of course these photos only capture a fraction of what it’s like here on the urban homestead but I think you get an idea of our lifestyle seen thru the eyes of a camera.

I know, there’s not many photos of us gals – actually we like taking photos but hate our pics being taken.

Anyhow, I’ll concluded the pictorial post on Sunday with the finale “part 4″ which end an entire week worth of photos – then I’ll go into hibernation.  Just kidding.  There’s a few meaty posts in queue but thought it fun to do something different before the year is out.

:: Field Hand Appreciation :: MM $5  JD $20  CC $20  DC $10  S $5 thank you for your generous donations to keep this site going and growing!

Keep the support coming, thanks everyone!

We get interviewed for an upcoming online piece for an urban farming magazine (to air and be published in spring)

Jolly Justin laughs when the lady asked what he does in his “free time”  Ummm, let me guess – farm!  Yep, can’t get this guy out of the soil.  He lives, eats, breathes farming.

Farmer D shows off the urban farm’s front yard telling the story how nearly 20 years ago he turned the grass over into front yard food production.  Too bad they came in winter (“tween season”) – not much in the way of huge food production but they, hopefully, get the picture.

Jordanne shows of the animal yard and eggs and talks about how it’s important to be good stewards of the animals.

Ah, it’s those two again.  If they were human I’d like to think they’d have their own comedy show.  This duo remind me of Laverne and Shirley… too late to change their names though.  Oh well.

The goats on the “boardwalk” behind the garage

Headless chickens!  Nope, morning preening time.  Get those feather’s looking purty.

Shake, shake, shake, shake those feathers!  Add a bit of disco music – you get the picture.

Dawn (our oldest surviving duck from the 2003 flock) gets ready to take an afternoon nap.  The cold weather slows her down a bit but she’s healthy and happy – and that’s all the matters.

Goat napping.   Sheesh, there’s those eyes again looking at me.  Such a silly character!

Estella, another character.  When she walks she looks like Charlie Chaplin – seriously.  It’s a scream.

Amy now hangs out with her gal friends in the animal yard – though in a separate pen until she heals up.  For those of you who have been following Amy’s saga, she’s slowly doing better.  Every week we see a slight improvement.  Don’t know where I last left off but her balance (on land) is better.   I am afraid she won’t have any tail feathers to speak of (until the next molt) since she wore them down using her butt to keep her balance.

I find that after a massage she get’s a little worse the next day but then the following day after she walks and hold her head a little better.  She’s taking to stretching her neck out all the way out – forward.  Something she’s never done before.  And she also get’s up on her legs and flaps both wings a good sign because before she could only do this ducky flap in water.

Oh and this week, she’s back sleeping in the poultry house and she is SOOOOO happy.  Of course, we are too because now that it’s cooler the windows aren’t open and having her in the house was getting, shall I say, a bit musty.

Limes and outdoor solar shower (not in use mind you – it’s too cccccold!)

Praying manti egg case

Blooming squash – kinda late!

Boots.  A must for any urban homesteaders or farmer.   With these ones, they easily slip on and off.  To reduce unnecessary housework we take off our shoes.

Jordanne does a bit of webwork.  Even though it’s chilly in the morning and evenings we haven’t turned on the wood stove to take the nip out of the air.  Instead we bundle up!

Notice too, that we don’t use any unnecessary light.  If it’s day, we use daylight for our low impact life.

Also if you look closely you’ll see some orange clippers.  Don’t tell them yet, but looks like it’s hoof trimming time!

Farmer D packs a FreedomSeed.org order.   When we found out that Monsanto owned much of the vegetable seeds after their takeover of Seminis a few years back, we have been slowing converted our micro farm to grow non Monsanto owned varieties and are offering these seeds to you!

Picking salad for a client

After lunch Farmer D takes a minute to contemplate.  Jordanne sneaks a picture…. life on the urban homestead.  Betcha he’s thinking about the new honey shed.  One day, he just up and scribbled some plans on the piece of paper and then voila – a shed is born.   There’s a lot going on in that brain..

Also notice the front door’s open.   Even though we have chilly night and mornings still enjoying mildly warm weather.

And where ever we go the stainless steel water bottle is always with us.

Justin goes in to wash the salad greens

On the porch sits a bike for “I have to run an errand”

Justin packs up orders from our online store (PeddlersWagon.com)  The wire basket (right) are our best sellers this year.

Oh and there’s some news I need to tell you about.   We had reports from customers that they were having trouble ordering.  Seems that our new security patch wasn’t compatible with older web browsers.  Took us awhile but we finally got a patch and the problem is solved.  But it’s always good to update your browsers because newer software doesn’t bother with those who don’t.

In these hard economic times, we do appreciate your choosing to purchase from our online store.  The extra money made goes towards supporting our network of sites.