The Funny Farm has moved....

Hi there.  For those of you following this blog,  I just wanted to let you know that I have moved my blog over to Wordpress.   You can find my by google( ing) suburbianfunnyfarm.wordpress.com.  So come on over, there is still much to share at the Funny Farm.

Karla

From the Hen House: What came first? The chicken or the egg?

Well, here on the Funny Farm, it was most definately the chicken.  And we recently added a new member to the Funny Farm Flock.  She's the first of three little bantams that I've acquired from one of my co workers.  We're still waiting on the other two (They're having trouble catching them), but for now, we have Eleanor, and she is a new favorite on the farm.  She is a leghorn bantam variety, and because she's smaller, she lays these darling little pale peach colored eggs. But don't let her size fool you.  This little lady is an egg laying dynamo.  She has gifted us with an egg a day so far.  Of course it takes two of her eggs to equal a normal sized egg, but we don't mind.

My eldest son, Xander, was really excited.  That's him, in the picture, holding our first egg.  You would have thought she layed THE golden egg.  He was however, a bit disappointed to not be able to hear the "peeping" inside the egg when he held it to his ear.  But after he received a brief explanation of the "birds and the bees" of chickens, he soon replaced his disappointment with an eagerness to have his new egg for breakfast.  And me? I find it hilarious that I get so giddy with each new egg I find in the nest.  It's like I'm a kid again.  I can't wait to check the nest every morning, and I feel like I'm lining up little treasures on the refrigerator door. 

So now, we're anxious for the rest of our ladies to start laying.  I encourage them to hurry up every morning when I let them out of the coop, and I bribe them with treats, but they just ignore me and go about their day picking and scratching in the garden.  Now, if these little ladies lay like they're supposed to, we should be collecting at least 2 to 3 dozen eggs a week.  Whoo hoo!  I can't wait.  How fun will that be to gather all those eggs in the morning?  But then again, I guess I shouldn't count my chickens before they hatch....get it? ha ha ha!!!!!

So until next time... Happy Farming !

Funny Farm Update: Spring....Funny Farm Style.

What a beautiful day here on the farm.  The sun is shinging, the birds are singing, and the chickens are rooting among the bluebells. This is absolutely one of my favorite times of year.  But this year, it has also felt a bit stressful.  Lately things have been so busy, and with the weather being so unncooperative, I have found myself falling further and further behind.  But I refuse to let it get me down.

I finally got the nesting boxes put in the hen house, and made a few more improvements to the coop.  I planted a beautiful white clematis to climb along the chain linking so as to make the run look a little more charming, and not so ghetto.  I'm looking for a style more in line of "Country Charm", not "Grapes of Wrath"....lol

The first of the raised beds has been built, thanks to Xander, my junior farmer in training.  I told him since he helped to build it, he could pick what he wanted to plant in it, and he said apples.  I encouraged him to think about some carrots, or zucchini instead, but he didn't seem too impressed.  I promised him an apple tree at a later date, and even told him he could help pick it out. That seemed to satisfy him for the time being.  In the meantime, I did manage to get more cilantro, chives, and peppermint planted.

But the best news of all is that the mess from the fallen barn is almost cleaned up.  It's been really time consuming and alot of hard work.  Most of the rotten lumber has been hauled off, and now it's down to more detailed cleaning.

We've also done something I thought we would never do. We finally made the move and hired a local lawn and garden service to help get the funny farm back into shape.  Over the past few years, certain parts of our suburbian acreage has fallen into neglect and disrepair.  The once beautiful beds and landscaping that we had worked so hard on, have become shabby and overgrown with weeds.  Things started falling apart during the summer of 2009 when Brad was diagnosed with stomach cancer.  At that same time, we had also adopted our first little guy, who was 2 years old at the time, and things were a bit chaotic and disorganized.  Well, Brad recovered, but the gardens did not, and little by little with the arrival of the other two little guys, and both of us working full time, the yard and gardens took a back seat and got out of hand.  So rather than break our backs, and let it stress us out, we decided to hire someone to help us get it back under control, so we can get back to caring for it ourselves eventually.

And I've never been happier.  What a relief and feeling of ease to be able to catch up on my baking and house cleaning,  all the while looking out the windows to see my beautiful gardens coming back to life.  I refuse to feel guilty about it.  How wonderful to be able to play with my boys outside in the sunshine without looking around and feeling that I should be edging or mowing, weeding or pruning.  Instead I can spend my free time playing with the boys, chasing chickens with them, and teaching them how to plant a garden.  I can sit in the shade and watch them play, and of course, get up and pull the occasional weed.  Yes things are looking up.... and life is good on the funny farm.

Until next time, Happy Farming.

The Latest Cackle from the Hen House: The Benefits of Free Range

Hooray!
Today was a big day for our little ladies.  Today was their first day going "free range".  I've been trying to coax them out of the coop for about a week now, but they always seemed to "chicken out" (no pun intended...lol)  However today, they took a leap of faith and "flew the coop" (Ok, Ok,  I know, enough with the chicken jokes.)  Wow, what a bunch of happy ladies.  They were absolutely loving it out there today.  Strutting around their new territory, peck, peck, peck.  It was so fun to watch.

There are so many benefits to letting your ladies "free range", but here's just a few:

Nutritious eggs:

Instead of those boring, grocery store eggs with the pale yellow yolks, you get instead: fresh, nutrient rich little gems that contain:

• 1/3 less cholesterol• 1/4 less saturated fat• 2/3 more vitamin A• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids• 3 times more vitamin E• 7 times more beta carotene

How great is that?  Not to mention, it's so much more fun to gather your own eggs rather than make a trip to the store.  It's like your very own daily Easter egg hunt.

Chickens: Your very own free extermination service:
Chickens love to eat protein-packed insects, which works out well because they can serve as an organic pest-cleanup crew in your garden and devour all kinds of bugs on your property. They also love to eat weeds, and serve as post-harvest garden bed cleaners, potentially making your work as a funny farmer, much much easier.

Chickens are great little gardeners:The health of our food is tied directly to the health of our soil. Chickens perform multiple functions that can turn parts of our boring old yards into fertile garden patches. All that scratching and digging that comes to them so naturally, can help to create productive garden beds. They are experts in the mixing of manure with mulch to create fertile soil. They act as gas free, noise-free mini roto-tillers, that mix the top layers of soil with compost or other mulch to create a fertile soil which allows you to grow more produce in a smaller space and use less water, which is particularly useful to us suburbian funny farmers .

Chickens can work as a natural antidepressant.Yup, you heard right.  Ever hear of oxytocin, the love hormone? It's a stress-lowering chemical in your body that's unleashed when you hug someone you love, or even pet your dog or cat. And anyone who has raised backyard chickens would probably agree, the same effect holds true for our hens.  I love to just sit and watch them strut around and peck the ground.  And yes, they are my pets. Particularly one of my little ladies, A black Australorp named Verdelle, who likes to follow me around and peck at my jewelry and sparkly toenail polish.  There's just something therapeutic and charming about chickens roaming around my back yard.  So, hug a chicken.  I highly recommend it.
 
Now....If I could just get them to clean the inside of my house....lol 

Until Next time.......

Happy Farming!

Funny farm update: Spring has sprung.

Wow! It certainly has been a while since my last posting. Things have been crazy busy here on the Funny Farm. Spring is normally a busy time of year for us, but this year has been especially busy. Mostly because we have had some new additions, some expected and others not so much. Early spring brought us the much anticipated chickens. After spending their first weeks in the basement, I was anxious to get their dusty, furry little behinds outside. Our weather has been so unpredictable that finding decent weather to put the coop together proved to be extemely challenging. But eventually it did get done.  The Coop is still currently under construction, but is at least habitable and the girls seem to be enjoying it outdoors immensely. Plans are underway to spruce it up, but for the time being, until things slow down around here, it's working just fine. Now were anxiously awaiting all the fresh eggs.

  Another new addition to the farm, and definitely an unexpected addition, is our new foster baby. This is foster baby number three for us and our future plans are to adopt this little guy as well. He came to us at 3 days old, and he's five weeks old now. So you can imagine how I've been spending my days...and nights.  We have been so blessed with three of the most adorable, sweetest little boys.  They certainly keep me busy. So, much of my suburbian farming has been temporarily put on the back burner. However, things are progressing slowly but surely. The chickens are cooped, the strawberries transplanted, the herbs planted, and the taters are in with the help of my junior farmers in training.

The piles of lumber that was once our old barn are getting smaller, and the good lumber that is left will be recycled in the form of raised garden beds and compost bins.  The blueberry beds are getting weeded very slowly, but are coming along.  I'm trying desperately to get them weeded before it gets much warmer as to avoid running nose to nose with the ginormous garter snake that has resided there for the last several years. 

So stay tuned.  We've got lots to do, and lots to share. Until next time....



Happy Farming:

Funny Farm Update: They're Here!!!

I've always dreamed of living on a farm.  My dreams were filled with acres of rolling hills, abundant fruit trees, flourishing gardens, and a barn full of livestock.  Now this here little farm isn’t exactly what I had in mind, but it works.  Although living in the city has some disadvantages, there is actually quite a bit of farming to be done in a very small space.  There is always room for fruit trees and a garden.   But what is a farm without chickens?  Exactly!  That’s why we at the Funny Farm are proud to announce the arrival of chickens to our little bit of suburbian acreage.  The first of our little ladies arrived on Wednesday.  I surprised my son, Xander by taking him to the feed store to pick them up.   What a fun and special moment to share with my son.  The look on his face was priceless.  It was so fun to see him jumping up and down with excitement, and he was so gentle when he actually got to handle the little bundles of fuzz.  I’ll never forget it.  I took a trip down memory lane that day and remembered all the furry friends of my childhood.  I learned a lot about life from growing up around animals.  We had dogs, cats, rabbits, ducks, and chickens.  I learned about responsibility, life, love, and loss.   These lessons, helped to shape the person I am today, and I want my boys to have the same experience.

And So far, these little ladies have been a huge hit.  Right now they are residing in our basement under a heat lamp, but I’m looking forward to finishing their coop and getting them outside in the fresh air as soon as they’re old enough.  Now Xander has been a little disappointed that they aren’t laying eggs yet (lol) but I’ve encouraged him to be patient.   Even my husband, the skeptic, had to admit they were pretty cute and even went so far as to hold them and anxiously ask when the others were coming.  Yep, you heard right.  We have three more coming next week.  Is he converted?  I’m not so sure.  But we’ll see how he feels when they get bigger and start giving us fresh eggs every week.  Now how to I break the news to him that we’re getting a cow next month?  Just kidding….lol

Happy Farming!

Back to Basics in 2012: Non Toxic Cleaning.

I use to be a cleaning product junkie.  Anything new that came on the market I had to try it.  The cabinet that used to house my cleaning supplies began to look like a graveyard for partly used cleaning products.  I knew something had to give.  Not only was I overwhelmed by toxic fumes on cleaning day, but when times got tough, and the budget got lean, I knew I needed to change my ways.

Boy, am I glad I did.  My house has never been cleaner and healthier, and my pocketbook has never been happier. 

What I did:

Laundry soap:  we started using more eco friendly detergents.  We have members of our family with allergies (including myself), so we need either gently scented or preferably unscented products.   And with the use of cloth diapers, I needed an all natural laundry soap that wouldn’t leave a residue on the diapers, thus making them waterproof.  I tried all kinds.  My favorite:  Country Save.  I use this primarily for the cloth diapers.  For all other laundry I have found that Ecos Magnolia and Lily is my favorite hands down.  It smells heavenly without being overpowering.  And the fact that it’s available in a huge bottle (200+ loads) and available at Costco, makes it a real winner.

Dishwasher detergent:  I’ve tried a lot, and my favorite is Bio Kleen Automatic Dish Powder Grapefruit and Orange.  It’s hard to find locally and I usually have to order it, but it’s worth it.  A little goes a long way, and my dishes come out sparkling.

All purpose cleaner:  I use a lot of baking soda and vinegar.  I use it for everything from scouring the sinks, and cleaning the windows, to unclogging drains.   Just dump a couple of scoops down a lazy drain, top it off with some vinegar and “Viola”, you have your very own indoor volcano.  (Think Jr. High science experiment)  My boys love this.  And trust me, it works.  I try to do it once a week for maintenance.   For shiny floors, I use about ¼ cup vinegar to 2 gallons of hot water when I mop my floors, using a regular old fashioned cotton rag mop.  Sometimes for variety I might add a few drops of lavender oil to the water to make it smell good while I mop.  And lemons are great for cleaning your cutting boards.  Just cut a lemon in half and rub it over your cutting boards.  It works to sanitize and deodorize.  I also use Mrs. Meyers Clean Day all purpose cleaner.  It’s great for cleaning a variety of things including dumping a capful into the toilet for a refreshing scrub-down.  All Mrs. Meyers products are earth friendly and smell delicious.   My favorites are the Lavender and the Lemon Verbena, but they also are available in other yummy scents.  And make sure you have some microfiber cleaning cloths on hand.  They are a great alternative to paper towels.  They make cleaning a breeze and are re-usable.

All natural flea control:  I hate fleas.  Here at the funny farm, we have lots of pets inside and flea control is of the utmost importance.  It’s no secret that fleas looooove carpeting.  You can have just one flea come in on one of your furry friends, and a week later you have an infestation.  Trust me, I know.  And I refuse to fill my home with toxic fumes.  If it’s toxic enough to kill the fleas, chances are it’s toxic enough to eventually kill us as well.  And with a baby crawling all over the carpet, toxic, topical treatments are not an option.  What works for us?  Epsom salts.  Just scatter some Epsom salts over your carpets, let it sit half a day, then vacuum.  The salt dehydrates and kills the fleas.  Of course when you vacuum the first time it sounds like you’re sucking up bits of shrapnel, but it absolutely works.  I do a treatment every 4 months, and I have not found one flea on the carpeting in almost 2 years.  Proof enough for me.

There are so many other tips and ideas out there.  These are just some of my favorites.  For more great ideas you can visit   http://eartheasy.com/live_nontoxic_solutions.htm 

So until next time….

Happy housecleaning J