farmcraftpunk
Chirping
- Mar 8, 2023
- 19
- 61
- 54
Our Story
Like many the COVID-19 pandemic left us at home with a reduced income and lots of time on our hands. We were lucky in that one of us had a well paying salaried position that had suddenly became critical to people being able to work from home. We were financially stable although we knew that that all could change in a moment. The last spring I had a small garden on our apartment balcony and with the talk of food shortages I started planning another.For many people, restrictions started to ease and people started to return to every day activities, but I was recovering from a life altering surgery and struggling with an autoimmune disorder. For me, Life wasn’t going to look “normal” for a very long time. I still don’t know if it ever will. I felt trapped. When I feel trapped I start planning. Federal interest rates were enticingly low, especially to someone who’s rent was likely going to skyrocket. So we contacted family and they agreed to help us with a down payment. We are incredibly grateful that they were able to support us, because this is when we found our home, and even better our Farm(Yard).
Since then we have been expanding our Front Yard Micro-Farm. With over 160 square feet of vegetable garden (and growing) we have had ample room to learn and grow. In 2021 we moved a chicken coop and four chickens into our space. In 2022 we built a 40 square foot addition to the coop and now have a 64 square foot chicken coop and a large outdoor run area that houses 16 birds. We have begun planting an urban orchard and berry border as well as building large perennial gardens filled with native plants and a few exotics.
By far the greatest pleasure has been sharing our bounty with our community. For us growing food is activism on a fundamental level, the garden tends to produce much more than the two of us can consume as fresh food so the best thing we can do is share.
Our "core 4" hens came from some friends who had to move suddenly due to a family medical emergency and they were not able to bring their chickens with them. The next Spring we added an EE, OE, 2 BSL Barnevelders, a silver Deathlayer, and gold laced Wyandotte and a Swedish Isbar rooster. This spring we plan on adding in Maran, Favorelle (for eggs) and American Bresse with the goal of building a small flock to produce table birds for ourselves.
