What's growing in the garden

Raising veggies at the neighbor's

Raising kids in our back yard. Lettuce and spinach nearing its end for the season.

The other kids in my backyard!

The wild animals in our backyard! HA!

My urban homesteading endeavors

Recently there has been much talk of urban homesteading and what it means. "To each their own" is definitely the correct phrase to use here.

So as a followup to my post about the "who" of our homestead here is the "what" of our urban homestead.

Several years ago I caught the urban farm bug. We don't have a lot of land. 50 feet x 128 feet to be exact! I started out with a vegetable garden. Growing more than I cared to eat. I love to grow but didn't know how to use nor did I desire to use much of it frankly! I love heirlooms and unique items. Some of the fun things I have grown are cotton, purple potatoes, fish peppers, dozens of varieties of tomatoes, beautiful eggplants. They were beautiful enough that consumption was just a bonus. I have flirted with the idea of being a small-scale seed grower or farmer but now am more family oriented and looking to be more self-sufficient.

When we bought our house I loved the raised sunny area calling for a garden (which the chickens now occupy) and the secluded bit of a hillside and envisioned a secret garden there. I started a veggie garden and finally was able to plant perennials like asparagus, rhubarb and chives.

For a while I got a bit off track and had a brief but intense affair with hostas. At one point I had somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 varieties. Boy those things can get expensive and while beautiful I have grown past them and envision one day they might share their space with bees.

From veggies I next endeavored to grow a bit of fruit. I started several Asian pears (remember I like different things!) to have all but one mowed over. Amazingly last year it fruited despite its bad location thanks to me. I had a small strawberry patch and rhubarb as no garden is complete without them according to my genetics I believe. For a few years this was enough for me. I was devoting a lot of gardening related energy to the youth garden program I started. After that it was devoting time to my first baby.

We have slowly evolved though in our life aspirations and quickly wanted to really kick it up a notch. I suppose a farm just isn't a farm without animals so in spring of 2010 despite having brand-new twins we got chicks. From there I started scheming for goats and bought 2 Nigerian Dwarf goats in the fall of 2010. We were a bit off track in getting them home for a while but now in 2011 seem to be on track thanks to my city councilman! 2011 has barely begun and we have ordered a fair amount of fruit trees and fruiting bushes this spring. Apples, and peaches, and plums, oh my! We have also added golden currants and grapes in the last couple of years. I hope to try out espaliering the apple trees this year. This should handle my preserves needs in a few years. Nothing like your own preserves mixed into fresh yogurt. :) The little things that make me smile. I also hope to really kick up our veggies this year. With the babies a bit older we'll see. We have a few hundred starts in the basement growing as I hope to cover the coop roof with an herb garden. Soon I will start peppers and tomatoes and the rest of the veggies. We have a lot of new things going on in the kitchen too. Hubby has started making bread regularly and I have made a decent stash of preserves all thanks to some great books for Christmas. We have a few things growing in the kitchen, too. Yogurt, kefir, kombucha to name a few. Soon we will have goats milk to play with making more cheese and soap. Iris just kidded and should be here within weeks. I really look forward to that new learning experience. The bees are in route and hives to be built this month in anticipation of their installation on a nearby property. And the chickens have just layed their first 8 egg day including a robin's egg blue that just started being layed this week. Eight eggs from eight hens, what more can you ask for! Things are looking up and spring is in the air!

Urban homesteaders; the characters

I would wager that anyone who calls themselves an urban homesteader is a character. I also imagine there are several supporting characters. So here is an introduction to ours.

The hard working man behind all our endeavors. Builder, planner, prepper, soon-to-be beekeeper.





























Big sister who is growing up with a different life experience than most kids her age in this city. We hope to further her "real" education by homeschooling her.





The twins that contribute to the chaos. Gigglers, mess makers, garden helpers.
















Nadia, the first non-human addition to our lives before we even envisioned our current lifestyle. Defender of the chickens and guardian of the humans.
















The nameless girls and their beautiful petticoats. Entertainers , bug hunters, orb makers.















Coming soon:

Sisters in Milk
Iris, soon-to-be mama of twins or more??















Angelina, soon-to-be first time mama.















Me, the mama who wrangles this bunch. Gardener, schemer, soon-to be-milker.

Raising Chickens in Omaha - Fun, Rewarding, AND Legal | Omaha.net

Raising Chickens in Omaha - Fun, Rewarding, AND Legal | Omaha.net

Fellow Chicken Mamas

Today I invited a new soon-to-be chicken mama over to talk chickens and such. I enjoy meeting people who are on the same path as me or some variation of it. I get out of it as much as I give, if not more. So last year I started hosting Chicken Mama get-togethers at my house. I can't say I came up with the name or the idea of getting together but luckily I don't think anyone has trademarked "Chicken Mama" yet. (HA! Sorry I couldn't help myself Dervaes! Jokes at your expense, you poor things!)

Anway we are mostly youngish mothers with small children. We join together to give each other support in our endeavors to eat and live sustainably. It is a safe place where no one will roll their eyes when you spend 5 minutes talking about the coolest chicken breed you are just dying to get your hands on. It is also an environment where knowledge sharing just pours forth. Over the course of our time together we might jump from talking about coop plans, to where to get organic feed, to where to buy sustainably raised beef, to what cool new site we found online, to agreeing to co-op on an order of herbs, to talking about a new recipe we tried, ....to infinite and beyond.

We are having fun building community and making new friends.

Together our brains are the equivalent of a super-computer, a full-time paid lobbyist, and a small research firm.

Together we will change our lives, our communities, our world!

Stepping on my path to freedom

With the Path to Freedom folks trying to steal my path to freedom or at least my ability to speak about it using a universal language I am compelled to forego my much needed sleep to write a new blog entry. (Anyone who knows the extent of my lack of sleep given my sleep challenged twins knows this must be serious!) ;) Does my blog entry do anything to take back my right to use the phrase "urban homestead"? No! But as an urban homesteader I am defiant and will not be told what words I can and can not use nor what I can and can not do. Defiance! It is one of the urban homestead core principles I feel. Urban homesteaders are much like the settlers that homesteaded our country in some ways I imagine. Many would say it can't be done. It is impossible to do this thing you desire! But we know with patience and fortitude we will prevail. And once I have a certain little Health Dept permit in my grubby little hands and I know I'm not going to jinx it by proclaiming victory in a public domain I will share a little story about perserverance and what it can yield. But for now I have an aching back from typing one-handed while NAK so I will sign off with a simple statement. Piss-off Dervaes!

Another whirlwind month

It seems I just posted the other day but in fact it has been some time. In the past month my daughter Annie's eyes have started sparkling with mischief. She is climbing on tables and chairs and stairs. Liam is trying to figure this tornado out and defend himself from her. Like Annie he is working on his two top front teeth. Etta is continually growing and amazing us with the things she is picking up. Her ability to imaginatively play by herself for long stretches is fun to watch and very helpful to me. She is enjoying playing with friends and library storytime.
We spent a week out visiting family and going to the state fair. More on that in a separate post. The coop is still in the same state as the last time I posted but the girls don't mind and we got our first eggs while gone on vacation. We are cleaning up the backyard (a huge task) so we can call to get our coop inspected for a permit. We had a chicken go "free range" last week so we figure we better get on it.
It has been a month of blessingways. 3 in about as many recent weeks. I am blessed to be a part of them all. I might do a blessingway post at a later time.
My hubby is taking another term off in an attempt to get on top of the honey-do list that seems to persist. We celebrated our 5th anniversary the other day with a picnic to a park area near the river. We picked up Delice to go and the whole family ebjoyed the mild weather and fresh air.

Liam and Hadari; a blossoming friendship

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Today we had a fun gorilla interaction. At first I was nursing Liam and the baby gorilla came over to investigate but another gorilla protectively grasped his hand and led him away. A bit later Liam was standing by the gorilla exhibit with his hands on the glass and one year-old Hadari came over and placed his hands against them. It was very sweet. I wish we had a picture of it. Liam at 9 mos is about the same height and size. It was pretty cool. My friend Katy might have snapped a shot.

What happened to time being on my side?

Well I have been using it! I may have to go back and do some make-up blogs. Since I last posted we've been busy no time to sit around blogging. And babies are mobile so not as much sitting around nursing and typing either!

This is what we've been up to....
By chance found out my great-great grandparents lived one block from where I live for the final 20 and 30 years of their lives unbeknownst to me or my parents until now.
Spent a week visiting my parents.
Got together with friends from high school.
Hubby ended up sick and in the ER.
Went to a family reunion.
Threw a fairy themed party for my three year old, Etta.
Annie and Liam have started crawling.
Liam is cruising.
Annie now has a tooth.
I had a root canal and crown..lucky me!
Hubby has taken a summer break from pursuing his Master's degree.
We went "cabin" camping on the Platte River.
Just made arrangements to purchase 2 Nigerian Dwarf goats.
Hubby will likely finish the chicken coop today (trimwork left to do, of course).

Hmm all that on top of getting together with friends, going to storytime, daily "treasure" hunts for the first egg etc......No wonder I haven't posted a thing in a month!!!

Eatin' local

I may not be good at eating local and eating simple yet but my daughter sure is! Tonight's dinner... homemade applesauce and peas straight from the vine! The snow peas are going wild but she likes the shelling peas and sharing them with the chickens and feeding the shell to Nadia.

My little Cinderella

While at Montessori Etta learned some cleaning skills. I don't think Miss Jeannie would have approved of the dirty feet ON the table though. :)

The coop being put to good use

Different breed of chickies inhabiting the coop!

My 3ft tall 35lb gift

My daughter is such a gift to me. She is not only a gift in what she does for me such as trying to help keep the babies amused or filling my water glass, she is a gift in what she does to help me in other ways. She reminds me to be happy with her infectious laugh. She reminds me to have fun with her silly games. She reminds me to be strong as she tests her boundaries. She reminds me to show compassion as she mirrors my words and actions. She is a little bottle of enthusiasm and emotions that reminds me to appreciate my day and to know that every minute of every day is a new one for new chances to love, learn, and truly live.

New Blog - Wordpress to Blogger

I started this blog in 2009 on wordpress and found the set-up over there very cumbersome and lacking in some regards. Then I found out I was pregnant with twins and eventually ended up very sick with pneumonia and unable to do much but sleep for several months until the babies arrived at nearly term right before Thanksgiving. Finally hoping this is the right time where I might have enough time to blog so I moved over here to Blogger. We'll see how this goes. Life is busy and I'd like to use this blog as an external memory (external to my brain that is) to capture highlights in my life, log progress on projects and endeavors, and stay on track in general. Follow along if you'd like.

Over-inspired

January 25, 2009
Have you ever become overcome by the desire to do it all. I am overwhelmed by the cool things I want to do. Organic farming classes..sign me up. New youth garden entepreneurial project..let’s do it. Stained glass class…I’d love to. Those are just the ideas that I have put in motion in the past 2 weeks…What about my goals for 2009 which was just kicked off 4 weeks ago..Become more self-reliant..quit buying crap from China..quit eating sugar…quit eating high fructose corn syrup…make more meals at home. What about the other specific things I want to do..handmake more of Etta’s toys…knit my own bras…finish at least one quilt project…make Etta some training pants. How in the world am I to accomplish this as well as the daily grind!?