So the urban homesteading bug has bitten me good. I have gone gaga for all things farm. I can't stop reading or thinking about gardening, chickens, fences, goats, horses, hay, canning and baking my own bread! I am just so moved by this idea of being connected to land and to nature in way that just doesn't happen anymore.
I just finished the book Plenty by Alisa Smith & J.B. Mackinnon. Alisa and James commit to living off of food from a 100 mile radius in Vancouver, Canada. A bit more challenging than lets say a hundred mile radius in California, but not impossible. The going isn't easy and Jason is quite the experimental chef...I personally am not fond of blossoms as food, but they make it work. It makes it seem doable for the everyday person and shows you that you can come to these incredible insights to your life by putting seemingly arbitrary restrictions on yourself. I am not claiming the 100 mile diet is the new religion. Its not, but it is a new way of thinking and living and I like it!
And so my want (some would say my need) is chickens. I have wanted them since last fall and was primed to get them this year, but with the complications of our life we were thinking of postponing them until next year. And then I asked the question why and I realized it was just for our own convenience. So the chickens are back on the table.
We are searching and planning for how we are going to house them. I have trepidation. We are going against our HOA's, there are predators in our neighborhood and there is the constant care. But I just can't seem to say no. Life isn't meant to be lived in dreams or on the weekends. Your life is happening right here and right now. There might not be a later or a tomorrow.
And so chickens are on the menu (although later possibly on the actual menu).
