It’s 2023 as I write. I found this old post from January 9, 2006, in the archives of a former blog I had. I thought to save the words, as they show me where we’ve come from, and remind me to be thankful.
Two years ago this month, we moved from a lot outside a small city’s limits, but still in a subdivision, to a half-acre bordering woods on one side, and on another side, a river (fishable and canoeable). Our house sits at the very front of the half-acre, so we have most of the land available to us in the rear of the house.
There, we have the river at the far end. It is clear and moves lazily yet steadily. An otter family leaves just upstream from our riverfront. Along the river is a pure white sand (90% silica) beach. We live in the Emerald Coast area of the Florida-Alabama Gulf Coast, so we get to enjoy such perfect sand at the beach, and now here on this riverfront. Thanks to Hurricane Ivan last year, we have a very large beach of sand (and the river is now deeper).
Near the beach is our chicken pen. I prefer to call it our Aviary, as we have an open-air pen for our chickens. With our warm weather year-round, we don’t have to have a hen “house.” The chickens perch on some logs that fell during the various hurricanes and tropical storms we’ve had this past year. They lay eggs on a shelf made of chicken wire onto which we lay pine straw. We have about 13 chickens continually residing in this pen and about 7-8 that run loose. We have 2 roosters, so we let one be the outside king and one rules the Aviary.
Adjoining the chicken pen is our goat pen. I prefer to call their roofed area the Stable. Again, because of our subtropical weather, the goats do not have a normal goat house. They just have a roofed area to get out of the rain. Their fence is mostly made of natural logs that we found in the wooded acre next to ours after the hurricanes. It makes for a very pretty fence and was absolutely free except for the nails which we already had on hand. Mary and April are two Angora goat does. I just love these dolls!
Closer to the house are the organic vegetable/fruit garden, the citrus trees (Lemon, tangerine, and Kumquat), the Bay tree, azaleas, and a bulb garden. Right next to the house, outside of the laundry room door, off of the kitchen, is the organic herb garden where rosemary and oregano currently reside. In pots, I also have thyme, lemon grass, and aloe vera.
The rabbits’ cage – I call it the …. well, I don’t have a great name for it yet, maybe the Hutch, but it’s really just a cage, to be honest … is right up near the house for now. Soon, they will go live in the goat pen (still in their Hutch), so they can enjoy some company with the goats and chickens. The rabbits are Californians, kept strictly for their cuteness and their droppings which make my plants grow beyond imagination.
A disclaimer: All of the above sounds so grand in writing, but it’s really nothing more than you could rig up, too.
My plan for this blog is to post photos and write how-to articles and lessons learned. If any of you are not homesteading, I encourage you to start. You can start right now, even in a city apartment. I’ll help you learn from my limited knowledge as best I can.
Thanks for visiting my blog!
Lori Seaborg
January 9, 2006
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