Somehow we received a subscription to a magazine called CountrySide. Neither one of us have a clue where it came from or had even heard of it before. But we are happy that we got it. It is an awesome little magazine. It's not your typical magazine with paid writers etc. Most of the articles are written by people just like you and me who contribute to the magazine. It has stories of how people moved from their fast paced lives to a farm living off the grid and being so much happier. There are 'articles' of how to do this and where to start. I absolutely love this magazine.
Jeff finally started reading some of the issues and has began to think about living off the grid somewhat. There are small things that we can do to help accomplish this. Maybe as we adapt to the new ways in small increments eventually it will just become a way of life. I am so glad that he has an interest in this now.
We already have chickens for eggs. We do not raise any for the meat but we are seriously thinking about that. We have about 60 chickens and right now we harvest the eggs for eating and selling and do not let any of the hens roost on them. So we are thinking about letting them roost on a couple just to see how that goes. If all goes well with this then maybe we actually have chickens to put in the freezer.
We already have 2 pigs too. These are castrated when purchased and are strictly kept for butchering. This past year we dold the meat of the first 2 we had to family and friends since we did not have our permit to sell otherwise. We didn't have it butchered correctly. We had a TON of sausage and very little cuts of meat. So with these two we are going to have a lot less sausage and more cuts of meat. We didn't keep an eye out on what we sold and had no idea that we had sold our winter staples until I went to the freezer to get pork chops and there were none. I am left only with neckbones and a huge ham that still has to be cured. So with the butchering of Barbie and Q we will have to make sure that we keep enough to get us through the winter.
Our friends who have never been on a farm or know how little money farming actually puts in the bank, can't understand how we can kill something that we interact with each day. I will admit that it is hard to do and I leave that part to Jeffrey. On butchering day he is the one who to load them up and carry them to market. I can't even think about it and try to make myself so busy that I don't have the opportunity to think about what is happening. After a couple of days he is able to tell me about it. I am still kind of a wuss when it comes to this because each of the pigs we own gets names and they really do have their own personalities.
But on the getting of the grid subject we are wanting to get cows now. I would love to have one to milk everyday. Jeff is wanting one for the butchering. So we will see how that goes. I myself am going to start looking up butter making etc because I will have a milking in the spring.
I am including a link to the magazine CountrySide for those of you who might be interested in checking it out. I am sure I will have plenty of posts to put up with our new adventure into this area. It amazes at the little things we can do to lessen the 'footprint' we leave on the planet.
http://www.countrysidemag.com/
Jeff finally started reading some of the issues and has began to think about living off the grid somewhat. There are small things that we can do to help accomplish this. Maybe as we adapt to the new ways in small increments eventually it will just become a way of life. I am so glad that he has an interest in this now.
We already have chickens for eggs. We do not raise any for the meat but we are seriously thinking about that. We have about 60 chickens and right now we harvest the eggs for eating and selling and do not let any of the hens roost on them. So we are thinking about letting them roost on a couple just to see how that goes. If all goes well with this then maybe we actually have chickens to put in the freezer.
We already have 2 pigs too. These are castrated when purchased and are strictly kept for butchering. This past year we dold the meat of the first 2 we had to family and friends since we did not have our permit to sell otherwise. We didn't have it butchered correctly. We had a TON of sausage and very little cuts of meat. So with these two we are going to have a lot less sausage and more cuts of meat. We didn't keep an eye out on what we sold and had no idea that we had sold our winter staples until I went to the freezer to get pork chops and there were none. I am left only with neckbones and a huge ham that still has to be cured. So with the butchering of Barbie and Q we will have to make sure that we keep enough to get us through the winter.
Our friends who have never been on a farm or know how little money farming actually puts in the bank, can't understand how we can kill something that we interact with each day. I will admit that it is hard to do and I leave that part to Jeffrey. On butchering day he is the one who to load them up and carry them to market. I can't even think about it and try to make myself so busy that I don't have the opportunity to think about what is happening. After a couple of days he is able to tell me about it. I am still kind of a wuss when it comes to this because each of the pigs we own gets names and they really do have their own personalities.
But on the getting of the grid subject we are wanting to get cows now. I would love to have one to milk everyday. Jeff is wanting one for the butchering. So we will see how that goes. I myself am going to start looking up butter making etc because I will have a milking in the spring.
I am including a link to the magazine CountrySide for those of you who might be interested in checking it out. I am sure I will have plenty of posts to put up with our new adventure into this area. It amazes at the little things we can do to lessen the 'footprint' we leave on the planet.
http://www.countrysidemag.com/
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