Tour of our little UH

Google the term "urban homesteading" and you will find a gazillion blogs, books, websites, articles, and photos. The movement encompasses acts from growing tomatoes in a pot on the balcony of a Manhattan apartment to literally living off the grid and only consuming what you produce from your own piece of land. We happen to fall in between this, and are much closer to the tomato-in-a-pot lifestyle, although the pioneer girl in me (I don't know where she has emerged from- I mean, I never even really liked watching Little House on the Prairie) would like to be more off the grid. Urban homesteading has become so popular that even Williams-Sonoma now has an agrarian line, which carries products for raising backyard chickens and making your own cheese.

So, I'm not sure if our small attempt at living off of our land (bolstered tremendously by Earthfare, Ingles, Tractor Supply, Lowe's, and many other very un-hard core urban homestead like commercial entities) makes us crazy or trendy. As I think about how I get up each morning around 5:30 to feed 10 animals, I think I know the answer, though.

Enjoy a photo tour of our little nuthouse, er....homestead, yeah, our trendy, oh-so-practical homestead.


Before:


After!!:




My usual morning routine, post paws and claws feeding...coffee on the deck. In my usual outfit of flannel pajamas and rubber boots. Did I mention how sexy my life is?



Pepper sighting!




Baby tomatoes!! I'm just waiting to wake up one morning and not be able to open the back door because the house is wrapped in tomato branches...these suckers are going nuts!



Zucchini on the plant...





Zucchini waiting to be breakfast in a zucchini homefry concoction I am attempting:




The girls!







Meet Agnes: she is a golden laced Cochin. Notice her amazing feathered legs and feet. She is super soft and when she is fully grown, will be quite fluffy. She is a chatty gal, making sweet honk sounds and does whatever her sister, Gertrude does.




Gertrude is the leader of the pack. She is a buff Brahma and will get quite large, probably around 10 pounds. She and Agnes are only about 4 months old now, and will begin to lay eggs in another month or 2. She is adventurous and affectionate- in the evening she will hop up on my shoulder or lap.





Funky Mabel (named for the John Lee Hooker tune). She is just hilarious to watch roam around doing her thing! She is a buff Silkie, although we call her a muppet.




Po Black Maddie, or Maddie ( another Mississippi blues tribute, for the R.L.Burnside song). She may be slightly cognitively challenged, but that's okay...all ones' chickens can't be geniuses. We actually won't know for a while whether Maddie and Mabel are hens or roosters....we are hoping hens, because we can't keep roosters in the city here. We have to wait until they crow or lay an egg!





Some paws...










Orchard Row: a peach and cherry tree live here, although only the dogs have enjoyed any fruit so far. These trees are only a few years old and have created a nice tunnel on this side of our house.




So, it's sorta urban, it's sorta a homestead....whatever it is, we love our little world!