Why we're shutting down our homestead.

We have worked hard for over a year to build the farm of our dreams, a model of self-sufficiency and resilient food production, eggs, meat, fruits and vegetables, all grown with our own hands on our own land, now we close it all, local food. It's always been a passion of ours, whether it's signing up for csas or hanging out at seasonal farmers markets, we knew that the best food coming from as close to home is absolutely possible and over the last year we've tapped into this love for local food. One step further, we've invested heavily in establishing our own extremely productive farm on less than an acre in the Pacific Northwest, and although we grew up as a couple of clean, pet suburban kids, we really dove in head first.

It all started with just a few chicks picked up from a farmer friend on the street proving to be the metaphorical gateway drug that quickly grew into a flock of 14. Now, for Hauser's ever-growing flock, we built a clean, minimalist chicken coop using recovered and recycled materials. on YouTube I really like this chicken coop and also the hens clearly not satisfied with the number of birds we had and eager to gorge ourselves on delicious eggs, a dozen quail with the right structure were quickly added to match and as is often the case with these things Serendipity introduced two young bunnies to our farm after being posted for weeks in the local classifieds, another family had too many bunnies to care for and were struggling to even give these little ones away, don't tell the vegans but this became the catalyst. to an ever-expanding colony of meat rabbits, a side effect of raising rabbits for food was the almost constant presence of adorable baby bunnies, oh how cute, before I started farming the land, I never realized that, a despite being of the same species, laying hens and chickens that are eaten for meat. they are actually completely different breeds, well that's one thing and so 25 meat birds came into our home via express airmail and like all animals they needed a suitable home which resulted in our beautiful A-shaped structure that was a lot of birds at once.

Fortunately, since then Everyone entered the big freezer in the sky. I just want to pause for a minute. I hate to give the impression that we are a bunch of meat-loving carnivores here, so I feel compelled to point out the abundance of fruits and vegetables harvested from our garden and our community carefully preserved for the lean months of the years the colors and flavors fed our bodies and souls during the fall and winter. I mean, just look at those pantry shelves, don't they make you smile? What an incredible task. It has been, my family and I, well, there are some things we have learned from this whole experience.

First of all, growing food is a difficult investment in materials and food accumulates quickly and requires Mana to keep on top of it all, it's absolutely phenomenal. It's so gross and you have to change it like every day twice a day if it's too cold. That side of it is that every bite of food that landed on our plates was filled with satisfaction and knowledge of all our hard work. It's incredibly difficult to let food go to waste and you can appreciate how much of your hard-earned time and money went into producing it. Death is real.

Death in Western cultures is always lurking behind the Shadows, something that is there but never talked about. nothing and I mean nothing brings death to the forefront of your mind and having to put a chick with a crooked beak and not being able to put it out of its misery and when it comes time to harvest it takes a deep understanding of the life cycle. life. and death and a strong sense of gratitude for making the decision to take the life of another animal to feed your own. I just want to say that I'm neither for nor against eating meat, but I think it's incredibly important for anyone who decides to eat meat.

Face to face with the animal that will become food out of sight and out of mind can lead to so many atrocities in this world, but knowing that my animals were raised with the level of care and respect without counting a bad day helps me. to reach an agreement. with that aspect of my omnivorous life becoming life, if anything, that daily reminder of life and death has really been a catalyst for us to make such a big change. I mean, suppose we left this world tomorrow or next week, that's how we'd spend it. the days we have left, don't get me wrong, living at home has been a blast, seriously, but 50+ years more of the same in this same place, that's not it for me right now, anything else, going out of our property for more than a day, it has proven to be a great challenge.

We would love to be spontaneous, go on weekend trips and camp overnight. Adventures on a whim, but organizing house sitters and ensuring everything is safe will wear you down, it's a burden that ultimately causes us to never leave, not that we're sick. of squatting in a house or resenting animals at all, but we are also not ready to be tied down yet, there is a whole world of experiences for both us and our children growing up on a small rural island, it has its advantages, it is a strong sense of community, a general feeling of security and overwhelming beauty, but it is also limiting when the cost and time associated with leaving the island means that we rarely venture beyond these shores, we long for new experiences and new opportunities and the time to do it.

It's now, while our health is still good and while the kids still want to hang out with us because we all know that might not be the case forever, we set out to explore the idea of ​​living somewhere new, somewhere different and in a challenging place. We in new and interesting ways, we don't know where it is but we are ready to find out, so yesterday we put our house up for rent, it's been a whirlwind, we have three families coming today to see it, yes, anxieties. are high and I think because it's such a big thing for us like a big change that we're going through, I think the tensions are a little bit higher than normal, okay, we're going to get through it.

I feel safe, I hope we can find someone who will love and care for this beautiful house and enjoy their time here while we go somewhere else once we make a decision, we tend to move pretty quickly before the week is over, we already signed the rental contract and we receive the deposit. and a great new family who will live in this house and enjoy the property with their young children while we leave in search of something more. We're not quite sure what happens next, but wherever we end up, it won't be here. We have 12 months ahead of us to fill with Big Adventures, new old projects and exciting new experiences for our family, but before we can leave, what are we going to do with all these animals?

What's with all this nasty animal manure? Tune in next week to find out thanks