In the beginning there was 2...or 6

Rob and I have been married for almost 10 years and have lived on our 10 acres in Southern Alabama for about 7 years. We have always loved owning dogs and have rescued many of them. We currently own four dogs: Jethro, a white English bulldog; Meatloaf & Jackson, pugs; and Mr. Wendell, a Welch Corgie mix. I don't really know what sparked our sudden farm transformation. All I know is we were watching TV with dogs draped around the living room in sychronized snoring patterns when my husband announced, "I am tired of having animals that don't do anything. We are about to make use of this land and buy a useful animal." I didn't really think anything more about that until a few weeks later when we went to a local flea market. We bought a pair of gloves, some tomatoes, and 5 chickens. And that's where it all started....

We have had our share of misfortunes over the years and in January of 2012 had a particularly devastating one. In the beginning, I guess the aquiring of chickens gave us an outlet to focus on something else other than recent events. What we didn't know is how a few chickens in our yard would change our physical lifestyle, our connection with nature, and the quality of our time together.

All of a sudden, we were giving up our spots on the couch to be outside. We constructed the coop together, researched how to care of the chickens together, and shared the responsibilities of cleaning, feeding, etc.

Our evenings of fighting over the remote were replaced with sitting in lawn chairs watching the chickens as they roamed the front yard and all of their antics. As the day ended and dusk set in, we listened to the frogs, watched for lightening bugs, and talked about our day. It's not that our marriage was in trouble or anything, but after being together for 12 years it is easy to grow apart or take each other for granted. The time that we have spent together working on our growing small farm has been an invaluable experience.

However, it hasn't always been a glimpse of a perfect Southern farmscape. Being novices, the past few months have been a learning experience to say the least. Since I am starting this blog late, I will try to seperate posts to reflect what we have done so far. It is difficult to find information for beginning farmers sometimes even though the need is growing as more and more Americans worry about a downturned economy and are learning to be self-sufficient. We aren't "Doomsday Preppers" by any means but there certainly is a sense of comfort and pride in knowing that you can provide for your family without Walmart.

~Stephanie