Sunday, July 19, 2015

When Pigs Fly



"I'll move to Virginia when pigs fly!"

Well, I never actually said those words, but that is kinda how it felt...that moving to the old family home place was not something that would ever happen for us. I wonder if God saw that as a never. Hmmm... you know that "never" that you say, to which God replies, "Oh, really?" with a raised eyebrow. Yeah, that never.

So here we are parked in a 31' travel trailer behind the Outlaws garage. This is the story of how we got here.

A few years ago, we lived in Colorado...big blue skies, the towering Rocky Mountains to the west, three squirrely kiddos and a square foot garden. This is where our homesteading journey began, with our little square foot garden and lots of reading. No chickens yet, though I desperately wanted some...but the coyotes were just a little too good at climbing fences and my husband, the Hillbilly was not ready for that step.

Fast forward through a ruptured disk and a cross-country move to Georgia. We lived in my very patient sister's bonus room for six months, then in a subdivision with tons of poison ivy and some rude skater kids next door. When our landlord played games with the courts and lost the house we were living in, we moved to some place I never thought I would live...the middle of the woods in the north Georgia mountains!

Heirloom Daffies...they smell soooo good!
By this time, I was making the monthly 3 hour trek to Statham for a meeting that was feeding my hunger for all things homesteading. I was attending the founding chapter of the Ladies Homestead Gathering. Herb talks, salve making and bartering, oh, my! I just could not get enough. Oh, and a dear friend gave us a great housewarming gift...some banty Buff Orpington chicks!

One of our 8 new chicks!

Of course, you know how chickens are...one leads to two, leads to 20! Chicken math never works out in favor of the chicken owner!  And this cute little ball of fluff (one of eight) came with "packing peanuts" in the form of a dozen cute little barred rock boyos...which ultimately lead to me needing to learn to process chickens!

Two years later, our flock had grown to 75 birds (+/- 25), both meat birds and layers. In the intervening time I had learned to use a pressure canner, a dehydrator and how to send a chicken (or 25) to Freezer Camp. I was also learning about herbs, essential oils, and, oh...I started a local Chapter of the Ladies Homestead Gathering...because I was having too much fun and wanted to share what I was learning with fellow lady homesteaders!

Our first meeting!

Finally, around Christmas 2014, it became apparent that the Hillbilly's parents (the Outlaws) were in need of some on-site care. So we sold all our furniture, had a huge sale and packed the remainder into a truck and headed for the hills. That is how we ended up in a 31' Rambler behind the garage. Oh, the chickens! Don't forget my chickens. They were all loaded into dog crates, packed into the truck and relocated to their new open air coop.

The Girls (and Lucas) settling in to their new digs.

Wow, it really is hard to condense four and a half years into a few paragraphs! But that is the condensed version. If you want the long version, you will have to come on up. We will set out some chairs by the chicken yard and watch the chicks chase bugs and I can tell you all about it!












3 comments:

  1. You forgot to mention that your little LHG group now has several hundred on FB and over 60 members!! We miss you, BBL!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. You forgot to mention that your little LHG group now has several hundred on FB and over 60 members!! We miss you, BBL!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Only because the awesome board worked so very hard to make it happen!

    ReplyDelete