From day one, we are taught to share.....

Today we picked up a "tote" of chicken grower.  It weighed 503kg!  Yes, that is a lot of chicken food.  And, it cost us $285.00.  Yes, that is a lot of money!  Our entire day today was spent working on the chicken barn, going to the feed store and bagging the 503kg of feed into smaller manageable bags.  When I say the work is endless, the work really is endless!

Which is one reason I am very torn as to whether or not we should "share" our home grown meat birds.  Not only is it a ton of work, it costs a lot of money to raise these birds. I am struggling with the guilt of not making others happy.  From day one we are taught to share....to give up your favourite toy no matter how much it hurts to see someone smashing it into the wall....that's sort of where I am at right now.  Knowing others would like some of our chickens has me torn, am I being greedy not sharing? 

My husband is worse than I am for wanting to give, give, give.  When we started this little farm I laid down the law "what we raise is for ourselves, for our freezer, we are not feeding the nation".  When someone asks him to "share" he can't say "no".  So, it's a debate right now in our household.  He never stocks our freezer, he doesn't buy the groceries so he doesn't know the amount of chicken we actually consume in a year.  Last year we had 10 birds, they were gone in a few months and they were left as roasting chickens.  I was actually purchasing chicken pieces from the grocery store on top of the roasters we raised ourselves.  And I would grab the meat we grew ourselves more often because I know it is the safest food in our freezer.  He is looking ahead at the 40 chicks we have growing now. 

My point is, you cannot count the meat birds before they're in the freezer!  God forbid, something might happen.  Even now with our 24 grown birds we could have an animal attack and lose the flock (praying that does not happen!).  We have struggled to find a processor, we finally found someone in the Valley and begged them to squeeze us in.  The amount of work and money we have put into building our barn this year to nicely house these birds, the beautiful run, the garden veggies they enjoy daily, the daily feed and water, trucking them to processing, driving back to the valley to pick up the packaged product.....the work only ends when they hit the freezer.  I feel we should be reaping the rewards of our hard work and keeping the birds for ourselves.  Deep down, that is how I really feel.  I don't want to sell a single bird.

So, dear reader, this is the struggle on the farm today, whether to share our beautiful, garden fed chickens or not......I hope you don't think harshly of me for wanting to keep every single one for my own family to enjoy.  It is the purpose of our farm, to raise healthier food for our own family......

'til next time.

The many hats we wear.....

My husband and I both have jobs outside the home, have a toddler, 2 small home based businesses AND our little farm (please understand, we are overworked and exhausted most of the time but we are not rich as far as money is concerned!).  Needless to say, we wear many hats!  I recently spent a whole day sorting orders for my spice business.  I enjoy the spice business, it's a little thing I do just for me.  I love to see the unique blends the company creates.  Every season there's something new and exciting.  We raise as much of our own food as possible and I want to season that food with a seasoning I trust.  Something that is not filled with MSG and other fillers we can't pronounce.  And the fact that it's a Canadian Company and is only sold in Canada is an added bonus.  I am happy to say, I am proud to sell this product.  :)

Normally, the orders aren't so large that they take me a day to sort and repack!  This was an awesome order, so much fun.  It's just like Christmas, waiting for that order to arrive.

Sometimes I wonder if we're too busy, are we taking enough time to "stop and smell the roses?".  Then I realize, we need to keep busy.  If we weren't doing what we are doing, what would we be doing?  Our son learns from what we do as well.  We always have wonder and doubt, no matter what we do.  If I were a couch potato and did nothing all day, I would probably wonder if I should be doing something other than watching TV haha!  So, we continue on.  Working away and making sure we squeeze in some much needed and much deserved family time.  Sometimes that family time involves building a new "barn" to house the meat chickens or a long drive through the valley with fishing lures, but it's still time spent together.

'til next time!

Live to grow another day.......

Our meat chickens from May 23rd still have not been processed.  We have had our name on a local butchers list for over a month.  He had a family tragedy and apparently is not doing any butchering.  We have made several phone calls but have been told every time "he's making calls tonight, he might call you".  So, that's life.....we have since made some phone calls and found a licensed processing facility in the Valley area.  It's going to be a long drive for our birds but they need to be done asap.  September 12th is the day they meet their fate.  Until then they will continue to enjoy fresh air, sunshine and lots of garden veggies/greens.