Can I make a dramatic change?

Shaun, it is the life I would live if I were physically stronger. Plus also chickens. You would love chickens. Chickens rule.

Lynn Siprelle, Editor

that doesn't mea sit back and do nothing, but it does mean find out more, and find exactly the right place for all of you. And talk to your kids, but not until you're a bit closer to it actually happening. I think you'd probably be very good with such a lifestyle, but that doesn't mean it would be easy, or that it wouldn't be a huge shock to the system, even for DH maybe, so go at it slowly but surely if it's what you want. If it's the right thing for you it will come together and it will all be there in a year or two - you don't have to pack up and move in the next few weeks!

oh, and pray over it if that will help you be sure you decision is the right one.

Kerri.

We live on 3.78 acres, and we actually have a chicken coop.

But I've been too "chicken" to raise poultry!

Yesterday, at our local zoo, my son and I were looking at the brand new chicks. While we are all in favour of having chickens, William informed me that we wouldn't be able to eat them because "we don't eat our pets!"
Nor would we eat the eggs because they're "supposed to hatch!!" So our chicken dreams are scratched, at least for the moment.

I completely understand your husband's need to be in contact with the land. The right opportunity will present itself for your family - of this I am certain. Keep your eyes and heart open, and you will know it when you find it.

Rose

Saun, that sounds very exciting, and head-bending! We'd love to build a house somewhere more rural, but I always have the worry at the back of my mind that I really am a town-girl at heart and whilst I love the idea of chickens and countryside, would I miss the town? Keep us up to date with the decisions!

Zillah

If it works for you, too and is not just DH's thing.

The way you describe the type of life you envision is telling, I think. Your description is very positive, as though your attitude about it is one of excitement and possibility.

Just an observation.

-Jo

Hey, you know I'm all for it! LOL!! There is nothing like it. Granted, the country I live in is vastly different than what you are looking at. But it's nice to just walk outside and breath deep the country air, mixed with cow manure and hay. It's my slice of heaven. Except when a skunk was too close to the house. LOL!

Personally, I couldn't imagine living in the city or even the suburbs (though I grew up in the latter when I lived with my mother).

As for the chickens. I live on 1,200 acres and I'm STILL too chicken to try chickens. LOL! But I think soon we are going to do them. My DH really isn't into the animal raising other than cattle. I've mentioned sheep, pigs, or goats and he turns up his nose and says it's too much money and work. My horses sit there unused in years, til the baby gets older anyway.

Research it a bit. Look around. You aren't in a hurry. Find your perfect place. Save up your money for it (land out there probably isn't cheap like it is here). See if it is what you really want.

Chicken evangelism! They are the easiest critters in the world and so funny. Redneck TV--I could watch them all day. Just make sure you've got hens, not a rooster, and go for it even if you're in the city. Lots of municipalities allow for backyard chickens; Portland is like the urban chicken capital of the US.

Backyard Chickens is a great site on the subject, and the book Keep Chickens is a great resource on small flocks; I highly recommend it. For a family flock you're talking between 3 and 12 (and 12 would be if you either had a huge super egg-eating family or wanted to sell eggs). We have three now--we lost number four, a Buff Orpington named French, while I was in the hospital. Four for us was the perfect number. We eat a fair number of eggs, so with four we had plenty to eat and a good number to give away. Best hostess gift in the world--a half dozen fresh pastured eggs! I miss French. She was a big fat fussbudget.

And the most surprising thing about chickens: They're absolutely gorgeous birds. I have a Production Red, a Barred Rock and another Buff Orpington, they're not even the fancy kinds of chicken but they're beautiful.

Lynn Siprelle, Editor

We want more water! DH is already looking at boats in anticipation of buying one next year.

I think Jo makes a good point, Shaun...your initial post has really positive undertones. Scary as it is: You like this idea, don't 'cha?

Blessings,
Lenora
"...if woman's work is never done, why bother about how much of it [isn't] getting done at any given moment?"
~ Claire Fraser in The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon

I do like it. DH and I have been e-mailing each other houses and acreages last night and today. We've discovered that if we just buy land to start out we can get a bit closer to town (although it limits our amount of land to closer to 5 acres or less). And if we scrape together a down payment we could buy land right now and just sit on it for a bit. I'm pretty sure we wouldn't lose any money on that kind of investment -- especially not living in urban sprawl central (well, not as bad as Denver, but still . . . )

So I will keep you all updated in blog form as we go!

Bok Bok!

Shaun
www.homeschoolblogger.com/shaunms

make sure you do all the necessary checks on any land, including finding out about any building restrictions or planning permission info, as well as how you really feel about the land, whether it drains well or not (says the woman whose garden is a swamp!)... better to be sure about it than waste money that could be put to better use elsewhere. Any piece of land looks good in the sun, so make sure you've seen it in bad weather too.

you may be sure about the *idea*, and I agree that you must be or you wouldn't have rushed into discussing it here... but that still doesn't mean you should act too hastily.

Kerri.

I saw an ad for this book in the Mother Earth News a few weeks ago. The book is called "Homesteading On One Acre."

We live close to town - the new Super-Walmart is only 3 miles away - but we have plenty of space. We aren't doing very much with our land at the moment, besides enjoying it. I have a good vegetable garden going, and some lovely trails carved through the "back forty" upon which we march about the grounds, breathing deeply We've been enjoying wild strawberries, and the blackberries are just starting to ripen now.

Gosh, it sounds like I'm trying to entice you to join a cult!

Keep us posted!

If you're going back and forth that radically, then you definitely shouldn't brush your doubts aside, especially when the idea giving you them wasn't yours to begin with.

As women, we've to a great extent been raised and socialised to be highly attuned to the needs of others, even to the extent that we confuse them with our own (witness the huge amount of guilt-based advertising that is aimed almost exclusively at women - mothers in particular; they wouldn't be using it if they didn't have some evidence that we were susceptible to it). Because of that tendency to empathise with and nurture the dreams and needs of others, it is all the more important that we be perfectly clear on what our own needs are. If part of you is saying "Hell no", then listen to it, understand why it's saying so, and try to figure out whether it's worry about feasibility or or simply a deep need to remain where you are at the moment.

Our impulse tends to be to sacrifice what we need in order to ensure that others get what they need. While being attuned to the needs and feelings of others is important, and one of the main ways we care for those close to us, self-sacrifice ultimately meets no one's needs. Self-denial leads to depletion of the energy one has to be there for anyone, and can lead to resentment of its beneficiaries.

So think it through, understand your doubts. It might be wonderful, but the key is to make sure that it's something you want, too, rather than a want of his that you empathise with.

The only animals we have here are the dog/fish/children. We have 10 acres, 7 are meadow/lawn and 3 are woods. We have 2 tiny ponds and 2 vernal pools. The soil is compacted clay near the house, so I have been slowly putting in raised beds, and this year I am growing tomatoes and herbs.

My SIL has 10 acres too. She has a really lovely large pond with lots of trout and bass in it, and two huge vegetable gardens and a flower cutting garden. She also has a small barn and raises chickens and turkeys (the kids call them "meat birds"), pigs, and beef. They also have 3 horses.

With the canning and freezing they do, and the meat they grow, they eat organic for everything but the grains and dairy they have to buy. The kids have a rotating schedule of morning and evening chores, and I go help with the fruit & veggie preserving in exchange for some of the goods.

It's a beautiful set up, and works even though mom is a school principal, dad owns a sawmill, and all three kids are big into sports.

FWIW
Jo