Monday, January 11, 2010

the last few days

my boss, in an effort to get me more money, has suggested that i work forty hours per week for the last few weeks. this will help quite a bit. it might boost ever so slightly the amount that i qualify for unemployment. that is, if i need to go that route. so i'll be very busy for the next three weeks.

while at work today i already missed my children horribly. they got to make a snow man and i would have loved to have been there helping. i guess toly made the biggest ball for the bottom all on his very own.


the carrot, for the nose, was from our garden.


the coal was char-coal from our wood stove.


kassi donated her scarf


tabitha told me that they were singing frosty the snow man the entire time. how fun? tristan is sitting over my shoulder reading this and commenting that it was hard work.


rome helped and felt quite empowered.

there are tons of tasks at work that require two people. james and i are really trying to get most of them done before i have to move on. i am excited to have a few weeks off to try to get things done around here. if nothing turns up i might try to raise chickens this spring for sale.

i figure that i can order the amount that we would normally eat and raise them in the spring. if they don't sell them we'll just eat them ourselves and not raise anymore. if they all sell them i'll just raise another batch during the fall for ourselves. no real risk and we could be offering a great service to our locavores that can't raise their own birds.

there is a large group of local people that buy from a food coop. i will try to peddle our wares there.

10 comments:

Jen said...

Your children are adorable!! I just know they had so much fun making the snowman.

Jo said...

Just an idea, those toys you made for your kids (castle, swords, shields, etc.) are very cool looking. Might the localvores in your area appreciate some locally made toys/gifts as well? Your co-op might be willing to sell them in their store. Like I said, just an idea. :)

Robbyn said...

Sooooo cute!! LOVE the snowman and kids' pics :) You might find you have a big demand for the chicken if you get that going. My cousins in AR tried that on their farm and it didn't take long for the demand to exceed their expectations. You guys have so much talent between the two of you (well all of you, in fact) you'll never lack for great products homesteaders love. We LOVE our soap :)

Caroline said...

GReetings!

Your kids look awsome and I am sure they were having a good time. I also want to thank you for the seed. I received them yesterday. Now if can start them indoor without killing them... Not much light in the house as no one window face south.

sugarcreekfarm said...

I think Jo is on to something... I'll bet you could find a market for your handmade toys on the Etsy website as well.

amy said...

I know I live quite a bit farther north than you, SW MN, and you might have already raised fall chickens so you may just want to disregard what I'm saying . . .I have only raised meat birds three times. My first time was an experiment, 21 chicks, 21 broilers in the freezer. The second time 102 chicks, 100 broilers in the freezer. Both times we butchered at 8 weeks. This fall it took us 16 weeks to get them even close to butcher weight, and I lost about 1/4 of my birds. I think it got too cold here for them to keep warm and grow, even with heat lamps.

newfarmlife said...

Sorry to hear about your job. With all your skills there will be something that you will find, and other people have given good suggestions.

I tried to leave a comment on Tabitha's blog, but don't think it worked. I wondered if you'd like the 3rd edition of "Putting Food By" (free, of course), or maybe you already have it--from your Amazon wish list. I also want to send some flower seeds for Kassi. Please let me know how to send a package.

You sent a lovely thank you card this Christmas with a great photo of the children--thank you!--that was very sweet to send it!

Bonnie

Carey said...

We have a Farmer's Market here in ozark. Crafts and local veggies seem to sell pretty well and there aren't many selling chickens yet. It's on Thursday evenings in the Spring Summer and Fall.
There's also some people putting together some new CSAs. And feel free to post anything you'd like to sell on our local Weston A. Price Chapter's yahoo group. I'm one of the chapter leaders and I'd definately be willing to testify to what a great job you guys do raising healthy food.
Carey
www.417wapf.com

Carey said...

Actually, our next meeting is about gardening. Everyone that will be there is trying to learn how to do what you guys are already doing. Would you be willing to come talk about what you all do? Just telling everyone which heirloom seeds you've had success with will have everyone excited! Maybe tell everyone how much land you garden and how much food you get. It could kind of be a teaser, so if you wanted to teach a class sometime, I'd bet people would be willing to pay, I would!
Hope you'll consider it, you have a lot of valuable knowledge.
Carey

Omelay said...

carey, it sounds like fun. we'd be happy to give a presentation, we just need to work it into our schedule. i went to your wapf site and signed up.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...