We are mere days from culling our first home grown broilers. And it’s kind of a BIG DEAL. We took the advice of a friend to try Cornish Cross. I am not impressed. Well, by literal definition, that is not entirely true, it has affected and deeply influenced me, just not positively! The purpose of raising our own meat birds was, like many things on our farm, designed to reconnect us with our food source to gain better understanding and...

  Many thanks to those of you who have attended one of my last THREE classes on goats! The class has been a big success and I hope will bring those who have been on the fence about goat ownership one step closer to “coming home”. It is a way of life and a brilliant new direction for those who love gardening, love animals and aren’t afraid of a little hard work. Goats are very affordable, lovable creatures whose time...

Heirloom turkeys, Black Runner and Magpie Ducks, Lionhead Bunny, raised bed gardens with hand-painted signs, chocolatee mousse birthday cake, bobbing for apples, cornhole, chicken handling, goat feeding, Great Pyrenees livestock guardian dog, photo ops in the hay barn, and hide-outs in the bamboo thicket… A good time was had by all. My cousins on the Blair side of the family, now the Custers by marriage, brought a slew of kids and parents...

The Valley Permaculture Alliance is having their 4th annual Tour de Coops this year. Here’s a slew of media links and some sneak peaks of coops on the tour… Come on out and see if you can catch a chicken!   Downtown Phoenix Journal – Friendly Feathers Green Living Magazine – Green Thumb – Urban Chicks Echo Magazine – Coop Tour The Phoenix New Times – Tour de Coops – Preview 3 Awesome...

It’s all a blur. I remember my life before the farm, and I know that it wasn’t all that long ago. This is fair warning, chickens are the gateway farm animal… you cannot have just one, once you have one you are hooked and more than likely a chick will lead to other farm animals in your future. So many farm animals that for us this past summer as we settled into our new digs, “fence” became our new “F”...