The Death of a Yard Bird

It is not everyday that as soon as I get to work I hear come on we have to go get a chicken out of "so and so" person's car. In fact when I was told that ,I wasn't quite sure what was meant. Sure enough as soon as I get into work Josh my "partner in crime" tells me we have to remove a chicken. Okay! Why?

Here is the story.

One of the ladies I work with lives in a little subdivision. You know the sort of place I am talking about. All of the grass has to be a certain height. Restrictions on what type of plants you can have. Restrictions on what kind of animals are allowed. A perfectly sterile place. She really doesn't care for farm animals. On her way into work she goes through an area where "country" people live. She had noticed that at least one house had chickens. She was amazed that they just let the birds roam free.  There had been times that she had seen chickens in the road but that only normally happened in the evening. Well this morning was different.

We go to work early. When I leave for work the sun is barely up. This lady has to be at work at the same time as I do, so I am sure she leaves shortly after sunrise. On her way in this morning all of the chickens were in the road.

Like you would expect, the chickens scattered. Unfortunately, one hen didn't make it out of the way. She said she knew she hit the bird but never did see it in her rear-view mirror.

Once she made it into work she saw feathers and what she thought were the remains of the hen stuck in her grill. She started crying. She did feel bad for the bird. 

When my friend Josh and I walked up to this lady's car, I thought the hen was dead as well. The bird was literally stuck in her car's grill. We started working to remove the body and to both of our surprise the hen was still alive. Well that changes things. We had to be more careful.

Working ever so slowly we did get the hen out of the grill. It was obvious the bird was in shock. We brought the bird in and found a box large enough for her to have room to move around.We found a bowl for water and gave her some food. At first look, other than a scratch on her leg, she looked unharmed. I told everyone if the hen lived through this I was going to name her Super Cluck. 

Oh the chicken puns that went around. "Why did the chicken cross the road? It didn't cause she hit it." "So I understand that you like grilled chicken." "I hear you had a fowl morning." "Chicken slayer." You get the idea.

There is a point to be made here. After Josh and I retrieved the hen from the other employees car grill, nearly every employee stopped to check on the hen. People who had never had farm animals were interested in her survival. Something as simple as a yard bird was able to bring people together. Of course there were some who were not interested. A couple were even negative, almost hostile. But in general everyone wanted to see Lady Cluck pull through.

I hope the original owner of Lady Cluck realizes she is missing. I count our chickens daily and if one is missing I go look for the one that is missing. I would have known.

Keeping chickens can be challenging but it is also very rewarding. If you are allowed and able to have chickens I encourage you to do so. I am including links to two different books that could help you put.

I hope you get to live your

Rural Dreams and Homestead Wishes

If you would like to read my review of The Urban Chicken you can do so HERE.

Another Post you might like from my lovely wife.

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The Un-Country Country Wife

All of my life I have lived in the rural area of Blount County Alabama.I loved it so much that when I remarried I asked my husband if we could stay here instead.Of course he agreed and he has been diligent in making this county his home as well.

Now that being said,I may have lived in this area where there were cows raised right across the road from me and I knew a lot of the people who had grown their own veggies and placed them in competition at the county fair every year.My father grew up here as well.He was raised on a farm,hunted,and even grew his own vegetables.So that should mean I have experience right?

Guess Again.

I will not go into detail about my home life but I will say this.I had to learn to become self-sufficient at a young age.I learned to cook and clean,and even become a mom at the age of sixteen.However,I did not learn much about homesteading.Oh my dad did try when we were younger,but if I wasn't in the mood,I just told my mother and she would take care of that.How I regret this terribly.She was from the city and it was years after my father died that she realized that the country life was good.

Yet she almost had me believing this as well.There isn't much to do around the country when you’re a teen.And so I thought all the cows and chickens and farming was pretty lame.Why go through all this trouble?It’s  hard work and dirty and didn't seem enjoyable at all…

But then the strangest thing happened.I grew up.I started getting to know these people.I still was not completely convinced…

Then God gave me Gregg.

This man loves everything about dirt,and farm life and prepping (not the crazy kind that you see on television)

He was raised on a mountain and has done more than most people I know.And as a bonus,he loves to teach.So I have become his student (by choice!)

I have decided that I want to start sharing my adventures in homesteading since I may have come from the rural land but I truly am just now learning how to appreciate it. So everything is new and amazing and I hope that you will either learn something from it or have a new found love for it.

I am so excited having my wife write with me. For another post written by my wife you can read:

God Gave Me a Carter

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Hand in Hand Embracing the Homestead Life

If you can guess what classic American painting we are paying homage to please comment below.

Is Gardening Becoming Essential for Survival

The picture above looks just like our local grocery store on a daily basis. We have stopped even walking in the building because we know the attempt at buying almost anything there will be futile. The management keeps telling everyone that they are trying to change warehouses. This may be true, but in the meantime everyone is having to go else where to get even the necessities. This started me thinking. What if we couldn't just go a couple of miles to another grocery and get the things we need? What if prices jump suddenly and we couldn't afford enough to provide the things we are used to consuming?

If you have anything to do with buying groceries around your place you have no doubt noticed price increases. On some items these increases have been quite dramatic. Beef has gone up a good bit in recent months and promises to continue to go even higher.

I cannot tell you the number of times I have heard "I spent too much at the grocery store today" or " I spent $70.00 and really didn't get anything". What do you do to off set the ever increasing prices of just eating?  This is one of the expenses that there is no way for you to get rid of. If you were to try to stop eating you would not live for very long.

Gardening going viral?

I have heard more and more people lately say that they wanted to produce 100% of their own food. While this is an incredibly honorable goal, I do not think this is very possible. Let me explain. We live on the edge between agricultural zone 7 and 8. There are several fruits that we like but are either too cold or to warm to produce. If we wish to continue to enjoy these fruits we will need to buy or trade for them.

We live on 1/2 acre so we do not have room to raise cattle or pigs. We do have a small laying flock and are planning on raising broiler chickens, but that puts us pretty close to our limit due to space.

My goal this year is to produce at least 30% of our food for the year. This will actually not reduce the amount of money we will spend on food. This will however free up some money we were going to spend anyway for higher quality items like beef or pork.

This year I am starting all of my plants from seed. Depending on where you live you could either put your seeds straight in the ground now or start your seeds indoors. Even if you only get a weeks head start you will still be ahead of the game.

My decision to start everything from seed is purely economics. Many plants you buy are $3.00 each or more. For less than $2.00 you can get enough seeds to start many plants. If you learn to save seed, your expenses really go down to next to nothing. My germination rate on tomatoes is nearly 100%. Jalapenos about 90% and Belle peppers about 75%. Not bad. I will be sowing squash, zucchini, corn, and really everything else straight in the ground.

If you have a knack for growing plants you can start a cottage business with a very small greenhouse just by starting seeds a couple of weeks before you can safely transplant outside. Start more that you will need or want and sell the rest. Even if you sell the plants for $2.00 each, the people that buy from you will be saving money and you will be earning a little extra with very little additional effort. This will help not only you, but your entire community.

Making it till you get a harvest.

Many folks have to worry about today while preparing for tomorrow. Many states have a program so those in food stamps can use them at the local farmers market. This gives people of limited income access to better quality food while they are learning and starting to produce their own.

Our church has become a pickup point for One Harvest Food Ministries. One Harvest is not a hand out. It is group buying. You are basically buying your food at whole sale price. Each month One Harvest has different menus you can choose from ranging from staples to just meats. While this option does not deal with the problems of chemicals used in growing the food, it can provide needed relief from food costs. Everyone can use a little help with food costs.

I see promise.

We live in an area that would best be described as semi rural. Very few HOAs, most everyone has a little space they can call their own, and there are very few if any restrictions on what you can do on your own land. The other day I came home from work early. Early enough in fact that I was able to pick the children up from school. On my way home from picking the kids up from school I noticed that somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of the homes were preparing a garden spot. This is great!

I work at Lowe's Home Improvement as my primary occupation. I see people everyday buying vegetable seeds or plants, fruit trees and berry bushes. I am able to talk to many of these people and about 20% say they are putting in a garden for the first time. Some are gardening due to the fact they are concerned about the quality and the amount of chemicals that are on the food at the grocery store. Others are trying to save money. Some even say that if you want to eat you had better grow it yourself.

The tide is slowly turning back toward more self reliance and I am proud to be able to say that.

Be sure and check out our affiliates for anything you might need. You can like The Rural Economist on Facebook. We are back at it full force. Please add yourself to our email list by filling out the form to the top right. Your email will not be sold or given to anyone else. You can also check out these posts that are related to this topic.

What to do if You Cannot Grow a Garden
.Becoming a Homestead Ambassador
Backyard Farming on an Acre (more or less) This Title available on The Rural Economist Amazon Store

May you all have Rural Dreams and Homestead Wishes.

Simple Saturday Hop, Heritage Homesteaders Hop, Backyard Farming Connection Hop, Front Porch Friday

The Urban Chicken a Review and a Giveaway

Hello everyone. I am really excited because on November 11th The Rural Economist will be celebrating its one year anniversary. We posted a few things before that time, but that is when I really got serious about sharing my projects, thoughts, successes, and failures. I am also excited because we will be offering our first giveaway. Heather at thehomesteadinghippy.com did an excellent job of putting together a very good book for someone who is thinking about getting chickens for the first time. 

Heather covers different laying breeds and the most popular meat chicken breed. She covers both chicken coops and chicken tractors with the pros and cons of each. She shows pictures of a chicken run that she made out of pvc (which makes me proud that I was not the only person who made their chicken housing out of that stuff).

Heather includes a recipe for homemade chicken feed and talks about the benefits of giving the chickens a chance to free range at least part of the day to help reduce feed costs. I really like being able to move my chickens around, though I will admit it has been a while since I have done so.

The chapter that impressed me the most was the chapter on How to Cut Up Your Chicken. Heather has included a step by step with very good quality photos. If you will follow Heather's instructions you will be cutting up your frying chickens like a pro in no time. (Do not get frustrated if the first couple of times does not turn out so well, that is normal.) 

Heather covers preserving your meat birds as well. She goes over the basics of freezing and canning the meat. She also includes several recipes.  Heather did an excellent job. This ebook is worth several times more than the $3.99 that she charges.

Now for the best part. Heather has given me permission to give away three copies of this eBook for The Rural Economist anniversary. There are three ways to have the opportunity to win this eBook. (1) Follow this blog by clicking the Join This Site button and leave a comment on this post. (2) Follow The Rural Economist on Facebook by clicking HERE. Then find the post about this eBook being given away and post my tagline. It is easy to figure out here is a hint it will be in italics. This eBook is a great recourse to help you....

Keep It Rural

Remember these ebooks will be given away by random draw on November 11th. I will announce the winners both on Facebook and here.

There is a contest running between homestead bloggers. If you like The Rural Economist you can vote for us here. Just find The Rural Economist and click "like" Thanks.