My Week in Review
On Monday I spent about 6 hours planting potatoes at Schooner Farms. It was a great learning experience as well as an amazing workout. I slept better than I had in months that evening. I was so sore the next day I was not able to do much in the morning so I watched Food, Inc. It was a great program highlighting big business and government control of our food system.
I have seen the footage before of the chickens that have no room to move but I didn't realize just how bad the supermarket chicken supply was. What was really sad is that to produce for the big companies a farmer must go deeply in debt to build a chicken concentration camp and again each time they decide to upgrade. Then the farmer is truly, as the Bible says "slave to the lender." They must comply or they face loosing their farms.
I am a big Dave Ramsey fan and I don't really like the concept of debt. I am not as intense as Dave but I don't ever plan to finance anything other than a home again. I learned a few things from this video about bucking the system. I am a little worried about the location of the small farm we eventually buy. I don't want to be at war with neighboring farmers that work for the bigger businesses. I want a peaceful place where I can sell to a select few and produce much of my own food.
Chickens, Chickens and More Chickens
On Wednesday I tried to stain the chicken coop. I took the chickens out and stuck them in the poorly constructed temporary pen. I made it out of stakes and garden netting but it works well for short periods. Sadly the stain was not working on the rough surface so we had to sand it and get more stain. It took half the day and I still need to get out there and touch it up today.
After a long day I put the dog in the house and let the chickens roam free for about a half an hour in the yard. I would love to do this more but I need to supervise. So this morning I let them out for about an hour and a half mostly supervised. I did come in and grab a snack and cook breakfast for my hubby. They stayed where I could see them out the back window.
Once they can't get through the holes in the fence I think I will let them out more, I just have to train the dog not to chase them. I did find out yesterday that now that they are outside the dogs only real interest in them is to make them run. She found her way under the pens fencing and chased them out and around for a few seconds before I caught her.
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