Green Acres, We Are There

[filkertom]

Ypsilanti (the city adjacent to Ann Arbor) now allows you to keep up to four chickens.

This is part of a movement -- several movements, really -- across the country. People are hurting financially, and they're trying to find ways to make ends meet. Urban farming is another.

I know I've got the first three Foxfire books around here somewhere.

I'm actually beginning work on a project related to all this. I'll likely have more for you in a few weeks, but for right now I'm curious as to how many of you are doing things like this, and what precisely is working for you. Do you keep animals for food? How much of your own produce do you grow? Are you energy self-sufficient, or working towards it? How about making your own clothing or tools? Purifying your own water? That kind of thing. And, if you have links to resources, would you mind sharing them?

Comments

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

While I don't have an issue with people growing crops in an urban setting, experience teachs me to draw the line at chickens. Roosters crow at 4 in the morning. And while that's fine if you have to get up at 4am, for those of us who get up a couple of hours later, it's an interrupted sleep. And believe me, being unable to sleep well for a couple of weeks, and you'll be ready to lob poisoned caterpillars over the fence.

Our neighbor decided to start raising chickens a couple of years ago. It took ALL his neighbors complaining together and a dozen threats from the HOA to make it stop. While farming your tiny plot in the suburbs sounds romantic and all that, the realities of animals in dense areas are not to be ignored.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Actually, one of the things mentioned in both articles is that roosters are not allowed in many places (including Ypsi), precisely because of the noise.

Right now, starting modestly

[capplor.livejournal.com]

The trouble with keeping chickens is that you WILL have to kill them sometime. But we chose the current house (after the forced move) partly for having a very large yard, and some raised planters already there, a greenhouse, and some perennial food sources already planted.(Peaches, plums, apples, grapes). So this year, yet another experiment with corn & potatoes. LOTS of composting. None of this is actually saving money yet, but in theory we could ramp up.

Re: Right now, starting modestly

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Why is killing them a problem?

[nimitzbrood.livejournal.com]

I'd start with window boxes or something small. IIRC you're a single trailer right? If you've got the space you can put a raised bed in the front yard such as it is.

If you've never grown anything I'd suggest beans simply because they're almost impossible to kill as long as you water them. The same for things like cucumbers and similar watery vegetables. Tomatoes are hit or miss.

If you've got a good window inside these style planters work well and recycle 2-liter bottles: Instructables.com (http://www.instructables.com/id/Go_Green_Upside_Down_Hanging_Planters/)

Unfortunately work has hammered me this year and I did not get to plant due to the garden fence being unfinished. I'll be ready for next year and I will likely hang one of those planters in my house myself. ;-)

Still trying to figure out how to generate my own power at home without freaking out the neighbors...

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've got a window box I've gotta set up. Salsa veggies. :) That's not the project. Something much different, much bigger in mind.

[thistlethorn.livejournal.com]

When I still lived in the city, some of the Bosnian residents there kept chickens and ducks, which I thought was way cool. The rooster at the house across the street was just far enough away that his crowing was merely pleasant at 4 a.m., not obnoxious. As for myself, I love the *idea*, but a kitty is about my limit when it comes to taking care of animals.

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

I've been active in the SCA for nigh onto 30 years now, and in that time have learned how to do lots of things in a low-technology manner. I can take wool from a sheep and get all the way to a garment. Not necessarily the most stylish but at least warm. My kid brother says that when Civilization Falls, he's coming to live with me because I know how to Do Stuff. I tell him, he's going to have to Learn Stuff because nobody rides for free. He has concurred.

If Civilization Falls, we are actually pretty hosed on account of no water, really, but it's a nice thought.

I would like some chickens for eggs but L.A. City ordinances make things difficult for a suburb dweller. I have started growing herbs and vegetables and will do more next year. Getting some help from a landscaping firm, "Home Grown Edible Landscapes." This should be interesting. Lawns are basically useless anyway.

[nimitzbrood.livejournal.com]

I so want to take the side yard and make it a giant garden. My wife said she wouldn't be opposed to that so maybe next year... :-)

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

Purifying your own water is a vexed question. In the arid west, you first have the question of where you're obtaining water. Anything like open water is getting grabbed by somebody who wants to irrigate with it and the water regulations about wht gets dumped back in the water ways gets into fierce arguments with downstream jurisdictions. So no, you can't just divert that little stream at your ranchette in the foothills.
Wells have to be pretty deep where I am, with a strong pump. Friend of mine lives in an area where the groundwater is only four feet down--entirely different set of problems there. Around here, a lot of groundwater is contaminated by things like heavy metals and PCBs and organics such as degreasers and oils dumped by organizations like the Army and the railroads. (Yes, there's a Superfund cleanup site about two miles down the road.) Wells are often heavily regulated. Second, what do you mean by purify? Do you mean capturing gray water from your house and using it to irrigate non-food landscaping, or running it through a mini-sewage treatment function like a series of ponds, or using a ROI/deionizing system to esssentially obtain distilled water such as would be used in a discus or trout fish tank? (Fewer minerals than are desireable in human drinking water, actually.)

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

what do you mean by purify?

Make it safe for human drinking and bathing. Any and all methods. I'm just at the beginning of gently poking for information here.

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

My grandfather and father both tried farming to one extent or another. In both cases the result was: supermarket is cheaper, because doing it yourself out here in the woods means the critters and bugs eat more than you do. That's leaving out the massive labor investment required just to keep crops alive, planting, weeding, watering during drought, harvesting.

As for water, we're on well water out here- for lack of any alternative.

[alymid.livejournal.com]

WEll for us it isn't currently about money, but about eating better and getting out of the house and being a little active. But we started a veggie garden this year with moderate success. I apparently grow good lettuce, fine beats, good carrots, and awesome snap peas. We'll find out about the rest soon hopefully - it was very cool here this spring so many of the plants are behind maturity wise.

We can't do the chickens thing or I would be seriously considering it for the fresh eggs.

[alymid.livejournal.com]

reading some of the comments above - I realize that half of what I do for fun is sort of up this alley.
Make my own bread
Can (putting up food in jars for later)
Spin and dye wool
Knit and crochet

[scrummycat.livejournal.com]

I just got baby Chicks this spring. We have 6 hens and a cockerel. He does crow a lot, but we are on 5 acres in Howell, surrounded by woods, and I have asked each of my neighbors if he is bothering them and they say they can only sometimes barely hear him in the mornings and that they enjoy it. We do shut them in the coop from around 9p to 6:30a, so he doesn't really get started until we let him out.

Chickens are the easiest pets to care for that I have ever owned. They are not that expensive to keep, take only a bit of time each day, and are so much fun to watch. We have only recently started getting eggs, so that is a bonus!

About self sufficiency...I have 2 mules and horse, which we ride and can pull a plow if needed. I do have about 288 sq feet planted with various vegetables, and I do a lot of canning (jams, tomatoes, pickles) all summer and Fall. We have a generator with a switch in the house so we can power our well and appliances when to power goes out. It runs on gas, so we are not "off the grid" by any means, but it works for short term power outages. We also have a wood burning stove that can heat the whole house in the winter.

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

That's fine on 5 acres and you are taking care not to bother the neighbors. But when the rooster is 15 feet from your bedroom window all night...

[momentrabbit.livejournal.com]

How about making your own clothing or tools?

(*ears perk up*) Haven't done costuming in an age - fannish pursuits never die, just go dormant - but tools, well! n.n

I've got a minilathe in my basement, as well as drill press, grinder, and a few other bench items - mostly woodworking with some metalworking tools, from planes and saws down to mauls and anvil. Most of my experiments in toolsmithing have been relatively minor - lack of income over the last year has curtailed a lot of plans and projects, and made me a bit pickier about scrounging materials. Much of my toolmaking has been purely mental as a result. (Some more mental than others. *cough*) (http://momentrabbit.livejournal.com/410034.html#cutid1) Still, gotta start somewhere. Gallifrey wasn't rebuilt in a day.

I can recommend a couple of books for bootstrapping toolmaking. The New Edge of the Anvil (http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=46424&cat=1,46096,46130) and The Complete Modern Blacksmith (http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=32963&cat=1,46096,46130), which will equip you from the forge up for additive metalworking. For subtractive metalworking, there's Dave Gingery (http://www.gingerybooks.com/) (exalted be his name to the nth power) who starts you off building a metal casting furnace with book 1. Each successive book builds a machine using the previous machines, leading to an accurate and full-sized metalworking shop...

My parents do this...

[graysoul.livejournal.com]

20 acres, though most of it is not really "active".
20 cows, 15 goats. The goats don't stink. Not sure how that works.
The secret to flies and bugs in general is to keep fowl. Guinea hens at first, ducks currently. They eat all the mosquito larvae from the pond and also all the ticks. The cat and dog keep the house area clear of vermin, and the wild foxes handle the rest.
The garden has been a long term project since the base soil is very thick clay (they are in the Appalachian mountains in VA, near Tennessee.) First was farming pigs in the area to root out the wiregrass and other natives (yes they did stink), then massive infusion of tree mulch from the highway department, and lime to balance the pH. It worked, and currently supports all kinds of vegetables including asparagus and Concord grapes. Makes nice grape juice.

Then there's the preservation strategy. Green beans can be dried into "leather britches". Many things can be canned. Some things get frozen but that's not entirely self-sufficient if the grid goes down. The original 1845 dairy kept the milk cold by pumping up underground 50 degree water using a windmill. It's long gone though.

Re: My parents do this...

[kilbia.livejournal.com]

Hey, I'm curious: are you saying that they kept the pigs there for a finite amount of time, then relocated or otherwise dispensed with them? Just let the pigs run rampant and eat all the stuff currently growing there, then move them elsewhere and plant what you really wanted to have growing on that land?

That sounds like an awesome idea; I just want to know if I'm hearing it right. (Now, if only I didn't live in a city that was one big freakin' HOA, I swear...=)

[hyrkanian.livejournal.com]

My mom told me on a recent visit home that her town is now allowing 7 hens per family now. This is really only the town bowing to the inevitable and asserting some control over things as the Hispanic population has kept chickens (hens and roosters both) for 20+ years.

As of ca. October 2008, these are the ordinances for chickens in city limits of Durham, NC: (We are in city limits but surrounded by non-city, just our subdivision is a little "bubble" of city, it's strange).

Linky goes here (http://www.durhamnc.gov/council/ord_changes/tc0800006.pdf)

I don't know if anyone in the subdivision has risked the wrath of the HOA to try this yet or not. I've not heard, seen nor smelled chickens so if anyone is they're doing a good job of keeping it inoffensive. We would love to have hens but not ready to take on the HOA about it yet. We've discussed keeping rabbits as they are much quieter and easier to hide. The return on rabbits is not nearly as large as from chickens though.

We built 4 raised beds in our back yard last spring and got a good bit of greens, tomatoes, squash, etc. from them. This year we've not had time to plant as intensely but still have some radishes, greens, tomatoes, and a few squash plants. I've planned for years to replace most of our landscaping (boxwood hedges, holly bushes, all stuff the developer put in when the house was built) with edible landscaping. Rosemary hedges and fig trees, etc. Rather than the ubiquitous clematis or jasmine growing artfully around our mailbox, I have passion fruit vines. Pretty flowers that will hopefully yield some fruit by fall.

I grew up in a semi-rural area and we had chickens, goats, rabbits and gardens and orchards. When I got my first job I saved up and bought a horse that I kept on the property as well. I miss all that. We're looking for acreage to buy and build on but custody changes for kids have slowed that down to a near-standstill.

We have a bookshelf full of books on self-sufficiency we've acquired over the past few years. Joel Salatin's books are entertaining and informative. Foxfire books are awesome. :)

[alverant.livejournal.com]

I have a pot outside to grow herbs. I hope to bring it inside when the weather gets old and if I can find some herbs that won't hurt my cats if they decided to go nom nom nom on them.

I remember an MST3K short about truck farming (the Bruteman episode) and they mention that every county has someone raising chickens. Makes you wonder if that is still true today.

[ericthemage.livejournal.com]

I've built one 4' x 6' cedar raised garden bed (for $50! need cheaper cedar!) and we're growing tomatoes, red peppers, and zucchini in it so far, from established plants that we bought at Lowe's. We've got room for another 5-7 cedar boxes in the same area, so hopefully next year we'll make even more.

Not sure if we want do have our own animals yet.

[catnip13.livejournal.com]

We did a lot of research on pine vs cedar vs redwood boxes, and actually determined that the pine, while it doesn't last as long, is still way more cost effective in the long run. You get about double the life out of redwood and cedar, but they are almost triple the cost.

[peachtales.livejournal.com]

I grow herbs, and flowers. This year I managed to grow 3 different kinds of tomatoes, except all the fruit got stolen (save for 2 lonely tomatoes). Also a zucchini, which has yet to produce anything other than lovely flowers. So far - fail.

[pbrim.livejournal.com]

I live in an apartment now, but once I get a house again, I would love to keep a few chickens. Store eggs just can't compare with yard eggs! I will probably put in a few Earthtainers (http://www.earthtainer.org/). (Earthbox (http://www.earthbox.com/) is the commercial version. Their website has a lot of good info that would also apply to planting in an Earthtainer.)

By using enclosed raised beds, you don't waste water, you vitrually eliminate weeding and reduce pests by being more in control of the ground you plant in. You can even set up an automatic system that tops off the water reservoir when it runs low, so you can be gone for a few days without losing your whole garden.

[kilbia.livejournal.com]

I don't trust the weather here in D/FW to be all that conducive to casual gardening. I do know how to sew, but if by "make your own clothing" you mean from the initial fiber, not yet. Should learn how to knit someday.

Knitting's fun

[capplor.livejournal.com]

but if I had to cloth myself by it, I'd be lucky to have a bikini. Weaving & sewing would be faster. Felting (if your fiber is wool) probably even more so. If civilization fell RIGHT THIS INSTANT, canabalizing existing fabric would last me the rest of my life.

[starmalachite.livejournal.com]

Then you're already addicted to the Gardening Bug!

Not me -- too many years of inoculation. My parents had a 1 1/2 acre garden while I was growing up & as soon as I left for college I had a Scarlett O'Hara as-God-is-my-witness moment. I haven't had so much as an air fern since. I'd literally rather clean toilets than garden.

But I do know the basics & if it were a matter of survival I could probably manage. Just one more reason *not* to survive the collapse of civilization.

Y'all have fun, tho. Not criticizing, just baffled.

[kilbia.livejournal.com]

Eh, *shrug*

Humans are ultimately social creatures, even if I think they're happiest in smaller tribes than in big organized societies. Surely someone would happily trade you food for cleaning their toilets or whatever else you'd rather do.

[omimouse.livejournal.com]

The move from TN to WVA somewhat derailed what I was doing with the house down south. Had a pair of apple trees in, and had raspberry canes that were going absolutely *nuts*.

I've managed to get some raspberry canes in up here, and we had fresh grown peas in the early summer off of what I planted right after we moved up here. Some idiot up here lets his goats (and their incredibly aggressive herd dog) run all over the place, so gardening in force will need to wait until next year, when we can get fences up. The area for the peas is fenced in, so I'll be planting more for a fall crop pretty soon now.

Over the fall and winter, after we've gotten the inside of the house into better shape (ask me about the bathroom renovation that revealed black and crumbling wood) we'll be clearing out the yard and getting the fencing and hopefully the raised planters set up. I've already started on the new compost heap.

Next year, I'm hoping to be able to get in more raspberries, a pair of apple trees, a Three Sisters garden, some canteloupe, and whatever other assorted fruits and veggies I think I have the space, time, and energy for. Though, we *will* be planting a mix of lavender, mint, and pennyroyal around the house to help keep the fleas at bay during the summer.

I've helped keep, kill, and butcher chickens before, and I am finding myself not adverse to the idea of possibly doing so again at some point. Only, with a coop this time.

And I was going to link to Little House In The Suburbs, but they seem to have had their account suspended?

[tollermom]

How do you keep the local critters from eating the raspberries? I'm getting tired of sharing mine with the birds and bunnies. I wouldn't mind so much if they'd actually leave me a few, but it's not working out that way so far...

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

Oh, for heaven's sake! A prolonged economic crunch will lead to urban poverty, not rural. Redneck Gaijin right of it; the whole point of commercial farming--the whole reason people do it at all--is that it's more efficient. If you want really fresh eggs, or if you are out of work for a long time and all you have is your time, then maybe keeping your own chickens makes sense. & if civilization collapses, gardening will be the least of our problems--90% of us will be dead.

[lovefromgirl.livejournal.com]

I would posit that every level of society, wherever it happens to live, feels the pressure during a recession this deep. We're closer to rural than urban and we still got hit -- where we live isn't where we work anymore, and it hasn't been since the fifties.

We're not necessarily talking the collapse of civilisation, just people doing what they can to make it do or do without. If it upsets you, keep consuming by all means.

[lovefromgirl.livejournal.com]

We have a couple of those books, too! Very neat. :-)

This year's been stinking rotten chaos, but last year we produced enough tomatoes for the whole neighborhood (not that they came to eat them) and plenty of cucumbers and peppers. Next year, if things are better, we may try again.

I mend clothes until they're beyond repair; this is why I actually caved and bought another pair of jeans, in fact. My favorites had both broken down beyond the point where I'd wear them in public. I do this by hand, which I find gives me much more control over what I'm stitching! I also hem my own pants by hand, as I am just under five feet tall and cannot find anything in the petites section under a size six. Growl. I've figured out how to take in waistbands without cutting away any fabric, so if I do fatten up a little (please, gods?) at least I can snap my threads and readjust.

If we didn't have three cats, four chickens would probably suit us very, very well. ;-)

[catnip13.livejournal.com]

We eat a vegan diet, so no animals for food here, though I do put a bit of work into maintaining habitat for frogs, toads and bats in my garden, and we have a colony of orchard mason bees that we introduced to help pollinate.

We have a vegetable garden with 4 3x8 foot raised beds, plus a 3x5 foot one. We grow chard, spinach, lettuce, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, green beans, peas, carrots, butternut squash, pumpkins, sunflowers, strawberries, asparagus, green onions, parsley, basil, arugula, and sunflowers, plus a wide variety of culinary and medicinal herbs.

We've also got raspberry bushes, a grapevine, and apricot, plum, apple, orange, cherry, lemon, fig, and nectarine trees.

Personally, I love gardening. There's a great deal of satisfaction that I get out of growing food.

We also make all our own jams, and eat almost no packaged food.

Personally, I've had enough problems with feral chickens wreaking havoc in my garden that I'm not thrilled with the idea of my neighbors keeping them.

[a-steep-hill.livejournal.com]

My wife and I are pretty hard core into the urban farming thing. We've kept chickens (for eggs -- ate the rooster) and rabbits (for meat and manure). Both are very easy and low effort to keep. And rabbit meat is really tasty and also lean and healthy.

On the gardening side, I favor perennials if you've got the time to make an investment. Fruit and nut trees are good, but also artichokes, blueberries, asparagus, pineapple guavas, and raspberries.

For home gardeners who want to maximize their effort to return ratio and not wait for perennials to mature, I suggest starting with culinary herbs and salad greens. Both benefit greatly from being picked fresh, and both have very high (carbon, energy, water, etc) footprints when produced commercially. (Those bagged salads are really high-input, and not nearly as good as what you can grow yourself. Fresh herbs from the store have the problem that whatever you don't use quickly goes to waste; when you grow your own, you just pick what you need.) Both things can be grown in containers e.g. on a porch. Both can be grown year-round in many climates.

[james-the-evil1.livejournal.com]

One thing that's an issue for many folks is that in planned/deed restricted communities they're VERY limited in what they can plant or do in their own yards. Gardens are against the rules, or limited to small ornamental patches, for instance. Another major energy use issue with those communities is the banning of clotheslines, forcing the use of dryers. There're separate campaigns going to force such communities to allow both.

[zianuray.livejournal.com]

If you're interested in self-sufficiency, I recommend Backwoods Home Magazine. BHM is a family-run/owned publication and professional, while keeping a conversational flavor.
They publish their archives for each year in paperback (large ones!) and on CD (DVD?)(I'm not clear on that).