Paradise in Disguise Hobby Farm Blog

January 4, 2018 was a big day. I had agreed to do a presentation about composting with chickens and food waste to a class of students. However, I'm not a "public speaker", and most of my life, I have been known as shy & quiet. The last few years, though, I've begun to "come out of my shell". It's like the metamorphosis process of a caterpillar to a butterfly. It's been my relationship with Jesus Christ that has enabled me to change, because in and of myself, I would have remained that caterpillar my whole life. So, speaking in front of a group of "strangers" is not something the "old me" would have jumped at the opportunity to do.Yet, I here I was, actually excited about this presentation. I'm pretty sure I had adrenaline flowing, as I was more excitedly nervous than scared nervous. The teacher, Dawn, introduced me as the "chicken lady" 😍 and said a few things before turning it over to me. After a q

As some of you know, we've been composting with our chickens for many years now. In 2012, I wrote this article for a Backyardchickens.com contest & won!  Composting with Chickens   A lot has changed since then. We've moved.  We moved 75 -80 cubic yards of finished compost for our new garden.  (photo below - Nov 2014) We have a lot more chickens.  I've made mistakes and learned from them.  But, I'm still composting with chickens.  This is the 5th year we've been recycling food scraps from Cross Roads Cafe & Tuna III in Delhi.  For a few years now, I've been looking (and continue to) for more sources of food waste, whether it be a small or large amount.  I've put a few "ads" out there on FB, craigslist, etc, but only had a few short-term contributions of food waste.  We mostly used compostable material from our garden, mulch hay from local farms and leaves we'd scavenged  from the st

It's a new year and though 2017 I hardly wrote on this blog, I thought I'd try again for a fresh start in 2018. And not every post has to be a "book". (That's what I'm prone to doing once I get writing.)  I know blogs aren't a "popular thing" anymore as many people, including myself, have turned to Instagram and/or Facebook. But they have their limitations. And FB can have drama & often people don't see everything you post due to their "filters", which is fine, unless you're trying to keep people updated on what's happening on the farm or promote your business. Well, enough on that subject.  I wrote the above a few days ago, but then it got "crazy" again, so I didn't publish it on here. So, I'm taking a few moments before work to finish this blog post.  My alarm went off at 3AM this morning. Yes, 3:00AM! Though, I didn't actually roll out of bed until 3:30. My brother offered to take me to