Paradise in Disguise Hobby Farm Blog

A week ago Tuesday (2/20), it had warmed up to 60*F, and   there were multiple outdoor "farm" projects calling my name.  First, the DC coop doors were too close to the ground and after trying to keep enough of a clearance to close the door, the stress caused the screws in the bottom hinge to come out. The solution was simple - cut off a few inches of the door, and  just put an extra boards on the inside of the coop.  With both doors able to open again, I started cleaning the coop.   Four big wheelbarrow loads later, I was down to the deep litter that was still nice and "fluffy". Below, is the pile of what was cleaned out of one coop! 💩    The next step was to add more "fresh" litter. The only issue was that when we got the dump truck load of sawdust in November 2016, we didn't have a dry place to store it. So, it's gotten wet and as a result, it was almost completely frozen solid.    ...

Recently, I came across Hough Family Homestead on Instagram, then visited their newly launched blog, where I found this post: "What is Modern Homesteading?" Even though I haven't thought of ourselves as a homestead, I've always loved the "Little House on the Prairie" series, ever since I read it the first time as a young girl. Therefore, I didn't think that today, with all the "modern" conveniences, we'd be called a "homestead". Well, after reading Hough Family Homestead's view of what "modern homesteading" is and answering some questions that were asked me regarding homesteading, it caused me to reconsider the idea. While I've thought of a "homesteader" as one who built their own home (or at least part of it), often is off-grid & in a "wilderness" location, that's not necessarily the definition of a modern homesteader. For us, we breed, hatch & grow our own chickens...

1/21/16 - A Day in the Life: Photographic Journey through Winter Chores at Paradise in Disguise Hobby Farm In the 45 days since I last posted here on my blog, winter has officially arrived. This past week (1-17 to 1-22), it hasn't gotten above 30*F, and we've had light snow flurries on almost a daily basis. This makes daily "critter chores", as I call them, more of a challenge than in the summer months. The garden hose is frozen, so I fill up 2 water buckets in the shower. Even though I have 4 heated water bowls, they need to be topped off, plus the rooster's and main flock's water rubber dishes need to be filled. But before I can go outside, I put on snow pants, coat, gloves and/or mittens, and heavy winter boots. Because last weekend, it did get above freezing, the snow started to melt, then re-froze, coating all the high-traffic paths with ice! Therefore, I have to wear ice cleats or else I would have fallen many times. The winter mode of transport ...