What a fabulous forum!

[hwillm1977]

I seem to be the first person from this province who posted, hoping there are others

I live in a small village? called Pollett River in Southeastern New Brunswick, Canada. I have a great boyfriend, who at this point qualifies as a husband, we just never bothered with the piece of paper We have two great dogs, both pit bulls, one cat, and one horse along with a revolving door of foster animals (usually pit bulls that need rehabilitation).

I work as a designer for a newspaper, my husband is a truck driver... I do tons of volunteer stuff, mostly with animals, and work part-time as a portrait artist from home to make a few extra dollars. I also sew, so I make a lot of my own clothes and do alterations for anyone that needs it.

We've always been interested in self sufficiency and have been slowly working our way towards that. Because of student loans, we can't get a mortgage... so we bought a trailer in a park, fixed that up and sold it... and now live in a fixer-upper farmhouse in the country on an acre of land... it cost us only $25,000 and needs a ton of work... but it's OURS We also have a 5 acre woodlot that we use to heat our house. Next we're saving up to buy acreage a little closer to a city than we are now (we're about 50 miles from a decent grocery store, or any store besides the gas station, now) So we're gradually working our way up the property ladder without accumulating more debt.

This spring we're planning on getting a few chickens since that's really all we can have on our lot, along with our garden... we know NOTHING about keeping farm animals (other than the horse) so we're on a giant learning curve and hoping that I don't mess too much stuff up.

 

[Beekissed]

Glad to have ya!

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

welcome!

 

[miss_thenorth]

Welcome from another canuck! I've been through NB before--stayed at Kouchibougouac Natl park, but that's all I know about NB.

Your wrong that you can only have chickens on a acre of land ( I say that affectionately to encourage you.) We have a total of three acres--two dedicated to the horses, but on the rest of the land we have 20 some odd chickens(it fluctuates), anywhere from 20 - 100 quail (coturnix), I have four breeder rabbits, with litters of around 8 every other month--all for meat. We are getting two dairy sheep which will be our lawn mower and milk supplier, as well as fleece and meat (from their young that will keep them in milk--if we don't sell them) I also do about 100 meat chickens every summer, some to sell and some to keep. Rabbits and quail are in cages, everything else is or will be(sheep) pastured.

Also, on that one acre, you can have a kicker garden, and also do some container gardens etc.

Very wise to move up the real estate ladder without accumulating debt!! As far as not knowing how to keep animals, we all were ther at one time and we are still learning. don't bee too concerned--it will work itself out. And yes, this is a great forum!!

 

[big brown horse]

It is a fabulous forum isn't it?

 

[Dace]

 

[FarmerChick]

we're OK here

welcome and enjoy the chats!!

 

[hwillm1977]

Thanks for all the welcomes!

Miss_thenorth: Geez, I thought I was going to be doing well getting a dozen chickens I'd LOVE to have goats, but hubby likes his lawn and it's a hard thing to convince him we should have more animals here. He's all for it when we have more land (the plot we went to look at last weekend, and hopefully will buy, is 117.8 acres). But because we're also trying to fix this house up and sell it within a few years we want to keep the landscaping for resale value.

I do have a 1000 square foot garden, and 8 raised beds that are 3x10 feet for herbs and lettuce. When we take the windows out of the house next spring I'm going to build coldframes. I have a book on 4-season gardening by a guy in Maine (whose climate is similar to ours) so I'm going to attempt to grow fresh veggies all year round.

We live almost on the border of Fundy National Park... it's a beautiful spot down this way

 

[miss_thenorth]

OK, so now you'vepiqued my interest..... What can you grow in the winter??? Inquiring minds want to know could you share the name and author of the book? I've thought about growing lettuce in the winter, but would need a grow light etc etc---- and I have too many other things that I need to spend my money on, but I am really interested in this book

 

[hwillm1977]

The book is called Four Season Gardening: Organic vegetables from your home garden all year long by Eliot Coleman.

Things they harvest in winter are hardy... maiche, arugula, endive, spinach, carrots, leeks, radish etc.... grown in cold frames or a greenhouse (unheated) outside, no grow lights needed. He grows heat loving crops all summer, then plants cold hardy plants in the fall to harvest over winter and spring (growth is much slower in cold temps)...

It's a fantastic book full of tons of info, probably my favorite gardening book. He manages to eat from his garden all year in Zone 5, which is the same as zone as me