The Snow Is Gone!!! I am here for it and the beginning of self sufficiency!

In my last blog post Self Sufficient Lifestyle, I got really excited about learning to become more self sufficient on our farm. 

I’ve been reading and researching about the different styles of compost, which I’m still struggling with a little bit. Most of what I’ve read says to put your fruit peels and veggie scrapes in the compost as the compost needs these to create the nice rich dirt your hoping for. Well, my chickens get all our scrapes so – although the scrapes aren’t just being thrown in the trash they aren’t helping my compost pile either. I’ve decided that what I clean out from my garden that was left from last fall will be the only food scrapes that will find their way into the pile. 

The rest of my compost is leaves and stems from my flower beds. I never clear these off in the fall as I find it much easier to do in the spring when I’m so excited be outdoors after all those cold winter months. Plus leaving them gives a nice shelter for the bugs to live in and survive the winters. 

We had two laying hens that were quite old for a few years, and they have basically stopped laying eggs for almost a year now but I don’t have the heart to part with them. I did decide to go out and get ten more laying hens a few weeks ago and now we’ve got eggs coming non stop and the kids are excited to be selling eggs to the neighbours. They are even excited to go out every day to check for eggs, talk the the ladies and make sure they have water. These chickens are so friendly and social the kids love having farm chores to do. 

They are loving the chore so much I’ve decided to expand on them haha. I’ve decided to buy a Katahdin ram lamb and a Dorper ewe lamb. Both from different farms so they will be able to breed when the time comes. What I liked about these two breeds is that they are hair sheep, they shed out instead of needing to be sheered. What are we going to do with these sheep? I’m not sure but I plan to find out just how useful they can be for this self sufficient lifestyle. I’ve never eaten lamb but hear it’s delicious so maybe we will give it a try! My plan in the meantime is for them to help keep down the grass and weeds that grow in the corrals. 

At the end of March I started my seedlings for the garden. We had such beautiful weather it seemed like maybe we’d get an early spring – well a month later and we had snow again today. Alberta weather keeps you guessing all the time, we can even get all four seasons in one day lol. My garden seeds are growing really well – except the lavender – this is my second year trying to grow them and still no luck. If anyone has any tips for lavender please let me know. I’m wishing to grow it so badly as I love the smell and it helps calm me when I feel my anxiety kicking in! (Sorry bit of a rant there). My other plants are coming along nicely, so far I’ve planted tomatoes, cucumbers, jalapeño and bell peppers and onions.

I use an app to help plan my garden every year and try to do a crop rotation.  Crop rotations are a very important part of gardening, it helps keep the soil structure and nutrient from deteriorating. Different crops require different nutrients and therefor it’s important to rotate them.  My garden spot was cultivated a few days ago and all is ready for Mother Nature to give us the go ahead! 

I know there will be so much more to learn about becoming more self sufficient but for now I’m excited with our progress.  Today’s confession; I truly don’t know exactly what I’m doing but I figure I’ll learn to do by doing, or fake it till you make it! Either of these could easily apply these days haha.

Do you have a self sufficient lifestyle? What tips or advice would you give someone starting out?