I am Being Published in The New Pioneer magazine

Two 275 gallon food grade totes repurposed into a water containment system.

I received word from The New Pioneer magazine recently. They are buying a written piece and three of my photographs with plans to publish them sometime during 2015.

This magazine, if you are not familiar with it, is a homesteaders to self-reliant living. It is published quarterly with a subscription cost of $24.97. More information about this magazine, its articles and columns can be found on its site, http://www.//newpioneering.com

An example of a front cover of The New Pioneer magazine.

 

The tote is connected to the pole barn roof using a flexible hose and downspout.

They are buying a piece I wrote about our homesteads rain water collection system along with at least three photographs! Isn’t this great news? We have two 275 gallon food grade totes that captures the rainwater that pours off of our pole barn and collects it during the rainy season for use during the drought times. This article outlines how we created this system, found our wood base along side of the roadway and just how this system works for us.

We have sandy soil on our Small House Homestead property which perks through our soil and runs to the ditch drainage system.  I have always felt that this water was simply being wasted and could be used more effectively for our vegetable and perennial gardens, animals and shrubbery. Now that we have captured water we use every bit in our watering using a simple hose and gravity feed system.

A PVC pipe and turn on/turn off valve allows me to use a hose or a bucket.

In years past I wrote and published a lot of newspaper and magazine feature articles, photographs, essays, book reviews and more and it’s been fun to get back into the writing gig again this winter. I have missed it.

I sent along three digital photographs with my 900 word piece which apparently they felt fit their market and audience.

I’ve filled out the paperwork and am waiting to hear when it is going to be published. I’ll keep you posted when it is published. Even though over the years I’ve probably sold hundreds of freelance pieces, each new one is still a thrill.

Small House homesteader and freelance writer, Donna

 

 

 

Countdown to Operation Chicken Rescue

Bought the storage cans… check. Bought the chicken feed, check… Bought the heater for the waterer, check…Coop ready, check…We are nearing the count down to our big chicken rescue adventure!

Today I made the trip to Holland, a 45 minute drive from our home to stock up on chicken feed. I had a number of errands to run as well so I combined the trip as we always do to save time and gas. I shop for feed at Pier’s Feed and Country Store, an animal feed store to get the best price and product. We purchase our dog food, songbird thistle and now chicken feed there as well.

Our new chicken coop in its fenced in run.

My plan is to feed our chickens organic, non GMO, feed only. I was very surprised and pleased to find organic chicken fee (with 16 percent protein) at my feed store. In addition to this bag of mixed grains and proteins, I will supplement with kitchen scraps, bugs/meal worms/crickets, and crab apples from our tree, home-grown sunflowers seeds and green fodder and ground acorns from our White Oak trees which are high in protein and will be saved for the cold winter months.

Selling Kent, horse and livestock feed.

I’m told that this small flock of hens is just being fed cracked corn, so I suspect they will think they are taking a vacation at the chicken B & B!

Our flock will be somewhat confined in their run due to our trained bird-dog so they will depend on me to provide them with healthy and nutritious feed.

Lots of products and choice.

I’ve been doing quite a lot of research on feeding your chickens and this is what I know to be true:

DO NOT Feed Your Chickens This:

• Don’t feed your chickens anything you would not feed your family
• Do not give chicken leftover cooked dry/baked beans
• Raw potato peels
• All soy product contain GMO’s soy so if you wish to be GMO free, skip the soy
• A lot of bread as bread breaks down to sugar and make your birds nervous or aggressive
• Cat food
• If you feed flowers make sure they have not been treated with pesticides.
• Anything too salty, spoiled, or anything moldy

DO Feed Your Chickens This:

• Raw potato peels
• Watch your protein levels and aim for a minimum of 16%-20% protein
• Keep grit available at all times, grit can include; Oyster shells, sand grit, ground egg shells
• Calcium is also important; Oyster shells, organic milk ensure that chickens are getting enough calcium to produce eggs.
• Apple cider vinegar added to the water will help to keep the chickens healthier and free from disease.

If you do need, or want, to make your own organic chicken feed mix here are two recipes you might like to try.

Ingredients for Making Homemade Organic Chicken Feed

Recipe 1

7 to 8 parts organic whole corn 3 parts organic soft white wheat 3 parts organic hard red winter wheat 2 parts organic oat groats 1 to 2 parts organic dried milk 1 to 2 parts fish or organic soybean meal 1/2 part ground oyster shell 1/10 part salt

Recipe 2

3 to 4 parts organic whole corn 2 to 3 parts whole organic wheat 1 part dried organic milk 1 part fish meal 1 part oyster shell 1 part grit 1/2 part salt 1/2 part cod liver oil

Read more: http://www.ehow.com/how_5137841_make-organic-chicken-feed.html

If you would like more sources for on-line organic chicken feed, try any of these options below:

• http://ww38.greenerpasturesfarm.com
• countrysideorganics.com/‎
• doortodoororganics.com/‎
• ebfarm.com/‎

Small House Homesteader and now Chicken Keeper, Donna

It’s Hard to Homestead When You are Old

Homesteading takes dedication, commitment and a deep desire for a life that is meaningful. Homesteading  is more about personal satisfaction than status or fun and games. It’s about taking nothing and making something out of it.

People sometimes ask me for advice on getting started as a homesteader. I tell them this, do what I say… not what I did – homestead when you are young. I know this first hand. Homesteading is hard work, day after day!

Celebrating with a rare dinner out for our anniversary.

My husband and I started this adventure just 14 years ago when he was 50 and I was 45. Today we are 63 and 69. It takes a lot of hard, daily, physical work to homestead and long tiring workdays. Even when one is healthy and in good shape, it’s darn hard to be a homesteader at this age.

This is my meadow habitat I created for the birds, butterflies and dragonflies.

So why are we living this way? It’s a way to live more frugally and a way to contribute meaningfully towards conserving the limited resources of our Earth. It’s a way to live that allows us to work with our hands and to spend long hours out-of-doors.

And, it’s one way to leave the world a better place than when we found it. In spite of its many challenges, hard choices and sore muscles, I can’t imagine living any other way.

Our crabapple tree surrounded by the sidewalk I designed. The bench tops have a mosaic design that I made. This is where we sit, together, almost everyday for a quick break and a cold drink.

Why? We homestead because…

• We care about the Earth and want to preserve and protect our land.
• I want to leave this property, our community in better shape then when we came here.
• We want to have control over the food we eat.
• We want to take charge of our health.
• We want to show our granddaughter where food really comes from.
• We choose to build living soil and habitat for all the creatures of the Earth.
• We want to live a simpler lifestyle in a rural place with a slower pace of life.
• We are independent thinkers who love the Earth and its soil and want to take care of it.
• We chose to do the daily work of “living with a purpose.”
• 
• The back of our house and the row of native oak hydrangeas I planted under our dining room window.

It’s a physically and emotionally satisfying lifestyle choice. That pretty much sums it up for us.

Donna at the Small House Homestead

The Small House Homestead

As our life changes our blogs change.  Previously I wrote for The Small House Under a Big Sky blog which focused on my restoration of and hand-painting of vintage furniture. Recently I after realizing that our property and garden is a homestead and that we are really rural homesteaders I decided to change the focus of my blog.

For years the word homestead referred to a free government land program and the skills necessary for pioneer living. Today the word homesteading is more apt to refer to a lifestyle that promotes greater self-sufficiency.

By the 1970s, the word homesteading evolved to mean a back to the land movement and creating a lifestyle as tens of thousands of young adults and other adventurous souls threw off the cultural mantle of urban and suburban living and returned to their ancestral rural roots. Over the next three decades, the character of the term homesteading has emerged to include self-sufficient living in urban and suburban settings as well as on rural acreage.

Broadly defined, homesteading is a lifestyle of self-sufficiency. It is characterized by subsistence agriculture, home preservation of foodstuffs, and it may or may not also involve the small-scale production of textiles, clothing, and craftwork for household use or sale. Pursued in different ways around the world — and in different historical eras — homesteading is generally differentiated from rural village or commune living by isolation (either socially or physically) of the homestead.

Modern homesteaders often use renewable energy options including solar electricity and wind power and some even invent DIY cars. Many also choose to plant and grow heirloom vegetables and to raise heritage livestock. Homesteading is not defined by where someone lives, such as the city or the country, but by the lifestyle choices they make.

In our case, we grow and put up organic vegetables, harvest rainwater, build soil, keep chickens for eggs, plant and grow native plantings and create eco-climates for the birds and invertebrates. We feel a sense of commitment to steward our small neck of the woods and to leave this land a better place than it was when we moved here.

 

We are truly part of this group of ‘back-to-the-landers’ who desire to live a greener and more independent and self-reliant lifestyle.

Thank for checking us out!

Donna & Gene Allgaier-Lamberti