Slow Going...

Boy, building a chicken coop is going to be harder than I thought. It's only June 2nd and I am sweating my rear end off out there! I guess I'm going to have to adjust my schedule so I do the yard work in the early morning while it's still cool, then go online and fill out job applications in the afternoon.

My yard is such a mess. Squirrels and rabbits have made it their b!tch. There are burrows everywhere. I'm afraid that I'm going to come across a nest of them while I'm moving stuff around. I try to give them a warning by making lots of noise and jiggling things before I move them because I do not want to be attacked by a squirrel or rabbit! And the spiders, oh my gawd. I have never seen spiders so big in all of my life.

Well, I guess I should get back at it...

Baby Chick Watch...

Baby chicks are hilarious. Every time I pass by the brooder box I have to peek in. They are so comical,  I end up standing there for several minutes watching their goofy antics. It's hard to get anything done! They just crack me up with their child-like exuberance. I know, I know, it's because they are chicken children but it's still funny to me. Maybe it's because they're birds so you don't really expect them to have much personality but they do. They act like pre-schoolers on the playground. They run everywhere they go, scuffle with each other, and scurry around in little packs. The way they hop off their perch totally reminds of a kid, because kids don't just step off of stuff, they jump off of it. Hilarious.

The chicks turned on week old on Monday and I can't believe how much they've changed! They're growing real feathers and losing their baby fat. The changes happen overnight. On Sunday, none of the chicks had tails. By Tuesday, they all did. It's pretty cool.

It's getting easier to be "Green"...

I've been "green" pretty much since I was a kid.  The 70s are known as the "Me" decade, but it was also the time when Earth Day was born. Remember the "Childcraft How and Why Library"? World Book encyclopedias published a kid's encyclopedia supplement that came with your set of encyclopedias, and you also got an 'annual' every year, each devoted to a different subject.  I loved reading those! They were my favorite books as a kid, and to this day I read non-fiction pretty much exclusively. What can I say, I love to learn new things. Anyway, one of those "How and Why" books was about endangered species and it really made an impression on me.  As a kid, I was appalled at how humans were putting so many harmful chemicals into the air, water and soil. I couldn't understand why anyone would kill a rhinoceros and take only its horn. It seemed selfish to me. As a ten year old, I was against such things, but what was I really going to do about it? Not much. My parents certainly weren't green. They weren't using rhino horn, but the had no problem using whatever chemicals they felt were necessary to get the job done. They are still pretty bad. They don't even recycle! I know, it's disgusting. I have tried to tell them they are messing up the planet for their grandchildren but they just think I'm overreacting. My family thinks I'm weird.
So, even though as a kid I was "green" in spirit, I wasn't "green" in any practical sense until the late 80s when I was grown up and ecology was trendy again. My husband and I became vegetarians as a protest to factory farming. We reduced, reused and recycled, and when our son was born in 1989, my husband and I vowed that we would only use cloth diapers. Remember the big Pampers backlash of the 80s? We didn't want our son's diapers to live 100 years in a landfill! Great idea in theory, but not too practical for parents who work 40 hours a week. I'm sure it can be done, but we couldn't make it happen. My son was in Pampers when he was 6 months old. But at least we kept 6 months of diapers out of the landfill. Better than nothing, right?

Usually, something is better than nothing. Even though my parents don't recycle, they do use cloth shopping bags instead of disposable bags. Which seems so much harder to me than simply sorting your recyclables, but whatever. Also, in my parents' defense, they put their trash cans out into the alley & homeless people go through and pick out the recyclables so not everything ends up in the landfill. And that's something.

Making Progress...

It's looking pretty good around here. I wish I had taken a "before" picture just so I could have visual evidence of how much progress I have made. Believe me, two weeks ago, it was really bad. Really, really bad. Now I have (almost) all of my stuff put away so I can actually get to it and use it. My living room is cleared of junk.  You can sit on the couches and use the tables.  It's such a great feeling! It's starting to feel normal again. Almost. This past year has been very hard on me, and my family. I worked at my last job for 22 years. I started there when I was 21! It was a huge part of who I was as an adult and it was a great loss. Seeing that huge mess everywhere, everyday, just made it that much harder. It's such a relief to have that black cloud gone from over my head.

Of course, there is still the big black 'unemployment' cloud hanging around. Trying to find a job at my age is a brutal assault on my self esteem. I'm applying for jobs that pay about a quarter of what I was making before and getting turned down. That's hard to handle. Everything is done online now, there is no personal interaction. Instead, to estimate what type of person you are, you must take this 8-page long personality exam that is beyond ridiculous. They ask you the same question over and over, wording it slightly different each time they ask you. And they are the most inane questions such as, "I can tell how a person feels by looking at them".  Is that a sought-after quality in a cashier?  Because I would think getting the change right would top the list. And the question is so dumb. I can tell how some people are feeling, but I can't tell how all people are feeling. What is the correct answer? I'm just not that black and white. Ugh...

My fantasy is to have my little farm with chickens and goats and a big garden, and just live off the money we make from selling what we produce. Eggs, milk and cheese, vegetables, homemade soap and jewelry. My husband Greg could sell his beautiful photographs. Yes, I know this is a long shot but it's not impossible. My cousin's Mother-in-Law actually lived this way for years. I recently had a chance to talk to her about it and she was very encouraging. It would take a lot of work and planning, but I feel like I am up to the task. I'm already taking my first steps, and making good progress.

We Interrupt This Purge to Bring You Baby Chicks....

Yesterday as I was getting ready to start my chores, I got a call from the post office informing me that my shipment of "live birds" had arrived. Baby Chicks! Ooh, darn, I wasn't quite ready. I had the brooder box built, I visited the feed store last week and bought chick starter, and I had the waterer and feeder in my possession, but I hadn't yet put it all together. It wasn't a big deal, but I was so anxious to finally have my chicks and I wanted everything to be just right.

 The babies arrived safe and sound from My Pet Chicken. They were even more adorable than I had imagined!! I carefully removed them from their mailing box one by one and dipped their beaks first in water, then in chick food as I had seen Martha Stewart do on her recent show devoted to backyard chickens. And then I just watched. It was fascinating! I was mesmerized! I wanted to share it with someone, but nobody was home except for my son Julian. He had worked until midnight the night before and was sound asleep. I so wanted to wake him up & make him look at the chicks with me, but I didn't. Besides, Julian doesn't get excited as easily as I do. I knew he wouldn't adequately appreciate these marvelous little fuzz balls. So, I sent a text with a picture to my friend Timbrely because I knew she would share my joy. I think if I had encouraged her, she would have left work just to come over & see them.

I had so much to do but it was nearly impossible to tear myself away from the "Baby Chicken" show. They are just so stinkin' cute! I would do some work, then check on them, do a little more, come back for a quick peek. Fold laundry, pick up chicks and pet them til they fell asleep in my hand. Not a productive day, to say the least.  Oh well. Tomorrow is another day.

A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step...

But watch out for that first step, it's a doozy! The first step in my personal renaissance is purging. Getting rid of the piles & piles of things some people (like my husband) may call junk. That first step is the hardest, there's no doubt. I am a hoarder. I freely admit it. And I do understand my compulsion to hoard makes my life unnecessarily difficult. But understanding doesn't make it any easier to get rid off this 'junk'. What does make it easier is taking that first step.

For 22 years, my family owned and operated a moving and storage company, which made it very easy for me to save everything, but when the business closed, I had to bring all of that stuff to my house and find places for it. Yikes! I avoided this task for a long time because I knew it would totally stress me out. But I also knew I could not move on to step two without completing step one. I'm very methodical. Most of the time it is my downfall, as in "I can't possibly move on to step two until I complete step one. Oh well, screw it." But I made a commitment that this would be different! I'm being re-born, for crying out loud. Gone is the old me, the new me is awesome!

I'm telling you that as hard as step one is, it only gets easier. I'm sure it has a lot to do with the fact that I'm just getting tired of doing it, looking at it and trying to figure out where to put it and so I'm much more receptive to the idea of throwing it away or donating it to charity. This is how it usually goes: I go out to my patio and look at the big pile of stuff there, then I go to my carport & look at the big pile of stuff there. I am overwhelmed and so I wander around looking at stuff, wondering where in the world to begin. Then I find something that I can make a decision on, such-and-such needs to go here, so I do that. After that it just starts to flow.

I am proud to say that I'm almost finished with my purge! My patio, carport & front room should be clutter-free by the end of this week! Which is a very good thing because my baby chicks arrive this week and I need to move on to step two, building a chicken coop.

Peace!

Welcome to Your New Life...

In 2009, the company I had worked for for 22 years went out of business. Worse still, my husband also worked there. So there we were, both out of work for the first time in our whole adult lives. I had never imagined that something so harsh would happen to us. Our family has been through real tragedy, so I knew this wasn't the worst that could happen. But it was still pretty bad. Trying to find a job at age 44 is difficult and discouraging. It's slim pickings out there!

 My life was so automatic before. It was a very comfortable rut. But those days are gone and I am forced to rise to this new challenge., so I might as well make the most of it. I've been reading a lot about "self sufficiency" and urban homesteading. The world is changing, and the age of consumerism is fading for many of us. More and more people are intrigued by the self-sufficient lifestyle. We are drawn to the pursuit of a different kind of happiness. Growing our own food, making stuff, learning to do more for ourselves, living a simpler life.

I've been fascinated by it for most of my life. I'm kind of a Gen-X Hippie. And so, since I have to start all over anyway, why not try something completely different? I still have to look for a "real" job, but I'm going to give this "Simple Living" a shot. And I'm going to blog about it.