Happy Sunday everyone!
It seems as though fall is upon us! It’s been perfect weather for getting outside and doing some much needed clean up of the spring/summer garden and preparing for the next growing season.
In the spirit of reusing and repurposing, I’ve created a new compost bin!
This is a chicken/keet pen we constructed a few years back. We used it for moving the babies into once they were old enough to leave the brooder, but still too young to move outside full time, and while we were constructing the chicken tractors that we had. It’s about 5 feet long, by 3 feet high and just a little over 2 feet wide. There used to be a door one one end, but that has since been replaced with plastic garden fencing. After the chickens had moved into their respective tractors, we kept this as a pen to separate the girls if one was hurt or just needed a “time out”. It had a wire bottom of quarter inch hardware cloth, with the top and sides being chicken wire. It was fabulous for the babies, because we could bring them out into the yard, turn it upside down with the chicken wire top on the bottom and they were able to eat grass and scratch, get some fresh air and sunshine while being totally protected.
I couldn’t really figure out what to do with it, but didn’t want to toss it either. I was contemplating building a compost bin from some scrap pallets we have, but then I had this brainstorm. I removed the hardware cloth bottom (which I saved to use on a future project – whatever that may be), turned it upside down so the chicken wire is on the bottom, and decided to use it as my new compost bin! It’s my hope that the chicken wire sides will provide plenty of ventilation for the compost. And that when it comes time to harvest my compost, the garden fence “door” will be easy enough to remove for this purpose. I guess next spring, I’ll see how well it worked.
Recently I’ve started following a couple of folks on youtube that I felt I needed to give a shout out too and help plug their channels. Since I’m a visual learner, a lot of times it helps me to actually see how someone does something rather than read about it. Written instructions often confuse me, and sometimes the mental image I create in my head is not what someone was explaining. And there’s the added fact that watching someone create something in their own kitchen, build something on their homestead, create a craft or sewing project without all the fancy lighting, clever editing, or high dollar fancy tools that you see on a tv show, makes me feel a bit more confident about tackling the project in my own imperfect world. 🙂
First up is Our Half Acre Homestead. Mr. and Mrs. Volfie are an absolute hoot, and so personable, I just feel like I “know” them. Mrs. Volfie whips out some amazing recipes in her kitchen, along with providing practical tips and advice for food storage, preservation, budgeting and all around “you can do this too” encouragement.
Next is imstillworkin. Yet another fantastic site for canning, gardening and recipes. Again, someone who is very personable, practical and easy to follow. I love her accent and sense of humor too!
And last is a delightful lady that I just found yesterday. Mel at One Woman and Two Acres is quickly becoming my hero. She’s one woman, a few critters and a two acre homestead that she’s developing. She uses power tools like a boss and makes me feel like there’s nothing I shouldn’t be able to do. She’s dug a swale on her property using a shovel, made hugelkulture beds and even fixed her own water pipe break! A true testament to “Girl Power”! Her positive attitude and spirit are truly inspirational. And her laugh will make you smile.
Now, I’m back out to take advantage of this beautiful day! Have a great week everyone!
Evolution of a Homestead 