Urban farm Re: Cows vs goats -

[Guest guest]

Thank you Tina, blessings to you and yours as well. Chlorinated water is one of

the things i think about al lthe time and look forward to getting out of the

city. I noticed the new goat - in milk - does not drink much water and should

be and it think that is why. We do not even have a stinking hose bib/faucet out

back and i have to fetch everything from around the front or connect 3 hoses to

reach the back. So annoying.

I decided i can't wait for my dream of acreage. Learning it all after we had

acreage to manage, would be so overwhelming if and when we finally do get it. I

would not know where to start and i like to be organized a bit and not just jump

in. I don't like to waste my time or $ for that matter and find out i did

everything wrong and have to start over. Taking the time to start doing what we

can now to put into practice what we have read, saw at farms, and learn from any

mistakes i think will make it a bit easier. If not then we are at least

fulfilling our homestead/farming dream albeit small scale in the city.

We started with gardening, some ducks (which we decided to sell at point of lay)

and chickens 2 yrs ago. Idecided i was ready to make the next move - milking

and meat. This spring we raised (40) meat birds in our backyard and got the

goats. Simultaneously. Def. too many meat birds at once . My husband was

deployed until end of April so i was making do with whatever i could find to

house stuff until we could start building housing.

I asked around and found a few families all interested in raising their own meat

birds this yr - 1 other city family, 2 country who also had done this before. So

we bought our birds on the same day raised them out, and had a slaughter party

if you will. Made it so much easier. My plan was to raise in 20 batch cycles

giving a month or so in between and getting 2-3 batches in before winter. But

the second batch was given to me 2 weeks after we started the first. I had

to.... they were free . We had to slaughter the 2nd batch alone it took far

more time and was not as 'fun', lol.

I def. won't be raising 40 all at once again. It was getting kind of stinky

those last couple of weeks.

We had also brought home 14 new chicks to raise to replace our older layers in

the spring. So we had 70 chickens all at once. I had moveable batches all over

the place out back taking up all the space we have (besides our deck) . There

were chickens everywhere. We fenced under the trampoline. Raised some in the

dog run. Had the new layers in another area.

I was secretly panicking if the city would have come for some reason....... they

would not have understood why i had so many. And we were trying to construct

the barn and run so it was a mess back there because we did not have permanent

structures in place for the extras and they were hodge podged everywhere. LOL.

I would not rec. that many chickens at once with out a better plan in place

otherwise it can be overwhelming looking for such a small place.

My farm friends who have acreage are very supportive and love to see the

changes, how we jimmy rig stuff to get through it all, using what we have -

scrap wise. Until i get a feel for what the new critters needs are then build

according to what i glean from the trial living areas and from them. I do like

that about a hodge podge sorta home you can easily take it down and move it

around to suit needs for them or conveniences to you that you did not realize

were even there. The goats are happy to be out of the little garden shed and

into a big barn . So glad hubby came home in time to help contsruct it all

before summer came.

We added 3 bantee ducks about 2.5 weeks ago to keep out front on slug patrol as

they are my worst gardening enemy every yr. I am trying to find a free wooden

dog house on the local Craigslist to keep them locked up in at night as i plan

to let them free range in the front yard all day eating bugs, assuming they

don't damage all my veggie plants. I figure i will need to add a door that

latches and wooden house would be easier to do that to. Going to keep it in the

middle of the front yard under the apple tree i planted last yr.

Sorry, i am rambling on now .

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> What you are doing is amazing. I know many people who would love to do the

> same things, but here in the Houston, Texas area most people live in

> Subdivisions and neighborhoods that are highly restricted, so they are not

> permitted to use their property as they like.

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> When I read your story, I realized that I have no right to complain about

> having " only " five acres. We have the ability to raise anything we want to

> on our property, have as much garden as we'd like, can water whenever we

> want to from our non-chlorinated well (even in this horrible draught we can

> make some grass grow for the cows) and have helpful neighbors that do the

> same.

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> Blessings to you and your family,

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> Tina in TX

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