Goodbye, Little Urban Homestead
Well, wouldn’t you know it – just when I decided to go ahead and do the things I’ve always dreamed of doing on a farm, right here in the city, we went and got ourselves a farm house.
On July 1, we’ll be leaving the city behind us. I can’t even begin to express my joy and excitement! We’ll have plenty of room for a couple of sheep (Jae got me some spinning lessons for my birthday!), our chickens will have so much space to free-range, the rabbits will have more room, and most importantly, my kids will have the space and the freedom to roam and be wild every.single.day.
The house was built in 1904! It has large plank floorboards and lots of old farmhouse charm. I absolutely love it.
Because we’ll no longer have a little urban homestead, I’m going to say goodbye to this blog. I think I’ll leave it up for other aspiring urban homesteaders to read, even though I didn’t accomplish nearly as much as I was hoping to accomplish on my wee lot in the city (we’re only partway into the growing season and our animals are still so small!). It’s time to start a new blog about our new life, the life I’ve dreamed of for so long.
Life Around Here
We have been very busy lately. So busy that even as a stay-at-home momma, I’m hardly ever home.
The gardens are doing well. The lettuce and spinach have been slightly bug-eaten on the outer leaves, but nothing major. Jae and some of the other guerrilla gardeners ate fresh greens from the garden last week. I can only imagine how satisfying that must have been – sadly, I wasn’t around at the time to share in the bounty.
We spent a bit of time out at the Windsor-Essex Community Supported Agriculture (WECSA) site over the past couple of weekends, planting tomatoes, watering, and moving materials for the strawbale shed we’ll be building there this summer. Lynden quite happily filled his watering can from the rain barrel, hauled it across the site, and watered a big ole bed of onions over and over again.
Now that the weather’s nice and warm, we’ve taken to walking all over the place again, leaving the car at home. The kids like to pull each other in the wagon, until they get tired out enough that they both want me or Jae to pull them. Our little red wagon sure has served us well! It’s been beaten an abused by my kids, has fallen apart and been repaired a few times, and is still in fantastic shape and fully functional. We sure do love our wagon!
My perennial garden is really starting to flourish! The plants I put in the first year we were here are finally starting to look mature and full, and I’m pretty pleased with how the garden is coming along overall. I sometimes forget what I’ve got planted in there, and love watching everything pop up, fill out, and bloom each spring. I haven’t had nearly as much leisure gardening time as I’d like since Robin was born, and have only just been keeping up with minimal weeding and watering. Still, it is slowly becoming a lovely little garden that I’m pretty happy with.
My brother is apprenticing on a biodynamic farm this season, so on the weekend we took a family road trip up to the farm with Taylor to help him get settled in. He was on the same farm two years ago, and was pretty happy to see a few familiar faces when we got there last weeken – the cows! There are lots of them, and Taylor knows them by name (all but the ones who have been born in his two-year absence). The kids got a thrill out of the cows and their mooing, but decided to stay on the other side of the fence in order to avoid the horns. Probably a smart choice!
The farm Taylor is on is pretty neat. The folks there run a community-supported agriculture (CSA) and are a pair of really rad people. There is so much land! They have the Rocky Saugeen River running through part of the property, lots of pasture, woods, greenhouses, barns, and all manner of farm-y goodness. I would absolutely love to live in a place like that, but for now, a momma can dream.
In other news, Robin is already nearly 7 weeks old! *GASP!!* He’s really quite chunky and lovely, happy, calm, content and smiley. We couldn’t have hoped for a better baby and love him so very much. Look at his delightful cheeks! Look at his delightful smile! Our family is so blessed.
The Girls Have Arrived!
Our sweet little chicks came home today, one day old!! They are so incredibly, amazingly adorable that it’s quite difficult to stop oneself from watching them indefinitely. Of course, the kids were just beside themselves with excitement today, and could barely stand the ride home from the feed store for want of holding them.
We have two Rhode Island Reds, one Black Sex-linked, one Barred Rock, and one ISA Brown. They are the sweetest little things. They snuggle up together when they sleep, and make the cutest little chirping sounds. I love the way the chicks drink their water, scooping up a mouthful and then tipping their heads back to trickle it down their throats.
The chicks seem to really enjoy being held, even by the kids, and run up to our hands when we reach into the brooder. They take little cat-naps for mere seconds, and then get up to run around again. These girls are already providing endless entertainment!
I cannot wait for those fresh-from-the-hen eggs. Mmmm, I can almost taste them already….
So, So Busy
I have had so many things I’ve wanted to post about over the last week, and it seems there is just never a moment to sit down and type.
My most exciting news: I ordered chicks!! Five of them!! And they arrive on May 25!! The rabbits’ old cage will be used as our brooder, and while the chicks are still indoors I will be busy building them a backyard coop. I am so freaking excited about this, you have no idea. I have wanted chickens for a very, very long time. One might say I’ve wanted them forever. And now, in our very own (and very small) urban backyard, I will have them!!
Our seedling swap last weekend was pretty rad. There were a lot of seedlings to be shared, and everyone went home happy. Two raised beds were built that day, the kids had plenty of friends to play with, and I even got a few new native perennials for my flower bed (which needs a lot of work and has been neglected due to all the veggie gardening going on around here).
On my naturopath’s advice, I am doing a hypoallergenic cleanse diet to figure out if I have any food sensitivities (I’m certain of dairy and suspecting wheat) and also to boost my energy levels and make sure that I’m replacing all the good stuff that is being sucked out of me by the wee babe and not-so-wee toddler. This entirely whole foods diet requires lots of time in the kitchen, which has been slightly challenging to manage with three small children to attend to, but the food is absolutely fantastic and I am feeling amazing! I have more energy now than I have in years, and my constant sluggishness is gone. Four more weeks, and then I start adding potential trigger foods back in.
My parents tore down their (very long) privacy fence recently, and we have been using the old wood for the raised beds. There’s so much more wood than we have been able to put to good use, so I have decided to use the rest to make a little white picket fence around my front yard. Hopefully that will solve the problem of unwanted neighbourhood children sneaking into our backyard to see the rabbits (truly!), and keep our own children from running wild around the neighbourhood (they’ve taken to going out the front door and down the street to play when I’m couch-bound nursing the baby). Yet another little project to complete! The projects seem to be endless, and I’m loving it!
The Hutch is Complete!
I finally, FINALLY finished the rabbit hutch! I tell ya, trying to finish off the rabbit hutch with a newborn baby, a toddler and a preschooler was no easy task. I’d screw on an L-bracket, then stop to feed the baby and change a diaper. Then I’d screw on another L-bracket and stop to break up an argument between my older two children. After another L-bracket, it would be time to feed the baby again. And so it went, until finally, piece by piece and screw by screw, I completed the project. I knew it would be difficult to finish after the baby came, and was really trying to get it all done before the birth, but all that matters is that the hutch is COMPLETE!! Hooray!!
March 27 – I assembled my materials. The plywood was salvaged from my parents’ garage and our shed, so to begin with all I needed to purchase were the 2×2′s, some wood screws, and the L-brackets.
My intention was to build this hutch as cheaply as possible. I had seen a hutch at the feed store that was large enough for one single rabbit, and priced at $169! Yikes! I spent only a few dollars on my 2×2′s, and about $5 for the screws & L-brackets. So far, so good!
I wish I could say that I built the hutch entirely by myself, but the truth is that I’m afraid of power tools. So, after measuring and marking lines, I had Jae do the cutting for me with his power saw. Power saws scare me! I can’t help but envision dismembered fingers and hands whenever I hear a saw being used. Ugh.
March 28 – The work begins! I didn’t use any plans while building the hutch – I just had a vision in my head of what I wanted, and pulled it all from my brain as I went. The idea was to have a nesting/bedding box on each end for the rabbits to nest in and sleep in, and for the hutch to be divided down the middle to keep the male & female separated from each other.
I also wanted the hutch to be elevated to allow for bins to be placed underneath to catch the falling poop, and to discourage skunks from checking out the bunnies. Also, the higher the hutch, the easier to reach in for feeding, handling, changing bedding, etc.
I started the project upside down, first attaching the rear legs to my length of plywood, then attaching the ends of the bedding boxes and securing the fro
nt legs to those ends. So far, so good! (Jae didn’t realise that I was working upside down, and wondered what the heck I was doing with 2×2′s sticking so far up out of the top of my hutch – haha, funny man!)
The front pieces were added to both bedding boxes, along with two more sets of legs, front and back. I decided not to finish off the bottom of the boxes with plywood, but rather to use rabbit wire for easier cleaning.
April 4 – The frame is nearly finished! I added two legs (one front, one back) in the centre of the hutch for extra support and for dividing purposes. The female will reside on one side of the divider, the male on the other. At this point all that remains for the frame is the addition of the L-brackets at each corner for extra strength.
I should say that April 4 was four days before my due date, and it was getting to be increasingly difficult to bend over, lift heavy objects, and move around in general. I was determined to get the hutch finished before my baby’s birth – DETERMINED! – but this is as far as I made it. We had a series of rainy, miserable days in which I was not able to get any more work done, and once the weather cleared up enough I was overdue and absolutely huge. So the hutch got put on hold until after the baby’s arrival, and sat on my porch for a few weeks looking like it does in this photo. Frustrating! I wanted to get those darned rabbits outside!
Last week of April, First week of May - Bit by bit, I managed to work on the hutch. An L-bracket here, some rabbit wire there. Some days I managed about five minutes of screwing or snipping wire before being interrupted by a crying baby, other days I managed nearly 20 minutes! Slowly but surely, the hutch came together.
The bottom and front of the hutch are covered in rabbit wire. I used a larger gauge on the bottom to allow droppings to fall through, and a smaller gauge on the front to discourage chewing. Sage loves to chew on wire! The spaces in the wire are small enough that he won’t be able to chew. He sends shivers down my spine when he gets to gnawing on wire.
The centre divider is also covered in rabbit wire, so that the bunnies can see each other and socialise without the danger of making babies. I used the larger gauge on the divider so that they’ll be able to stick their noses through to give each other kisses (which they love to do).
The lid is plywood, hinged at the back of the hutch. There are two separate pieces so that each half of the hutch can be opened individually. The edges of the lid come out about five inches farther than the hutch at the front and about three inches farther at the back and sides to keep the rain from dripping in during wet weather. We had three solid days of rain and thunderstorms after I completed the hutch, before we were able to put the rabbits inside, and I’m happy to report that I opened it up to find everything bone dry in there! Wahoo!
May 14 – I’m ready to put the rabbits into their new home. It’s a beautiful day – sunny, warm, slightly breezy with the smell of spring in the air. The floor of the hutch is covered with a thin layer of straw to give the bunnies a soft surface to stand on (but not so much that the poop won’t fall through the floor). The bedding boxes are loaded with straw, plenty to dig in and nest in and be comfy cozy. I’m excited – I’ve been waiting for this day for nearly two months!
Sage was the first to go in this morning. He immediately started sniffing around and digging in the straw. He’s been out there for a few hours now, and seems to love it! He’s got about double the amount of space as he had in his indoor cage, and a much softer floor (the indoor cage is nothing but wire, and straw falls right through, so it was hard on those poor little bunny feet).
Rosemary and Flopsy went in next. They seemed a little unsure of it at first, but I left them alone for a little while and when I came back they were hopping all around and looking quite happy. They, too, have much more room in their new home than they had in the house. They seem to appreciate being able to run!
So, there you have it folks! The hutch is finished, the rabbits are out of my house, and everyone is happy!
Oh – I should also say – that being resourceful and thrifty, this large double hutch cost me about $35 in total. That’s a heck of a lot less money than the single-rabbit hutch at the feed store for $169! My hutch is also sturdier, although maybe not quite so pretty as the one in the store. Jae gave it a jiggle to see how it held up, and concluded that this thing will last for many, many years with minimal maintenance.
And one more thing. I’d easily have been able to finish this project in the course of an afternoon if I hadn’t been pregnant, running after two children, giving birth, and caring for a newborn, in between building spurts. Ah well, such is life.
It feels so good to be finished with this project! Hoorah!
Success!
Our rabbit situation very quickly turned around! After a bit of chasing, nipping, and mounting between Rosemary & Flopsy, the bunnies have settled down and are now happily sharing a cage. They’re even snuggling up to each other! I am so very relieved 
Another Rabbit
Our dear lionheads started life together, brother & sister. They came to our home together and were caged together for their first month and a half here. And then, they reached breeding age. They’ve been in separate cages ever since. They have been lonely in their single-bunny dwellings, and finicky.
My solution – more rabbits! Pals for our sweet lionheads! Companions! My Encyclopedia of Country Living says rabbits are communal animals who like to be housed with other rabbits. So after perusing kijiji and sending a few emails, I arranged to pick up another female lionhead today. She is about the same age as Sage & Rosemary, looks almost identical to Rosemary, and is a sweet & cuddly little thing (though a bit shy). The kids were delighted, and couldn’t wait to get her home. We named our new bunny “Flopsy”, from the Peter Rabbit books by Beatrix Potter.
Rosemary’s reaction has been less than wonderful. She chases poor Flopsy around the room, nipping at her and backing her into corners. Rosemary doesn’t seem to want to hurt Flopsy – I think she’s merely establishing herself as the dominant rabbit. Poor sweet Flopsy is terrified! I’ve never seen a rabbit run so fast as Flopsy trying to get away from Rosemary.
Oh, what have I done? Now instead of two isolated rabbits, I have THREE isolated rabbits – and another on the way tomorrow! (We also arranged for a male lionhead as a companion for Sage.)
At least we’ll have plenty of poop for the gardens…
Sunny Days
We spent our Friday afternoon out in the garden, and what a glorious afternoon it was! We couldn’t have asked for better weather. The sun was shining, it was warm (but not too hot), and later that night there was a fantastic thunder storm with a huge downpour of rain for all the newly planted veggies.
The spinach that I planted from seed a few weeks ago is doing well! Those little leaves are actually starting to look like spinach leaves Our Little Gem lettuce is also doing very well – it was started indoors and is much larger than the spinach. Very soon we will have some yummy garden salad!
We started planting in the hex beds. The bed in this photo has garlic chives and chives from last season planted in one section (that was done by the Guerrilla Gardening Collective). The chives from last season were transplanted from another bed that now houses strawberry plants. We sowed carrot seeds in one of the triangles on Friday.
The hose you see there runs from a rain barrel at the side of the house. I’m always amazed at how quickly the barrel fills, and how much watering we can do with one full barrel. Rain harvesting is an awesome thing! I really want to get a second barrel set up, as the first one fills to overflowing within the first few minutes of a good rain.
In an adjacent bed we put in Mischa tomatoes and Early Girl tomatoes, basil, and Little Blue peppers. Onions from last year are also growing in there. I love seeing what decides to come up from last year – there are always a few surprises!
We also put out our pumpkin plants. This was Lynden’s special job, as he was the one who planted the pumpkin seeds in their little pots back in March. He is very excited about the pumpkins, though he did a fair amount of complaining about being hot and sweaty – “Mama, I have sweat on my skin! I’m too hot! What can I doooo!?” Oh, my boy, just wait until July and we’ll see how you feel about the heat then!
Oh, beautiful pumpkin plant. I think the pumpkins may be my favourites as well. If we get some good ones, we’ll enter them in the Harrow Fair in September. Lynden will be thrilled by that! I’m also considering entering some of my knitting and the rabbits into the Fair as well, but September is a long way off and I have plenty of time to think about it.
The kids really loved being out in the garden. Lynden found plenty of snails, which he claimed as pets, and before long he had several sliming around on his shirt & arms. My child is obsessed with slimy little creatures! He calls them his “friends”, and declares his love for them. It’s really cute and sweet, though the death toll is climbing for the local worm & slug population (score on the slugs, not so good about the worms!).
Baby Robin also enjoyed the sunshine and fresh air! He spent most of the time in the Cuddly Wrap, but he and I both got to be way too hot, so Robin chilled out for a while on the porch while I dug and weeded (the quinoa bed has so many weeds!!!).
All in all, a perfect Friday with lots of wonderful rain in the night to nurture our plants. The grow table in the basement is still full of plants that need to go into the ground, and we only got in about half of what we planned on planting the other day. Maybe this afternoon we’ll get back out into the garden – it looks like another sunny day, and not too hot either!
Oh, and – the rabbit hutch was put on hold for a while there, what with the birth of the baby and all. It is SO CLOSE to being finished – all I have to do is add a couple of L-brackets for extra support, attach the rabbit wire, and put the hinges on the lid. It will take me less than an hour to finish! You’d think I’d get on that and get it done, but alas, there are so many things to do and so little time to do it all. Having a 12-day-old baby constantly attached to me doesn’t make for a very effective or efficient mama! I really, REALLY want to get those rabbits outside (they poop more than you can imagine, and I’m really tired of having them in my dining room). Perhaps I will finish off the hutch tomorrow when the kids have their naps.
Baby Days
We’ve been a family of five for one whole week. A week, already! I go back and forth between marveling at how quickly the time flies and feeling like time is dragging & I’m going stir crazy. Going from two children to three has been so much easier and more seamless than I expected it to be – maybe a case of hope for the best, prepare for the worst?
Baby Robin is wonderful. He is calm and mellow, with very old wise eyes. He has spent the first week of his life nursing & sleeping, and not much else. Lynden and Raina are so very in love with their new brother and often fight over who gets to hold him first. Lynden keeps asking me when he will get to teach Baby Robin how to crawl… soon enough, my boy, soon enough!
I’m itching to get back out to the garden! Today I took a moment just to peek while the older two kids were napping and Daddy was holding Baby. My spinach has come up beautifully and the lettuce is looking AWESOME! The quinoa has also started coming up – I’m amazed and awed by how tiny the little sprouts are. I would have missed them entirely if I hadn’t known where my rows were. Now it’s time to get all the seedlings we started indoors into the ground. Yesterday was our last frost date! I can’t wait to plant all of our little babies out in the wide world.
My goal for tomorrow is to spend some time gardening with the kids. It should be interesting…
