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Finally (almost) spring!

Ahhhhh finalllllly! It'd be an understatement to say we had a case of cabin-fever this winter...

Even though the last couple months have been like a Mid-Western autumn for this thick skin, what really kills me is the lack of daylight.  I usually work the evening shift and Cameron the day, so we've barely seen each other during daylight since November.  I moved in officially January 1st, though Cameron had been calling it 'our home' since I can't even remember.  So really its only been a month and a few, but at this point we're both convinced we live in a dimension outside of time.  The only thing that relates us back to this time-based reality is the alarms I set for everything that doesn't pertain to time spent together. But we have gotten a lot done inside, the house is definitely feels like ours.
New Year's Eve was spent with the pups and chickens (who we awoke at midnight to make some noise) making plans for the year together and learning how to make paper cranes, we probably made about 50.  We started a huge art project on the living room wall that I got Cameron making frames for, for the first time in his life.  Really just giving him as many 'carpenter challenges' as possible, so he'll be able to build us a house eventually...we got off-grid plans, must hone our skills now!

Mostly our 2015 plans are focused on the business and the permaculture garden we are both attempting for the first time.  Back in France one of my friends, a gardener by trade, had his home permaculture garden working for him, he really got me excited about plant systems and the way they can transform a plain space into something quite stunning.  Cameron, always on that hustle, wants enough food to feed us and then some.  We both see it as a project that could involve the whole neighborhood/local community someday.  Once we conquer our empty space we can go help the neighbors do the same, beautify the whole block and teach people how easy it can be to grow food.  Just as we are trying to teach people how easy it is to keep chickens, to which we definitely know the extent!

So finallllllllly this weekend we were able to work outside in the sunny 70s and get a lot done that we've been waiting for nice weather to do. 

-move the chicken coops/runs to new location, no more free reign of back yard (Paddie the rooster is always attacking us)
-turn the earth and build up the soil for better water retention
-set up a more permanent composting system/bin


Before

original plan to terrace the soil - not so practical for our yard. 
Chickens spreading around hay for us
 
chickens had the whole back wall in two separate runs, but this made the yard feel small


compost corner & Pearl keeping us company



After

a man proud of his work - our S shaped beds flow so well
later we switched the big girls with the babies to give them more room
our own home coops are purely functional, but I plan to decorate...
the lights make it so bright the chickens wake up...might be a bad idea...
long shadows after a long day of work

The most fun was had the night before.  We decided (after I got off a 12h shift) to go dumpster diving for some pallets for the compost.  Bonnie & Clyde style.  Got chased by a mall security truck and thought we might get killed in the industrial zone, but we got two truck loads of usable wood.  Which constructed our compost bin and bases for our rain barrels *coming soon* with some left over. 

We spent the weekend getting stoked, to put it simply.  Once we got the chickens in place and the garden beds dug, we began dreaming. Envisioning a pergola for brunch, a hoop house, and all the shade giving plants that will grow to protect us and each other from the sunbeams at mile-high.  Being bare-foot, wearing sunglasses and hats, feeling a little sweat, getting scrapes and blisters...this is what we live for.

forever grateful~
-jennifer

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