Welcome to the farm!

The first time I mentioned "our farm" to our almost-four-year old, Lily, she said, "But Mama, we don't live on a farm."

"We have chickens? And a barn, don't we?" I asked. "And we grow vegetables in our garden, don't we? And we even have baby chicks who live in our basement, right?"

"Well, yeah, we do. So...wait. That makes us farmers? Cool."

From that moment on she has been happily referring to "our farm", 1.5 acres on the rural edge of suburbia on which we are slowly creating a sustainable homestead, as often as possible!

So what does it look like at Nadalada Farm right now?

I recently took some photos, which I will share once I get them from the camera to the computer, but until then, I'll describe it.

It is what many might refer to as a "diamond in the rough" and at the same time what others lovingly see as one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

I have long been observing and dutifully making note of all that our two-bedroom, woodstove (only) heated, closet-lacking, tiny bathroom-having, doorknob-missing house and it's mangy, overgrown, pine-needle covered yard is lacking. (Until recently when I discovered the Law of Attraction via the movie The Secret and I started observing and noting all the wonderful features of our beautiful space. And let me tell you I cannot recommend this switch in perspective enough.)

Long ago my boyfriend-now-husband, John, and I used to love to spend hours dreaming about all the possibilities of our home, which we rented for several years before we purchased, and it's oversized yard and barn.

One of our favorite things to dream about was the children we would share this beautiful place with.

We began shaping some of what we thought we wanted our family life to feel like with the addition of chickens several years before our first child was born.

The chickens quickly went from hobby to passion (one that the birth of our first baby quickly re-prioritized back to hobby) and we have been raising chickens (RI Reds, Plymouth Rocks, Arucaunas, Black Sexlinks and Red Stars) ever since.

In the fall of last year, we got our first rooster (a gorgeous Dominique), who Lily named "Pretty", then "Susie" and, more recently, "Roosty", because we (read I) decided it would be a lot of fun to let the hens hatch out babies so we can have a self-sustaining flock.

Up until two years ago (when our second baby was born) we also kept two Shetland sheep for companionship and wool (that will some day be spun into yarn on the wheel collecting dust in my basement) because we (read I) thought it would be fun to have the (future, imagined, extremely helpful) kids grow up around animals.

A few weeks/months (it's all a big blur) after Quinn, who is now two, was born, I ran an ad on Craig's List and sent our sheep to live on a farm that has much more land (and fewer young children) than ours. (The children who were sent to us require significantly more attention than the ones I used to daydream about. ;-)

In those days, it felt like running a marathon to just put food on the table and (relatively) clean clothes on our bodies, and there was just NO energy or patience for fence-hopping, loudly-bleating-during-napping, toddler-charging woolly beasts.

That's it for animals (other than our loyal but neglected canine companion, a black lab mix named, Gilligan).

Chickens are generally cooperative and require very little effort on the part of the humans -- other than modest shelter, drinkable water (and believe me drinkable has often been a very subjective term around here), a hopper full of food, and access to bugs, leaves, grass, worms.

That and the frequent consumption of the most amazing, deeply orange-yolked, energy-charged, nutritionally-packed eggs you could ever imagine.

John and I are both always talking them up to people. We really think that everyone who lives free of "homeowner association regulations" should consider keeping a couple of hens (but never just one) in their backyard. They are really that much fun!

In addition to the chickens, we have a large (20' by 60') garden in which we (read John) have annually grown tomatoes, basil, peppers, zucchini, summer squash, butternut squash, green beans, hot peppers, hops, and a couple of sad looking ears of corn.

My husband has always been the gardener in our family but since the kids were born and free time and extra nurturing energy have been in short supply, he's let it slide.

Last summer we grew some fantastic looking weeds -- but not much else -- in the garden. We did, however, grow some lovely green beans, peas, and carrots in containers on the front deck that got watered almost daily by the kids emptying out the wading pool.

This year, with the help of a wonderful Waldorf-inspired preschool for my daughter and an equally wonderful Waldorf-inspired home daycare for my son and our amazing circle of family and friends, I am bringing my creative and nurturing energy into our the yard and garden (soon to be gardens), which I think I will write about tomorrow.

Time for sleep. There's nadalada sleeping-in that happens here at Nadalada Farm and it has nothing to do with Roosty. Our 6 a.m. alarm comes in the form of a super-snuggly, but not especially graceful, toddler bounding into our bed.