Chicks of BaHa Ranch

A Rhode Island Red pullet, eating out of my hand.
These were born the third week of October.

Our first four girls, three Rhode Island Reds and a Silkie
(The Silkie passed away at about 2 weeks old)

Sleeping in their box under the heat lamp

They aren't as cute when they grow up, but they are still pretty cute!
And full of personality...

The third one wouldn't pose with the other two.

We handle them a lot to keep them tame.
They're kinda like big feathery cats.

The newest babies: Two Silver-laced Wyandottes
These were born the last week of January

They're getting their feathers, and going through that "awkward" stage.
They have an alcove where they are separated from the Reds, for now. 

Rearview Mirror

The clock is ticking. The countdown is on. We will soon be gone from this place (not existentially - I'm just referring to the move from city to country). Will things look clearer in the rearview mirror? Will we be homesick for a place that was not originally home to either one of us?

I've lived in this city since 1999. I've moved repeatedly, and have lived in seven apartments and one house, but I've stayed in this general area. I was happy to get here, but the city has served its purpose. BA and I met at our church. I saw him walking through the parking lot, thought that he was really cute, and wondered how I'd ever find him inside the building (it's a megachurch with 10,000+ members.) Miraculously, the usher sat me right in front of him, and after the service, he gave me his number. Even if that had been the only reason for me to move here, it would have been worth it.

Reasons that I will miss living here:

1. Our church
2. Our friends and the few family members that live nearby (although a lot of them have moved or are moving too)
3. A sushi restaurant on every corner
4. American Airlines Arena, where I can watch the Sharks beat the Stars (hey, it's happened before, it can happen again!) Like last night (April 3rd)...they won 5 to 2...we were there...yelling our lungs out...Go Sharks!!! And thanks for the hockey puck =) You made our 9th anniversary date night awesome!
5. The ability to walk to church, to the drugstore, the gym, a few restaurants and fast food places, the mechanic where we get our oil changed (just drop off the car and walk home)...basically, I'll miss the convenience of this location.    
6. Variety. Choices. The ability to be picky about where I buy the groceries or which movie theater we go to. (We'll have choices where we're moving to, as well, but they will be far-flung instead of a few blocks apart.) 

I could also say that I'll miss the close proximity of great healthcare services and world-class doctors, but it really doesn't matter how close they are when you don't have insurance and can't afford to use them...


Reasons that I won't miss living here:

635 at 9:15 on a Saturday night.
Yep, it's a traffic jam. Any time,
night or day, this hwy sucks.

1. Traffic!!!
2. Loop 635 (Yes, it still pertains to traffic, but it's so bad that it deserves its own number. Especially now that it is under construction...) 
3. I can't have chickens here. Anyway, where would I put them?
4. I can get pretty much everything I need online, so who needs all these stores?
5. BA can learn to make sushi rolls for me so that I won't have to drive to Austin to get them (though we'd probably have to order the seaweed online). I think this will save us some money.
6. There are few things to do outdoors, most entertainment options are overpriced, and club culture here is touristy and focused on 20-somethings (whereas in Austin there is lots of LIVE MUSIC (totally worth the drive), and there are plenty of fun, cheap, and outdoorsy options to choose from in the surrounding area =)
7. Noise. Even the very best of neighbors make noise. And if you do luck out and get some good neighbors, there's still no guarantee that they will stay put. You could have new noisy neighbors next month. 
8. Silly, silly people with broken turn signals and a complete lack of driving etiquette (Alright, so that one also pertains to traffic, but again, deserves its own category.)

I think that's it. And I totally admit that this was a great place to live - it's just time to go. Going off the grid, collecting rainwater and utilizing greywater, recycling and re-purposing materials, building our way, buying local foods from local farms, living off the land to some degree...all these things will be so much easier in the country. And those are the things that we value most right now - being good stewards of the earth that God gave us.

(Side Note: I've never understood why most Christians and most conservationists seem to be in two different camps. If you believe, like I do, that God made the Earth for you, then why wouldn't you want to do your best to care for it, nurture it, and protect it?)

Reading up on country living

Just to clarify, I've lived in the country before; in fact, I grew up in the country - not on a farm or ranch, but just in a sparsely-populated area. It was fun as a kid, but as a teenager, I hated it, and I left for the city as soon as I could. Why I'm looking forward to living in the country again can be explained in another post. For now, I just want to post about some of the books I'm reading to study up on country life.


I started out with Storey's Basic Country Skills. This one is awesome. It's huge. It covers every single topic that I could possibly want to read about - solar energy, growing from seeds, preserving food. There are so many things that I would have no idea who to ask, and it's all here. It does have some information on water supply, but we're specifically interested in greywater systems, so I also got Create an Oasis with Greywater by Art Ludwig. Very nice. Has expected costs, do-it-yourself instructions, and common errors made while constructing a system.

Then my mom gave me a pile of books and pamphlets that she's been saving forever. The one of which I am most proud is a copy of Mother Earth News from 1977. The most interesting thing that I've found so far in this issue was an advertisement stressing that people should become energy self-sufficient. Imagine how much better the world would be now if everyone had taken that advice back then? The ad says "...if you're wondering what you'll do when gasoline goes to $.75 or $.85 a gallon as it will..." Of course I know that they were talking about 1970's money...but they are so right about the rising prices and the need for self-sufficiency.

My mom also gave me The Homesteader's Handbook to Raising Small Livestock by Jerome Belanger, from 1974, a 1979 issue of Countryside, and a bunch of pamphlets with dates ranging from 1972 to 1988. It's so funny how the information in all of these publications is still so relevant and useful today. I know that nothing is  going to compare to experience when it comes to learning how to raise chickens, harvest vegetables, and so on, but it's great to have good resources to turn to. Plus, it's just plain fun to see the similarities and differences between life then and now, and I'm finding that there are a lot more similarities than there are differences.

Does anyone recommend any more books? If you have a small farm, how did you get started? What resources did you use to learn how to do all this stuff?