chickens | Eco-Sense

Well here we are at the end of April 2024 and all hell is about to break loose both here on the homestead and with record breaking heat, droughts, and fires in BC and around the world.

But first…a quick note from our sponsor…Mother Earth…

Please plant more trees. hehe. The Eco-Sense Nursery is open for one day (no appointment required).

WHERE: 3295 Compton Road
When: April 28th from 10am – 2pm
What: Plant list
Why: We don’t want to try and keep all these plants in pots alive in a very hot/dry summer AND we want you to grow food AND Mother Nature wants you to sequester carbon.

Gemma

On the homestead, hell breaking loose is not really the right phrase…unless you’re talking about baby goats breaking loose from pregnant momma’s. Or breaking loose when I forget to latch the barn door. Our biggest momma goat is Gemma and this is her second “freshening”, meaning she is very likely to have 3 or more “kids”… little hellions. Gemma is due in 3 weeks on May 18th. This is the same day as Bob’s 100th birthday party… Highlands legendary centarian.

Four days earlier on May 14th, “Cloud” our momma hen, is due to hatch eggs. This is the same hen who tried to kill “Chickie Dudes”…3 times last year when she wouldn’t accept her last born…that I helped out of his shell after cloud left the nest with the other chicks. After a rough start in life, Chickie Dudes is now the rooster and “dad” to all the eggs under Cloud. Now the white hen (Snow drop), has been slipping into Clouds nest laying more eggs…meaning there very likely will be late hatchers. May 14th is is also our 19th wedding anniversary. Quite amazing considering we only new each other 3 months before getting engaged and then married a few months later. We had our first anniversary living in a trailer, with my step kids, my parents in their own trailer, a boarder collie puppy Boo, our first chickens, pooping in a bucket (before it was legal), and building a mud house. What could go wrong? Everything! But everything also went right. We are still madly in love, kids are grown and doing well, we’re on our third dog (Pumpkin who followed Nina), my Dad died, mom is still going strong, and soon we’ll have lots of goats.

2nd anniversary…living in the trailer while building our MUD home.

Limits to Goats. Did I mention that our 1 year old Lyka is also pregnant? Due on July 4th and will probably have 1 or 2 goat kids (hopefully not 3). That’s a lot of goats. Anyone want some goats and natures perfect milk? Seriously, we’ll be looking for homes for all of the new cuddle kids. We have limits.

Limits to Growth. This is probably when everyone stops reading, but did you know that Tofino (a tourist town on the west coast) struggles to have enough water. It’s a rain forest. It relies on regular rain. It’s not raining. Staff made a recommendation to council,

“That staff develop a scope for a “limits to growth” policy for Councils consideration to address the raw water supply deficit identified in the 2024 Tofino Water Master Plan”.

This is ground breaking policy. Gord brought this to my attention when he read the Tofino Water Master Plan for the work he is doing in Tofino. Here’s a link to my council report from April 22nd…coincidentally also Earth Day… coincidentally also Gord’s birthday.

So, as we brace for what is almost certainly a Hell on Earth kind of summer on our Mother Earth, we are blessed with abundance on this land we call home. Gord and I are the happiest and busiest we’ve ever been. Our life is full of friends, family, community, meaningful work, and abundant healthy food.

We have many projects coming up this year including building a small home for Bethany. We are just working through the municipal process like anyone else and will share more as plans evolve. We’ve had to adjust the proposed building site a bit due to set backs and will have to take our request to council to address the covenant. The same covenant that we placed on the land in 2006 to protect it. Oh…the irony…Stay tuned. Oh… and don’t forget the plant sale on Sunday April 28th from 10am-2pm. Sorry, no tours of the homestead as after 19 years of claims free no problem home insurance, we can no longer purchase insurance because we have a living roof on our house, a small plant nursery, and have goats. Irony strikes again.