2013 Lessons & Reflections

What a whirlwind 2013 has proven to be!

I thought that, given all of the lessons we have learned in 2013, a reflection of sorts would be a nice way to bring it all to a close. So, here are some of my reflections on 2013…personal, professional and farm related…

Family

With the flight of my first daughter and the birth of my second daughter, 2013 proved to be an incredible learning opportunity where family, love and the ability to release control were concerned.

As some of you might remember, Fish Girl moved out in early April after quite the explosion and while my heart broke and began healing again, the knowledge that was gained about her, myself and our relationship was invaluable.

Sprout came to us two days early and safely at home on October 7th. Her love has cracked me open in ways I forgot existed since the birth of Fish Girl almost 19 years ago.

Farm

Compost & Soil – This year reminded us that any garden is only as good as the soil it’s built upon.

We learned that soil mixed with clay is tough to break down and compacts incredibly easily. We also learned that the neighbors tree roots love our beds (despite layers of wire and weed cloth placed at the bottom of the beds) because there is water there that can’t be found elsewhere. Frustrating? You betcha! Plan C has yet to be formulated on this one.

Additionally, we discovered that appearances aren’t everything because it’s what’s beneath the surface that matters and our worms are doing a phenomenal job at breaking down our countless trips from the kitchen with all leftovers and food waste. After doing some digging, we quickly discovered that there was a ton of black gold under layers of still decomposing chicken poop and kitchen scraps. 2014’s garden should be very happy with the new additions!

Sowing, growing, tending and harvesting – You can control a lot, but you can’t control the weather!

2013 brought big expectations (especially after 2012’s harvest totals topped 500 pounds!) and quiet disappointment. Don’t get me wrong, I was grateful for every harvest, but I had hoped for fruit on the trees again and an abundance of veggies to eat, share and put up for the cooler months! Alas, the spring was long and cold and the summer was short and super hot…and, unfortunately (and despite my best efforts), I cannot control the weather.

What I can control, though, is how I plan around the weather! So, 2014 will include much more planning and much more intention into what goes into the ground when and how to care for it all while it grows. Stay tuned!

Mice and pests

Ugh, where there are chickens and compost, there will be mice. And, just in case you didn’t already know this, they multiply incredibly quickly. Because we are adamant about keeping an organic space, we do not use poisons on our plants or our pests, and I’d be remiss to admit that this isn’t an extreme challenge. Mice suck, aphids suck, curly leaf virus sucks. However, pulling a tomato off the vine and eating it immediately without worry of chemicals or poisons on it’s skin or in the soil it grew in is worth the epic (and incredibly gross) Battle of the Mice.

And this weapon helps, t00.

Bees

Last spring brought us our first significant loss on the farm. When our bees up and disappeared, I was more heartbroken than I might have anticipated. Though the mystery of their disappearance was never solved, the community that tried to bring us some answers was greatly appreciated.

Bees are, I believe, the canary in the coalmine when it comes to our environment and the damage we have inflicted on our earth in a short period of time. There are a lot of ideas floating around about what may or may not be happening to our bee populations but the one fact that we must hold on to is that, without them we cannot survive. This year reinforced that knowledge and 2014 will bring us a new set of busy bees and another round of hope for our future and our buzzing, pollinator friends!

Chickens

After the big brain dump I did about our chicken keeping experiences over the past few years, what more can I say about our chickens except that I love them?!

OK, OK…Here are a couple of short thoughts on our feathered friends…

2013 taught us that 20 laying hens is too many given our busy schedules, but 15 is a perfect number! We also learned that people will happily pay for our extra eggs when they’re available, that older hens like to go broody and that sometimes sad things happen that can’t be explained. Most importantly, we realized that our Ameraucanas/Easter Eggers are our favorites because of the egg colors they produce and their sweet dispositions. So, I bet you can guess which chicks we’ll be getting come February 😉

Community

Act Local

Through the Homegrown NM Kitchen Garden & Coop Tour last summer it became abundantly clear that what we are doing on our little postage stamp matters to our community. The number of people who came through our yard and commented about being inspired by how doable what we’re doing is was astounding! Our efforts (blood, sweat and tears) are actually inspiring others?! Who knew? It really doesn’t get much better than that, does it?

And so continues the growing and keeping and learning and sweating!

Think Global

As many of you know, I’ve been collaborating with several other homesteady blogs across the country for several months now. I have to say, this has been such a blessing! Not only have opportunities come about through our brainstorming and communication, but also the sense, the reminder, that Tool Lady and I are not alone in this whole crazy urban farming/homesteading journey we’ve undertaken!  Sometimes it can feel as though the challenges we face on our little urban farm and the challenges we think about that face us all as a global community are just too big to even begin tackling.  With the support and understanding of like-minded people, though, anything is possible!

Pop on over to my friends pages, say Hello! and see where the twists and turns of 2013 have taken each of them…

The Faulk Farmstead
The Browning Homestead at Red Fox Farm
Blue Yurt Farms
The Randazzo’s

Now it’s your turn!  What lessons has 2013 brought you?  Please share your thoughts and reflections in the comments below!

xoxo,
M

Linking up to Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways #102