Welcome

I decided I'd start a new blog (yet another one) about my "backyard farming".  I'm not really an urban dweller since we live out in the county but we have a fairly small space and not much room.

I'm learning how to best use the space and my wife and I are trying to leave a "lighter footprint", so to speak.  We are trying to make use of the wonderful gifts of nature we have already and to supplement them.  In addition, in this scary economy, you never know when the presence of a healthy garden will make the difference between eating well and having to tighten the belt a few notches.

Currently we have an Asian pear tree, plums, figs, grapes, apricots and mandarin oranges.  My wife cans and preserves everything that I manage to get picked before the birds and raccoons get to them which is pretty much everything except the grapes.  My wife keeps bees and harvests the honey as well.  This year I planted blackberry canes and a nice large bed (40 plants) of strawberries and I built an asparagus bed (that won't be producing until next year).

I garden and have a few raised beds I've built as well as a larger (larger for us anyway) garden area that is not in good shape since it's all heavy clay.  I am learning what I can grow there and what doesn't do so well.  Last year I was pretty successful with my tomatoes and brassicas, this year I hope to do even better.  Our goal is to have enough tomatoes for my wife to can all the tomato products we use throughout the year.  I'd love to tear out the entire garden area and replace it with a deep bed system eventually.

We also have 4 chickens in a backyard run that is fenced in and covered to protect them from predators.  We get around 20 eggs a week on the average.

In addition to all that, I roast all of our coffee myself, I brew my own beer, bake all of our bread (I cheat and use a bread machine) and both my wife and I love to cook and experiment in the kitchen.

I hope to share some of our day to day experiences here and get back into the habit of blogging again.  I used to write 800-1000 words a day and miss it.